Daniel Lurie argues progressivism led San Francisco astray on public safety, drug crisis

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said Thursday that the city had lost its way and was focused on the wrong things, arguing that the California city was "entrapped in our progressive values.""We lost our way as a city," he told CNN's Dana Bash in an interview."We were focused on the wrong things, and today we're focused on common sense.

We're focused on good governance.We're focused on delivering results for the people of San Francisco.

I said from day one, public safety was going to be my number one priority.The crisis on our streets, the mental health and drug crisis is another top priority of mine.

And I want to get the basics of governance right." Lurie, a moderate Democrat and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, was elected in 2024 after defeating incumbent London Breed."I mean, we got so entrapped in our progressive values and talking about progressivism, that we weren't taking stock of what was happening on our streets," he told Bash."We had 810 people die of overdose in San Francisco three years ago.

There's nothing progressive about that.There's nothing progressive about 30,000 car break-ins.

Everyone had to deal with whether or not their car was going to be broken into," the mayor said, adding that the number of car break-ins had dropped 90%.SAN FRANCISCO STILL HASN'T RECOVERED SINCE PANDEMIC EXODUS: REPORTSan Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks during a postgame ceremony honoring broadcaster Mike Krukow at Oracle Park on Sept.27, 2026, in San Francisco, Calif.

(Getty Images)Bash asked Lurie about progressivism again, specifically how he defined the word.The mayor said he supported progressive values, such as taking care of the city's immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community."But, we got to a point where we said, 'Well, it's that person's right to be on the street using drugs,' or is that person — it's okay for someone to just go in and take what they want from a small business," he said."In my mind, that's not progressive," Lurie continued.

"There's no...