00:01Para Daniel Lurie, el alcalde de San Francisco, los deportes, el arte y la cultura son herramientas
00:08para el desarrollo y la derrama económica. Emocionado por un próximo juego de béisbol
00:13entre los sultanes de Monterrey y los Giants de San Francisco, el ex filántropo y empresario
00:19habla con Milenio de la oportunidad de construir puentes entre nuestro país y su ciudad.
00:26Bienvenidos, hoy me acompaña el alcalde de San Francisco, Daniel Lurie, para celebrar
00:31que el 23 y 24 de marzo, los San Francisco Giants y los sultanes de Monterrey, dos franquicias
00:37históricas del béisbol en América del Norte, se enfrentarán en Oracle Park.
00:41Gracias, Major Lurie, por tu tiempo. Sé que eres un gran fan de béisbol y en unos días
00:46los Giants y los sultanes se enfrentarán. Aparte de la joya del juego, ¿por qué es este
00:52sports event relevant for the city of San Francisco and Mexico and how does it impact outside of
00:58baseball? Yeah, we are so thrilled to welcome the sultanes here. I was there at Oracle Park
01:08last year when they announced the game with the Council General of Mexico here and representatives
01:15from the team. It was an exciting moment. And I want to show all the fans of the sultanes how
01:22great
01:22San Francisco is. So I hope there's a lot of people coming up for the game to our great city.
01:28There will be a lot of people. You just mentioned the Latino, the Mexican community. And if I have the
01:33number correct, there's only about 16% of the population that are Hispanic in San Francisco.
01:40And I am assuming that the Mexicans are even less of that percentage. And this sort of leads me to
01:49a
01:49community that has been facing some real challenges that you've been working on as you started being
01:55major, which is gentrification and housing issues, affordability and everything else.
02:02So I want to sort of ask you, what else are you doing? How are these challenges faced? And how
02:10can
02:10can you as major alleviate some of these pains?
02:14Well, I appreciate that. And just for I will just start by saying our Latino community is incredibly
02:21strong. And and it's it's represented throughout our great city. It's not, you know, some people say,
02:29oh, it's just a mission. It's actually throughout our our city. They the community brings so much culture,
02:35arts, food. And so it's a huge reason why San Francisco is such a great city. And we have to
02:43make it more
02:44affordable. So people can can be here, we need to build more housing, we need to build more affordable
02:50housing, we need to make sure that childcare is not so expensive. So we're working on that where we've we've
02:58come up with a
02:58new plan where people who are making under a certain amount of money, get free childcare for their
03:05children zero to five. And so those are a couple of things, we just passed a new zoning plan called
03:12our
03:12family zoning plan, because we do have to make it more affordable housing, not just in San Francisco,
03:18and not just in California, but in the United States is very expensive. And so we have to do better
03:24as a city, a state and a country on that front. You just mentioned the childcare program that you
03:30just launched. And I want to go a little bit deeper into that. What is it exactly about? And how
03:37could
03:37other maybe Mexican cities learn from from what you guys are doing in San Francisco?
03:42Yeah, we passed a measure actually, eight years ago, and it got held up in the courts, a tax measure.
03:51And so
03:51there was a pot of money sitting and and we it was for early childhood care. We've decided to use
03:58it. So
03:59if you are a family of four, making under $230,000 a year, which, you know, in when you talk
04:07about that,
04:07you say that sounds like a lot of money, but we know San Francisco is incredibly expensive.
04:14If you're a family of four, your kids will qualify for free early childhood care zero to five.
04:21And that can save a family up to $36,000 a year. So it's a game changer. There's so many
04:28families
04:29that think and adults, young couples who think, okay, if I want to start a family, I have to move
04:34out
04:34of San Francisco. This is a good step. It's the first city in the country to provide this type of
04:41childcare. And so we're really proud of that. And, and it just got started in February.
04:50We're gonna have to talk later on to see what results you have, because I do believe that this
04:54is something that other cities could implement. And, and this leads me to another question that
05:00really, um, the entertainment zones. I think this is another very interesting project that you guys
05:07have. Um, it means basically closing up certain areas of traffic during public events, and then
05:14allowing people to walk around and go into local businesses, consume, eat, et cetera. Um, what are
05:20two lessons from that experience that, that you've learned that, that about the legislation that others
05:27could benefit from? How is this working? Well, it's working all over our city. Um, yes, you're
05:34right. We, you, you apply, uh, uh, uh, for these permits, we make it incredibly easy. You shut down
05:40four or five blocks. People can walk with a drink in hand, uh, out there's live music, there's food
05:47trucks, uh, and it's really taken off in San Francisco over the last couple of years. You know, we had
05:54a lot
05:54of empty storefronts. We were like, how can we draw people down to our commercial corridors? We have a
05:59festival down here in downtown San Francisco called first Thursdays. That is now turned into,
06:06there's 20,000 people that show up. People want to be together. Um, you create that, that body heat
06:13and, and, and it's working and it's working in neighborhoods across our city.
