Chinatown merchants tell mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie hoping for better changes on public safety, economy, homelessness and more

(SAN FRANCISCO) A new year of 2024 has represented more plans from San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie to interact with voters in different communities. Lurie scheduled and attended week-long events to listen to concerns, including a merchant walk in Chinatown.

Mayoral election will be held in November 2024. As of January 27, 36 candidates have filed declarations of candidacy running for mayor. Lurie announced and filed papers for his mayoral candidacy in September 2023.

Before or after his announcement of running for mayor, Lurie has been seen very often walking around and attending events in Chinatown. "Folks in Chinatown have always seen me for over a year now. Of course I would include Chinatown in my events," said Lurie when he had a merchant walk in Chinatown in the afternoon on January 26.

It was part of Lurie's week long campaign events from January 22 to 28 to meet with members from different communities and neighborhoods in the City, Hayes Valley, Castro, Financial District, Tenderloin, Mission, Richmond, Bayview, Noe Valley and Inner Richmond.

In a hour-long merchant walk in Chinatown, Lurie entered over 10 stores and restaurants to introduce himself and listened to their concerns. Almost all merchants told Lurie that they hoped for a change at city hall for safer streets, fewer homeless people, and better economy.

Rosita Young, co-owns the Dragon Boat Jewelry Store on Grant Avenue with her husband, was the victim of a $250,000 loss break-in at her jewelry store in 2022. The jewelry store was broken into through a smashed display window early in the morning when Young and her husband were not in the store.

Young, who has operated the jewelry business in Chinatown for 40 years, told Lurie that the business has been so low in recent years that they couldn't afford to hire additional employees. "Chinatown is dangerous. Fewer and fewer customers coming to Chinatown all these years," Young said her jewelry store has been struggling to survive.

"San Francisco downtown might be better, but Chinatown has no people visiting," Young added.

"We need to turn around. If we keep doing this, the city is dead," Philip Vuong, owner of the Golden King Vietnamese Restaurant on Clay Street, told Lurie, while Lurie had seen no customers in the restaurant.

"I am in Chinatown all the time. We need to change it, " Vuong said. He also credited Lily Lo, CEO of Northeast Community Federal Credit Union and leader of non-profit BeChinatown, for organizing night markets in September and November 2023 to support the small businesses in Chinatown. "She (Lily Lo) is the one to make a difference," said Vuong.

Most of the 10+ business owners shared with Lurie that they have had a hard time to survive in recent years due to high cost and low revenues from very few customers.

More issues which were brought up by other merchants included more homeless people in recent years coming to Chinatown that would deter customers; a large number of Americans with Disability Act (ADA) civil lawsuits filed against Chinatown store and property owners that have hurt many small businesses; Chinatown lacking of parking spaces that have made customers turning to San Mateo County for shopping and dining.

Lurie assured that he would be pro small businesses and committed to providing shelters to homeless people to keep streets cleaner and safer for everyone.

Lurie was born and raised in San Francisco to a prestigious Jewish family. He is the son of Rabbi Brian Lurie and Mimi Haas who remarried to Peter Haas, an heir to the Levi Strauss Corporation.

Lurie is a graduate of Duke University in political science and UC Berkeley with a master degree in public policy. He founded Tipping Point Community in 2005 where he has raised over half a billion dollars to help house, employ, educate and support hundreds of thousands of Bay Area families. Tipping Point provided over 6,000 people in 2023 with services that either helped them transition out of homelessness or prevented them from experiencing it.