Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie pledges to make San Francisco safer as mayor

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, who has never held public office, promised on Friday that as San Francisco’s mayor he will do what seasoned politicians before him have not — clean up city streets and bring an end to its open-air drug markets.

“Your voices and your call for accountable leadership, service and change have been heard,” Lurie said at a park in San Francisco's Chinatown, delivering his first public remarks since Mayor London Breed called him to concede the race the previous day.

Lurie said he chose Chinatown for Friday’s event to underscore how important the area's health is to turning San Francisco around. He walked the neighborhood the day after Tuesday's election and visited again Friday. Chinese voters are also critical to winning citywide in San Francisco.

The Associated Press has not declared a winner in Tuesday’s election because tens of thousands of ballots have not yet been counted and added to the ranked-choice voting calculations. San Francisco uses a system that allows voters to list up to 10 candidates in order of preference.

But on Friday, Lurie held a commanding lead in early election results, and Breed called Lurie on Thursday to congratulate him. She said in a statement that she and her staff will work to ensure a smooth transition when he takes over as mayor of a city.

“I know we are both committed to improving this City we love,” Breed wrote.

Lurie's ascent was remarkable for a candidate with little name recognition who appears to have bested two San Francisco supervisors and a former interim mayor.

His deep pockets helped. Lurie spent nearly $9 million of his own money on his first-time campaign for mayor and raised more than $16 million, including $1 million from his mother Mimi Haas. Lurie is the stepson of the late Peter Haas, a great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss and longtime CEO of the iconic San Francisco-based clothing company.

Breed's victory six years ago as the city's first Black female mayor — who grew up impoverished in public housing — showed that no dream was impossible in the progressive, compassionate and equitable city. But the honeymoon was short-lived as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered stores and tech workers retreated to home offices. Tent encampments proliferated, as did public drug use.

Streets did become cleaner and homeless tents harder to find this year, but the daytime shooting in September of 49ers rookie Ricky Pearsall in a popular central shopping district reignited a debate over public safety. She faced off with multiple opponents who accused her of doing too little too late.

Voters' dissatisfaction with how the city is handling crime and safety was also reflected Friday in their successful recall of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, who campaigned on promises to reduce incarceration rates. She struggled to defend herself during a double-digit percentage increase in violent crime countywide in 2023 and has now been voted out along with George Gascón, Los Angeles County's progressive prosecutor.

On policy, Lurie does not differ much from Breed. Lurie said he wants to build more housing, crack down on drug dealers, get homeless people off the streets and take a compassionate yet firm approach to drug users who refuse help.

But he said that as a political outsider, he would bring a critical eye to bureaucracy, weed out nonprofits and department heads who fail to deliver, and focus on results. As mayor, he would oversee more than 30,000 employees and a $15 billion annual budget.

Lurie plans to beef up the city's police presence, declare a fentanyl state of emergency, set up 1,500 shelter beds within six months, and drastically streamline the permitting process so small businesses can thrive, he said.

His opponents on the campaign trail trashed Lurie for spending so much money, but his supporters did not seem to mind, nor did they seem bothered by his lack of experience in government. Several people at Friday's event said they were familiar with the anti-poverty nonprofit he founded in 2005, Tipping Point Community.

“I’m so happy to have Daniel here because, you see, special interests is gone. He doesn’t need the money, it’s all about passion for this city,” said Shirletha Holmes-Boxx, 67, a community organizer.

Lurie, 47, said he plans to put his holdings into a blind trust and talk to the city attorney about forgoing the mayor’s $380,000 annual salary.

Paul Yep, a retired San Francisco Police Department commander, said Lurie convinced him early on with his ideas, passion and purpose for running.

“I saw his commitment and his love for San Francisco,” Yep said. “I knew that the outsider point of view was exactly what was needed.”

Lurie planned to visit other parts of the city Friday, including a senior center, lunch at a gumbo social, ice cream with his two children and happy hour at a pub.

“So many people love this city, it’s time for us to start making people feel like the city loves them back,” he said Friday, with his wife Becca Prowda at his side as scores of supporters snapped photos, clapped their hands and hooted with joy.

San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie, middle, tours businesses as he walks through Chinatown in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie tours businesses as he walks through Chinatown in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie, middle, is greeted by supporters after speaking at a news conference in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie, middle, greets Wing Pau, manager of Far East Cafe restaurant, as he walks through Chinatown in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie, middle, and his wife, Becca Prowda, middle right, walk through Chinatown in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie, foreground right, speaks at a news conference next to his wife in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Daniel Lurie, center, speaks at a news conference accompanied by his wife, Becca Prowda, center left, in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Daniel Lurie speaks at a news conference in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Daniel Lurie waves as he arrives at a news conference in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Daniel Lurie speaks at a news conference accompanied by his wife, Becca Prowda, left, in San Francisco, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis is installing 21 new cardinals, many of whom are key figures in his reform agenda: A Dominican preacher who acted as the spiritual father for Francis' recent gathering of bishops, a Neapolitan “street priest” like himself, and a Peruvian bishop who has strongly backed his crackdown on abuse.

Francis’ 10th consistory to create new princes of the church is also the biggest infusion of voting-age cardinals in his 11-year pontificate, further cementing his imprint on the group of men who will one day elect his successor. With Saturday's additions, Francis will have created 110 of the 140 cardinals under 80, thus eligible to vote in a conclave.

This consistory also brings the number of voting-age cardinals well over the 120-man limit set by St. John Paul II. But 13 existing cardinals will turn 80 next year, bringing the numbers back down.

