October 27, 2006
SFist Interviews: Bevan Dufty
It says a lot about the state of San Francisco politics that an openly gay politician has a baby with an openly lesbian friend and the openly gay politician is considered not progressive enough. But there you have it. Dufty has come under criticism for being too conservative for his progressive district and earned the enmity of the progressives for allegedly being anti-tenant and for his vote against Healthy Saturdays initiative. The Progessive Voter Index even breaks it all down by numbers. But despite the criticism, the District 8 race between Bevan and Alix Rosenthal hasn't quite achieved the level of vitriol and craziness that marks the District 6 election. Part of it is that both Alix and Bevan-- to their credit-- appear to be acting like adults. And part of it is that even Bevan's critics seem acknowledge the fact that Bevan is a really nice guy and does a good job of servicing his district.
I guess the first question should be is what is your reaction to critics who say you don't vote progessive enough for a progessive district?
Many people view the Board of Supervisors in the context of a 7-4 split. For me, I try to evaluate each issue and make my own judgment or decision.
In many cases I have been the swing vote which determines whether the Mayor can oppose a measure.
On the landmark Universal Health Care Plan, I came out strongly for the plan once the Universal Health Care Council issued its recommendations on merging Supervisor Ammiano's employer mandate legislation with the Mayor's Health Access Plan. The combined measure is far stronger in offering access to 82,000 individuals without health coverage rather than the 16,000 covered with simply employer-mandate.
When Labor and Health Advocates had my support it changed the dynamics for the issue and ultimately led to a great measure that was supported by all eleven Supervisors.
There have been other issues such as planning controls on Chain Stores, and Matt Gonzalez' roommate legislation where my support put it beyond a veto. I think the Mayor is doing a great job but I speak and vote my conscience on issues.
Did you know what kind of reaction your proposed new policy on Halloween was going to create and what made you decide to move ahead with it?
After witnessing and calling #911 following violence on the Sunday of Pride weekend (ten young women arrested, including one for having a gun, another with a baseball bat) and then the assaults on six people following this year's San Diego Pride -- I was not willing to be complacent with the direction of Halloween.
People's safety matters more than me taking heat from some individuals. I see this as a transitional year where we hope to scale back the volume of the event so that it can be reinvented in a way that is more fun and draws more people from the neighborhood and LGBT Community.
Alix seems to be going for the "freak" vote. How freaky are you?
No comment, thanks.
And finally, how's fatherhood?
Every day Sidney shows me something new. My Co-Parent Rebecca is an amazing Mom and friend. I am a Zen Master at "Swaddling". And Pete Wilson will not be asked to babysit.
Name
Bevan Dufty
Introduce yourself in one sentence
"All about the neighborhood"
Age and Occupation
51 and holding, San Francisco Supervisor
Home Town
NYC
How long have you lived in the Bay Area and Where
Mom moved us from NYC in 1971 and I graduated from Menlo-Atherton H.S. then went to Cal and worked in S.F. for a federal agency part-time. Left in '76 for DC and worked on Capitol Hill and then lived in LA for a few years, returning to SF in 1993 for good.
Favorite place to spend time online
By necessity answering my e-mails at bevan.dufty@sfgov.org --
Favorite local business
Love them all but if it's breakfast chances are I'm at Squat & Gobble in the Castro
What I'm currently Reading
Christopher Bram's new book, 'Exiles in America'
Favorite mode of transportation
Running
Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
Carol Channing
Favorite Bay Area Stereotype, and whether or not you buy into it
That LA is a giant Mall. No, although I could never live there again.
Favorite local hangout
Drunk n' Horny at Underground SF if it's an upscale night
SF has the BEST
People and natural setting
You've never lived in SF until
You tell people you really don't like warm weather
Favorite Bay area politician of past or present
D'Army Bailey
Now that Mayor Gavin is single, who are you going to set him up with?
If I heard that Actress Rosario Dawson was single I'd text him.
You can tell someone is a local here IF
They ask where you went to high school
Best Burrito
La Corneta in Glen Park or Don Ramon's in SOMA
Best Restaurant
If it's a first date, LeZinc in Noe Valley on 24th Street or Catch in the Castro
Best movie scene filmed in or about SF
High Anxiety by Mel Brooks
Favorite artist to come out of the bay area
Paul Wonner
Favorite author to come out of the bay area
Armistead Maupin
Place you always tell visitors to check out
Dim Sum at Yank Sing, 49 Stevenson
Favorite Bridge in the area
I serve with Tom ammiano on the Board of Directors for the Golden Gate Bridge District, so it's an easy answerr (although we both want the suicide barrier as quickly as possible)
You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
Go to Medium Rare and listen to a zillion songs from the R&B, Disco era and beyond and then make a purchase
I have found/sold/bought the following on craigslist
Nope
Tell Us A San Francisco Story
I met my Baby's Mama at Gold's Gym Brannan in a 6:30 a.m. Step Aerobics class 7 years ago. Go figure.
