Why couldn't Newsom tell CBS 5's Hank Plante, "Yeah, I took off to Hawaii. And what, hooker? Somebody hold my earrings."
Why couldn't Newsom tell CBS 5's Hank Plante, "Yeah, I took off to Hawaii. And what, hooker? Somebody hold my earrings."
We swear we not trying to pick on our fine mayor. Well, not more than usual. Anyway.
Rumors are percolating that Gavin Newsom might, as a SFist commenter Manys pointed out, pull a Sarah Palin. That is to say, he could very well resign. Or not. No one can say for sure, of course. Sure, former Director of Communications Nate Ballard once (allegedly) convinced Newsom not to quit his mayoral gig a few years back; but now that he's gone, is there anyone left to talk Gavin out of resigning? Probably not.
Finally.
Mayor Gavin Newsom was cornered by spoke to reporters yesterday outside his office. While the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam visited City Hall last night, Newsom stayed inside his office, hiding from reporters. But, being the crafty little critters that they are, local journos found him when he emerged. (Newsom did, we should point out, grant an interview with San Francisco's own Corky Sherwood, Ken Garcia, last Friday.)
Witty and wise Newsom spokesman Nathe Ballard made a choice decision today: he quit Newsom's (sinking?) ship. To the press release:
Yesterday's Board of Supervisors meeting was, by all accounts, highly entertaining. Then again, anything involving the bizarre practice of life coaching is always something to behold. You see, Gavin Newsom, while running for governor of California, hired himself a life coach or "corporate facilitator."
The Board of Supervisors will be casting votes today on whether to override Mayor Newsom's veto of Supervisor David Campos's legislation amending the City's sanctuary law. As you may recall, the legislation approved by the BOS protects illegal hooligan youth who've been arrested for allegedly committing crime in the streets, from being unduly reported to the feds by city employees prior to actual conviction.
SF Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll had this to say this morning regarding Gavin Newsom and the discreet charm of underage men.
Ever since Gavin Newsom dropped out of the California governor's race, and ran off to Hawaii without telling his staff, residents are dying to get a peek at our mayor post-wound lick.
Breaking news, folks. It looks like Newsom will return to San Francisco tonight, and be back to work come tomorrow morning. The mayor, if you recall, vanished from San Francisco and City Hall after announcing his withdrawal from the California's governor race.
Where does one go to figure out what to do with the rest of their life? If you're former gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, you go to Hawaii. CBS 5's Joe Vazquez has first word that the San Francisco Mayor "left the city Tuesday to spend the rest of the week in Hawaii following his decision to drop out of the California governor's race."
Speculation time, folks! Los Angeles politics blog Mayor Sam's Sister City reports that SF Mayor Gavin Newsom will (allegedly!) announce his withdrawl from the California gubernatorial race this afternoon. Mayor Sam says:
Our local sanctuary city drama continues as Mayor Newsom went ahead yesterday with his threat to veto legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors amending a local ordinance that governs when city employees can report young illegal immigrant hooligans to the Feds. Currently, the city's ordinance requires city employees to report illegals to the Feds upon arrest. New Supervisor David Campos, the author of the vetoed legislation and reportedly a former illegal himself, hoped to change all that by not allowing anyone to report the accused until he or she was actually convicted of a crime.
Though not a new idea, its sanity level, or lack thereof, remains the same: permanently removing vehicles and Muni lines from Market Street. This is the latest idea tinkering around inside Newsom's sleek head.
As much as we try not to do 'caption this!' posts, we couldn't resist this one.
Trailing behind Jerry Brown in both the polls and fundraising, one might assume SF Mayor Gavin Newsom would bow out at this point. Not so. Even though rumors are swirling -- swirling! -- that Gavin will either a) drop out of the gubernatorial race to focus on bettering San Francisco, or b) leave the race and instead run for Lieutenant Governor on Brown's ticket, this just isn't the case. At least, so says Team Newsom.
