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The tie was red, the gel was flaky, and Fake Question Time was ON!
Big thanks to Luke Thomas for letting us use his photos! Check out even more amazing photos, and Fog City Journal's take on Fake Question Time.
Gavin Newsom was all raspy voice and bulletproof hair last night for the third Fake Question Time at Cesar Chavez Elementary in the Mission. Despite somebody's command to "Go back to Nob Hill!" Gavin asserted "I'm not going away." He's used that phrase a couple times now. Is that your campaign slogan, homie? We hope not, because you're not exactly the underdog. It's almost April and you still don't have an opponent.
Gavin spent twenty minutes outlining the Health Access Plan, which promises to cover the majority of the 82,000 San Franciscans living without healthcare. This universal health care plan will cost $200 million a year, and begins on July 1st. Gavin and Public Health Director Mitch Katz discussed the lawsuit filed by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which received hisses and boos. By the end of the night, Gavin read through/pretended to answer about 60 questions from the audience.
Most of the dialogue during the meeting happened between and Katz and Gavin. Like the second meeting in the Bayview, Gavin read questions off the cards, and also took Q&A's from the audience. Our favorite talk-show moment occured after Gavin asked the uninsured members of the audience to raise their hands. He asked one young woman how she lives without healthcare and she replied, "I just try not to get sick."
More of our Fake Question Time re-cap, after the jump!
Image replaced to avoid hotlinking. Photo of Tina Turner's cat courtesy of the Institute for Private Dancing Studies.
Wait, the chicken doesn't have health care? Get on that, Big G!
Members of PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Employment Rights) yelled at Gavin about Day Laborers. Audience members held up signs about the deportation raids, and others demanded affordable housing. Several called his town hall meeting "a town hall lecture." Ouch. The mayor tried to keep his cool, and urged everyone to stay on the topic of health care. However, the protestors' pleas for a real dialogue, and frustration over unanswered questions, began to take its toll on everyone.
The outbursts compelled somebody with a whistle to subject the entire crowd to a shrill cacophony that only resulted in more shouts to "Stop blowing that goddamn whistle!" Whoa. The people behind us in the standing-room area broke into chants throughout the meeting, which made us feel kind of awkward standing there with our notepad and BlackBerry, not chanting. Gavin simply stopped and said "Whenever you're ready" when the heckling got out of control. We kept expecting him to call "Recess" at any minute.
The town hall lecture got so heated, Gavin had to take off his jacket, prompting the girls next to us to go, "Ooh. Take it off!" and us to reply, "Meh." Then they asked the question we'd been asking ourselves all night: "Where's Jennifer Siebel?" Which prompted us to think, "Oh, well, at least we have Pat Murphy's brown newsboy cap and bow tie to stare at instead." (Lookin' fierce, Pat!)
Our favorite Fake Question Time moment? When we heard Gavin say, "Here are some hella bad questions." Say what? Is Gavin trying to keep it gangsta, and failing? Oh, wait, he said "Helapad"? Nevermind. As with most lectures, Fake Question Time left us tired, confused, and possibly less informed than we were before we got there.
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I noticed that he has all these department heads there that just stand around.I wonder how much it costs the city?I guess they had animal control officers there to rein in the chicken if they crossed the road.
How does this guy plan to rise to higher office if he can't properly field Q&A on a local level? I've seen small town mayors on local access cable stations answer directly on more issues than this guy. Is he planning on having somebody defend him in the press and online and point fingers when he dosen't want to anwswer the tough questions...oh..wait
How does this guy plan to rise to higher office, he wont he is unelectable for a higher office, Gavin carries to much baggage and he is no longer the Dems bright eyed boy.
The city brass are all salaried and don't bill overtime. That said, I'd prefer they spend their evenings with their families, relaxing to get ready for the next day's work or, if they felt compelled to serve the City, working on something more productive and germane to their job description than posing as members of an ensemble cast in a Gavin Newsom 2007 infomercial.
Newsom disrespected our community by coming into it on his own terms, talking about what he wanted to talk about and doing that how he wanted to do it.
His claim to have answered 60 questions is likewise ludicrous. He reiterated, verbatim, the online FAQ for the SFHAP:
sfhp.org
What is SF HAP?
Who will be eligible for SF HAP?
