{"id":30501,"date":"2023-12-09T12:56:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T20:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30501"},"modified":"2023-12-09T20:43:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T04:43:05","slug":"hes-become-a-political-influencer-in-s-f-now-he-might-run-for-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/12\/09\/hes-become-a-political-influencer-in-s-f-now-he-might-run-for-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"He\u2019s become a political influencer in S.F. Now he might run for mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

POLITICS<\/a>\/\/JOE GAROFOLI<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Garofoli<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 7, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manny Yekutiel, activist and owner of Manny\u2019s, a cafe and community gathering place in the Mission District, is considering a run for mayor.Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since opening shop five years ago, Manny Yekutiel has rallied patrons of his eponymous Mission District civic engagement space to raise $10 million for Democrats around the country. More recently, he helped to create the Civic Joy Fund, whose $2 million endowment is focused on revitalizing San Francisco with everything from volunteer trash cleanups to last weekend\u2019s citywide drag shows.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, though, Yekutiel may be more focused on spotlighting one particular cause: his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking about running for mayor,\u201d Yekutiel told me. He said he will make a final decision on New Year\u2019s Day, 10 months before voters will decide whether to reelect London Breed<\/a> or go in another direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople want change,\u201d Yekutiel said. \u201cPeople want different leadership and they want to see these problems in our city get solved. They want commonsense solutions to these problems. And there are a lot of folks who are not seeing that happen. And I\u2019m seriously considering it because I, too, share that sentiment. I want to see our city solve these core issues so that we can reach our full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People will differ on whether the charismatic Yekutiel should join the fray, but he didn\u2019t arrive at this juncture rashly. It\u2019s been a long journey, and one that I\u2019ve watched evolve during conversations that began when I called him about a month ago. I wanted to talk to him for a piece about people who wield political power and influence without serving in elective office. Like him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had gotten to know Yekutiel over the years through covering events at Manny\u2019s, where the Chronicle co-hosts an event series and I have appeared on panels. He and his staff have made Manny\u2019s a must-stop for national political figures. Seventeen 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, more than 50 members of Congress and just about every major officeholder in California have appeared in the cozy cafe and bar space at 16th and Valencia streets. Many are interviewed by Yekutiel, which he said has given him \u201ca look under the hood\u201d of government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manny Yekutiel, center, holds a computer in a teleconference with California 41st Congressional District candidate Will Rollins during a text and phone banking event at Manny\u2019s in San Francisco on Nov. 5.Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My inquiry was well-timed. Yekutiel, 34, was going through a \u201cWhat should I be doing next?\u201d moment of self-reflection after a recent brush with mortality. In early October, he was visiting family in Israel when he was\u00a0caught in an air raid<\/a>\u00a0that was part of Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7 attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he started to think that he wanted to do something different \u2014 something more \u2014 with his life. \u201cConfronting your own mortality forces you to ask tough questions,\u201d he said. \u201cMy first thought was, \u2018When I get back (to San Francisco), I need to start from scratch.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His first step was leaving the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board, to which Breed appointed him in 2021. At the time, Breed praised Yekutiel<\/a>, saying he \u201cknows how to bring people together.\u201d But he said he felt he was \u201cspending a lot of my time not actually doing stuff and actually making things happen, not fixing problems. And that is when I\u2019m at my peak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the third time in Yekutiel\u2019s life that he\u2019s paused to reevaluate his priorities. The first time was after his work ended on Barack Obama\u2019s reelection campaign in 2012 and he moved to San Francisco. The second was after he left a job as the Northern California deputy finance director for Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s spent the last two months meeting with political leaders, activists and nonprofit directors, including Sheriff Paul Miyamoto and outgoing city tourism chief Joe D\u2019Alessandro. He let me tag along to a couple of these, including a walk through the Tenderloin to a homeless shelter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He bopped from stop to stop on his aquamarine Vespa scooter, wearing a custom mirrored helmet that looked like half a disco ball. He\u2019d chat up pedestrians while waiting at stoplights or wave to friends he saw along the way \u2014 the connector in his element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manny Yekutiel shares a laugh with Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, left, and Assistant Sheriff Tanzanika Carter during a meeting in San Francisco on Nov. 14.Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yet when we first started chatting, Yekutiel explained why running for office was off the table, even though people have suggested the move for years, given his level of civic involvement in San Francisco. (He also served a stint on the Small Business Commission.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I have a business,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the main reason. I own a business and it requires a lot of my attention.\u201d Then he paused, reluctant to close the door. \u201cI guess,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s part of what I\u2019m trying to investigate right now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knew running for mayor would pit him against not only Breed but his friend Daniel Lurie<\/a>, founder of the anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point, who launched the Civic Joy Fund with him in May. Supervisor Ahsha Safa\u00ed is running as well, and former Supervisor Mark Farrell is considering it<\/a>. His competitors would be well-funded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there are the political realities that his opponents would confront him with on Day One. Yekutiel has never held elective office. Should his first job be leading a city with a $14.6 billion budget, whose politics have been compared to a knife fight in a phone booth? Would he side with the city\u2019s progressives, its moderates or neither? What\u2019s he going to do to address the affordable housing, homelessness and fentanyl crises?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco\u2019s political culture and byzantine bureaucracy can devour even those with good intentions. Would they crush what his friend Supervisor Rafael Mandelman praised as \u201cthe joyfulness in his work\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yekutiel said he is unfazed. He used to be a presidential campaign fundraiser in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area and, moreover, Manny\u2019s patrons have sent millions of campaign texts and written 25,000 letters to swing state voters over the years. The tougher question he\u2019s wrestling with is whether this would be the best way to direct his passion for improving San Francisco and fixing its core problems. Would the political power he holds outside the system accompany him to the inside? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the question he\u2019s been asking himself and others for weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manny Yekutiel greets San Francisco Drag Laureate D\u2019Arcy Drollinger, left, and Honey Mahogany during San Francisco Is a Drag, a two-day event they helped organize, on Dec. 2.Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

