Ed Lee, ‘Charming’ San Francisco mayor, dies at 65
Lee was the city’s first Asian American leader and oversaw a tech boom
SAN FRANCISCO — Under Mayor Ed Lee’s seven-year watch, San Francisco went from a city mired in recession to a technology-fueled economic powerhouse where housing costs skyrocketed and the chasm between the wealthy and everyone else grew. Lee died Tuesday at 65 after collapsing while grocery shopping.
He leaves behind a rapidly transforming city where the median home value is more than $1.2 million and grumpy residents are unhappy with homelessness, clogged traffic and frequent auto break-ins.
Supporters touted his dedication to building new housing and sending out workers to clean up dirty streets in a city known for its entrenched homelessness. Critics said Lee, a Democrat, catered too much to tech companies, citing a 2011 tax break he brokered for Twitter as part of a remake of the city’s dilapidated downtown.
Still, many on Tuesday mourned the city’s first Asian-American mayor as a reluctant politician dedicated to civil service who was more comfortable working on details than on delivering the perfect political sound bite. No cause was given for his death but an autopsy was planned.
“He believed in a city where a poor kid from public housing could become mayor,” acting San Francisco Mayor London Breed told reporters at a briefing attended by hundreds of city workers and civic leaders.
“What mattered most to him always was helping his fellow San Franciscans, and occasionally delivering the almost perfectly timed corny joke.”
Local celebrities, sports figures, and national politicians sent condolences. California Gov. Jerry Brown, attending a climate change conference in Paris, called Lee a gentleman.
“Very honest, very human, he was well liked by people who knew him,” Brown said. “People are shocked and surprised. My sympathies go out to his family and all the people of San Francisco.”
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and the late Chinatown political power broker Rose Pak talked Lee into filling out the rest of former Mayor Gavin Newsom’s term when he was elected California’s lieutenant governor in 2010.
Lee, city administrator at the time, said he had no interest in taking on the role permanently. But he changed his mind and won a four-year term in 2011, beating 15 other contenders. He was reelected in 2015, beating out five others.
Willie Brown said Lee showed that non-typical politicians could win elective office.
“At all times it was for the love of the city,” he said, “it was not self.”
When Lee took office in January 2011, Zillow reported the median home value in San Francisco was just over $656,000. The figure has nearly doubled since then.