What is the employer minimum spending requirement?
What is the SF HAP Advisory Committee?
Is the employer spending requirement based on total employees, or only those working in SF?
How was SF HAP developed?
How many people will SF HAP serve?
How do uninsured residents get services now?
What types of healthcare will employers be required to spend money on?
What services will be provided?
How will SF HAP be funded?
What kinds of employees are covered by the employer spending requirement?
How much will SF HAP cost?
How will small businesses afford the spending requirement?
What agency will administer SF HAP?
When will SF HAP start?
Which providers will serve SF HAP?
How can I get more information about SF HAP?
For the answer to that last one, try a fake question time near you.
I wonder why Marc Salomon did not show up to the meeting in the bayview in his chicken suit?
Why didn't the progressive chicken cross the road?
I was going to go, but then I remembered 24 was on and when I weighed the relative entertainment value off watching a huge staff put on another one of these boring "say a lot do nothing" shows vs. say, "24", I decided I'd rather watch the fake leaders do something than the not fake leader do nothing....
Besides, Beth Spotswood will write a funny review, and save me the trouble!
Note to Gavin:
Keep doing your community circus shows instead of complying with the will of the voters and attending sessions with the legislative body of our city's government. You look ridiculous. At least if you did it at the board of supervisors you may bring some dignity to the event. What was your excuse for not attending question time? oh that's right you did not want to engage in a political side show. Great Gavin now your the ring leader of a traveling circus. Good Job Mr. Mayor.
NEWSOM COMING BACK FOR ANOTHER PLUCKING ???
TONIGHT. TUESDAY March 27th.
Unless he chickens out after last night's barnyard brawl, our pretty puppet Pinnochio is returning to The Mission tonight for another in his lecture series of stump speeches at taxpayer's expense. This one is scheduled for:-
7.00PM at BRAVA THEATRE.
Mission and Bryant
I won't elaborate on the farcical nature of these staged events, but again, as most of us who have submitted questions know, he didn't come close to responding to any that deviated from his program. The only difference for me this time was that I walked up and handed my question to him directly. I leave it to you to decide, but I thought it was relevant to Health Care.
"If, as you claim, you are focused on 'greening' this city, and truly care about the health care needs of it's residents, what action do you plan to take to stop Lennar from continuing to poison the residents of the Bayview. If you can't even keep the toilets in Portsmouth Square Park clean, as you lamented the other day, how exactly do you propose to clean up the radioactive wastes at Hunters Point Shipyard ?"
Seemed important and relevant to me, wonder why it didn't to him !!!
Also noticed that his hired goons are getting a little frisky. I won't overdramatise by calling it an 'assault', but I was the recipient of some unwelcome frottage from the little black dude when he tried to bodycheck me out of a camera shot.
Tonight could be another lively "conversation" or "discussion" or "dialog" or whatever it is or isn't.
Nice to see The Chickens back in action.
Y'all stop on by tonight ya hear. If only to tell KenDoll to go suck an egg.
Keep on pecking and let the feathers fly.
Patrick Monk.RN. Noe Valley.
"Why didn't the progressive chicken cross the road?"
Because I respect the right of a community which has been screwed over by local government, Bayview and Hunter's Point to speak for itself.
The Question should be, "Why did the Mayor not cross City Hall to engage in an unscripted policy discussion with the Board of Supervisors as is the will of the voters?"
I wish someone would ask JellyHead why the City budget went up a BILLION DOLLARS since he took office. Monkey RN is kinda spooky. Maybe he can find out why the Health Dept. with its BILLION 5 budget has NEVER BEEN AUDITED?
my favorite part was when gavin kept mispronouning methadone as "methadawn"- even after dr. katz corrected him.
Does everyone here think that Mayors in other large cities like ours are holding town hall meetings where there is an open forum of Q & A with the public? Is Bloomberg over in the Bronx tonight addressing their concerns?
I personally find it amazing that he wants to even put up with these temper tantrums at all. I find it interesting that anyone attending last night's "circus show" thought they would accomplish or learn anything at all by acting like a complete baby, and creating more chaos at what is intended to be an informative event.
I don't find it annoying that he chooses a topic to hone in on each time, rather than answering a hodge podge of topics from an angry mob. On the contrary, I find it productive. This way those of us who are attending to actually learn more about a policy or program can leave with some semblance of an idea about it. What a waste of time it would be for everyone if it were even more chaotic than it already has become.
