So the drunks will just show up to start drinking at 9:05 a.m. instead?

Typical Newsom: ridiculous plans that garner a lot of press but accomplish very little.

Well as a rampant boozer who had to endure wierd opening hours for a few years in the UK, I can atest to the fact that when the liquor store was closed, my behavior was far better.

And what's the gripe about the one way bus ticket? If you've got somewhere else more affordable to live, then you should go live there. Personally, I'd like to call Monte Carlo home, but I can't afford to, so I don't.

Gavin is now in HD.

reprinted without permission
(Francisco De Costa)

“The same people are dictating public policy.”

(Eileen Left)

Yesterday, SFSOS spinmeisters, David Latterman (on SFist) and Phil Matier (Matier and Ross) kicked off a new round of the ‘Gavin can’t lose’ screed, both quoting a bullshit poll (from David Binder, a discredited hack) reporting Gavin’s popularity at “80%” (questions and polling samples were never provided - until a couple of years ago, no credible news organization would publish a poll without them). The idea is to get not just the public, but other politicians thinking that a Newsom re-election is a fait accompli. I don’t think so. Not if those of us in the alternative press spend the next year hammering away at the mayor’s actual record. At the heart of Gavin’s vulnerability is his continual bait and switch with the voters. At the behest of his Downtown masters. That’s why I’m calling Gavin Newsom, the ‘Substitute Mayor’. Downtown looks at legislation they don’t like, creates ‘Evil Twin’ measures and tell Gavin: “here, substitute this!!”.

Newsom’s people have all the money and no imagination. So, they create ‘Evil Twin’ legislation or initiatives. Consultants like Clint Reilly and Jack Davis made fortunes defeating good measures by copying them, adding a poison pill paragraph and outspending reformers 10 to 1 to make certain that no real reform took place. When the voters are able to pass something they desperately want (say, a fully staffed police force - ignored since ‘97 cause it would cost the cops overtime) … when the voters pass something Downtown doesn’t like, they drag their feet, get a ruling from a conservative judge flipping the voters off, or simply ignore it. As long as the developer-driven Downtown machine can hold onto the mayor’s office, the City bureaucracy (and, the mayor) can ignore the wishes of the voters. And, as long as they control 90% of the local media, they can spin tales pretending they aren’t doing just that. Ahhh, that’s a long gravy train.

Both the short and long-term consequences of usurping the will of the electorate are disastrous. That’s because they maintain and perpetuate an application of resources and a moral and ethical status quo that … that are racist and elitist and are destroying the soul of the City.

The present San Francisco economy is built around tourists and greedy landlords and developers and spoiled mega-richsters and corporations that have no conscience. They aim to keep it that way and Newsom does their every bidding. It is an economy built on sand. Our major revenue streams are one anthrax attack away from collapse. One car bomb. One crashed airplane.

I’m not gonna get into the variety of scenarios possible for any of the above disasters to cut the City’s income in half. For who knows how long? I won’t get into who holds the mortgages but I will mention that most of the large projects were funded by money presently in public retirement trusts and promises of future taxes (that should go into our General Fund) … taxes that instead, go to a Redevelopment Agency monster whose ruling directors are all chosen by the Substitute Mayor.

What does Redevelopment use the money for? Well, traditionally, for ‘Negro Removal’, but with most of them gone, they’ve broadened their cleansing efforts to simply remove the poor in general. They do this by building housing that is out of reach for all but the top 10% or less of the citizenry (if you buy) … and reducing units (new) for those making less than 32k yearly (that’s the Mercy Housing requirement) which includes pretty much every new artist, dancer and musician in Fog City.

Hey, these clowns enunciated their philosophy through their think tank (SPUR) 40 years ago and it hasn’t changed. Chester Harmann quotes a SPUR document called ‘Prologue for Action’ in his ‘City for Sale’:

“If San Francisco decides to compete effectively with
other cities for new ‘clean’ industries and new
corporate power, its population will move closer
to standard white Anglo-Saxon Protestant
characteristics. As automatation increases,
the need of unskilled labor will decrease.
Economically and socially, the population
will tend to range from lower middle-class
through lower upper-class …
Selection of a population’s composition might
be undemocratic. Influence on it, however,
is legal and desirable for the health of the city.”

