While the last year has forced us to confront a public health crisis the likes of which we’ve never seen in our lifetime, COVID-19 is not the only public health challenge facing San Francisco. Homelessness, addiction, and unhealthy street behaviors have been a challenge for years, and while we’ve implemented a number of solutions and made progress during the pandemic, we still have a lot of work to do.

Last year we had to severely limit capacity in our homeless shelters and Navigation Centers and, not surprisingly, we saw a big spike in unsheltered homelessness and people living in tents…

It’s no secret that the pandemic has decimated our transportation network. Pre-pandemic, Muni averaged roughly 750,000 boardings per day. Now that number is closer to 200,000. As a result, revenue has declined dramatically and caused large budget gaps. The American Rescue Plan thankfully provides much needed support to help close those budget gaps, but we still have a lot of work to do to identify more funding to return service to where it was.

But we know that our transportation system is more than just Muni — more and more San Franciscans are getting around the City on bikes, scooters…

The pandemic fundamentally changed almost every aspect of our daily lives. It forced us to respond quickly, and here in San Francisco it also forced our local government to make quick decisions and implement them, instead of relying on the seemingly endless process of bureaucracy and appeals. Finally, we learned what we can do for the people of the City when we move fast.

Our Shared Spaces program is a perfect example of this. San Francisco kicked off its parklet program in 2010. Businesses could apply for a permit and it would typically take around a year for design, funding…

San Francisco has led the nation in our public health response to COVID-19, but the impact of the pandemic on our economy and our City’s budget has been significant, just as it has been for cities and counties across the nation.

As we plan our City’s upcoming two-year budget that goes into effect in July 2021, we have projected that we will need to close a deficit totaling $653 million. This comes after the $1.5 billion deficit we already closed last year. I’m really proud that in closing that previous deficit we were able to avoid laying off any City…

Public safety in San Francisco right now doesn’t fit neatly into one narrative. Homicides in 2020 were near an all-time low. Yet burglaries and home invasions were on the rise, and certain neighborhoods like the Richmond and the Sunset saw an alarming increase in break-ins. Small business owners have experienced repeated burglaries at their stores.

There have been a number of high profile attacks on elderly Asian residents in the Bay Area, which, combined with a rising and disturbing trend of anti-Asian racism throughout the country, has led many members of our Asian community to feel unsafe in their own…

I would not be Mayor today if it weren’t for San Francisco’s public schools. I grew up in public housing that was literally deteriorating — it was common for the heat not to work or to go days without hot water. My neighborhood was the living embodiment of our government’s disinvestment in low-income neighborhoods and our residents. But I had a community that cared for me, and while I wasn’t always an easy student for my teachers, they saw potential in me and provided the support I needed.

This last year has been a challenge unlike any we’ve faced before…

After a long, difficult year living through an unprecedented pandemic, the development of multiple COVID-19 vaccines has finally provided hope that a new day is quickly approaching. Understandably, people want to know, “When can I or my loved ones get vaccinated?” “How do I schedule an appointment to get vaccinated?” and “Is the vaccine safe?”

These are important questions, since a safe and effective COVID vaccine is one of the most important tools we have — along with masks and social distancing — to end this pandemic and get our city on the road to recovery.

Vaccinating people on this…

Small businesses make up more than nine out of ten San Francisco businesses, employ more than half of the City’s workforce, and generate tens of billions in economic activity each year — most of which remains in our city.

San Francisco can’t recover from the devastating effects of COVID-19 on our economy without our small businesses, and after the year that they have had resulting from the pandemic, we owe it to them to do everything we can to help them recover and grow. …