‘I’m bullish on San Francisco’: Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie to challenge Mayor London Breed promising to put the ‘city back on the right track’ as it grapples with rising crime, rampant drug use and 20,000 sleeping rough each year

The heir to the Levi Strauss denim fortune has formally announced his intent to run for San Francisco’s mayor.

Pitting himself against incumbent London Breed, Daniel Lurie, 46, on Tuesday welcomed the challenge – days after filing the paperwork necessary for his now anticipated run with the city’s Ethics Commission.

The announcement came in the form of a two-minute advert, during which the Democrat pledged to bolster police presence in a city that for years has been plagued by homelessness, drug overdoses, and a mass exodus of businesses.

Calling the situation a ‘crisis’, the lifelong San Franciscan talked about how the city now needs new leadership – and even took a shot at the current Democratic establishment in the process.

A longtime nonprofit exec with deep ties to the jean giant, Lurie is the latest centrist to challenge prevailing progressive politics – this time in the city where Levi’s was first founded, by a hardworking German-Jewish immigrant back in 1853.

The brand has since evolved into one of the world’s largest apparel firms – one that Lurie, who runs a local anti-poverty nonprofit, is poised to partially inherit.

A political outsider, he promised to put the ‘city back on the right track’ – as it continues to grapple with rising crime, drug use, and homelessness that, under Breed, has failed to dissipate.   

‘I remember growing up in San Francisco and just loving every moment of it,’ he began, in the first of what will likely be several ads targeting his competition.  

‘My dad was a rabbi,’ he continued, recalling his upbringing under Rabbi Brian Lurie, was the executive director of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco for 17 years – a stint he said ‘inspired me and my siblings with the [nonprofit] work that he did.’

His mom, billionaire Mimi Haas – who owns 11 percent of Levi Strauss & Co.  making her the single largest shareholder – split with his dad when he was still a preteen before marrying into the Strauss family, but said their time together was enough to leave a mark. 

More influence, he said, came later in the form of each of his parents’ next spouses, which in his mom’s case was was a great-grandnephew of Bavarian-born immigrant Levi Strauss.

‘What I learned watching myself father and my mom be part of Levi’s is that, he needs to take care of the community,’ Lurie said. ‘That was instilled in me by all four of my parents – that you have to be part of the solution.’

Citing the startup he created to halt poverty in 2005, he said: ‘and so, what I wanted to bring to the Bay Area – and why we started Tipping Point [the nonprofit] – was [to make] a group committed to lifting people out of poverty in a measurable way.’

Using his track record as a philanthropist as a sort of resume, he continued: ‘We provided all the resources at our disposal to help these non-profits do their work  more effectively and more efficiently. 

‘We got a building built at 833 Bryant on time and under budget,’ he went on, mentioning a permanent supportive housing building his company erected in 2021 when homelessness in the city was at its height, in the early days of the pandemic.  

‘No one thought  that that was going to be possible,’ he said.

‘We stood up a emergency relief fund when our neighbors in the North Bay were hit by those devastating fires,’ he added, before touting the fact that the city pegged him to be the chairman of 2016’s Super Bowl 50 host committee, which left taxpayers with a $4million bill.

The game, played between the New England Patriots and the Denver Bronco, was  played at a stadium named after Levi’s – at a venue set in the Bay Area just west of the embattled city. 

‘We brought $240 million dollars in economic revenue to San Francisco and the region,’ Lurie went on of Tipping Point’s – and his – fundraising potential, $100 million of which reportedly went toward fighting homelessness.

California, as a whole, has spent more than $20 billion since 2020 on housing for the homeless – as increasingly brazen encampments remain a common sight not only in San Fran, but hubs like LA and Oakland as well.   

‘When I say I’m going to do something, I get it done. And I bring everyone along with me,’ Lurie insisted, before honing in on his rival – and the current, sad state of San Francisco’s streets.

Alluding to a crisis that the city estimates has seen some 20,000 sleeping on the streets over the course of a year, he said: ‘I love this city, but what we are seeing on the streets of San Francisco is not progressive.

‘We have too many people that have been in power for far too long, doing things the same way they’ve always been done.

‘We need the courage to try to do things differently.’

The outspoken humanitarian went on to confirm what many for days had suspected – that he was throwing his hat in the ring for the upcoming race next year.  

‘I’m running for mayor to provide a different type of leadership – a new era of leadership – from the outside,’ he said, before listing some of his plans he has in place in the event he beats Breed.

‘We need to go in and rip the Band-Aid off in many different departments’ he said, mentioning ‘commission reform and ‘how we help our small businesses’ specifically.

Also mentioning the city’s massive yearly budget – which is well into the billions – Lurie added: ‘We have tremendous resources – we have everything at our disposal. And yet, our streets are unsafe.

‘We need to end the era of open air drug dealing. We need housing at all income level – especially for middle class families, who are the backbone of San Francisco. We need change in San Francisco.’ 

He added: ‘We’re capable of it, we just need the leadership to do it.’

‘I’m Daniel Lurie and ‘I’m running for mayor.’

The announcement from the stepson of Peter Haas – the great-grandnephew of Levi’s founder Strauss – comes as Democrat Breed, elected in 2019, is seeking another four year term.

Her time in office, however, has been riddled with poor crime statistics and rife homelessness – phenomena that reached crises levels during COVID-19 lockdowns that have still yet to be successfully addressed.

That said, crime has soared in the city in recent month. Robberies recorded between January and September 2023 have jumped by 15.9 percent compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile, car jackings have spiked by 10.8 percent. 

Meanwhile, safety issues combined with a downturn in footfall post-pandemic have been blamed for a raft of store closures in the downtown area.

The Chronicle also uncovered this this month, after an 18-month investigation – as the Tenderloin District in particular has surfaced as the focal point for the increasingly bold ‘open-air’ drug markets now seen in the city.

The number of retailers operating in the city’s Union Square area has plummeted from 203 to 107 since 2019 – a drop of 47 percent.

Almost a quarter of offices were vacant in the first part of the year, more than five times higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services company.

The shortfall in property taxes is estimated to cost up to $196 million a year.