Mayor Ed Lee Leaves a City Transfigured

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Many paid their last respects to Mayor Ed Lee at San Francisco's City Hall. Creative Commons image by Flickr user

As San Francisco bid farewell (San Francisco Examiner) to Major Ed Lee, who died unexpectedly last week, tributes (San Francisco magazine) and remembrances are flooded in — from plaudits at a memorial service attended by nearly 1,600 people at San Francisco City Hall (San Francisco Chronicle), to former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s memories (Atlantic magazine) of Lee in their days of yesteryear as community activists to recitations of Lee’s trademark cornball jokes (San Francisco magazine). Also appearing, inevitably, are assessments of Lee’s legacy in the city he left behind. Lee is praised as a dedicated public servant, whose activist roots at the Asian Law Caucus and his Mr. Fix-It days as the head of the Department of Public Works helped him navigate a complicated city. He was also viewed as a builder (Curbed San Francisco): In the Lee era, the city became richer, taller and more crowded, but harsher, unaffordable, and increasingly racially and economically segregated. But even as the body of San Francisco’s first Asian-American mayor was lying in repose in the S.F. City Hall rotunda (San Francisco Chronicle), the political jockeying over who will succeed Lee had already begun. Acting Mayor London Breed may end up being a short-timer if some S.F. supervisors get their way (San Francisco Examiner). And some eager beavers have already filed papers signifying their intention to run (San Francisco Examiner) — the filing deadline is in January, and the election is in June.

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