San Francisco’s New Mayor Is Rich. Is That a Good Thing?
The New York Times
Daniel Lurie’s supporters say his wealth means he owes no one any favors. But skeptics say the rich already have too much say.
Like the little red labels on the pockets of Levi’s jeans, the heirs to the Levi Strauss fortune are woven into the fabric of Bay Area philanthropy.
The Sterns, as in Stern Grove, the 12-acre park in San Francisco that hosts free summer concerts. Haas, as in the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and Haas Pavilion, where the university’s Golden Bears play basketball. Goldman, as in the Goldman Environmental Prize, called the Green Nobels.
The families have been a backbone of Bay Area civic life for decades, funding the arts, museums, schools and even professional baseball teams. Without them, the San Francisco Giants might be playing in Florida, and the Oakland Athletics might have skipped town much earlier than last fall.
Now, the expansive family tree has extended into city politics. San Francisco’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, is a wealthy philanthropist himself, his fortune coming from his late stepfather, a Strauss heir and longtime Levi’s chief executive.
His rise has inspired optimism in a city desperate for change, but also questions about whether a political neophyte, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, can run San Francisco. At the same time, institutions all over the region are arguably beholden to his family.
Mr. Lurie ousted a fellow Democrat, London Breed, after spending $9.51 million of his own fortune on the race — $52 for every vote he received, one of the biggest outlays of personal wealth by a mayoral candidate in American history.
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