'This Week' Transcript 11-19-23: Dep. National Security Adviser Jon Finer, Adm. Mike Mullen, Israeli Amb. Michael Herzog and Mayor London Breed
Interview
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We have to be prepared to make the hard decisions to get to a better place. And that is what I have done as mayor.
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Well, San Francisco is doing a lot to help combat some of the challenges that we face. I mean, we are a major city during the COVID pandemic, as you see San Francisco shut down first, and we got a lot of attention. From a numbers perspective, when you look at homelessness in San Francisco, we have since 2018 helped over 10,000 people exit homeless myths (ph) in San Francisco. When you look at the data of what is happening with our crime numbers over the past five years, they are showing a decline, especially with car break ins, burglaries and other challenges that people are, are talking about. And in comparison, to other U.S. cities, San Francisco is really at the bottom.
So, I get that people feel that their problems and their concerns. They see the viral videos, and they think, oh, what's going on in San Francisco, and then what is happening with people --
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But it's not always attributed just to the issues around crime, you know, is attributed to the issues around homelessness as well. Is significant to really continue to do the work that we're doing so that people can not only see and feel the difference. But when people are coming to San Francisco, they are surprised that things aren't as bad as what they thought they were. Are things perfect in San Francisco? No, they're not. But we continue to work aggressively at it in order to solve some of our most pressing problems.
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I grew up in the most challenging conditions of the city and lived over 20 years of my life in public housing in the midst of the crack pen epidemic that destroyed our community. So, I've lived in these kinds of conditions. No, it's not always the popular thing to do. And this is not about right or left. This is about do we want to save lives.
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Well, in my community, that was normal. It wasn't just my family that suffered a lot of challenges -- challenges. It was everyone I live next to.
My grandmother was very no-nonsense. You know, you either go school or you can't live here. And so, I decided I'm going to go to school, and I'm going to get good grades.
And plus, growing up in poverty, I didn't want to live like that the rest of my life. I felt that there was something better, and fortunately I was able to go to college. But that didn't happen for everyone that grew up around me.
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Well, I -- I must say that I have hope. I have optimism about the future because --
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Well, I have an economic recovery plan. I have a homeless plan. And the thing that gives me hope is the fact that finally some of the policy decisions, some of the financial investments, they are working, and they are making a difference. They are attracting businesses. New leases are being signed in the downtown area and other parts of the city in every single day.
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Well, part of it is it's really -- part -- as a leader, it's important that I am confident about the condition of the city and that I'm continuing to communicate the message necessary to ensure that people know how these things are working.
I think the thing I'm worried about the most is people don't always get an opportunity to see or to understand exactly how these things are working to make a difference in San Francisco. So we got to work harder on our communication strategy.
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But here's the problem with that. It's not just San Francisco. Cities all over this country are experiencing challenges with drug use, with fentanyl, with methamphetamines and other things of that nature.
The difference is how we are handling it here in San Francisco. We have made the courageous decision to make arrests of not only people who are dealing drugs, but people who are using drugs.
So, at the end of the day -- yes, we have problems. I'm not pretending that we don't, but we can't just throw our hands up. We have to keep working to our (ph) solutions, and we have to be prepared to make the hard decisions to get to a better place.
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