Mayoral hopeful Mark Farrell, who is seeking to challenge the woman who he once before replaced, and who ultimately replaced him in his brief stint as mayor six years ago, has just spelled out some more specifics in terms of his agenda.

One of several moderates who are running to defeat the also moderate but recently not very popular London Breed, Mark Farrell is a former SF supervisor with deep ties in the city. He served eight years representing the Marina District before becoming a caretaker mayor following the late 2017 death of Ed Lee — the politics of that were weird at the time, and no doubt Breed still harbors some feelings about it.

As you may recall, Breed was president of the Board of Supervisors and therefore automatically became mayor the day that Lee passed away, per the city charter. In the weeks following the death, though, the political brinksmanship began, and when it became clear that Breed would be vying for the permanent job, the supervisors began debating whether it would be fair Breed to come into the job via special election after essentially being an incumbent for seven months. (There was also the counter-argument that Breed wasn't being given any privileged treatment because of her race.) So, they voted to install Farrell as mayor for six months, and Farrell did not run in the special election.

Farrell also anointed current supervisor Catherine Stefani, handing his former seat to her. Breed defeated main rival Mark Leno in the June 2018 election, and the rest is history.

Now Farrell is running for mayor for essentially the first time, even though he's had the job before. And being a former lawyer turned investment banker, Farrell is coming into the race with some monied Silicon Valley support and a staunchly law-and-order agenda.

In the first part of a multi-tweet announcement Tuesday morning, Farrell says his #1 priority as mayor will be to "improve the Deferred Retirement Option Program which will allow hundreds of experienced [SFPD] officers back on the force and on patrol in our neighborhoods."

He also says there's "no excuse" for delays in getting background checks done on new police recruits — some of whom, he says, have waited a year for their background checks to be complete. And Farrell says he wants to "drastically grow the size of the police force to where it needs to be" through budget increases.

Farrell also wants to expand the current ban on street vending in the Mission to cover other areas in town, including UN Plaza and Civic Center.

And, he says, he wants to enforce more closure hours on the city's "most troubled parks from sunset to dawn," in order to deter illegal activity. As the Chronicle reports, these troubled parks include Civic Center Plaza and UN Plaza, and the Mission District’s Jose Coronado Playground.

Short of installing police to stand guard at these plaza and park perimeters, this could prove challenging, but hey, it's just a campaign promise!

Farrell tells the Chronicle, "We will be aggressive to make sure San Francisco residents feel safe in every single neighborhood."

Breed's camp has come out swinging already on Farrell's proposals, with campaign spokesperson Joe Arellano saying that they're a "thin minestrone of half-baked ideas and plagiarism."

Referring to Farrell's home in near Laurel Heights, Arellano further says in a statement, "Instead of pretending he’s Rudy Giuliani and running to be Mayor of the Doom Loop, Farrell should leave the bubble of his Jordan Park home for a change. Leading San Francisco requires a lot more effort than just cosplaying as mayor from your kitchen."

The barbs have begun!

We still don't have an official campaign announcement from current Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin — who we heard earlier this month was pretty definitively about to jump in the race. Peskin would be the sole progressive in the bunch, and could benefit from that. But then again, he could suffer from a little too well known as well.

Peskin has served a total of 16 years as the Supervisor of District 3 — first from 2001 to 2009, getting termed out, and then getting reelected in 2015. And, he has toyed with a run for mayor before, but probably few people remember that at this point.*

*This post has been corrected to show that Peskin has never officially run for mayor of SF.