06:18And that sort of leads me to, um, sports a little bit again, because we just mentioned the game
06:24between the Giants and the Sultanes, but sports art and cultural events in general can be, uh, taken
06:30into advantage to sort of impulse the economic development of the areas, but also something you
06:37just mentioned with the entertainment zones, which is bring back community to be in touch,
06:42to understand each other, to see their differences, to feel them to, um, but also to come together and
06:48enjoy something like culture or art or sports. Um, how are you doing this more? I mean, the Sultanes
06:57and the Giants game is an example, but how does this impact the development of the economy in the city,
07:02or at least the neighborhood around where the event is taken care?
07:06Regina, you, you know, this, you know, we're, we're living in a world and I'll speak for our country
07:11where you, there's, you're increasingly rewarded for dividing people and, and pitting people against
07:20each other. And we in San Francisco believe in our, that, you know, our diversity is our strength and
07:27that having such great, um, communities, different communities, um, is, is our greatest strength.
07:34And how do you bring people together? Well, uh, it's arts, you know, it's cultural, uh, institutions,
07:41uh, and our arts community, it's, uh, uh, music. Um, and then it's sports and sports, you know, sports
07:49and music and arts is, is a common theme that, uh, you know, whether you, you know, you're, you're,
07:55uh, you know, uh, you know, struggling, uh, you're a struggling artist or you're, uh, uh, you know,
08:00a family just trying to make ends meet. We can all come together around sports and arts and, and,
08:07and culture. Now, before becoming major of San Francisco, you founded Tipping Point
08:13Community, a nonprofit looking to fight poverty. And I know that this must be really interesting.
08:20The experiences learned from, um, Tipping Point Community to actually putting them into public
08:26policy. Um, what, what prepared you or what are the challenges that you're facing today as major
08:33that you learned something from that previous experience?
08:38I learned that there's great people out on the streets doing incredible work. I knew that for,
08:44you know, my 15 to 20 years working at Tipping Point and being part of that, uh, incredible
08:48organization. I knew there was great nonprofit leaders that were, you know, on the streets,
08:53helping people, uh, giving people opportunity, whether it's job training or, or education or
08:59early childhood care. Um, and I see that as mayor. Um, and I always said when I was at Tipping
09:05Point
09:05that, you know, philanthropy has a really important role to play. They, uh, that money can be used to
09:10seed capital, but the real money is actually at the government level. That is where the big dollars
09:16are. And so what we always tried to do was shine a light on great work and then say to,
09:21you know, in this case, the city and County of San Francisco, Hey, there's this group working on
09:26housing issues. Uh, that's, you know, a good place to lift up and spend more dollars. And, and
09:33you're seeing it this year, this past year in San Francisco has been a real, uh, seed change and
09:40there's a real sense of momentum. And everybody knows that San Francisco now is on the rise.
09:45We still have lots of work to do, but we're all in it together and it's a great feeling. And,
09:51and I think the fans of the Sultanes will see that coming, they're coming to, you know, what I think
09:56is the greatest city in the world. And we're proud, uh, of, of what we're building here in San Francisco.
10:03After the game and, and this, we're not going to agree on upon, but I think that the Sultanes are
10:08going to win and that's going to be the final score. I bet, or I, I think you might be
10:12on the
10:12other side of who's winning those games. Um, but how can this, uh, first game or how can this first
10:20approach also lead to a more evolving, uh, relationship between San Francisco and Mexico,
10:28between businesses in San Francisco area and Mexico and sort of, you know, build that bridge
10:33that you've mentioned before that is needed to less divided communities and more united from us.
10:41I mean, I, I hear, I went to Mexico city, uh, for a sports, uh, game. I went for the
10:47Niners, uh,
10:48Arizona Cardinals game a couple of years ago. I brought my son. I went, we went to a lot of
10:53great
10:54art, uh, uh, art and cultural institutions when we were down there. I love Mexico city,
10:59by the way, it's an incredible city. And the, you know, so you see, you have the giants and the
11:04Sultanes, you've got the Niners who, uh, I believe, uh, are playing another game in Mexico.
11:10These type of sporting events, uh, bring cities and, and, and countries together. Uh, like I said
11:17before, we have a great relationship with the council general of Mexico here. Uh, we can't,
11:22uh, we, we, we just love it. Uh, you know, we, our number one industry here in San Francisco
11:30is tourism and Mexico is one of the top two countries that sends visitors to San Francisco.
11:37So we love it. We want to continue to build ties. Um, you know, obviously our business community
11:43is, uh, you know, we have the, I think the most innovative ecosystem in the world.
11:49Well, let's end with that, uh, major Lori, thank you so much for your time. Um, and, and I agree,
11:54maybe, I think it's about alliances and you've mentioned this throughout the interview. And I
11:59appreciate that because it's not only between philanthropy and the government, but also between
12:04the people and businesses and communities. Um, I don't know if there's anything else that you would
12:09like to add before we say goodbye. No, Regina, are you coming up for the game?
12:14I am. I, you bet I'll be there, but I'm definitely rooting for the Sultanes. So that's okay. We,
12:20that we can, uh, we can, but I, I look, I hope to meet you there. I wish all your
12:25fans a great trip
12:26up and we can't wait to see you all in a couple of weeks and, and let's go, uh, San
12:31Francisco and
12:32let's go Sultanes and let's go Giants. Thank you so much for your time, Major Lurie.
12:38y gracias a ustedes por habernos acompañado. Nos vemos pronto.
13:08y gracias a ustedes por habernos acompañado.
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