00:00OpenAI's contribution to the San Francisco economy, it's a little bit clear, right?
00:04Dev Day, there are thousands of attendees, there are people being drawn to the city to work in the field of AI.
00:10But probably the biggest story most recently was the secondary sale.
00:16OpenAI employees being able to sell some of their stock, wealth creation.
00:20And as a place to start, I wondered, has the city recognised any kind of trickle-down economic benefit from that?
00:26All of these people that have made careers and now wealth from their time at OpenAI?
00:30Well, I think you're seeing the momentum build in our city.
00:33You know, that sale just happened in the last few days, so I can't say that we've seen trickle-down.
00:38But what I can say is we've got thousands and thousands of people coming into work every day down by Chase Center.
00:45They have over a million square feet of office space.
00:48That part of town is booming right now.
00:52Restaurants are opening up left and right.
00:54The energy is back in San Francisco, and we know OpenAI is having a big contributing effect to that.
01:02Does the city, like, commission studies on specifically what AI is doing for the city?
01:07I think we've done those in past years.
01:10I haven't seen any recently.
01:11What I have seen is from Visa, Visa showed me numbers from January to June 30th, up 10% in-person spending in San Francisco using the Visa.
01:24This is based on credit card transaction, right?
01:25Based on credit card.
01:26Every month got stronger and stronger, higher than any other major city in the country.
01:32So we're seeing the momentum build.
01:35I haven't seen any studies just on AI, but let me be clear.
01:39We are the home of AI.
01:40We're going to continue to lean into that.
01:42I talk to mayors across the country.
01:46They all are desperate to get one of the companies that we have.
01:50We have them all.
01:51Anthropic, OpenAI, Salesforce.
01:53It's all happening here, and we're happy about it.
01:57So OpenAI's new headquarters was a ribbon-cutting moment for you, literally, but have you held discussions with them about doing more, expanding the real estate footprint?
02:08What is it that you're asking for?
02:09What I'm asking from the leadership, from Sam and others, and also other companies is we want you here.
02:15We want and welcome you here, but we want you to be part of San Francisco.
02:20We want you to be part of our schools, our arts institutions, our parks.
02:24We want your employees engaged in the community.
02:26So that's my big ask.
02:28I'm going to focus on creating the conditions so that small businesses and businesses like OpenAI and Anthropic can thrive.
02:35I'm going to make sure that we continue to drive crime down, which we're doing.
02:39We're going to have better street conditions.
02:41And then we want to be open for business, and we are, and it's happening before our eyes.
02:47We have had the opportunity to discuss this several times since you took office.
02:51I'm grateful for that.
02:52The same question still applies.
02:54How do you keep technology companies coming to the city of San Francisco, not Silicon Valley at large?
03:01Well, we are the innovation ecosystem of the world when it comes to AI.
03:05And what we need to do as city government and as the mayor is make sure that people feel safe walking down the street with their kids.
03:13Make sure that we get people that are struggling with addiction off the street and into mental health and drug treatment beds.
03:19We are working relentlessly on both of those.
03:22We create the conditions for safe and clean streets.
03:25We are doing permit reform to make life easier for our small businesses, our restaurants, our bars, which are opening up at record numbers.
03:32It's booming when it comes to our neighborhoods, and I want that for downtown.
03:38And then we tell the world this is the place to be, and people are getting the message.
03:42We have multiple towers being planned for San Francisco, including one taller than the Salesforce tower.
03:49People are betting on San Francisco again.
03:51Mayor Lurie, after the events of the weekend in the past week, it's a fair question to ask about how you are preparing or planning a strategy for the idea of a National Guard deployment in the city of San Francisco.
04:05Your position, please.
04:06I can only control what I can control.
04:09I want my police officers and I want my sheriffs focused on local crime.
04:14Crime in San Francisco is down 30 percent this year.
04:18It's down 40 percent in downtown.
04:21We're at 22-year lows in terms of car break-ins.
04:25So I'm focused on keeping people safe in San Francisco.
04:28Outside of my control, I cannot get into that because I can only control it.
04:34Have you discussed it with the governor, for example?
04:37I have not, but we have planning in place.
04:41We're always seeing what's going on.
04:44We're watching what's happening in other cities, and we continue to have planning sessions.
04:48Finally, top of mind for San Franciscans and many people across the country is redistricting.
04:55Have you had an opportunity on your list of many things to consider that?
05:00Yeah, so I said personally, you know, I'm going to be supporting.
05:03I'm not getting involved in any campaigns as mayor of San Francisco.
05:07I'm getting involved in the campaign to bring San Francisco back as the greatest city in the world,
05:12the most beautiful city in the world, which it is.
05:15Look outside today.
05:16It's close to 80 degrees.
05:18We've got thousands of people here.
05:20This city is on the rise, and I think everybody is starting to get that message across the country and across the world.
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