San Francisco famously underwent a thorough cleanup prior to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit (APEC) last week, which was kept off of the network evening newscasts. With the APEC summit behind us, it’s time for San Francisco Mayor London Breed to get a little PR cleanup of her own, a task which was handled by ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz.
But the interview was not without its stumbles. Watch Breed respond to Raddatz’ recitation of “wrong track” polling by suggesting that at least the city surpasses people’s very low expectations:
MAYOR LONDON BREED: When you look at the data of what is happening with our crime numbers over the past five years, they are showing a decline especially with car break-ins, burglaries, and other challenges that people are talking about, and in comparison to other U.S. Cities, San Francisco is really at the bottom. So I get that people feel that there are problems and there are concerns. They see the viral videos, and they think, oh, what's going on in San Francisco? And then what is happening, people…
MARTHA RADDATZ: But those statistics are from people who live here. 17% think it's on the right track. They live here.
BREED: But it's not always attributed just to the issues around crime, you know? It's attributed to the issues around homelessness as well. It's significant to really continue to do the work that we're doing so that people cannot only see and feel the difference, but when people are coming to San Francisco, they are surprised that things aren't as bad as what they thought they were. Are things perfect in San Francisco? No, they're not, but we continue to work aggressively at it in order to solve some of our most pressing problems.
RADDATZ: Breed was elected mayor in 2018, and her ideas have not been without controversy. The city was sued over clearing homeless encampments last year, and her proposal to mandate drug screenings for welfare recipients has drawn comparisons to Reagan-era policies.
You know your critics will also say, look. She's gone too far right and she's criminalizing homelessness and wanting drug tests for welfare recipients. Do you think you're coming down too hard on this?
“People are not so shocked that things are not as bad as they expect” is not the defense you think it is. The “viral videos” Breed references are not just a part of the public record but are baked into the expectation of the San Francisco experience- to wit: homelessness, public vagrancy, public robbery, organized car theft, open-air drug markets and, yes, human excrement on the streets. I suppose it is a public relations win if tourists don’t check each one of those off of their San Francisco to-do lists, but it is still indicative that things are far from working.
No credit to Raddatz who, despite lightly broaching the obvious, didn’t delve into the underlying causes for San Francisco’s disheartening decay. Not only does she not touch upon the effects of the toxic brew of lax enforcement, Soros-backed prosecutors and that pandemic lockdowns that turned Downtown San Francisco into a crime-ridden and unsanitary ghost town, but she then chastises Breed for trying to do something about it. The tell is the pejorative, in this context, use of “Reagan-era policies”. If Reagan did it, it must be bad and is therefore anathema to a municipal executive, especially one from the enlightened metropolis that is San Francisco.
Does this mean that we have license to refer to unprosecuted public defecation as a Biden-era policy?
That’s true. Because it’s true.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview, as aired on ABC This Week, on Sunday, November 19th, 2023:
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Two years ago, the United States offered to host this summit. We knew we needed a location dynamic and diverse as APEC itself. APEC, San Francisco, here we are. Mayor Breed, congratulations. For being the mayor, well, you're crazy. I think it's the hardest job in American politics.
MARTHA RADDATZ: President Biden opening the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco this week. The city has struggled, like many in recent years, with homelessness, rampant drug use, and crime. So we talked with Mayor London Breed, the first black woman in the role, a lifelong Bay Area resident who grew up in poverty and now a fierce advocate for the city she leads.
You know and I know it annoys you when people look at the city and say it's either dangerous or crime-ridden or drugs are a huge problem, but you've got your own citizens saying the same thing. I think about 17% think the city's on the right track.
MAYOR LONDON BREED: Well, San Francisco is doing a lot to help combat some of the challenges that we face. I mean, we are a major city. During the covid pandemic as you see, San Francisco shut down first and we got a lot of attention. From a numbers perspective, when you look at homelessness in San Francisco, we have since 2018, helped over 10,000 people exit homelessness in San Francisco. When you look at the data of what is happening with our crime numbers over the past five years, they are showing a decline especially with car break-ins, burglaries, and other challenges that people are talking about, and in comparison to other U.S. Cities, San Francisco is really at the bottom. So I get that people feel that there are problems and there are concerns. They see the viral videos, and they think, oh, what's going on in San Francisco? And then what is happening, people…
RADDATZ: But those statistics are from people who live here. 17% think it's on the right track. They live here.
BREED: But it's not always attributed just to the issues around crime, you know? It's attributed to the issues around homelessness as well. It's significant to really continue to do the work that we're doing so that people cannot only see and feel the difference, but when people are coming to San Francisco, they are surprised that things aren't as bad as what they thought they were. Are things perfect in San Francisco? No, they're not, but we continue to work aggressively at it in order to solve some of our most pressing problems.
RADDATZ: Breed was elected mayor in 2018, and her ideas have not been without controversy. The city was sued over clearing homeless encampments last year, and her proposal to mandate drug screenings for welfare recipients has drawn comparisons to Reagan-era policies.
You know your critics will also say, look. She's gone too far right and she's criminalizing homelessness and wanting drug tests for welfare recipients. Do you think you're coming down too hard on this?
BREED: I grew up in the most challenging conditions of the city and lived over 20 years of my life in public housing in the midst of the crack pan- epidemic that destroyed our community. So I've lived in these kinds of conditions. No, it's not always the popular thing to do, and this is not about right or left. This is about, do we want to save lives?
RADDATZ: You have experience with addiction. You lost your sister to an overdose. A brother in prison. Tell me what that was like, and how you got where you are today.
BREED: Well, in my community, that was normal. It wasn't just my family that suffered a lot of challenges. It was everyone I lived next to. My grandmother was very no-nonsense. You know, you either go school or you can't live here, and so I decided I'm going to go to school, and I'm going to get good grades, and plus, growing up in poverty, I didn't want to live like that the rest of my life. I felt that there was something better, and fortunately I was able to go to college, but that didn't happen for everyone that grew up around me.
RADDATZ: Despite the challenges her city faces, Breed maintains steadfast optimism about San Francisco's future.
What worries you most?
BREED: Well, I must say that I have hope. I have optimism about the future because --
RADDATZ: You know people always say hope isn't a plan.
BREED: Well, I have an economic recovery plan. I have a homeless plan, and the thing that gives me hope is the fact that finally some of the policy decisions, some of the financial investments, they are working, and they are making a difference. They are attracting businesses. New leases are being signed in the downtown area and other parts of the city.
RADDATZ: So you're not going to tell me you're worried about anything?
BREED: Well, part of it is, it’s- it’s really-- part- as a leader, it's important that I am confident about the condition of the city and that I'm continuing to communicate the message necessary to ensure that people know how these things are working. I think the thing I'm worried about the most is people don't always get an opportunity to see or to understand exactly how these things are working to make a difference in San Francisco. So we got to work harder on our communication strategy.
RADDATZ: You are optimistic and you're doing things and you're making changes, but people see what's happening. They do see.
BREED: But here's the problem with that. It's not just San Francisco. Cities all over this country are experiencing challenges with drug use, with fentanyl, with methamphetamines and other things of that nature. The difference is how we are handling it here in San Francisco. We have made the courageous decision to make arrests of not only people who are dealing drugs, but people who are using drugs. So at the end of the day, yes, we have problems. I'm not pretending that we don't, but we can't just throw our hands up. We have to keep working towards solutions, and we have to be prepared to make the hard decisions to get to a better place.
RADDATZ: Our thanks to Mayor Breed. We’ll be right back.
