Elias: San Francisco's Lurie faring better than L.A.'s Bass for the moment

"The positives about Lurie, who ousted former Mayor London Breed in late 2024, were propelled by a coalition of voters unhappy with his city's previous status quo. Though he was better known before running for his charitable leadership as founder of the poverty-fighting nonprofit Tipping Point, Lurie immediately after getting elected began focusing on crime, homelessness, housing bottlenecks and quality-of-life issues like cleaning the streets."

"Lurie streamlined housing approvals, re-organized and sped up city safety responses, launched an anti-homelessness campaign and won a 73% approval rating at Thanksgiving among local voters. Bass faced some of the same issues when she took over but did little to clean up streets or fill potholes and did not reduce homelessness by much, with tent cities still proliferating almost four years after she was elected in 2022."

"Most damaging of all, she absented herself during the start of January 2025's Los Angeles County firestorms that killed 12 people and burned more than 7,000 structures in her city alone. Bass still is regularly blamed and castigated for the snail's pace at which reconstruction has moved - even though most of the responsibility for that probably lies with insurance companies issuing many payouts far below what's needed to rebuild - even to homeowners who had paid for sufficient coverage."

Daniel Lurie ousted London Breed in late 2024 and prioritized crime reduction, homelessness, easing housing approvals, and street cleaning. He streamlined housing approvals, reorganized and sped up city safety responses, launched an anti-homelessness campaign, and earned a 73% approval rating at Thanksgiving. Karen Bass, elected in 2022, made fewer visible improvements to streets, potholes, and homelessness, with tent cities persisting nearly four years into her term. Bass was absent during January 2025 Los Angeles County firestorms that killed 12 and destroyed over 7,000 structures, and faces criticism for slow reconstruction, partly due to inadequate insurance payouts. Lurie faced criticism for a large December PG&E outage that left a third of San Francisco without power.

Read at The Mercury News