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Crosscurrents

San Francisco Mayor's Race: Reviewing London Breed’s First 500 Days

Lynn Friedman
/
Flickr Creative Commons
Women's March 2019: Mayor London Breed

Next Tuesday, San Franciscans will vote for a mayor. Just like they did last year. Ever since Mayor Ed Lee unexpectedly passed away in December of 2017, the city’s top position has mostly been held by London Breed.

As president of the board of supervisors, she became acting mayor after Lee died. Then, a month later, she was deposed by the board, who said the position would give her an unfair advantage in the next election.

Last July, she fought a hotly contested race against Mark Leno and Jane Kim, and she won.

Now, after just over a year in office, she’s running again. Except, the candidates competing against Mayor Breed this time around have little name recognition. They’ve never held elected office in San Francisco. So the mayor isn’t campaigning very hard. We’ve been trying to interview her for a month, but her staff said they couldn’t find time for a conversation before election day. So, instead, we’re going to discuss what Breed has and hasn’t done in her time as mayor of San Francisco.

Ben joined KALW in 2004. As Executive News Editor and then News Director, he helped the news department win numerous regional and national awards for long- and short-form journalism. He also helped teach hundreds of audio producers, many of whom work with him at KALW, today.