Mayor London Breed was all smiles during a packed primary party Tuesday in Hayes Valley, a boutique neighborhood about a half-mile from City Hall, stopping to take selfies and congratulations as she navigated the crowded bar toward a microphone.
“Change is on the way!” Breed shouted to thunderous applause from the patio of trendy Anina cocktail bar.
Early results were promising for a slate of local candidates running on a more centrist agenda and for ballot measures that would transform downtown with new developments and called on the city school board to reinstate Algebra I as an offering for high school students. secondary.
But the focus of Breed's enthusiasm that night was on two ballot measures he had championed to expand policing powers and impose drug treatment mandates that were gaining overwhelming support from voters — a surprising shift to the right for a city known nationally for its progressive politics.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed rallies supporters during an election night party.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez/Associated Press)
The first measure, Proposition E, strengthens police powers in the city. The second, Proposition F, will require drug testing and treatment for people receiving county welfare benefits who are suspected of using illicit drugs.
The measures strengthen efforts to address the city's outdoor drug addiction crisis, and the street crime and growing homelessness that comes with it. Together, they lend credence to Breed's message that San Francisco is not the bastion of anarchy that its critics love to claim.
“Enough is enough,” Breed said. “We need a change”.
Breed faces a difficult re-election campaign in November as he seeks a second full term. Two of his opponents, Levi Strauss heir and nonprofit founder Daniel Lurie, and venture capitalist Mark Farrell, a former district supervisor and acting mayor, are considered moderates by San Francisco standards and have criticized the mayor for the conditions of the city streets and the delay. -pandemic economic recovery.
A third opponent, Board of Supervisors Chairman Aaron Peskin, is a well-known progressive who will likely gain support among hardcore liberals concerned about the city's recent shift toward the center.
As he moves down a middle path, Breed's supporters hope the election victories will inject his re-election bid with a jolt of energy and chart a clearer path for a city that has struggled to get homeless people off the streets and recover from the pandemic-related exodus. of its downtown technology sector.
“This is a really good night for London Breed, Madam Mayor,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) told the crowd. “This city has been hit for the past few years and San Francisco is coming back and will be even better than ever.”
The ballot measures passed Tuesday build on several initiatives Breed has spearheaded over the past year to strengthen the city's efforts to stop drug addiction and overdose deaths, adding punitive components to policies that have long been focused on a gentler approach focused on treatment.
Last fall, city officials announced plans to create a law enforcement task force, launching this spring, that will investigate opioid deaths and illicit drug trafficking in the city as possible homicide cases. . Months earlier, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed the California National Guard and the California Highway Patrol to target drug trafficking networks funneling fentanyl into the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods, an operation that has led to hundreds of arrests.
Breed maintains that those efforts are paying off: In the past six months, property crimes have fallen 30% and violent crimes have fallen 4%, according to the mayor's office.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed says the ballot measures voters approved this week give a needed boost to efforts to address the city's drug crisis.
(Godofredo A. Vásquez/Associated Press)
Breed said the drug screening initiative will build on those efforts by forcing more people with substance use disorders into treatment.
Proposition F, which will take effect in January 2025, will modify the County's Adult Assistance Programs, which offers cash benefits to low-income single adults age 65 and younger without dependent children. Recipients will now be required to undergo a drug screening evaluation if there is “reasonable suspicion” that they have a substance use disorder and to enter treatment if warranted.
Advocates say the change will safeguard city resources against a street drug culture that has exploded due to San Francisco's lenient policies and generous benefits.
The program helped about 5,700 people monthly in the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to the city comptroller's office, with some recipients receiving up to $712 per month. Between March 30, 2023, and early February, 141 people who were cited for public drug use also received assistance from the county, according to the mayor's office. Of them, 33% did not live in San Francisco.
“This just adds another level of accountability to screening and will hopefully lead to the kind of results we want to see: people who are in treatment and people who end up being clean and sober,” Breed said.
Critics of Proposition F dismiss it as a poorly crafted proposal that fails to address the roots of the city's homelessness crisis: a lack of affordable housing and quality treatment options. They echoed a popular progressive principle that forcing people into drug treatment doesn't work, and said the policy changes will have devastating consequences for low-income residents who rely on housing and other assistance. necessary expenses.
“It will simply make treatment less accessible to everyone in San Francisco,” said Jeannette Zanipatin, state director of the left-leaning nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance. “Selling an initiative with false promises is actually the mayor and her office choosing political expediency instead of trying to roll up their sleeves and find real solutions that will actually have an impact on the overdose crisis.”
The measure was not written with specific rules for how the drug test will be administered or how treatment will be administered. Breed has directed the city's Human Services Agency to create an “action plan” for its implementation, meaning it could be months before official guidelines are available.
Breed's office has said the measure was intentionally designed to be flexible in the treatment component. Treatment options could range from outpatient services to a prescription for buprenorphine, a medication used to treat addiction. They noted that it does not include a requirement that participants remain sober, recognizing that people often fail in recovery and should not be kicked out of the program for a slip.
“I don't think Proposition F is as bad as its critics say, and it probably won't be a panacea like some of its most ardent supporters said,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey, a moderate Democrat who has been candid about his own recovery journey. of addiction. “But I think, overall, it's a step in the right direction.
Wiener, one of the state Capitol's top progressives, did not support Proposition F, but said he understands why people voted for it. “Only by San Francisco standards would this be considered moderate,” he said. “As in many cities right now, there are concerns about public safety and public drug use and people want their neighborhoods and their city to be the best it can be.”
Proposition E, the measure that strengthens police powers, also passed handily. The move weakens some oversight authority of the Police Commission, which has been a voice for clamping down on police use of force.
The measure also eases restrictions that have been blamed for encouraging a lax police response to property and retail crimes. It provides more leeway for police to pursue suspects by car and allows officers to use drones for certain activities. The changes also relax requirements for documenting suspect confrontations that lead to police use of force and allow body camera footage to take the place of certain paperwork.
Supporters of Proposition E said it will reduce the amount of time police spend behind desks on administrative tasks and ensure they are adequately equipped with crime-fighting technology. Opponents see a worrying reduction in transparency and oversight.
“It made it easier for the SFPD to hide police violence and harder for the public to hold police officers accountable,” said Yoel Haile, director of the Criminal Justice Program at the ACLU of Northern California. “What we're seeing right now is politicians offering these tried and failed solutions to the public as the silver bullet to the real frustrations people have about crime and public safety.”
Breed offers no apologies.
On Thursday, he delivered his State of the City address at Pier 27, a waterfront venue with a brilliant view of the city skyline as a backdrop. She sharply refuted the narrative that San Francisco had lost its progressive direction and instead posited that Tuesday's election results were aligned with the city's liberal values of housing and treating those suffering from addiction and providing for communities quality policing.
Throughout his speech, he doubled down on the message that San Francisco is turning a corner and proclaimed it a “city on the rise.”
“San Francisco no longer bears the shackles of its negativity,” he said as the room resounded with applause.
