San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie desires to convey his town again to its glory days. And he’s satisfied tech leaders — who frequently pitch utopian beliefs of their very own — can lend a hand him ship.
“I’m a mayor this is selecting up the telephone and calling CEOs,” stated Lurie all over techmim’s StrictlyVC tournament on Thursday evening. “I’m calling marketers and announcing, ‘How are we able to stay you right here?’ or ‘How are we able to get you again?’”
Step one to profitable those other people again, he stated, is addressing a rampant drug and homelessness disaster that’s driven many industry leaders out of town. Lurie has spent a lot of his first 100 days in place of work strolling town’s maximum bothered neighborhoods. This week, he rolled again a longstanding program by which San Francisco passed out loose pipes, foil, and straws that have been used to ingest medication, corresponding to fentanyl.
Lurie’s “not unusual sense insurance policies,” as he known as them all over his 2024 mayoral marketing campaign, are in large part being championed by way of era leaders. As Ryan Peterson, the CEO of Flexport, walked off the degree at StrictlyVC whilst the San Francisco Mayor walked on, he yelled to Lurie:
“Thank you for cleansing up town a little bit.”
Past the general public protection initiative, Lurie emphasised the wish to help you “construct” in San Francisco — relating to building of homes and introduction of companies.
The town lately unveiled a brand new initiative, Allow SF, which would scale back the volume of pink tape that startups will have to plow through to function in San Francisco.
On Thursday, the mayor additionally presented a new zoning proposal that may permit taller structures — and thus, extra housing — in neighborhoods that historically have best allowed decrease, unmarried circle of relatives properties. If handed, it might be the primary rezoning of San Francisco since 1970.
“We would like our marketers beginning companies after which staying right here,” stated Lurie. “That implies streamlining allowing, making it more uncomplicated to start out a cafe, a bar, or a startup.”
“What we want extra of is other folks coming in combination and being […] sensible. We type of misplaced that right here in San Francisco,” stated Lurie. “I imagine the industry neighborhood that has stayed right here, that didn’t depart, understands our values, and we’re going to draw companies again within the coming years.”
Construction an AI Hub
As a part of that effort, Lurie stated he desires to get “aggressive at the tax entrance,” suggesting he’s keen to provide tax breaks to corporations within the town. The San Francisco mayor stated he’s already labored with town’s main AI corporations to construct extra workplaces and grasp extra meetings within the town.
For instance, Lurie stated he satisfied Databricks to carry its AI convention in San Francisco thru 2030, as a substitute of shifting to Las Vegas as the corporate at the beginning deliberate. Ultimate month, the mayor additionally attended the ribbon slicing for a brand new OpenAI place of work.
Whilst those AI corporations might get tax cuts, the mayor desires them to spend money on San Francisco in different ways. Particularly, he desires 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 greenbacks, he’s after their concepts as neatly. The town lately introduced the Partnership for San Francisco — a consortium of commercial leaders, together with The Atlantic proprietor and Steve Jobs widow Laurene Powell Jobs, famed Apple fashion designer Jony Ive, and Altman — to assist in giving companies a transparent channel to speak with town corridor.
Robotaxis in SF
However some San Franciscans are involved the tech trade is pushing out different communities. That pressure lately flared up when Waymo attempted acquiring a allow to map out the SFO airport, permitting its robotaxis to take riders to and from the airport.
Waymo effectively acquired an SFO mapping allow, however it got here with a strict carveout to verify Waymo wouldn’t transfer business items to and from the airport. Because of the World Brotherhood of Teamsters, supply drivers grasp nice energy in San Francisco’s town corridor.
Lurie stated he labored out offers with exertions unions to get Waymo’s SFO allow finished, however clarified that “Waymo isn’t going anyplace.”
The mayor stated he’s satisfied that self reliant automobiles are “the place the long run goes,” and that he’s talked with different corporations about having a bigger presence in town. Lurie additionally didn’t rule out construction town’s infrastructure to deal with extra self reliant automobiles.
Whilst a lot of the tech trade’s innovation has traditionally came about in Silicon Valley, about 40 miles south of town, the AI increase turns out firmly focused in San Francisco. Lurie says that’s given town some momentum to in point of fact convey innovation again to town.
“Once we’re finished, everybody’s going to be like, ‘I were given to be in San Francisco. Differently I’m lacking out.’ That’s the place we’re going,” stated Lurie.
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