SPUR was referring to the Redevelopment Agency’s Yerba Buena project and the necessity at not just getting the poor out of the area, but making certain also, that they didn’t return when the neighborhood was rebuilt. Go check out Yerba Buena. They’ve succeeded. They have 33 cameras watching the development and their own police force who’ll toss your ass out if you don’t pass dress code. Taxes from the project don’t go to our General Fund where the Board of Supervisors would have at least a small voice in how they’re spent. Nope, they go back to Redevelopment and will for a few more decades.

Same with the new garage in Golden Gate Park. Private property for at least another 35 years. Union Square … same thing. And SPUR? 40 years after the release of their ‘Prologue for Action’, their Executive Director (Gabriel Metcalf in today’s Chron - 12/10/06) continues to look at SOMA as an area where “several hundred thousand more living units could easily be built”.

And, they move onward. With no concern for the things that make a city habitable. Let’s measure Newsom’s 1st 3 years on along those lines, seeing how often he reverses the voters, the Board and even his own departments and their heads:

1. Air (’Environmental mayor’ folds to polluters & Swells)

Gavin vetoed the ‘Healthy Saturdays’ legislation pushed by everyone in town except for a few old biddies (rich ones being what counted) for a trial ‘no cars’ in Golden Gate. The ‘Healthy Sundays’ program has been Park & Rec’s biggest success and even Newsom thought it was worth a try to keep the air clean in at least that small section of the park on Saturdays. Gavin liked it, that is, until Dede Wilsey put her size 3 high heel up his rectum.

C3 parking legislation. This one was a doozie. Designed to keep down automobile emissions in the Mid-Market business district, it set limitations on garages and curb cuts and the like. Everyone, including Newsom loved it. Dean Makris, his Planning Director loved it. The Planning Commission loved it. The Board loved it. Everyone but Walter Shorenstein loved it. Guess who won? Newsom reversed field in a scandalous ‘C3-Gate’ fiasco that included a forged letter from Makris (written by Matt Franklin - who blamed it on Marshall Foster - brightest of the administration’s whiz kids - he quit and went north shortly thereafter) … whole thing stunk and the results are that Shorenstein makes more millions and you get the fumes of a few thousand more cars to breathe when you go downtown.

2. Water (’Environmental mayor’ folds to Swells)

What’s the problem with Donald Fisher being handed control of the soccer fields in all of the City’s parks? Well, as many as he wants, anyway. And, Donald won’t be running them. He’s handed them to his kids as a kind of timeless legacy.

Problem is, he’s gonna pave over all the fields first, then lay down fake grass. What this does is to divert hundreds of acres of catch basins that have been feeding the City’s only aquifer (Lake Merced to you) … will divert the millions of gallons of water that normally filters through these fields into storm drains and on out into the Bay or ocean. And. And, with the Swells controlling scheduling (judging from what they’ve done elsewhere), kiddie leagues can be charged up to $160 an hour to use the Fisher’s private turf.

3. Power (Newsom folds to PG&E)

What happened to our 1 megawatt Tidal Power demonstration project? As I predicted, Newsom’s move into Room 200 was the end of that. PG&E’s influence is stronger than ever. They’re not only not talking favorably of Tidal Power (that would gore the entire Neocon petro industry) … they’re pushing more nuclear power plants. I know, he could put one in Hunters Point.

“He closed the Hunters Point Power plant!” Yeah, and replaced it with 3 huge turbine engines. But, at least he put the turbines in Pacific Heights, right? Well, actually not (where do you get such an idea?) … they’re in Hunters Point.

