{"id":37539,"date":"2024-11-09T12:36:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-09T20:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=37539"},"modified":"2024-11-09T12:36:16","modified_gmt":"2024-11-09T20:36:16","slug":"trump-win-is-a-punch-in-the-mouth-for-presumptive-mayor-elect-daniel-lurie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/11\/09\/trump-win-is-a-punch-in-the-mouth-for-presumptive-mayor-elect-daniel-lurie\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump win is a \u2018punch in the mouth\u2019 for presumptive mayor-elect Daniel Lurie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/strong> NOVEMBER 7, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In
Daniel Lurie at his election watch party. Photo by Abigail V\u00e2n Neely. Nov. 5, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s free newsletter<\/strong>, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the next round of ballots are processed at 4 p.m. today, it is widely expected that Daniel Lurie\u2019s path to mayor will move from probable<\/em> to something more closely resembling a mathematical certainty.<\/em> Expect his challengers to gracefully acknowledge this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lurie\u2019s plan to win the race appears to have worked out as devised: Copious amounts of ready money \u2014 more than $16 million \u2014 drowning out less-blessed candidates and highly competent behind-the-scenes hired lieutenants directing a deeply disciplined candidate who never once succumbed to the temptation to go off-message. The old Yiddish proverb is that a wise man knows what he says, and a fool says what he knows. Lurie has proven wise, by this measure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, that was the plan to get elected. But, come January, he\u2019ll need a new plan: A plan to govern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, perhaps the most relevant input comes from former heavyweight champion, videogame protagonist, convicted rapist and notable Donald Trump supporter Mike Tyson: \u201cEveryone has a plan until they\u2019re punched in the mouth.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mission<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For any would-be San Francisco mayor, Trump\u2019s ascendancy to the presidency was a punch in the mouth. Being mayor of San Francisco is difficult even in the best of times (if you\u2019re doing it right). These are not the best of times \u2014 and, with an erratic, malevolent adversary in the White House, the mayor of San Francisco will be facing vast new challenges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, as so many Americans have either forgotten or resigned themselves to, is exhausting. <\/em>And that\u2019s all the more so when you\u2019re living in (or leading) a deep blue city that stands in as the avatar of liberal misrule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"BiriteNov23\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember President Trump threatening to sic the Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> on San Francisco in 2019 after a nonsensical off-the-cuff remark<\/a> that homeless people\u2019s dung and drug detritus were befouling the water? Well, he did that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the EPA obliged our commander-in-chief, and the city was sent a memo \u2014 which, essentially, was flushed down the toilet and disgorged into the bay along with all the rest of the worthless crap. Don\u2019t get me wrong: This is all disturbing. The EPA isn\u2019t supposed to spring into action like a trained Dobermann after the president makes an offhand remark or sends out a petulant tweet. But, by and large, this was a minor, passing story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, for the mayor of this city it sows an ecosystem of chaos \u2014 again, on top of an already challenging job with terrible burdens in store for 2025. The challenge for any mayor is addressing these outbursts, which must be addressed, and never knowing how far they may escalate. Normal judgments about logic and typical government or human behavior do not apply; Trump behaves less like a president serving the people than a warlord who must be appeased. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chatroom<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Make no mistake: It\u2019s in Trump\u2019s interest to play to his base via performative cruelty to cities like San Francisco. If the cruelty goes beyond mere words and actually harms government and results in pain and suffering, all the better. All the more examples of \u201cDemocrat-run cities\u201d devolving into chaos.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, that\u2019s the new baseline. But, like a malevolent Cat in the Hat, that is not all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh no, that is not all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Back<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"YouTube<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear that the city is in the bullseye for Trump,\u201d Stanford University political science professor Bruce Cain told Mission Local\u2019s<\/em> Xueer Lu<\/a> on Wednesday. The long arm of the federal government could come proactively \u2014 federal agents roaming courtrooms and arresting undocumented people, National Guard troops dispatched to deal with dope fiends in the Tenderloin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, it could come via a curtailment of federal dollars, tied to any number of real or perceived grievances: Sanctuary city, drug policies, a sad lack of venues selling Diet Mountain Dew, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Trump decides he wants to crater San Francisco\u2019s budget, then that\u2019s going to happen. The city could be left in the lurch on pending (promised) reimbursements for Covid-19 hotels. Federal money makes up a vast portion of our hospital and healthcare budgets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"End<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Remember the crisis<\/a> at Laguna Honda Hospital in 2022? It required serious intervention from San Francisco officials, working in concert with our federal elected representatives, to reverse the nightmare scenario of the city\u2019s most vulnerable residents being shunted off to parts unknown or put onto the street (among residents who were <\/em>sent elsewhere, the fatality rate was significant<\/a>; this was a life-or-death issue). