San Francisco's New Mayor on Homelessness, Unaffordability, and AI

SPEAKER_2 (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

Joe Weisenthal (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:25)

Tracy, we have a mayoral election coming up here in New York City.

Tracy Alloway (0:29)

Very exciting.

Joe Weisenthal (0:29)

I think when this comes out, it'll be literally tomorrow. We're recording this October 28th. No one knows for sure what's going to happen, but I think it'll be like the day after this episode comes out.

Tracy Alloway (0:39)

Absolutely, and obviously a very heated mayoral election, I think, one that's kind of taking national attention as well, which New York is always important, but maybe it's extra important.

Joe Weisenthal (0:52)

It's always very important to the media. That's definitely the case. But I think there's obvious reasons why there's a lot of national interest besides the fact that as reporters, we like to report on our hometown. A lot of cities are dealing with the same challenges that New York is. New York City is a very expensive city to live in. There are a lot of cities that are very expensive, particularly any city that has some sort of economic dynamism right now. New York City has a number of quality of life issues that frustrate voters, whether it's crime, which has come down way a lot, but safety and public transportation, homelessness, etc. Public drug use, which in my opinion has gotten a lot better over the last few years, but it was very prevalent. I saw a lot in the parks in 21, 22

These are not by no means these issues that are sort of New York, oh, dealing with the Trump administration and the tensions they're in. These are not New York City specific issues at all.

Tracy Alloway (1:47)

No, and it's funny as we sat down to record this particular episode, right when we sat down, I got an email, the data behind Chicago's citywide housing shortage.

Joe Weisenthal (1:57)

Chicago is another one.

Tracy Alloway (1:58)

Yeah. I mean, there are so many commonalities between these cities. It's definitely worth comparing and contrasting.

One thing I got to ask, just for the New York election, are you still a single issue voter on rats?

Joe Weisenthal (2:12)

Well, if I were, my candidate would no longer be available. I know, that's what I was thinking. So I have to find a number two issue. I'll start to do some research over the weekend.

Tracy Alloway (2:20)

Good idea.

Joe Weisenthal (2:21)

Anyway, obviously, one of the cities, I've always been more a Southern California guy, but I'm really coming around on San Francisco. We were there last November. We had a great time. I loved using the Waymo's. It's a stunning city, and it's not just the Bay Area. It's San Francisco specific that is the beating heart of the AI boom right now. So the most important industry in the world is there. It's truly a lovely city. However, has many of the same quality of life and affordability questions that we face anywhere else. In fact, maybe some would say, for at least a time, arguably worse.

Tracy Alloway (2:56)

Yeah. I mean, I remember from visiting, it also has some very, very beautiful neighborhoods Incredible. With historic buildings, very, very cute neighborhoods in many respects. And so you can imagine that efforts to boost housing affordability immediately run into that whole neighborhood vibe.

Joe Weisenthal (3:14)

A few years ago, I was visiting a friend and I said, I love this neighborhood. I love where you live. And he's like a yimby. He's like, Joe, you're not supposed to say that. This is the neighborhood. He's a renter though. So of course he doesn't mind if his house gets torn down for new buildings. Anyway, we really do have the perfect guest to talk about big city governance, all of these things. We are going to be speaking with literally the perfect guest, Daniel Lurie. He is the new mayor of San Francisco, or he came into office earlier this year, so he's been in an office less than a year. So Mayor Lurie, thank you so much for coming on the Odd Lots podcast.

Daniel Lurie (3:46)

Joe, Tracy, it's good to be with you. I feel like you were selling our city better than I could. So you two can just keep going. And Joe, your love of Southern California, we'll get you going on Northern California and San Francisco by the end of this podcast.

Joe Weisenthal (4:02)

Okay, well, that's a good goal for you to fully flip me over to be Northern California-pilled. No, I really, I did love it. There's so many different angles that we could start with. People have talked about the homelessness challenge in San Francisco for a long time. Setting aside solving it, whatever that means, what is it about San Francisco that in your view, has made the, what are the underlying conditions that the city has faced for a long time, such that it's been a fairly acute problem facing the city? How should we understand the causes of it?