Former SF mayor Mark Farrell wants his job back. Here’s how he plans to do it

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — KRON4 is profiling the top challengers in the race for San Francisco mayor. A former city supervisor, venture capitalist Mark Farrell, briefly served as the city’s appointed mayor in 2018 after the death of Ed Lee. Six years later, he’s vying for the seat again, promising bold moves like replacing the city’s police chief and promising to clear homeless encampments off the streets within six months. KRON4 Anchor Stephanie Lin sat down with Farrell to talk about his campaign and his plans if elected.

Below are excerpts from that interview. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

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KRON4: Why are you running for mayor?

Farrell: San Francisco is suffering in our economy. What we don’t have is any vision out of city hall on how to get our economy back. Over the past five years, I’ve seen our city crumble. We are now the butt of jokes across our country. It’s very personal. You know, a little over a year ago, my wife and I were sleeping upstairs with our three children, and someone broke into our home and stole a number of items from our house. I just don’t believe San Francisco can continue under this failed leadership.

KRON4: Is Mayor London Breed fit to be mayor in 2025, yes or no?

Farrell: No. Mayor Breed has a great personal story, no doubt about that. But right now, she also has a track record of six years of failed leadership inside of city hall. She has presided over our city during San Francisco’s steepest decline in modern history. We need new leadership at the top with a vision for San Francisco that will bring San Francisco back to that iconic city in the world.

KRON4: If you are elected mayor, what do you plan to accomplish in your first 30 days?

Farrell: We need a new police chief. Our police chief (William “Bill” Scott) has been here for over six years. During that time, public safety has become the number one concern. We need a change in leadership because we need to bring a breath of fresh air and new inspiration for our police department. I believe that the first job of government is to protect our residents. It is not being done today.

As mayor before, I took out all of our large ten encampments within six months. If elected mayor again, I will do it again. You cannot choose to live on our streets. We will get you shelter. We will get you on your own two feet. But choosing to live in tents on the streets of San Francisco will no longer be tolerated.

KRON4: So are you in favor of homeless encampment sweeps?

Farrell: Sweeps is the wrong word. We need to offer individual shelter. We need to offer them housing. We need to treat them with respect. But if they refuse our offer of services, we will not make it convenient for them. That is not the San Francisco I believe in. Sidewalks are for everybody. And I believe San Francisco has not embraced that over the last five years. And we will change that day one.

KRON4: What’s the first thing you do to root out retail crime?

Farrell: Again, this gets back to a public safety question. The number one thing we need to do is not only bring in a new chief, but we need to recruit additional officers and transfer officers. We need to bring back retired officers. We also need to flood our police academy with new classes. Nobody wants to come work for the San Francisco Police Department right now. We will change that.

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KRON4: San Francisco used to be innovation-central for a lot of startup companies. But things have changed quite significantly. A lot of building vacancies that we’re seeing in the city. What would you do to bring that innovation back to the city of San Francisco?

Farrell: Again, that change starts at the top and starts with the mayor. I fully believe that we need to create conditions where companies and employees once again want to come (to) work. Once we do that, then we start to get to work on local economic issues. I fully believe we need we need to use tax incentives to bring employers back to the downtown core, to our neighborhoods in San Francisco that are suffering. We need to be aggressive and use every tool at our disposal inside of city hall to bring employees and employers back to San Francisco. San Francisco right now ranks dead last in major U.S. cities from post-economic recovery and post-COVID economic recovery. That’s embarrassing. San Francisco needs to do better.

KRON4: What would you do to stop drug dealing and the addiction that we’re seeing on the streets?

Farrell: Again, it gets back to public safety. We need to be incredibly aggressive, not only about hiring police officers, but also partnering with our state and federal agencies to bring more, more law enforcement personnel into areas like the Tenderloin into South of Market where the core issues of drug abuse on our streets.

KRON4: What is the biggest challenge that lies ahead for the next mayor?

Farrell: San Francisco needs a reboot. We have the spirit of our city and the ethos of an inclusive, amazing city. We have natural beauty. We have incredible universities. We have everything going for us except for leadership out of city hall. And so what we need is a mayor that will come forward and say, “enough is enough.”

KRON4: Your competitors in this race are also saying similar things now. Any thoughts about the competition at this point?

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Farrell: I respect everybody in this race, but I believe our backgrounds and our policies could not be more different. My background includes over 20 years in the private sector. The only candidate in the mayor’s race today that has ever worked in the private sector. To me, that’s actually shocking. I’ve spent over 20 years practicing law in business and in finance. I know what it is to make payroll. I know what it is to see companies do well and suffer. And also, I bring seven and a half years of effective leadership inside of city hall.

This is not going to be a simple task to turn San Francisco around. We don’t have time for someone to come learn on the job and develop thoughts and policies once they get into office. We need someone that’s going to hit the ground running on day one. I spent seven years as a supervisor. I spent four years within that as the longest-serving budget chair in our city’s history and six months as mayor, pushing for the issues that I cared about that mattered to San Francisco residents today. We have missed that in city hall for the last five years. I will bring that back to San Francisco once again.

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