4. Public Safety (Sold out completely)

Gavin’s handlers are big on choosing appointees (top to bottom) on the basis of Political Correctness instead of ability. It looks better on his long-term resume’. Thus, you get an over-the-hill incompetent like Annemarie Conroy put in charge of OES. He says she’s ‘improved’ the place? I lobbied her for over 2 years to simply paint neighborhood fresh water cisterns (lids) so’s people could find them after ‘the big one’.

His fire chief’s main accomplishment has been to destroy the program combining fire and medical services. She refuses to live in the home the City built for its chief (told us to make it into “a bed and breakfast”). The new fire trucks are painted damned near camouflage colors (one of em’s already been in a wreck). To her credit, though, technically, she’s not qualified the job, her grandfather was one of the most powerful Democrats in the Sunset.

The cops? Don’t get us laughing. The POA runs the force and they’re all about risk-avoidance. Willie let them ground, then sell their helicopter fleet and warehouse their pagoda/cobins. There are more of them, they are better paid, equipped and educated than at anytime in SF history and crime is up and arrests are down. They refuse to staff the force up to full complement; they harass the OCC, threaten the members of the Police Commission, the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor. The force is actually more arrogant and out-of-control than they were under Willie. I didn’t think that was possible. They’re the only department operating emergency vehicles whose force is not required to subject themselves to random drug tests. They’ve continued their unabated attacks upon the press, continuing to reduce press passes (they shouldn’t issue them at all) … they even colluded with the feds to put Josh Wolf (freelance video journalist) in prison for refusing to turn over his sources.

Newsom should be defeated just for his failure in the area of Public Safety. Once again, his funding, staffing, equipment, training and benefits are at all time highs and performance is horrible. In the 3 years since he and Kamala Harris have been in office, there have been 167 murders. Thus far, Gavin’s SFPD and Kamala’s prosecutors have combined for exactly 1 conviction. While nationally, fire departments are combining with paramedic forces (those really out in front have ‘Public Safety Officers’ who are cops as well) … while the rest of the country creates multi-disciplined forces, San Francisco heads the other way.

5. Park and Recreation (”Would you like these poor kids’ lunch money?”)

Another abominable record. Newsom diverted almost 20 million dollars from the state that was ear marked for repair and upgrade of parks in poor neighborhoods … diverted it to his ‘World Class’ makeover of the Swells’ Harding Golf Course (it made money til Gavin took office, now it’s a big loser and we’re told that he just might have to privatize it). The guy spent a million bucks landscaping the friggin’ parking lot at Harding before the only PGA event to be held there. That was enough to unclog and repaint 50 toilets in the parks, but Newsom wanted the Swells’ place to look good for Tiger.

I’ve mentioned his handover of the soccer fields to the Fishers. He’s closing the Boat House, has kept the stables closed (I’ve seen the drawings and you won’t be riding there). He pushed through a 47 year lease of the most valuable piece of land in town. That’s the parcel the St. Francis Yacht Club sits on. Gavin gave them reduced rent for a half century and for a few bucks more they can discriminate and keep it all private. That’s only a piece of the Yachtsmen’s deal. The City will also remove most of the slips (parking spaces) for the small sailboats so there will be more room for larger yachts. But, it’s tough to get a really big yacht in without spending 40 or 50 million to build a new breakwater. Even though, experts have said the new breakwater will destroy the sea wall that protects Marina Green. You seeing yourself in these plans?

6. DPW (where election thugs go)

When Mohammed Nuru got busted for using his crew (over 20 ex cons) in the SLUG program to campaign for Newsom and intimidate voters, the SLUG program was eliminated. OK, good so far, right? Uh huh, but then, Newsom moves Nuru over to DPW and promotes him to Deputy Director. Not only that, he then proceeds to fire 20 perfectly good DPW workers and replace them with Nuru’s goons. So, the dismissed workers appeal to the Board of Supervisors who add enough money to add the positions back. The Mayor’s office promises to do so but pulls a double-cross. Instead, Phil Ginsberg (head of Civil Service) devises a multi-part screening process which cuts out the fired workers. Because they were whistle blowers.

