Ed Lee was sworn in as San Francisco's first Chinese-American mayor on Tuesday. In a speech after the ceremony, Lee promised to be a mayor "for everyone."
What's in store for San Francisco? Who knows. Probably much of the same save for the handful of people whose lives and careers revolve around City Hall caterwauling. The SF Bay Guardian's Bruce Brugman digs his claws into Lee with The Agenda for Mayor Lee. The alt-weekly founder claims that the new mayor's "path to Room 200 was badly marred by some ugly backroom dealing involving Willie Brown, the most corrupt mayor in modern San Francisco history." Yikes. Anyway, in much detail, Brugman asks Lee to bring in more progressive voices and to eschew Newsom's "Republican politics."
Bay Citizen looks back at Lee's upbringing, saying: "The child of an immigrant family in Seattle, Lee lost his father at the age of 12 and has deep sympathy for the struggles of newly arrived immigrants, according to reports in the local Chinese press. Lee successfully fought for city contracts for minority businesses when he served as executive director of the Human Rights Commission in San Francisco."
However, they go on to point out that, well, he won't be able to do much within a small timeframe. "Chinese news editors say that given the short term he would serve — lasting only until an election is held in November — it is unlikely that Lee would enact major changes."
The most exciting thing about Lee's anointment, at least to us, is the larger public presence of Rose Pak, the powerbroker who helped land Lee the prized gig. Unlike every other City Hall fanboy and fangirl, we don't know who she is, exactly, but she looks adorable. She could also have us killed with one phone call, presumably. Which is awesome. We look forward learning more about Pak in 2011.
And finally, the most jarring aspect about Lee is his lack of a proper Facebook page. That's just mystifying.