San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie needs to convey his metropolis again to its glory days. And he’s satisfied tech leaders — who usually pitch utopian beliefs of their very own — can assist him ship.
“I’m a mayor that’s selecting up the telephone and calling CEOs,” mentioned Lurie throughout TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC occasion on Thursday evening. “I’m calling entrepreneurs and saying, ‘How can we maintain you right here?’ or ‘How can we get you again?’”
Step one to profitable these people again, he mentioned, is addressing a rampant drug and homelessness disaster that’s pushed many enterprise leaders out of the town. Lurie has spent a lot of his first 100 days in workplace strolling the town’s most troubled neighborhoods. This week, he rolled again a longstanding program through which San Francisco handed out free pipes, foil, and straws that have been used to ingest medicine, resembling fentanyl.
Lurie’s “frequent sense insurance policies,” as he referred to as them throughout his 2024 mayoral marketing campaign, are largely being championed by expertise leaders. As Ryan Peterson, the CEO of Flexport, walked off the stage at StrictlyVC whereas the San Francisco Mayor walked on, he yelled to Lurie:
“Thanks for cleansing up the town a bit.”
Past the general public security initiative, Lurie emphasised the necessity to make it simpler to “construct” in San Francisco — referring to development of homes and creation of companies.
The town lately unveiled a brand new initiative, Allow SF, which would cut back the quantity of purple tape that startups should wade by means of to function in San Francisco.
On Thursday, the mayor additionally launched a new zoning proposal that may enable taller buildings — and thus, extra housing — in neighborhoods that historically have solely allowed decrease, single household properties. If handed, it might be the primary rezoning of San Francisco since 1970.
“We would like our entrepreneurs beginning companies after which staying right here,” mentioned Lurie. “Meaning streamlining allowing, making it simpler to start out a restaurant, a bar, or a startup.”
“What we’d like extra of is individuals coming collectively and being […] sensible. We kind of misplaced that right here in San Francisco,” mentioned Lurie. “I imagine the enterprise group that has stayed right here, that didn’t go away, understands our values, and we’re going to draw companies again within the coming years.”
Constructing an AI Hub
As a part of that effort, Lurie mentioned he needs to get “aggressive on the tax entrance,” suggesting he’s keen to offer tax breaks to firms within the metropolis. The San Francisco mayor mentioned he’s already labored with the town’s main AI firms to construct extra places of work and maintain extra conferences within the metropolis.
For instance, Lurie mentioned he satisfied Databricks to carry its AI convention in San Francisco by means of 2030, as an alternative of transferring to Las Vegas as the corporate initially deliberate. Final month, the mayor additionally attended the ribbon chopping for a brand new OpenAI workplace.
Whereas these AI firms could get tax cuts, the mayor needs them to put money into San Francisco in different methods. Particularly, he needs OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to “get loud about” their investments in San Francisco’s arts and tradition scenes, which he says the corporate has already been doing quietly.
However Lurie doesn’t simply need the tech trade’s {dollars}, he’s after their concepts as effectively. The town lately introduced the Partnership for San Francisco — a consortium of enterprise leaders, together with The Atlantic proprietor and Steve Jobs widow Laurene Powell Jobs, famed Apple designer Jony Ive, and Altman — to assist in giving companies a transparent channel to speak with metropolis corridor.
Robotaxis in SF
However some San Franciscans are involved the tech trade is pushing out different communities. That stress lately flared up when Waymo tried acquiring a allow to map out the SFO airport, permitting its robotaxis to take riders to and from the airport.
Waymo efficiently obtained an SFO mapping allow, however it got here with a strict carveout to make sure Waymo wouldn’t transfer industrial items to and from the airport. Due to the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters, supply drivers maintain nice energy in San Francisco’s metropolis corridor.
Lurie mentioned he labored out offers with labor unions to get Waymo’s SFO allow completed, however clarified that “Waymo shouldn’t be going wherever.”
The mayor mentioned he’s satisfied that autonomous automobiles are “the place the longer term goes,” and that he’s talked with different firms about having a bigger presence in metropolis. Lurie additionally didn’t rule out constructing the town’s infrastructure to accommodate extra autonomous automobiles.
Whereas a lot of the tech trade’s innovation has traditionally occurred in Silicon Valley, about 40 miles south of the town, the AI growth appears firmly centered in San Francisco. Lurie says that’s given the town some momentum to actually convey innovation again to the town.
“Once we’re completed, everybody’s going to be like, ‘I received to be in San Francisco. In any other case I’m lacking out.’ That’s the place we’re going,” mentioned Lurie.
