Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: I want to get straight to the idea behind San
Speaker 2: Francisco Downtown Development Corporation. It seems like the burden sharing
Speaker 2: initiative is to get private capital to help.
Speaker 3: You with a lot of what the city needs. That's
Speaker 3: absolutely right.
Speaker 1: Our business community, our nonprofit me, our arts community, we
Speaker 1: want them to be partners in San Francisco's revitalization. I'm
Speaker 1: really appreciative of the leadership of David Steepleman and that
Speaker 1: board that has formed for taking on the challenge of
Speaker 1: helping all of us bring our city back and lifted
Speaker 1: to new heights.
Speaker 2: Is the scale of the challenge billions of dollars and
Speaker 2: who are the big names behind it that will give
Speaker 2: you that money.
Speaker 1: Well, you've seen the board, the list of board members,
Speaker 1: but it's I don't know in terms of what they're
Speaker 1: trying to raise, if it's one hundreds of millions or not,
Speaker 1: but it's going to be private and public dollars. We
Speaker 1: have to invest in small ways and in big ways.
Speaker 1: We are seeing momentum starting to build in Union Square.
Speaker 1: We just got news that Zara is launching a new
Speaker 1: flagship store forty thousands feet four stories.
Speaker 3: Nintendo is opening up.
Speaker 1: We just had a great local b petisserie, a bakery
Speaker 1: open up in Union Square. So we're seeing wins happening
Speaker 1: every single day here in San Francisco, and the Downtown
Speaker 1: Development Corporation is going to build on those on those wins.
Speaker 2: This is the first time, you know, I've spoken since
Speaker 2: your election and since taking office. Prior to taking office,
Speaker 2: you really put emphasis on partners that were helping you
Speaker 2: right with the transition.
Speaker 3: Sam Outman was one name.
Speaker 2: What is your relationship like with the technology industry now
Speaker 2: and the biggest figureheads of that industry in this city.
Speaker 1: Well, we launched the partnership for San Francisco. We have
Speaker 1: twenty eight different business leaders from tech, but also from
Speaker 1: McKenzie and from Deloitte, and from UCSF and from the
Speaker 1: San Francisco Giants. We have the business community coming together.
Speaker 1: I have said to the region, I've said to the country,
Speaker 1: and I've said to the world that we are open
Speaker 1: for business again and San Francisco is on the rise.
Speaker 1: We want a business back, and we want them to
Speaker 1: be part of the community, really focused on how they
Speaker 1: can help lift up our arts and culture, our public
Speaker 1: schools and help us keep our streets safe, keep them clean,
Speaker 1: and we have gotten a tremendous response in our first
Speaker 1: ninety or so days and we look forward to partnering
Speaker 1: with them, our nonprofit community, and our friends in Miss Larry.
Speaker 2: The main question I get for you from our audience
Speaker 2: is how you make San Francisco competitive for the technology
Speaker 2: industry new companies coming here versus Silicon Valley. Why bring
Speaker 2: a headquarters into the city of San Francisco or require
Speaker 2: staff to be in the city of San Francisco versus
Speaker 2: the broader Bay area.
Speaker 1: Well, first off, we're the most beautiful city in the world. Second,
Speaker 1: the horsepower is here, the intellectual horsepower is here. We
Speaker 1: have great universities, including UCSF around here, and young people
Speaker 1: want to be in urban environments. They want to be
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. That's been proven true throughout history, and
Speaker 1: we're going to prove that again.
Speaker 3: We have great arts and culture institutions.
Speaker 1: We were just named the culinary capital of the country,
Speaker 1: so we have so much to be proud of. And
Speaker 1: we know that workers want to be here. Our CEOs
Speaker 1: who were talking to they know that their employees want
Speaker 1: to be in San Francisco. No offense to my friends
Speaker 1: down in the Peninsula, But people live in San Francisco
Speaker 1: and we want them to work here, and we do
Speaker 1: have to get competitive, but it starts with safe and
Speaker 1: clean streets. Our property crime rates have dropped thirty five percent,
Speaker 1: Our violent crime has dropped fifteen percent. Car break ins
Speaker 1: in February the lowest in twenty two years. This is
Speaker 1: a safe American city and we want everybody coming back to.
Speaker 3: Work here, to play here, and to live here.
