SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 1.25.2026 UPDATED
People in supposedly tolerant and enlightened San Francisco may be loath to admit it. The harsh reality is that former Mayor London Breed is still out of work because of systemic racism all pervasive in America.
If the former Mayor was a white guy or gal he/she would have been swept up by a political action committee or consulting firm the day after leaving office. Not only was London Breed Mayor for over six years, she was twice elected Supervisor and was President of the Board of Supervisors.
London Breed is a black woman raised in the Western Addition housing projects just blocks from City Hall who worked her way up through hard work and political smarts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Breed
Breed definitely didn’t enjoy the privileged upbringing of the white man who defeated her in November 2024, having spent millions of his own money to capture City Hall. The billionaire scion of the Levi Strauss & Co. family fortune, Daniel Lurie.
As Mayor Breed was definitely a fighter for the issues she believes in, mainly funding the police department and pushing for housing development. Breed brawled consistently with San Francisco White progressives whom she looked down at with thinly veiled disdain.
Perhaps Mayor Breed’s most crowning achievement was her advocacy for car free spaces. This advocacy resulted in the voter approved car free JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park, Sunset Dunes Park along the Pacific Coast shoreline and numerous car free streets throughout the city. That will will be her environmental legacy. One for which Breed has not received enough credit.
Philosophical and political positions which one would think would be a calling card amongst the billionaire class for future employment.
Not, yet. Heather Knight, former columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, and now New York Times reporter took a look at London Breed one year removed from office.
Excerpted from The New York Times 1.16.2026
London Breed has said little in the year since she left office. She has thoughts on the praise that the current mayor, Daniel Lurie, has received.
Ms. Breed said that she wanted Mr. Lurie to be successful. It’s just that it has been hard for her to see him get so much credit, she said, and she wondered if race was a factor.
London Breed needs a job, and she wants you to know that.
A year ago, she left her post as the 45th mayor of San Francisco — and its $383,000 salary — after losing her re-election bid to Daniel Lurie, the heir to the Levi Strauss fortune.
Past mayors have used the office as a springboard. San Francisco’s 38th mayor, Dianne Feinstein, became a longtime U.S. senator who once chaired the Senate Rules Committee. The 42nd mayor, Gavin Newsom, is finishing his second term as California governor and has his sights on running for president.
Ms. Breed, 51, is still unemployed. She didn’t serve long enough to qualify for a municipal pension and health care benefits, and is living off her savings.
“I need to get myself out there,” she said in an interview with The New York Times.
Mr. Lurie, a political neophyte, has reaped the benefits of strong poll numbers and praise for the city’s turnaround.
It is common for former elected officials to resent their successors, especially if a prosperous stretch follows. And in the glow of San Francisco’s recovery, Ms. Breed has been largely forgotten as she has retreated to the political wilderness.
Top photo: Mayor Breed with a group of San Francisco Police Department officers
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