Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown cast doubt on the city's future and slammed its next generation of leaders in an interview with the New York Times published on Monday.
Brown broadly discussed the challenges facing the city, such as the homelessness crisis, street conditions and the recent spree of retail thefts. He was pessimistic about any potential solutions.
Among his most pointed critiques, Brown argued there is a lack of local future political leaders capable of stepping in to address the issues.
When asked if San Francisco can keep its disproportionately outsized role in California politics, Brown responded: "No, I do not. We have no bench. We have not attempted to build a roster of new, talented people."
"We still have all kinds of people with ideas. But we have nobody on the bench capable of implementing them," he continued.
Last month, Mayor London Breed declared a State of Emergency in the Tenderloin to address the district's drug overdose problems, which Brown praised as "very bold." However, he said the only way the declaration will work is if other districts in the city buy-in, and he was discouraged that would happen.
"We are now plagued with the politics of districts that have no interest in anything except their little turf," he explained.
Breed has previously spoken about the city's "nasty streets" as full of "feces and urine" and described recent retail thefts as "mass looting events." Brown concurred with Breed's assessment of both issues, declaring she was "totally and completely accurate. And descriptive. And believable."
He also called the problems beyond the city's control, specifically homelessness, concluding there was "no possible way for any one single city or county to solve the homeless problem" because it is "too rooted in poverty and mental health."
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