DPW is huge. Second only to Health Department in budget. But, they’d much rather farm their work out to private contractors who donated to the mayor. That’s why you see the same curb cut replaced 3 times in 5 years at an intersection while the busy street in front of the cuts has pot holes that reach China. Don’t believe me? Check the intersection of McAllister and Leavenworth.

7. 49′ers (Newsom’s fault all the way)

What developer wouldn’t want to build a 40 story condo tower across the street from a brand new football stadium? What football team wouldn’t rather have a parking lot? Put simply, as with the C3 legislation and the Healthy Saturdays initiative, Newsom got pressured into giving favors to donors instead of looking out for the public interest. Gavin simply got rolled by Lennar here just as they rolled him in the the Hunters Point development where they removed half of the ‘affordable’ housing they promised out of their plans before a single shovel of dirt was turned. Oh, the Redevelopment Agency OK’d that move (the BOS having passed the reins a few weeks ago and thus legally out of the picture for the next half century or so). Then, Redevelopment voted to use future taxes to pay for the roads and sewers and water and so and so that most places make developers pay for. But, most developers don’t own a mayor.

But, Gavin tried to make it right. Now, you aren’t gonna believe this, but it’s true so listen closely. Once Gavin had given up so much to Lennar at Candlestick that the Niners gave up on him, Lennar comes to Gavin with another proposal. There’s a parcel of land at the Hunters Point site that Lennar is developing. True, this place is a nuclear waste dump. However, Lennar says they can ‘cap’ it. I guess kind of like Chernobyl. And, Lennar says that they can build their stadium over the nuclear dump and since they’ll only play there 12 times a year, the radiation accumulated shouldn’t be too bad. Don’t you love this mayor and his playmates?

8. Community Demographics (”Don’t let the door hit you in the ass.”)

SFUSD lost another thousand students this last year. That’s Newsom’s fault too. All studies agree that the high cost of housing is the number one reason that families with school age children leave San Francisco. Since Gavin has only increased the rate of gentrification, this is his fault.

9. Public Discourse (”What the voters meant to say.”)

The voters said they wanted to see Newsom do a ‘Question Time’ with the BOS in the Board Chambers once a month. How much do you figure it will cost to move the Board and all of the SFGTV staff and the mayor and his people to a different rich white neighborhood each month? That’s the mayor’s idea. Just another substitue idea from the Substitute Mayor.

Conclusions

For those who say that Newsom is unbeatable, I saw that they should study this superficial look at what’s really happened to San Francisco under Gavin’s watch. The streets are more dangerous. The air is dirtier. The 49′ers are leaving. The prime recreation facilities in town are either privatized or are in the process of being privatized. The fire department is headed backwards. The cops are out of control. The libraries are open fewer hours. The streets are full of potholes. Most of the public restrooms are locked shut or filthy. Tidal power is buried while giant new gas generators spew more pollutants into the Bay View. The mayor only listens to the rich. He’s overruled the voters or twisted the meanings of their words.

This boy can be had.

Just ask Walter Shorenstein.

We need a real mayor.

Not a Substitute.

Hi, I'm Anon, and I write paragraphs. Lots and lots of paragraphs.

H Brown is an alcoholic freeloader.
Cheers.

days before christmas, my sweetie and I noticed that there were more cops out rousting the drunken/high rabble from their hidey holes. We actually heard one say "you guys are fucking up this neighborhood" ("this neighborhood" being the TL, of course).

I found it interesting that the cops were all of a sudden taking some interest in the heretofore completely ignored drunks, high people, and lunatics roaming the streets down here.

Were they reservists? Are the TL cops actually taking an interest in helping people who need it (thus saving the rest of us from watching others smoke crack, conduct drug deals, wave their schlongs at the general public and pros giving bjs in not very well concealed areas)? I can't wait to see what happens this month.