On Wednesday night, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie appeared at The Commons, KQED’s impressive event space inside its Mission headquarters on Mariposa Street. The featured guest for an episode of Political Breakdown recorded before a live audience, the mayor was greeted warmly by the crowd and co-hosts Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer. The LED screen behind them glowed a warm orange, suggesting a chummy talk show rather than a serious political forum. The mayor looked relaxed; one year into his role, Lurie clearly felt at home.
“When you two call, it’s hard to say no,” Lurie said to a big laugh, the first of many in the evening.
The one-hour interview covered the usual ground: family zoning, crime, and City Hall politics, which the mayor addressed with his well-polished responses. The most telling moment, however, came at the end of the evening when Lurie left the stage. Lagos, who previously worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times, asked the mayor to pose for photographs with her family. The mayor happily obliged. It wasn’t exactly inappropriate, but it was an unusual move for a journalist, betraying, as it did, closeness with her subject that many in the profession strive to avoid.
I emailed to ask about the moment the next day. Lagos thanked me for coming to the event and wrote, “I’m just gonna let the interview and my work speak for itself.”
The friendly treatment, and the easy laughter of the crowd at Lurie’s every attempt at humor, revealed how in one year the mayor has attained celebrity status among political insiders and supporters eager to pay $19 to attend a podcast taping at KQED.
It wasn’t all smiles and family photos at The Commons. Framed as a look back at the mayor’s first year, Lagos and Shafer’s interview covered some serious subjects. Lagos asked about Lurie’s embarrassing, failed appointment of Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz as District 4 Supervisor. “What was the vetting process?” Lagos asked.
“I made a mistake, I did not set her up for success, and that is completely on me,” Lurie said, offering an answer that is familiar, well rehearsed, and, frankly, nonsensical.
Before he could move on, Shafer interrupted: “How would you have done that? What could you have done to set her up for success?”
Seemingly unaccustomed to follow-up questions, this actually appeared to catch Lurie off guard. He could’ve done “a better job of vetting,” he said, which is a nice way of saying he should not have selected Alcaraz in the first place, and then shifted into an explanation of the rigorous selection process his administration has put in place since.
Shafer also asked about Alberto Rangel, the social worker who was killed last month by a patient at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Lurie said it was “the worst day for me of my first year, without question.”
The mayor said he was at the hospital within an hour of the stabbing and held Rangel’s hand before he died. While Rangel’s murder was the worst possible outcome, Lurie said, the hospital successfully handles many incidents arising from patients struggling with mental health issues and addiction. The city needs to reexamine the “whole spectrum” of care, including conservatorship, outpatient treatment, and court-ordered medication, he explained.
Lurie offered up a glimpse of his rapport with San Francisco’s billionaires when he was asked about his reaction to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s suggestion to President Trump that he send National Guard troops to the city. The mayor described a conversation that may have factored into Benioff’s walk-back and apology.
“I spoke to Marc after those comments, and, you know, I said, those are comments that may have been true a few years ago, but I think people lost the plot in San Francisco,” Lurie said. Lurie wasn’t asked, and didn’t explain, the timing of his conversation with Benioff, which may have factored into Trump’s decision to back down.
Lurie, who is rather opaque during interviews, did manage to share a few things about himself: he doesn’t love falafel; he drinks three to four cups of coffee each day but sleeps at night; he prefers pollo asada burritos from La Taqueria, though he grew up eating at Gordo; his favorite show is Landman, but he’s a few episodes behind.
The most sincere moment of the interview came when Lurie was asked by Lagos about what advice he gets from his children. The mayor took a long pause and looked at the floor, looking like he might get emotional. “The best thing about my kids is I get home and they just don’t care, and they make fun of me all the time,” Lurie said, getting another laugh.
“They've been so, I mean, my wife and my kids have, they’ve been,” he said, seeming to trail off at the thought. “It’s a lot, it’s just a lot. And those three have been nothing but supportive.”
The final question came from Shafer, who asked Lurie: “Shane or Ilya?” Lurie looked uncertain and Lagos had to explain that it was a reference to Heated Rivalry.
“I haven’t watched it,” Lurie said. “I’m not a hockey guy.”
“That’s not all it’s about,” Lagos said, getting the biggest laugh of the night.