This consistory is notable too because the 21 men being elevated aren’t the same ones Francis named Oct. 6 when he announced an unusual December consistory.

One of Francis’ original picks, Indonesian Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur, the bishop of Bogor, asked not to be made a cardinal “because of his desire to grow more in his life as a priest,” the Vatican said. Francis quickly substituted him with the Naples archbishop, Domenico Battaglia, known for his pastoral work in the slums and rough parts of Naples.

Battaglia is one of five Italians getting the red hat, keeping the once-dominant Italian presence in the College of Cardinals strong. Turin is getting a cardinal in its archbishop, Roberto Repole, as is Rome: Baldassare Reina, who on the same day Francis announced he was becoming a cardinal also learned that Francis had promoted him to be his top administrator for the diocese of Rome.

Francis, who is technically bishop of Rome, has been conducting a years-long reorganization of the Rome diocese and its pontifical universities. Reina – who is also grand chancellor of the pre-eminent Pontifical Lateran University – will be expected to execute the reform.

Another Italian is the oldest cardinal: Angelo Acerbi, a 99-year-old retired Vatican diplomat. He is the only one among the 21 new cardinals to be older than 80 and thus ineligible to vote in a conclave. Francis' picks on Saturday also include the youngest cardinal: the 44-year-old head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia, Mykola Bychok.

Yet another Italian is one of two Vatican priests who do jobs in the Holy See that don’t usually carry the red hat: Fabio Baggio is undersecretary in the Vatican development office. Francis also decided to make a cardinal out of George Jacob Koovakad, the priest who organizes the pope’s foreign travels.

Other picks have high-profile roles in Francis’ reforms.

The archbishop of Lima, Peru, Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio, made headlines recently because of an extraordinary essay he penned for El Pais newspaper in which he called for the suppression of an influential Peruvian Catholic movement, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, which also has a presence in the U.S.

Castillo called the group a “failed experiment” of the church in Latin America, one of several conservative, right-wing movements that cropped up in the 1970s and 1980s as a counterweight to the more left-leaning liberation theology.

“My hypothesis is that the Sodalitium obeys a political project,” Castillo wrote. “It is the resurrection of fascism in Latin America, artfully using the church by means of sectarian methods.”

Francis has recently expelled the Sodalitium's founder and several top members following a Vatican investigation.

Castillo is one of five new Latin American cardinals named by history’s first Latin American pope. They include the archbishop of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, Vicente Bokalic Iglic; the archbishop of Porto Alegre, Brazil, Jaime Spengler; the archbishop of Santiago, Chile, Fernando Natalio Chomali Garib and the archbishop of Guayaquil, Ecuador, Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera.

Francis has long sought to broaden the geographic diversity of the College of Cardinals to show the universality of the church, particularly where it is growing. Asia got two new cardinals: Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, the archbishop of Tokyo; and Pablo Virgilio Sinogco David, the bishop of Kalookan, Philippines. Africa also got two new cardinals: the archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Ignace Bessi Dogbo, and the bishop of Algiers, Algeria, Jean-Paul Vesco.

“There hasn’t been an African pope, but it’s a possibility in the church," Dogbo said in an interview on the eve of his installation. "And I think that this eventuality — which is not necessarily a demand — if this eventuality were to arise, the universal church would have to be ready to take it on.”

Francis also tapped the archbishop of Tehran, Iran, Dominique Joseph Mathieu, the bishop of Belgrade, Serbia, Ladislav Nemet, while the lone North American cardinal named is the archbishop of Toronto, Frank Leo.

The Lithuanian-born cardinal-elect, Rolandas Makrickas, has a special job in this pontificate: As the archpriest of the St. Mary Major basilica, he hosts Francis every time the pope returns from a foreign trip, since the pope likes to pray before an icon of the Madonna in the church. Additionally, Makrickas oversaw a recent financial reform of the basilica and would have been involved in identifying the future final resting place for Francis, since the Argentine pope has said he will be buried there.

Perhaps the most familiar new cardinal to anyone who has been following Francis’ reform agenda is the Dominican Timothy Radcliff, the spiritual father of the just-concluded synod, or gathering of bishops. The years-long process aimed to make the church more inclusive and responsive to the needs of rank-and-file Catholics, especially women.

A British theologian, the white-robed Radcliffe often provided clarifying, if not humorous interventions during the weeks-long debate and retreats. At one point he set off a mini-firestorm by suggesting that external financial pressures influenced African bishops to reject Francis' permission to allow blessings for gay couples. He later said he just meant that the African Catholic Church is under pressure from other well-financed faiths.

As the synod was winding down, he offered some valuable perspective.

“Often we can have no idea as to how God’s providence is at work in our lives. We do what we believe to be right and the rest is in the hands of the Lord,” he told the gathering. “This is just one synod. There will be others. We do not have to do everything, just try to take the next step.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Newly appointed cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic, archbishop of Santiago del Estero, Argentina meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal Mykola Bychok, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia, poses as he meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal Mykola Bychok, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia, poses as he meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal P. Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, British theologian spiritual father of the just-concluded synod meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal P. Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, British theologian spiritual father of the just-concluded synod poses as he meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal P. Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, British theologian spiritual father of the just-concluded synod poses for photos as he meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic, archbishop of Santiago del Estero, Argentina poses as he meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal Rolandas Makrickas Lithuanian-born archpriest of the St. Mary Major basilica poses as he meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal Mykola Bychok, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia, poses as he meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo archbishop of Abidjan, Ivory Coast meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Newly appointed cardinal P. Timothy Peter Joseph Radcliffe, British theologian spiritual father of the just-concluded synod poses as he meets journalists in the Vatican press room ahead of his elevation, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)