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When are the community meetings planned to curtail Pride attendance? After all, it was a Pride violence incident that triggered the latest developments for Halloween.
By the way, being Gay doesn't make you progressive.
Thanks for the citation. But, I commonly hear about how high D8 (BTW, my home district) scores on the PVI, and how that is the argument for an extremely liberal Supe. I'm not sure the argument holds up.
D8 isn't like D5 or D9, which can be considered top-to-bottom left-wing. There, the PVI is high across the board and not surprisingly we see easy victories for Mirkarimi/Ammiano. D8, on the other hand, is more gradational, in which areas like the Valencia corridor is quite liberal but up in the hills it is not. In fact, Diamond Heights is decidely moderate-to-conservative.
Thus, there's real difference in the district. Moreover, "liberal" areas like Noe valley and Glen park aren't Haight and Mission liberal, with their younger population. NV/GP is more in the style of old-school liberal Democrat, like Tip O'Neill or Ted Kennedy. This is different than what we see in the Haight. Yes, Gonzalez took D8 in 2003 but 1) I don't think we'll see that again, and 2) people vote differently for executive vs. representative offices.
And speaking of voting differently, folks need to be careful connecting PVI directly to candidates. People have all kinds of reasons for voting for candidates: integrity, energy, looks, brains, ideas, etc... Using PVI logic, Hansen should have won in '02, but she didn't. Sometimes, a candidate is just liked for reasons that defy logic (I'll let everyone think of their own example).
PVI is a political guide, it isn't in itself a reason someone should or shouldn't win, or run. It can, though, guide a candidate on what the district thinks about various issues.
Is it just me or does Bevan Dufty look a lot like Peter Lorre from the movie, "M".
Interesting interview. As a D8 voter (and homeowner) I've felt torn between voting for Bevan and Alix, but this interview cinched my decision. I'm voting for Alix.
"People's safety matters more than me taking heat from some individuals" is exactly the opposite of what I want in a representative. Freedom can be scary and dangerous, and what he's saying is that he values the illusion of safety over individual freedom. This tells me everything I need to know.
Bevan has been good about returning my phone calls and emails about neighborhood issues, but honestly, returning a phone call isn't that hard. Let's give Alix a try, and maybe we'll get the best of both worlds: someone responsible to the neighborhood's daily needs who doesn't want to install CCTV cameras on every lamppost.
And I agree with David Latterman's post. I always for vote liberal and progressive candidates, straight ticket Democrat with the occasional Green protest vote, but when it comes to neighborhood issues, I definitely look at the candidates more critically. It's hard to get people to vote against their own interests, and liberal-minded homeowners can be put into some hard dilemmas. Excessively "pro-tenant" legislation can wrap back around to "anti-homeowner", even for homeowners who aren't landlords. It's not hard to imagine pro-tenant proposals that could push some homeowners into foreclosure.
Owning property doesn't make you greedy and right-wing. It just means you have a different set of challenges. I love my renter friends and I want them to have nice lives, but the pendulum needs to sit in a nice balance, otherwise you're just choosing which group will end up suffering. Anyway, my point of this is to further elaborate why PVI and "too conservative for district 8" don't apply. Bevan vs Alix has been a hard choice for many of us.
Though who knows, having Halloween so close to the election will really cement D8 voters' opinions of the two candidates. At least, it has for me. Good luck Alix.
I'm going to guess Steve does not live in the part of the Castro where the party is being held. If he did he'd probably be as opposed to it as those of us who are going to have people throwing bottles on our stoops and worry about getting gay bashed.
I just don't understand those who think public safety equates directly to a police state. Did Bevan say anything about a police occupation of the Castro? Is there some plan I haven't heard about to permanently install police barricades?
What is probably the most amazing is the hypocrisy of the large scale party supporters who want the city to provide and pay for multiple stages and an all night party with no police or law enforcement at all, but they don't want it to happen in their neighborhood.
We know what happened before Bevan made it city sponsored with entertainment stages (the wild party supporters seem to like that, but never mention that was Bevan's doing) and before adequate security (why aren't they called on the fact that the police are not a paramilitary occupational force?) so why does anyone even listen to people who don't live here and just want to come trash our neighborhood?
So Steve,
Were the 7 people shot worth your party?
Steve didn't actually express an opinion about the Halloween party here, so there's really no way to criticize his position on it.
Actually there is plenty of reason to criticize him,
Though he did not mention it by name, he directly quoted Bevan Dufty's stance on the Halloween party, "People's safety matters more than me taking heat from some individuals", as being "opposite" his opinion.
Steve is expressing he would put the party ahead of safety. He goes on to say, "Freedom can be scary and dangerous, and what he's saying is that he values the illusion of safety over individual freedom", a libertarian view if there ever was one, but that is not where the problem lies. He is putting words in Bevan's mouth.
The opposite of what Bevan said, which is what Steve says he wants, would be to tell people what they want to hear ahead of public safety.
I would rather District Supervisors put public safety ahead of placating voters with big parties.