San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie: ‘We Are a City on the Rise’

Since taking office, San Francisco’s mayor has been on a quest to revitalize the city and increase public safety. He’s also kept the National Guard out—with a little help from some very powerful friends.

I first met Daniel Lurie, San Francisco’s newly minted mayor, about five minutes before we walked onstage at WIRED’s Big Interview event, held in his city last week.

Lurie’s team let me know ahead of time that his window for this conversation was tight: He’d just come from announcing a new city police chief, and had about half an hour for me before he needed to be on to the next thing. Which was? “No idea,” Lurie quipped, shortly before we were foisted from backstage and into our conversation in front of several hundred attendees—a local crowd, who, judging from their boisterous reactions to Lurie’s every word ...