Speaker 2: It's very How is the White House and is Tariff's
Speaker 2: policy going to impact your ability to do what you've
Speaker 2: just outlined, bring more of the technology industry to the city.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, we are all and you all are reporting
Speaker 1: on it minute by minute. The uncertainty is impacting everybody
Speaker 1: around the globe, and so we have to plan for
Speaker 1: that here at city Hall. We're working with our department heads.
Speaker 1: We have a big budget deficit. We inherited one of
Speaker 1: the largest deficits in our city's history. So we're working
Speaker 1: day and night to make sure that we tighten our belts,
Speaker 1: we deliver core services to our taxpayers and to our residents,
Speaker 1: making sure that we focus on public safety, focus on
Speaker 1: the behavioral health crisis, and the drug crisis that is
Speaker 1: causing people to feel the disorder on our streets. But
Speaker 1: that is all starting to improve. And so we can
Speaker 1: only control what we can control here in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: and that's our fifteen point nine billion dollar budget. We
Speaker 1: have a one point one billion dollar budget deficit. Over
Speaker 1: the next two years. We're going to get that under control.
Speaker 1: We're going to fix our structural budget deficit, and I'm
Speaker 1: telling you we're then going to be off to the races.
Speaker 3: Data Bricks knows it.
Speaker 1: They just secured an office space one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: thousand square feet open AI just open new headquarters by
Speaker 1: Chase Center. We are on the of lift off here
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, and we want.
Speaker 3: Everybody to come be a part of it.
Speaker 2: The other threat of the administration is to pull federal
Speaker 2: funding from so called sanctuary cities. San Francisco included in
Speaker 2: that threat. Your response, please, may.
Speaker 1: Our policies have kept us safe, and we have once again.
Speaker 1: Our property crime is down, our violent crime is down.
Speaker 1: We are one of the safest American cities going right now,
Speaker 1: and we need to get that out into the world.
Speaker 1: And that's got to be the narrative that people here
Speaker 1: from US, and so I'm focused on making sure we
Speaker 1: keep our citizens safe. Every single day, We're making sure
Speaker 1: that we're sending a message to those that are coming
Speaker 1: here to deal drugs. We're no longer a city where
Speaker 1: you can come to deal drugs or to do drugs
Speaker 1: on our streets, or to sleep on our streets. We
Speaker 1: had a report just that came into me this morning.
Speaker 1: We used to have a couple hundred tenths in the tuenderline.
Speaker 1: We're down to seven as of yesterday. So we are
Speaker 1: making sure that our streets are safe and clean for
Speaker 1: our residents and for our taxpayers.
Speaker 3: And that's what I'm going to focus on.
Speaker 2: Trade, immigration, tariffs actions by the federal government one way
Speaker 2: or another. How concerned are you about this sort of
Speaker 2: the reputational damage to San Francisco? In other words, if
Speaker 2: you are a tourist from any other jurisdiction, Asia, Canada,
Speaker 2: Latin America, or you're an entrepreneur, a startup founder, and
Speaker 2: you look at the situation with tariffs, are you worried
Speaker 2: about how that impacts someone's perception about coming to our city.
Speaker 1: Well, I think we have been worried about that, and
Speaker 1: we Frankly, we lost our way for a handful of years,
Speaker 1: and we took our status as a global destination for granted.
Speaker 1: And those days are over. We are focused on clean
Speaker 1: and safe streets. We're focused on winning conferences and tourists back.
Speaker 1: We just had the NBA All Star Game weekend. We
Speaker 1: have Super Bowl sixty coming, we have six World Cup
Speaker 1: matches coming. We had the thirty thousand people here for
Speaker 1: the Game Developers Conference. We have so many green shoots
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. I can't wait to welcome more people
Speaker 1: from around the world. We're going to go visit different
Speaker 1: places in Europe and in Asia and invite people back
Speaker 1: to San Francisco because they are starting to hear the
Speaker 1: message from our administration that San Francisco is open for tourism,
Speaker 1: we're open for business, and that we are a city
Speaker 1: on the rise. Those days, that narrative that's from a
Speaker 1: few years ago. We have a whole new story here
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, and that's one of being on the rise.
Speaker 1: And there's no better place to do business or to
Speaker 1: visit than San Francisco right now.