Third Fake Question Time
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.