SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Five major candidates running to become San Francisco’s next mayor met Wednesday for their first debate ahead of the election.

The candidates took the stage at Sydney Goldstein Theater to duke it out with one another and convince San Francisco voters of why they should be the next mayor. The most important issues to people were the fentanyl epidemic and public safety.

The debate was hosted by Manny’s and City Arts and Lectures. It was moderated by Manny Yekutiel and New York Times’ San Francisco Bureau Chief Heather Knight.

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The candidates are supervisor Ahsha Safai, former mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell, philanthropist Daniel Lurie, mayor London Breed and supervisor Aaron Peskin. The one rule for the audience was to not cheer, clap or boo the candidates, but at one point they started booing Breed.

The debate carried on with each candidate answering questions about key issues in the city. More than 800 overdose deaths were recorded last year, with more than 80 percent involving fentanyl.

Each candidate explained what they would do to prevent more deaths:

Peskin: “We need to aggressively arrest and prosecute fentanyl dealers. I called for a multi-agency coordination center in April 2023 to bring law enforcement together to shut down the Tenderloin supermarkets. Unfortunately, officers were told to target drug users and not drug dealers.”

Farrell:  “As mayor, I would declare a fentanyl state of emergency. It will allow us to get additional funds from the state and federal government and allow us to open a centralized intake center.”

Lurie:  “Simply put, we are spending $700 million on behavioral health, which is skewed so heavily towards harm reduction, which I think is part of it and important, but we forgot about building the beds and treating people.”

Breed: “There is no other mayor in any other major city in this country that is doing what we are doing to help combat this. No, we are not where we should be, but we are seeing improvements.”

Safai: “I walked the beat with the captain of the Tenderloin the other day and he said a lot of our resources are going downtown. If you want to stop the drug trade you got to get the officers on the street and stop the drug trade.”

Candidates also described how they would make city streets safer for visitors and residents.

Farrell: “My plan for public safety is… I believe we need a new police chief. I believe we need to restore the budget of our police department in city hall. They don’t have enough officers on the streets to respond to calls for service, let alone be proactive in our neighborhoods.”

Breed: “We are seeing one of the lowest crime rates we’ve seen in 10 years, and that crime rate is continuing to trend to this very day — including a 50% reduction YTD in car break-ins, 30% reduction in property crimes.”

Lurie: “We know that we are able to do this. We make downtown nice and clean and safe when we have conferences come to town. Foreign leaders come in. Police know this. We need a fully staffed police department and sheriff’s department.”

Peskin: “My district hired fully speaking Cantonese foot patrol officers. Most of the officers know the shopkeepers and residents on their beat by name. It doesn’t just keep them safe, it makes them feel safe.”

Safai: “What’s been missing is the leadership and investment to recruit. If you don’t invest, you can’t get more officers and other emergency personnel that we need. That’s been underfunded in the last five years.”

This November, the mayoral election will be ranked-choice voting, so voters can select first, second and third choices. Voters can only for each candidate once, and they can rank as many or as few candidates as they like.

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