Mark Farrell jumps into San Francisco mayoral race

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Mark Farrell launched his campaign and officially jumped into San Francisco’s mayoral race on Tuesday.

Farrell said, “The conditions of our streets have never been worse, downtown has collapsed, and we’re the butt of jokes across America. San Francisco cannot afford another four years of Mayor Breed.”

Mayor London Breed is seeking re-election in November. Farrell is a venture capitalist who served as the city’s interim mayor for six months in 2018.

Farrell said San Francisco faces enormous challenges. His campaign spokesperson wrote, “Tent encampments and overdose deaths have skyrocketed, entire neighborhoods are being held hostage by drug dealers, downtown office vacancies are the highest ever recorded. Our economic recovery is one of the slowest in the nation.”

Farrell said he can revamp the city into a place “we are all proud to call home again.”

“I am running for Mayor because I am the only candidate with the right experience, policies, and track record of leadership inside of City Hall to turn San Francisco around,” Farrell said.

“Over a year ago our home was broken into in the middle of the night, while my wife, Liz, and I were sleeping upstairs with our three children. Families should simply not accept the current status quo. I am running on a vision for San Francisco where people feel safe, families are a priority, and the sidewalks belong to everyone,” Farrell said.

Breed was reelected in 2019 to a full term. There is no traditional March primary. Instead, all the contenders will appear on the November ballot and voters will rank them by preference. Other candidates include Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, as well as Daniel Lurie, a philanthropist and heir to Levi Strauss.

SF Mayor London Breed reflects on her path to politics

Farrell revealed policies on Tuesday that, if elected, he would pursue as mayor. According to his campaign, the policies include:

Public Safety:

• Hire a new SFPD police chief.

• No budget cuts to public safety departments and services.

• Massively increase police staffing.

• Zero-tolerance approach and policy for all crime in San Francisco.

Street Conditions, Homelessness, and Drug Crisis:

• Clear all large tent encampments within the first year.

• Launch a 24/7 centralized intake center.

• Immediately audit all homelessness spending to ensure no wasteful spending by the city and non-profit organizations.

• “Shift from a narrow-minded housing-first approach to a shelter-first approach because San Francisco can’t just build itself out of the homelessness crisis,” his campaign wrote.

• Rapidly expand access to emergency shelter by directing unspent and unallocated capital funds for permanent supportive housing.

Economic Vitality: 

• Create new tax incentives and programs across the city’s economic engines, including the Financial District, Union Square, Tenderloin, and SoMA.

• Tax reforms: Exempt every small business making less than $5 million in gross receipts from paying business taxes to support small businesses, and provide incentives for businesses that bring workers back into the downtown core.

• Open Market Street back up to cars.

• Recommit to retail in Union Square and make downtown a destination for San Franciscans and visitors.

SF Police Chief Bill Scott’s record defended

Just hours after Farrell called for a new police chief, the San Francisco Police Department’s Director of Strategic Communications, Evan Sernoffsky, released a lengthy statement about Chief Scott’s record and successes as the city’s top cop.

Sernoffsky wrote, “For seven years, Chief Bill Scott has been leading the San Francisco Police Department through turbulent times like the COVID pandemic and the policing crisis that followed the murder of George Floyd.”

Sernoffsky continued, “He put the department on the national stage by instituting significant reforms that have helped build trust with communities and improved the sense of legitimacy in policing at a crucial time in our country. Since Chief Scott began this reform effort, lawmakers around California and the country have looked at the SFPD as a national model for 21^st Century Policing. The SFPD is on track to complete all reform objectives this year. During his tenure, homicide rates fell to the lowest point since 1963. In 2023, the SFPD cleared 85% of homicide cases, well above the national average. Property crime has been a challenge in San Francisco long before Chief Scott was sworn in. His strategies immediately led to a decrease in crimes like auto-burglaries. In August, Chief Scott launched new protocols to address property crimes, leading to a roughly 40% decrease in the last 6 months in larceny cases, like vehicle break-ins and retail theft. Chief Scott helped secure $15.3 million in state funding that will pay for 400 automated license plate readers in San Francisco. Chief Scott has worked closely with other city agencies to address the drug crisis in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. The efforts have led to a near doubling of arrests of drug dealers and drug seizures in 2023.”

Sernoffsky added, “Chief Scott made the decision to commit resources to arrest people openly using drugs to improve conditions on our streets.  San Francisco has faced the same staffing crisis that law enforcement agencies around the country are grappling with. But a new contract with officers — making them among the highest paid in the nation – and the SFPD’s recruitment efforts are showing success.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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