In terms of political drama, 2025 was the gift that kept on giving.
We’ve rounded up five stories that shook San Francisco this year, featuring an Instagram-savvy new mayor, a 200-hour supervisor, and a City Hall showdown with the feds, among other developments that defined a chaotic 365 days.
A newbie becomes mayor
In a city famous for its entrenched bureaucracy, a City Hall outsider taking the helm of government could be one of the most shocking political developments in decades.
Since his Jan. 8 inauguration, when he promised to return “San Francisco to its rightful place as the greatest city in the world,” Mayor Daniel Lurie has ushered in a new era in City Hall’s Room 200 — becoming wildly popular (opens in new tab) in the process (thanks in part to his savvy use of Instagram).
Daniel Lurie became mayor of San Francisco after besting incumbent London Breed in the November 2024 election. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard
Lurie restructured the mayor’s office, installing several policy chiefs to assist with government operations, and swapped department heads to help with his ambitious goals of cleaning up streets and cracking down on the drug crisis.
His tenure hasn’t been without controversy. Lurie couldn’t avoid layoffs or deep cuts to close an $800 million budget gap this year, while his signature Family Zoning Plan, which calls for tens of thousands more housing units across the city, ignited fierce opposition from NIMBY groups and tenant advocates worried about rampant development in their neighborhoods. And while Lurie pledged to shake up government as an “outsider,” he has also leveraged a vast network of wealthy friends and donors to bankroll his efforts to revitalize San Francisco’s economy.
The car wars take down a supervisor
The drama over Proposition K only intensified in 2025, when west-side residents funneled their outrage into a recall election against District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, who had championed the successful 2024 ballot measure.
Engardio was trounced in a Sept. 16 special election. Many of the 63% who voted to remove him from office came from the same neighborhoods that supported his election in 2022.
Supervisor Joel Engardio was trounced in a Sept. 16 special recall election over his support for Proposition K. | Source: Manuel Orbegozo for The Standard
The long, twisted, bitter fight over the Great Highway’s future and what to do with Sunset Dunes is far from over.
Engardio’s replacement, Supervisor Alan Wong, announced this month that he would sponsor a ballot measure to bring cars back to the road during the weekdays while reserving it for pedestrian use on weekends — a move that would effectively undo Sunset Dunes and complicate San Francisco’s broader move toward a more urbanist, transit-friendly future.
The 200-hour supervisor
District 4 never ran out of plot twists. Sandwiched between Engardio’s recall in September and Wong’s swearing-in Dec. 1 was Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz.
Lurie tapped the 29-year-old former pet store owner to replace Engardio on the Board of Supervisors, an odd choice that raised eyebrows in City Hall given her lack of name recognition and political experience.
The appointment snowballed into one of the most bizarre political episodes of the year.
Days after Alcaraz took office, The Standard broke the story of how her pet store had allegedly struggled financially for years before she left it in a state of squalor — with hundreds of dead mice and piles of trash — for the new owner to clean. That reporting broke open a dam of questions about Alcaraz’s thin résumé and whether she was qualified for the job of supervisor.
Other reports (opens in new tab) uncovered additional unflattering allegations against Alcaraz, including claims that she had paid her workers off the books and evaded taxes — prompting Lurie to request her resignation a week into her tenure.
Lurie’s appointment of Isabella “Beya” Alcaraz snowballed into one of the most bizarre political episodes of the year. | Source: Amber Pietz/The Standard
The saga wasn’t just embarrassing for Alcaraz; it represented Lurie’s first major stumble since taking office.
When the feds didn’t come to town
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff ignited a firestorm with his call for President Donald Trump to send troops to San Francisco. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
The comments sparked intense backlash and anxiety within City Hall and among some of the city’s tech elite, which couldn’t be quelled even after Benioff backtracked.
Trump delighted in the drama. He promised that San Francisco was next on his list for a federal takeover, setting up a showdown with local and state electeds who said the deployment would be an unnecessary provocation.
And then!
Lurie leveraged his connections and got Benioff and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang to convince Trump that a deployment wasn’t necessary. Lurie also talked with Trump, in a 25-minute phone call, during which the mayor touted San Francisco’s improving prospects and successfully convinced the prez to stand down.
Trump obliged — delivering Lurie his biggest political win so far.
The end of an era
It’s hard to imagine Congress without Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Washington for nearly four decades.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi announced her retirement from Congress Nov. 6. | Source: J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House and arguably the most powerful woman in U.S. political history, announced her retirement Nov. 6, sending shock waves through the city despite broad expectations that she would step down.
The decision came two days after California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting ballot measure that Pelosi played a critical role in crafting, and ignited a succession battle expected to be one of the fiercest fights in San Francisco next year.