This week, we were thrilled to host our first annual Mayor Summit with three of California’s leading mayors – newly-elected San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. Over 200 attendees gathered at our headquarters in San Francisco to hear from Mayors Breed, Schaaf, and Liccardo on how their respective cities are addressing key urban challenges, innovating to solve problems, and working together to strengthen our Bay Area neighborhoods.
The lively discussion was moderated by Carla Marinucci, Editor of POLITICO’s California Playbook and opened with each mayor giving an overview of their top priorities for 2018. Among the hot topics discussed were affordable housing, environmental regulation, and homelessness. The mayors also answered questions submitted from interested members of the public through social media.
Each mayor cited housing affordability as a critical issue facing the Bay Area as a whole: “Let’s just be very clear: the affordability crisis, which starts with housing, although it’s a little more expansive than that, is literally about to kill the Bay Area. Everything that we value and love about this incredible region is literally at stake because of this runaway affordability crisis,” said Mayor Schaaf. Mayor Breed agreed, stating, “There have been a lot of mistakes around housing production. We have to open up the doors and be open to housing in our neighborhoods.” Mayor Liccardo echoed these sentiments but noted that all Bay Area cities need to step up and not just depend on San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland if the region wants to be serious about tackling the issue.
The mayors also discussed the importance of Nextdoor for civic engagement: “Sending an email and hoping everyone will get it isn’t going to happen. Nextdoor’s a fantastic platform — it’s certainly very effective,” said Mayor Liccardo.
The event concluded with Nextdoor and San Francisco 49ers President Al Guido honoring agency partners in each of the three regions that use Nextdoor to connect and communicate with residents.
The Nextdoor platform is being utilized by residents in every neighborhood of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, and represents the ideal framework for a discussion about civic leadership and neighborhood community initiatives. To date, Nextdoor has partnered with over 3,000 public agencies across the US — mayors’ offices, police and fire departments, and offices of emergency management — who are using the platform to connect and engage with residents.
It was an honor to host Mayors Breed, Schaaf, and Liccardo, and we look forward to the amazing achievements we will make together as a community.
You can watch a video of the full conversation here.
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