Former SF interim Mayor Mark Farrell on why he's running for official seat, plan for downtown
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- We are few months away from the November election, and Building a Better Bay Area means giving you the information you need to vote.
What happens in the San Francisco mayor's race will impact not only the city, but the entire Bay Area.
Former Supervisor Mark Farrell served as interim mayor for several months after the death of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee in 2017.
Farrell spoke to anchor Kristen Sze on ABC7 News at 3 p.m. on Wednesday on why he's running for the official seat.
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She asked him about his downtown plan as well as a vision for Market Street.
"Because what we're missing is that vibrancy, right, there's a ghost town there's a shell effect of downtown we need to cure that," he said.
"Building a brand new park at the foot of Market Street, in front of the Ferry Building. You know an amazing opportunity to reframe an entrance of San Francisco from the Ferry Building, but also create that green space for families that are going to move downtown, for people that live and work downtown, to make sure that they have open space as well and reinvigorate that part of San Francisco."
Farrell says San Francisco's downtown has the worst recovery of any city when it comes to the pandemic, and that is unacceptable.
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He says he left politics for his children. Now, they are the reason he's running for San Francisco mayor.
KRISTEN SZE: "You left politics for venture capital, why do you want to be mayor now?"
MARK FARRELL: "You know, I left city hall in 2018 because my children. My wife and I are raising our three children here in San Francisco and at the time they were 5, 10 and 12 years old. So it'd be the right time to be home with them. To know me is to know that I'm a dad first, and I enjoy coaching sports teams, traveling with our children, and being really engaged in their schools. But I'll tell you, I'm running for mayor here in 2024 because of my children again. Our oldest child is our daughter who just graduated from high school she's going off to college in about five weeks."
KRISTEN SZE: "Congratulations."
MARK FARRELL: "Thank you. But I want her to be proud to call San Francisco home. I think more than anything I want her to move back to San Francisco when she graduates. In order for that to happen, we need to have a city that's affordable, that's safe with clean streets and with economic opportunities for everybody in San Francisco. Those conditions don't exist today that's why I'm running for mayor."
All week long, ABC7 News will be interviewing the major candidates running to lead the city.
Watch the full interview in the media player above.
