Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Daniel Lurie is already imagining the scene at Levi\u2019s Stadium on July 1.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco Democrat<\/a> \u2014 who, according to at least one recent poll<\/a>, is the most popular mayor in America \u2014 was circulating around his city ahead of Levi\u2019s Stadium hosting Turkey vs. Paraguay tonight, when he began to wrap his head around his good fortune.<\/p>\n The venue is scheduled to host the Round of 32 match featuring the Group D winner on July 1, and that\u2019s very likely to be the U.S. team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’ll be incredible,\u201d Lurie, a no-nonsense technocrat<\/a>, told POLITICO. \u201cIt’ll be a thrilling moment for San Francisco, and for our region.\u201d<\/p>\n He beamed in to a FaceTime interview from Southern Station, having already been at two watch parties<\/a> that capture the new San Francisco he\u2019s trying to build: the East Cut<\/a> neighborhood, and then Fieldwork Brewing<\/a> at China Basin.<\/p>\n And Lurie knows ball: Not only has he attended five World Cups, he is also an investor in 49ers Enterprises, which purchased Leeds<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n He drew a parallel to his English club\u2019s own turnaround this season: newly promoted and expected to go straight back down, Leeds instead finished safely mid-table. Lurie is trying to engineer a similar revival in San Francisco, using major events like the World Cup and February\u2019s Super Bowl to project competence and attract visitors and families.<\/p>\n In San Francisco, such a turnaround means restoring a sense of competence to city government \u2014 and managing large events like the Super Bowl and the World Cup are key to that effort.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are managing for results here in San Francisco, and what’s critical about those results is keeping people safe, making sure that people want to be here in San Francisco, that they have a great time, and that they want to come back,\u201d Lurie said.<\/p>\n His turnaround effort will be vastly aided by Open AI\u2019s expected IPO, which will expand his tax base but also pose challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got Anthropic. We got Open AI. We have a company that’s four years old in Cursor<\/a> that just got acquired by Elon Musk’s company for $60 billion and hardly anyone’s talking about that,\u201d Lurie said. \u201cI think we want these companies here. We want them paying their taxes here, and we want them being engaged in the community. We want them involved in civic life, we want their employees involved and engaged in their neighborhoods, but we also want an economy, and we want an economy that works for everyone \u2014 that lifts up the entire community, and isn’t just for the select few.\u201d<\/p>\n Lurie said he is laser-focused on affordability.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are every day focused on building more housing, building more affordable housing, making child care more affordable,\u201d Lurie said. \u201cWe are the first city in the country to provide access and opportunity to free early childhood education, [age] zero to five, for any family of four making $210,000 a year or less.\u201d<\/p>\n The aim? Draw more families within the city\u2019s confines.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re gonna hopefully keep more working families here in our city, and we want them to believe that they can build a life here long term, so people don’t get priced out \u2014 so we have a lot of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n