Joe Eskenazi

2 days ago | missionlocal.org | Joe Eskenazi

One of the many legacies of Mayor Ed Lee is that, after even the most apparently straightforward statement, San Francisco journalists are forced to ask elected officials, “Okay, for real?” That’s because after then-mayor Gavin Newsom decamped for Sacramento, the Board of Supervisors in 2011 elevated Ed Lee to be the ostensible caretaker mayor following his unambiguous, explicit pledge that he would not run in the 2012 mayor’s race. Lee ran in the 2012 mayor’s race. He won.

1 week ago | missionlocal.org | Joe Eskenazi

A long time ago, an eventual colleague of mine at the Hearst-era San Francisco Examiner — who could be described as dumb as a box of hammers, but this would necessitate discussing the relative intellects of varying types of hammers — had a problem at work. In this bygone era, information still traveled into newsrooms via tickertape. And this newspaperman simply couldn’t keep up with the flow of near-constant updates. So, he devised a solution: He turned off the newsroom tickertape machine.

2 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Joe Eskenazi

When mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie announced an aggressive plan to stand up 1,500 shelter beds within six months of assuming office, every member of the political establishment said this was an impossible goal. You know what? They were right. Lurie is not going to make the 1,500-shelter-beds-in-six-months benchmark. Instead, the marching orders to all the city departments tasked with bringing these beds online have morphed: The goal is now to have 1,500 beds established or in the pipeline by July.

4 weeks ago | missionlocal.org | Joe Eskenazi

In a feat that will surely never be duplicated, George Gascón managed to get himself elected district attorney of San Francisco and Los Angeles. While running in San Diego is the logical next move, Gascón, who last year lost his L.A. re-election bid, is presently ensconced in private life. As a DA, he at one point employed both Diana Teran and Brooke Jenkins.

1 month ago | missionlocal.org | Xueer Lu |Joe Eskenazi

It’s been almost 100 days of Daniel Lurie as San Francisco mayor. During his 13-month-long campaign, Lurie promised to make streets safer and cleaner, to crack down on  open-air drug markets, revitalize downtown, and reduce homelessness. He has worked with the Board of Supervisors to pass legislation to expedite contracts related to homelessness, drug overdoses, and substance use, and pushed the board to let go of some of its oversight power.