Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, took office as San Francisco’s new mayor on Wednesday with a vow to upend the status quo in a city struggling to revive itself as a thriving tech and financial hub.

Speaking outside of City Hall, Lurie said he plans to bolster police presence in tourist zones, spur much-needed housing development and declare a state of emergency over the fentanyl crisis in a bid to save lives.

“Widespread drug dealing, public drug use and constantly seeing people in crisis has robbed us of our sense of decency and security,” Lurie, a Democrat, said to a crowd of hundreds. His speech framed San Francisco as a troubled city facing a daunting budget deficit that is nevertheless on the right track forward.

“There is no denying it: San Francisco is coming back,” he said. “There’s a rising sense of pride and optimism in this city right now that cannot be stopped.”

Lurie, 47, defeated incumbent London Breed in November as voters sought a fresh leader to turn around a city contending with a deadly drug crisis, record office vacancies and repeated hits to its reputation. After spending almost $9 million of his own money on his campaign, he becomes one of the wealthiest people to ever lead San Francisco. His mother, Mimi Haas, has a roughly $1 billion fortune thanks largely to her stake in Levi Strauss & Co., according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Haas and Breed were among the attendees of Wednesday’s ceremony, along with California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis and Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. Governor Gavin Newsom canceled plans to attend because of the wildfires raging around Los Angeles.

The founder of anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point Community, Lurie is working to overcome critics who derided him as a “trust fund kid” with little executive experience. This week, he picked up trash in front of television crews. In place of a $383,000 mayoral salary, he has opted to be paid $1 a year.

He’s also tapping into San Francisco’s wealth of business and tech executives to help in his efforts. Ned Segal, a former Twitter Inc. chief financial officer, is leading housing initiatives; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is on his transition team; and executives from the San Francisco Giants and McKinsey & Co. have joined his administration.

Lurie also wants San Francisco’s business leaders to play a larger role in civic life. “What I want for them is engagement in our city,” he said in an interview last month. “I’ve said to them very clearly, just like we’re talking about OpenAI – get involved in arts and culture, lift up our institutions, both big and small when it comes to arts.”

The wind could be at Lurie’s back. San Francisco is experiencing a surge in artificial intelligence investment, creating jobs and helping to fill office space. Open-air drug markets and fentanyl-related deaths have declined in recent months under Breed, who adopted tough-on-crime policies and pushed bus tickets for homeless individuals to leave the city.

Wealthy donors

Wednesday’s inauguration offered a window into the San Francisco wealth and celebrity that Lurie could rely on to boost his administration. Donors to his transition included Ron Conway, the billionaire venture capitalist; members of the Fisher family, the founders of Gap Inc.; and companies including Google and Airbnb Inc. Lurie’s team didn’t return requests for how much money the individuals contributed to the transition festivities, which included a banquet and a concert in Chinatown.

Kerr, the basketball coach, said Lurie will provide “inspiration and a vision,” while calling on residents to contribute to the city’s rebound.

“A mayor isn’t going to fix problems by himself or herself, just like coach doesn’t score any baskets or block any shots,” Kerr, whose team plays at San Francisco’s Chase Center, said at the ceremony. “He isn’t going to be able to wave a magic wand and create safety and security, affordable housing, better schools and a thriving economy for all — we are going to do that together.”

In one notable early success, Lurie is credited with using his connections to help resolve a hotel workers’ strike that threatened to disrupt next week’s JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, a marquee event that brings in thousands of visitors.

“It was a good start,” said Eric Jaye, a longtime San Francisco political strategist who has worked with major unions. “Daniel Lurie is surrounded by a bunch of billionaires that are talking in his ear and they don’t know how the city is run — it’s run substantially by the unions.”

Still, Lurie faces significant challenges. San Francisco is grappling with an $876 million budget shortfall over the next two years. Historically reliant on tourism and business conferences for revenue, the city has depended on one-time funding sources to balance its $15.9 billion budget. With those sources dwindling, costs rising and sluggish tax revenue deeper cuts to city services may be inevitable. Lurie on Wednesday said the deficit would require “painful decisions.”

The liberal city also faces potential conflicts with President-elect Donald Trump over sanctuary policies and federal funding. A Republican-controlled Congress could withhold $244 million in federal disaster-relief funds, according to city budget documents.

Lurie has pledged to focus locally, citing the city’s pressing challenges. On Wednesday, the mayor’s inaugural speech didn’t mention the incoming president.

“As your mayor, I will always tell you the truth even when they are hard truths,” Lurie said. “The challenges ahead of us are enormous.”

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