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to conceive of this sort of effort being successful under a Trump presidency. The well-being of San Francisco institutions does not appear to be a concern. Quite the opposite: Any induced hardship can only reinforce the right-wing talking point of misrule and misery in deep blue cities. And not just San Francisco: Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass is up for re-election next year, and the backdrop of filth and crime and squalor will surely be in heavy rotation for Rick Caruso or any other right-wing challenger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handling this manner of belligerence would be a challenge even for a seasoned politician. Cain, the Stanford political scientist, says that our next mayor will \u201chave to have back channels and seek out influential people.\u201d It remains to be seen if Lurie\u2019s heavy MAGA donors<\/a> and influential friends and colleagues may be able to put in a good word for us. It was hard to miss Marc Benioff, San Francisco\u2019s largest private employer, kissing Trump\u2019s ring<\/a> via a sycophantic congratulatory tweet (complete with a misplaced capital letter a la Trump). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has made no bones<\/a> about threatening to withhold emergency funds from states that did not vote for him, or attaching ideological asks to non-ideological funding. Tribute is necessary for what should be a baseline obligation of the job, and nobody ever said there isn\u2019t good money in running a kleptocracy. So it\u2019s unclear if gestures like Benioff\u2019s are strategic or, rather, a mask-off moment. Functionally, it may be a difference without a distinction. But it\u2019s presumptive mayor-elect Lurie\u2019s new reality, and it\u2019s a depressing and challenging one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
As seen on Balmy Alley. Photo by a contributor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just who will form Lurie\u2019s inner circle is not yet clear, though we are assured it will be the best and the brightest. This was also a term David Halberstam deployed<\/a>, sardonically, to describe the gifted leaders who led us into disaster in Vietnam. San Francisco\u2019s problems are not on the level of an international quagmire, but let us hope this iteration of the best and the brightest have better luck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ll need it: Our next mayor must deal with the ongoing evaporation of the city\u2019s downtown office tax base, a massive public transit fiscal cliff, a troubling city budget deficit and a state-mandated rezoning effort due to hit in January. Also: The public school system\u2019s budget will go public next week, and it won\u2019t be pretty. That\u2019s a full plate, without the specter of Trump tweeting out malefactions and obeisant government hands following up on them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coping with Trump will be a burden for our next mayor. And it also puts presumptive mayor-elect Lurie in a delicate situation: Any perceptions that he\u2019s too accommodating to the feds \u2014 or handling their threats ineffectively \u2014 opens him up to agitation and challenges from put-upon communities within the city. There is, undoubtedly, the opportunity for ambitious politicians or political figures here to gain power and relevance by aligning themselves against both the mayor and <\/em>the federal government.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation;<\/a> that Lurie is a nice man and a decent person seems inarguable. He is very clear that he\u2019ll sit down with anybody and talk out this city\u2019s problems. He listens. He is smart and he works hard. That\u2019s good: But what happens when it\u2019s time to stop talking? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is his plan after he\u2019s been punched in the mouth? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

LATEST NEWS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Aaron<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Peskin didn\u2019t win the election \u2014 but his ballot measures sure did<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Food<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Food review: 20 Spot \u2013 Your neighborhood spot<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"S.F.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

S.F. election update: Tie breaks in District 1, challenger Mahmood pulling away in District 5<\/a><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

JOE ESKENAZI<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

getbackjoejoe@gmail.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing Editor\/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour humble narrator\u201d was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.More by Joe Eskenazi<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0JOE ESKENAZI NOVEMBER 7, 2024 (MissionLocal.org) Sign up below to get Mission Local\u2019s free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won\u2019t find elsewhere.Sign up When the next round of ballots are processed at 4 p.m. today, it is widely expected that Daniel Lurie\u2019s path to mayor will move from probable to something… 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":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37540,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37539\/revisions\/37540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}