[3] The Mayor of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the city and county government.

[22] In the 1890s San Francisco received heavy ship traffic from Asian cities that were currently dealing with the bubonic plague.

With anti-Chinese feelings already running rampant throughout the city, the Department of Public Health quickly moved to quarantine Chinatown.

Initially the quarantine was protested, not to protect the Chinese, but because of fear and doubt that the plague was indeed in the city.

After victims were found, the Board of Health publicly announced the plague, and the Chinatown quarantine was again set into place.

[23][24] Health officials shut down Chinese-owned businesses, and any Chinese or Japanese people attempting to leave the city had to first go through an inoculation with an experimental prophylactic developed by Waldemar Haffkine.

This led to a court case between Chinatown resident Wong Wai and the Department of Public Health.

Wai won the court case and the Department of Public Health was ordered to stop the inoculations, but city officials got support from the Board of Supervisors to continue.

[25] Health authorities also attempted to set up a detention camp for those of Asian descent in Mission Rock, but the idea was protested and canceled, partially due to fear about openly admitting the plague in San Francisco.

[24] Fear of the plague and prejudice against Chinese was so high that many city officials debated burning down Chinatown.

San Francisco businessmen reacted by assembling the Chamber of Commerce, Board of Trade, Merchants’ Association, Marine Hospital Service, new mayor George C. Pardee and various and civil rights groups to clear San Francisco of the plague.

In addition, several regional governmental units in San Francisco operate independently of the municipal government.