Upon further thought, the question should be:
Why didnt the white middle class poseur step foot in a black neighborhood?
I suppose black people are able to speak for themselves, but not latinos and Chinese?
Where would San Francisco be without the saving graces of Marc's liberal white guilt?
Hey, I've lived in the Mission for 18 years.
I've biked up to middel point road before.
The last thing folks from BV/HP need is middle class white people speaking for them.
On Monday evening, our community was not very well organized, but we came out and represented that we don't want a mayor who governs by hair gel and press release to waltz into our neighborhood, a hood where he does not deliver services because we don't support him, and tell us what he's going to talk about and how he's going to talk about it.
He just as well might have come in, pointed us to the website and said RTFF. Read The Fucking FAQ.
I hear what you're saying, Marc. I am always a huge proponent of speaking out for what one believes in. My thought is that there is a time and a place for everything, and we all know by now how these Town Hall meetings are run. I'd venture to guess the Mission has been lacking government attention for much longer than our Mayor's tenure here, which is absolutely a huge problem not to be ignored.
Rallying together and coming to government in a more organized, effective manor is generally going to yield faster results. Sometimes people get so passionate about what they are fighting for, they lose sight of the fact that those they are opposing are even less likely to be responsive to angry, aggressive tactics.
Regarding the FAQ's for RTFF, even if he only answered questions from the audience that matched up with these questions on the website, my argument is that the average citizen even here in our politically active San Francisco may not be aware of this. Delivering this information in person gets the word out to those who aren't in the know, or who don't fully understand how it works (and pointing to the website may work for you and I, and all of us here commenting, but not for everyone).
Let's remember that Newsom did not do "town hall meetings," (a digression on how insulting Newsom's infomercials marketed as town halls are to the cradle of American participatory democracy in New England) until 1) the voters passed question time and 2) it was time for reelection.
It would have been cheaper to simply direct mail FAQs for SFHA to the neighborhood than to waste everyone's time with an infomercial if the intent was to inform folks of SFHA.
But that was not the intent, SFHA was Ammiano's baby, Newsom only signed onto it when it became clear that Ammiano had 8 votes to override any veto. Newsom did nothing until his gonads were already in the vise and Tom began to turn the crank.
I do not believe that Newsom asked or answered any questions that were not on the FAQ, as the event was scripted and the FAQ was the script.
I am well aware that SFHA is Ammiano's baby, and he was given full credit for this on Monday evening, as you heard.
I would just like to see what it would be like if he conducted these meetings the way you would like for him to. I predict it would be an incomprehensible mess, and nothing would be accomplished at all.
Kelly - What would be accomplished is that Mayor Newsom would directly interact with real people and their very real concerns. How that could be viewed as "unproductive" in the context of something billed as a Town Hall is completely and utterly beyond me.
"I'm not going away."
We know: you're coming on everybody.
It's laughable that you think, based on the behavior exhibited on Monday night, that this would be a productive meeting where everyone acts like adults and efficiently interacted with him.
If that were possible, I say bring on the open discussion. What evidence is there that this would occur? What's the point of an open dialogue if it is not dialogue, but an angry group shouting out objections?
How can he have answered 60+ questions? The pace of the meeting wasn't nearly fast enough that he was getting a new question every 2 minutes. Are they counting repeats of the same "questions" or what?
Joe, I asked around about the lack of chickens at the 2nd "meeting" and from what I gather, BVHP community activists wanted a more consistently serious presence for that day, and preferred no chickens. And the chicken-folk graciously complied.
The chickens were a great idea, it Gives notice to the Mayor that we aren't thrilled by these well scripted infomercial FQT townhall meetings about stuff that is reported in the local rags as well as on-line news media outlets that gets press releases.The people of San Francisco deserve more out of it's Mayor.These meetings are not a real replacement for Q&A whether it be before the people of this city or the BOS.I can't see why the Mayor thinks that Q&A before the BOS would be a circus when he hasn't even appeared before the BOS for even one.Then if it became a circus then he could say"see".But is he so chicken that he would be asked question that he might not to be able to answer because he doesn't have any idea on how to run this city?