Mayor Daniel Lurie van San Francisco wants to bring his city back to his glory days. And he has convinced technical leaders – who often pitches utopian ideals – can help him deliver.
“I am a mayor who picks up the phone and calls CEOs,” said Lurie during the strict VC event of Techcrunch on Thursday evening. ‘I call entrepreneurs and say:’ How can we keep you here? “Or” How can we bring you back? ” “
The first step to recover these people, he said, is tackling an unbridled drug and homelessness crisis that has pushed many business leaders from the city. Lurie has spent a large part of his first 100 days in the office by walking the most troubled neighborhoods in the city. This week, He rolled back a long -term program In which San Francisco spends free pipes, foil and straws that were used to take drugs, such as Fentanyl.
Lurie’s ‘common sense policy’, as he called them during his mayor campaign from 2024, is largely defended by technological leaders. While Ryan Peterson, the CEO of Flexport, walked off the stage at StrictlyVC while the mayor of San Francisco continued, he shouted against Lurie:
“Thank you for cleaning up the city a bit.”
In addition to the public safety initiative, Lurie emphasized the need to make it easier to ‘build’ in San Francisco – referring to the construction of houses and creating companies.
The city recently unveiled a new initiative, Mention SFThat would reduce the amount of bureaucracy with which startups must be discussed to operate in San Francisco.
On Thursday, the mayor also introduced a New destination proposal That would make more buildings – and therefore more housing – in neighborhoods that have traditionally only allowed lower, single family homes. If it is hired, this could be the first re -use of San Francisco since 1970.
“We want our entrepreneurs to start companies and then stay here,” said Lurie. “That means that the permit current lines, making it easier to start a restaurant, a bar or a startup.”
“What we need more of are people who come together and are […] Practical. We lost that here in San Francisco, “said Lurie.” I believe that the business community that stayed here did not leave, understand our values and we will attract companies in the coming years. “
Build an AI -Hub
As part of that effort, Lurie said that he wants to become ‘competitive on the tax front’, which suggests that he is willing to give tax benefits to companies in the city. The mayor of San Francisco said that he was already working with the most important AI companies in the city to build more offices and to hold more conferences in the city.
Lurie said, for example, that he convinced Databricks to keep his AI conference in San Francisco until 2030, instead of moving to Las Vegas while the company was originally planning. Last month the mayor also attended the ribbon cut for a new OpenAi office.
Although these AI companies can get tax cuts, the mayor wants them to invest in other ways in San Francisco. In particular, he wants OpenAi CEO Sam Altman to “” read “their investments in San Francisco’s art and culture scenes, which he says the company has already done it quietly.
But Lurie not only wants the dollars from the technical industry, he is also after their ideas. The city recently announced the partnership for San Francisco – a consortium of business leaders, including the Atlantic owner and Steve Jobs widow Laurene Powell Jobs, the famous Apple designer Jony Ive and Altman – to give companies a clear channel to talk to the town hall.
Robotaxis in SF
But some San Franciscans are concerned that the technical industry pushes other communities. That tension recently flared up when Waymo tried to obtain a permit to map the SFO airport, allowing his robotaxis to bring drivers to and from the airport.
Waymo successfully obtained an SFO mapping permit, but it came with a strict care to ensure that Waymo would not move commercial goods to and from the airport. Thanks to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, delivery people of delivery have a lot of power in the town hall of San Francisco.
Lurie said he worked out deals with trade unions to have the SFO permit from Waymo done, but clarified that “Waymo is not going anywhere.”
The mayor said that he is convinced that autonomous vehicles are “where the future is going” and that he has spoken with other companies about a greater presence in the city. Lurie also did not conclude from building the city infrastructure to accommodate more autonomous vehicles.
Although much of the innovation of the technical industry has happened historically in Silicon Valley, about 40 miles south of the city, the AI tree seems to be firmly centered in San Francisco. Lurie says that this has given the city a momentum to really bring innovation back to the city.
“When we are ready, everyone will say:” I have to be in San Francisco. Otherwise I miss it. “That’s where we are going,” said Lurie.
