Daniel Lurie says that at least 500 City Hall jobs are on the chopping block, a move he avoided last year through accounting tricks, and Lurie may not exactly be Mr. Popular anymore once that axe comes down.This month’s San Francisco Unified School District teachers’ strike only lasted for four days, so no one involved suffered any political or public relations consequences. And it was comparatively convenient for Mayor Daniel Lurie, as it was SFUSD superintendent Dr. Maria Su (and not Lurie) who had to play the role of the Big Bad going up against the schoolteachers, with Lurie able to comfortably play the role of the neutral facilitator of negotiations.Lurie will not get that convenience when it comes to some harsh budget-cutting that is on the way as he has to deal with the unpleasant task of trimming SF’s nearly $1 billion budget deficit. And the Chronicle reports on the most recent unpleasant task related to all of that, as Lurie says he will have to eliminate at least 500 San Francisco City Hall jobs.The Chronicle cites an email from Lurie’s budget director Sophia Kittler in which she tells various City Hall departments that SF "cannot afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs" and that "meeting this target requires eliminating filled positions."That distinction is critical. Last year, Lurie supposedly “eliminated” 1,400 City Hall jobs but it was a head-count and accounting trick in which he simply eliminated unfilled positions. This year, the administration seems to be saying that the job losses will be actual pink slips assigned to real human beings.The Chronicle frames this all as a test for Lurie’s relative popularity, as he’s got impending showdowns coming with unions and organized labor. These layoffs will most definitely piss off the public-sector unions, plus Lurie has upcoming labor negotiations with the police union and other City Hall labor groups whose contract negotiations are coming up. But do labor unions really determine Lurie’s popularity? It seems he could cross a union or two and still remain a broadly popular mayor, maybe even scoring political points by standing up to them. And, honestly, it does not feel like Lurie cutting 500 jobs at City Hall will necessarily bring out any pitchfork-wielding mobs. We'll see!Related: SF City Hall Faces First Major Layoffs In 15 Years as Mayor Lurie Proposes Cutting 1,400 Jobs [SFist]Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 29: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks onstage during day three of TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 at Moscone Center on October 29, 2025 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch) ...read more read less