D\u2019Alessandro, who is retiring this month as CEO of San Francisco Travel, is a Yekutiel fan. He admires his sense of social justice and his ability to listen. Yet asked what advice he would give Yekutiel if he were pondering running for office, he said, \u201cI think he should stay doing what he\u2019s doing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

D\u2019Alessandro said San Francisco needs more people like Yekutiel who are energetic and love their community \u201cand don\u2019t necessarily want to push their agenda forward, but want to do things that they believe can ultimately make San Francisco a better place and get us out of some of the challenges that we have today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he has seen how politics \u2014 and particularly the practice of raising money \u2014 \u201ctakes a hold of people and it changes them from the way that they were before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mandelman \u2014 known as \u201cRaphy\u201d to his friend, Yekutiel \u2014 offered similar advice. For several years, the two have either exercised or walked around the Castro at dawn once a week. They talk about city politics, LGBTQ politics, what\u2019s going on at Manny\u2019s, the neighborhood and \u201cboys,\u201d as the two gay men both say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Mandelman awarded Yekutiel and other Castro neighbors a proclamation from the city honoring them for reviving the storied Halloween celebration in the Castro this year. It was Yekutiel at his best \u2014 quickly organizing people, gathering consensus and navigating chaos and bureaucracy in pursuit of celebrating the best of San Francisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manny Yekutiel, center, along with members of the Castro Merchants Association and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, stand with Supervisor Rafael Mandelman after receiving a commendation for organizing the Halloween in the Castro festivities, at San Francisco City Hall on Nov. 14.Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But Mandelman isn\u2019t sure that being mayor is the best use of Yekutiel\u2019s organizing talents. Not yet, at least. \u201cHe\u2019s enormously talented. I don\u2019t know that he\u2019s ready to be mayor,\u201d Mandelman told me. \u201cYou can have a lot of conversations \u2014 and then there\u2019s actually being in the muck of the work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Yekutiel has been in the muck somewhat through his work on the SFMTA and Small Business commissions, Mandelman recalled that the experience \u201cwas really frustrating for him.\u201d The supervisor said, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t at the moment recommend that he run for mayor. And I would not recommend that I try to be Manny Yekutiel. I couldn\u2019t do it. Or even come close. Most people couldn\u2019t. I mean, he\u2019s pretty remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mandelman thinks there\u2019s a chance he will run, \u201cbut again, after all these Tuesday morning walks, I would be surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought the same thing \u2014 at least until we spent several hours together last Saturday at Yekutiel\u2019s latest co-creation, San Francisco Is a Drag,<\/a> a two-day showcase during which 100 drag performers did pop-up<\/a> performances around the city. The idea was to flaunt how San Francisco is still happening, he said, as well as pay drag performers $1,000 apiece for their efforts. Seeing the expressions of glee and surprise and shock on the faces of passing motorists and pedestrians as they spotted the performers was a very San Francisco moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yekutiel, perhaps offering another hint about his decision, said that people love drag \u201cbecause it reminds us that you should question the boxes that you live in. It liberates us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach Joe Garofoli: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @joegarofoli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dec 7, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Garofoli<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of \u201cIt\u2019s All Political,\u201d The Chronicle\u2019s political podcast. Catch it here: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy \u2014 which he discussed on NPR\u2019s \u201cTalk of the Nation\u201d after being told he couldn\u2019t say the word \u201cballs\u201d on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He can be reached at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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POLITICS\/\/JOE GAROFOLI By Joe Garofoli Dec 7, 2023 (SFChronicle.com) Manny Yekutiel, activist and owner of Manny\u2019s, a cafe and community gathering place in the Mission District, is considering a run for mayor.Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle Since opening shop five years ago, Manny Yekutiel has rallied patrons of his eponymous Mission District civic engagement… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1583],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30516,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30501\/revisions\/30516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}