Mayor London Breed is up for re-election, but she faces a formidable slate of challengers as San Francisco grapples with a bevy of issues, including a drug overdose epidemic, a homelessness crisis, the need to build more housing and more.

The candidates: Mark Farrell, former interim mayor of San Francisco, anti-poverty nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, and supervisors Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safaí are the four key front-runners challenging Breed.

Axios asked the candidates the same question: What is the number one issue in San Francisco right now and how would you address it if elected? Here's what they said:

London Breed

Top issue: Housing.

What she's saying: "I have already done a great deal to ease barriers to new housing, but we have more to do," Breed said.

• "For instance, where a project complies with our local code, it should move forward without politicized decision-making. And we need to allow more housing in areas that have not allowed it in the past."

Daniel Lurie

Top issue: Public safety.

What he's saying: "As mayor, I will fully staff police and sheriff departments and 911 dispatchers to reduce emergency response times, which are dangerously slow," Lurie said.

Aaron Peskin

Top issue: Homelessness.

What he's saying: Peskin pointed to his six-point From Crisis to Care plan, which aims "to address homelessness by focusing on reforming the management of homelessness, leading a regional approach to treatment and conservatorship facilities, stopping unjust evictions" and more.

Ahsha Safaí

Top issue: Affordability.

What he's saying: "Everyday San Franciscans are getting crushed," Safaí said.

• "You shouldn't have to be rich to live in our city."

Mark Farrell

Top issue: "Voters have lost confidence" in Breed's ability to "deliver the changes we deserve," Farrell said.

What he's saying: If elected, he plans to launch his "detailed plan to recruit and retain more officers, declare a fentanyl state of emergency [to] close open-air drug markets and get people into treatment, clear all large tent encampments and provide thousands of new shelter beds."

Follow the money

Breed was thrust into the city's top role in December 2017, following the sudden passing of Mayor Ed Lee.

What happened: Breed, as then-president of the Board of Supervisors, became acting mayor in accordance with the city's charter.

Yes, but: She lost that job after about a month when her fellow supervisors voted to make Farrell the city's interim mayor until a special election in June 2018.

• The move was an attempt by the board's progressive faction to increase the chances of a left-leaning candidate winning the special election by not letting Breed have the advantage of incumbency, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time.
• The move, however, was rather controversial, with some seeing it as motivated by racism and sexism, according to the Chronicle. Progressive supervisors, however, denied those claims.

Regardless of motivations, it didn't go according to plan.

• Breed ultimately won that election, becoming the first Black woman to be elected mayor of San Francisco and just the second woman to hold the position.
• In July 2018, she was sworn in as mayor to finish the remainder of Lee's term, which ran until January 2020.
• In 2019, voters elected Breed to her first full term as mayor.

What to watch

San Francisco is distributing "chill packs" containing antipsychotic drugs to unhoused people who use meth. (SF Chronicle)

👣 All but one of 10 landmarks around the city experienced an increase in foot traffic over the past year, per aggregated cellphone data from Placer.ai. Union Square is the one exception. (SF Chronicle)

A fire severely damaged the family-owned store Great Wall Hardware over the weekend, according to the fire department. A GoFundMe has been set up to help with repairs. (SFGATE)

🧑‍🍳 The beloved Vietnamese restaurant Slanted Door will reopen on Valencia Street after its flagship location at the Ferry Building closed earlier this year. (Eater SF)

The NFL is making significant changes to its rules this season.

The big picture: Kickoffs will look wildly different and hip-drop tackles will be banned when the San Francisco 49ers return to the field for their first regular season game at home against the New York Jets on Sept. 9.

Between the lines: Returns were at an all-time low last season (only 22% of all kickoffs were returned) and, after analyzing the last two seasons, the league found that hip-drop tackles were responsible for more lower body injuries than other tackles.

The new format, called the dynamic kickoff, changes where the kicker and team start and adds a new landing zone.

How it works: The kicker will start on the 35-yard line, while the rest of the team starts on the receiving team's 40-yard line.

• The 20-yard line to the end zone is now the landing zone, and if the kick doesn't reach this zone, the ball will be placed at the 40-yard line. If the ball goes into the end zone, it will be placed on the 30-yard line.

Banning hip-drop tackles

📡 Get these events on your radar:

Fair Play? Human and AI Biases in Gaming at Swissnex in San Francisco on Aug. 29: A free panel discussion for gamers, developers and AI-curious minds and renowned speakers. Join the event at Pier 17. Tickets are free, registration is mandatory.

Promoting your event? Email [email protected].

I was walking around the other day when I came upon this storefront with its eye-catching signage.

• I loved the detail in the two faces' expression — there's something quite jolly and avuncular about the drawings depicting the 20th century comedy team Laurel and Hardy — and had to take a shot.
• It was such a beautiful day too, with Karl hovering in the background but not taking up center stage.

Now, let's see who can name the neighborhood I was in and the nearest street intersection.

• Hit reply to send your best guess!