Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi's come out swinging at the lackadaisical response from Mayor Gavin Newsom on the state of Golden Gate Park, after public outcry that the city was more concerned about two dogs getting bitten by a coyote than it's been about the public safety and cleanliness issues created by homeless encampments and rampant IV drug use. (While Golden Gate Park isn't in any particular district is is District 1 (see comment), Ross's District 5 borders the park's southeastern half.)

Mirkarimi says that Newsom's office has consistently ignored his and his constituents' requests to devote more resources to cleaning up the park, despite Newsom's promises back in September, after a trip to New York, that he'd make Golden Gate Park look more like Central Park (which really is lovely).

Mayor Newsom simply closed the door on his Lincoln Town Car when reporters asked him questions about it. His staffs says they've been trying to clean up the park, but ran out of money and the weather was bad. Also, the dog ate their homework. The new city budget has more money for park patrols, though, and Newsom's staff promise it'll be better soon. We'll see.

Speaking of Newsom promises, in the same Chron, Newsom's people also promised more cops downtown after all the shootings near Powell Street the other day. We'll see if that happens too. (Hey, we should really start a promises watch here on SFist! Any local political promises you've been waiting to see follow-through on?)

Picture of Gavin Newsom meeting a homeless man in Golden Gate Park in 2006, from the Examiner.