THE BUZZ: SHE DID IT HER WAY — London Breed isn’t pulling any punches on her way out the door. While the ousted mayor of San Francisco has generally been gracious in her post-election public comments about successor Daniel Lurie, she told Playbook she still has reservations about her rival’s ability to lead in a crisis and his willingness to make hard choices on the city’s housing crisis. “I'm not certain what he's made of and what he's capable of,” she said of the nonprofit executive and heir to the billion-dollar Levi’s fortune. Breed leaves office on Jan. 8, when Lurie is sworn in — the result of a bruising contest that focused on voters’ frustrations about the city’s slow post-pandemic recovery. The outgoing mayor sat down with Playbook for an exit interview in her City Hall office, a stately perch with French doors overlooking Civic Center Plaza. Breed touched on the many crises she has faced since taking office after the death of Mayor Ed Lee in late 2017: a global pandemic, the mass exodus of remote tech workers, a surge in fatal drug overdose deaths, worsening housing shortage and more. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. What one piece of advice would you give to Daniel Lurie about how to lead in a crisis? I think that's a challenging one, because really you are a leader or you're not. I've had to be decisive and make really hard decisions, but a lot of that has come from my upbringing, my life and community, my work that I've done. It's hard to say, because I'm not certain what he's made of and what he's capable of. That's really hard advice to give, in light of not being familiar with what someone is capable of. I don’t want to spend too much time talking about the campaign, but … The campaign is over! But given what you just said, do you still have that concern that Lurie doesn’t have the experience to lead in a crisis? I just would say the decision has been made and he's in the position. Of course there are concerns. We have to wait and see because we just don't know. But this is a major city and something significant can happen at any given moment. I didn't know what would happen as a result of declaring a state of emergency (in 2020) when the city didn't even have one case of anyone with Covid. But I did know what was happening in other places, I did have a number of experts and people that I counted on to provide me with information. It was important to make some really hard decisions. When you are a leader, you have to be decisive. You can't wait around for what someone else tells you to do. You have to get the right information, and you have to make what you hope are the right decisions. More importantly, they may not be popular when you make them. So even when I did what I did, people were angry. The fact that I declared a state of emergency, and then it became a shelter-in-place. Who does that to a major city? (Laughs). It was necessary because people's lives were at stake, and even without all the information, it was important to be forward-thinking. The city has passed a host of pro-housing, YIMBY-backed (Yes in My Back Yard) policies during your tenure, but construction hasn’t ramped up yet. Do you think those policy changes will pay off down the road? Let me tell you, one of the things I was looking forward to if I were reelected was just what is about to happen around housing production in San Francisco because we finally removed so much of the obstruction. Everyone talks about housing. Everyone says it's about affordable housing, it's about this, it's about that. But then when it comes to the policy change necessary to make it happen, the hard decisions, there were a lot of members of the Board of Supervisors who didn't support it. We fortunately were able to get a number of pieces of legislation out of the state, from Sen. Scott Wiener. If the incoming mayor and the Board of Supervisors have the courage to make the hard decisions about rezoning, it will be a game changer for the future of our city. So I'm really happy that I helped to lay the groundwork for what I think is going to be a housing boom in San Francisco. What’s next for you? I will announce what's next when I'm ready to have something to announce. (Laughs). Right now, my focus is definitely the job. But I will do something after I leave. I don't know what that is, because my whole life has been public service. I don't know what the future holds, but my hope is that it still is somehow connected to the things that I care about. GOOD MORNING. Happy Tuesday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at dgardiner@politico.com and bjones@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @jonesblakej. WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
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