By J.D. Morris : sfchronicle – excerpt
Mayor Mark Farrell swearing in officers at a CSFN meeting at the Northern Police Station. Photo by Zrants
Mark Farrell, the former San Francisco supervisor who briefly served as the city’s appointed mayor in 2018, is officially running against Mayor London Breed in November, increasing the competition Breed faces from other moderates who think she has failed to lead the city well enough to earn another term.
Farrell, who ended months of speculation about whether he would jump into the race, unveiled policy proposals Tuesday to try to set himself apart from Breed and two other high-profile candidates. The 49-year-old venture capitalist wants to replace the police chief, create a new 24/7 intake center to connect homeless people with shelter and services, and reopen all of Market Street to cars to make it easier for people to visit the city’s struggling downtown, among other plans…
To counter the trends downtown, Farrell thinks the city should steer sales tax generated in the Tenderloin and Mid-Market areas into public safety services in the same neighborhoods. And he’d like to let private cars once again drive on Market Street downtown, which would reverse a ban put in place four years ago…
“The MTA should be there to serve the residents of San Francisco, not make our lives more difficult.” I believe in a transit-first policy. I’ve always supported the goals of transit first inside of City Hall, but the SFMTA has literally gone off the rails.”
“I simply reject the idea that San Francisco cannot recover economically post-COVID,” he said. “I’ve traveled across the U.S. and I’ve traveled abroad over the past few years post-pandemic for work. Other cities are thriving. They were proactive, they (had) plans in place, they worked together with their business community and they are thriving. San Francisco is not.”…(more)