Well, this stinks. Former NBA player and current Mayor of Sacramento Kevin Johnson was mugged robbed over the weekend while acting like a Boy Scout in San Francisco's Union Square. NBC Bay Area reports "The former NBA player was in the City for a conference with representatives at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. He was helping an elderly man get into a cab near Union Square when someone sneaked up behind him and ripped of his garment bag that was holding a suit, shoes and some toiletries, his blog notes."
Speaking of republicans, here's Mayor Gavin Newom posing with Bush disaster #1 and some golfers at yesterday's Presidents Cup. Some sort of golf humor is going on here, but... it's completely lost on those of us who don't relish the joy that is golf.
Taking a cue from American Idol, team Newsom is having a contest where you, the voter, get to decide which logo will represent Gavin Newsom's crapshoot for Governor of California.
We brought this up in yesterday's Day Around the Bay, but this newfangled holiday sounds so special, it deserves its very own post. What are we talking about? Newsom's lovely hair. Going back to the days when SF Weekly used to pull public stunts, the folks at China Basin devised the first ever "Comb Your Hair Like Gavin Newsom Day," happening this Friday.
This begs for some sort of poll. Here you go:
The sweet scriubes over at Streetsblog posted a might fine article on how San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, allegedly, "has been quietly pressuring MTA Chief Nat Ford to delay or prevent proposals to extend parking meter hours on weeknights and Sundays, despite a looming mid-year MTA budget deficit and studies that show it's good policy."
This morning, a fresh new ordinance went into effect: cigarette addicts now must pay 20 cents extra per pack "in order cover the costs of cleaning up discarded cigarette butts throughout the city." The very first tax of its kind in the U.S., KTVU says, "The fee will be collected from retailers and will go specifically to city departments that conduct street cleanup of cigarette butts."
Setting himself up for countless "hot air" punchlines, Gavin Newsom "is calling for windmills throughout the city," reports KCBS. An estimated 29 of them might pop up in SF sometime in the very near future. Or not. (Although he'd like to "streamline the permit process" to get them up ASAP.) Anyway, Newsom goes on to said that the wind turbines cold be put on historical landmarks. he also emotes, "wind is a rural or suburban phenomenon and not necessarily an urban phenomenon ... We believe wind needs to be part of the urban mix of renewables. Our goal is to have 50 megawatts of renewable energy being generated within the city and county of San Francisco over the next few decades."
SFist has, for the most part, spared you any vile "baby bump" talk during Jennifer Siebel-Newsom's pregnancy. But now that SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and Jen Jen are first-time parents -- Jennifer had a c-section a little after 12:30 p.m. today -- everyone online is abuzz -- yes, abuzz -- about it.
OK. Here we go. Jennifer Siebel Newsom is in labor. Gavin Newsom, via Twitter, says:
It's an interesting question, one raised this week by SF Weekly's Ashley Harrell. See, way back in 2005, Newsom talked to the San Francisco Chronicle about his Arnold Drummond-like foster brother, whom he called Suliman Ashby. He brought him up as an explanation as to why he's comfortable sipping malt liquor and just chilling 'til the next episode on the streets of Bayview. "He was like a brother," Newsom told the Chron. "I spent a lot of time with him in Marin City, just hanging out with the guys, screwing around. I'm convinced this is why I'm so comfortable in Bayview."
But what does Mayor Gavin Newsom and/or the Mayor’s Office of Communications have to say about Sunday's impending BART strike, you ask? Good question. Here's the answer. Ahem:
Ahem. @GavinNewsom: "Just signed SF's [$6.6 Billion] budget. Worked w/ colleagues to increase funding for univ health care program, protect jobs for teachers, police + fire." The budget also "prevented the closure" of Newsom's non-environmental pet project, the Community Hall of Justice Center, or whatever that Night Court-like Tenderloin thing is called. Read more about today's budget signing here.
Ahem: @GavinNewsom "Just announced plan to build UN environmental center in SF to promote sustainable and clean technologies." Meanwhile, San Francisco is still poor.