Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin is one of the youngest mayors in the Bay Area. He is Berkeley’s first Latino mayor, and also serves as the president of the Association of Bay Area Governments. He leads a city that faced enormous homelessness and housing challenges before the pandemic, and today faces both crises, now compounded by economic turmoil that Arreguin says is closer to the Great Depression than to the 2008 financial crisis. He believes however that the caring spirit of his iconic city will prevail.
