Was it just last week that San Francisco's former mayor turned newspaper columnist, Willie Brown, said our "increasingly unsafe" (for pedestrians and cyclists; drivers seem to be doing OK) streets are our own fault? It was, but now Brown is pointing his unsafe streets finger in another direction: his own employer, the San Francisco Chronicle. However, in what is sure to be a total oversight, Brown fails to acknowledge his own alleged collision with a pedestrian. Oops.

As Streetsblog reminded us, back on September 19, 1996, Karen Alexander was crossing Broadway at Kearny Street when she said that Brown's limo "literally bumped me three times...I started out walking in the crosswalk and ended up on the hood."

"The driver was looking to the left and trying to turn right on Kearny. He didn't even see me," Alexander told the Examiner. "Then I saw a window roll down and Willie Brown's face. Instead of saying 'Are you hurt?' He said 'You're not hurt, are you?'" Brown then drove off, Alexander alleged.

Brown later told KRON4 that he believed Alexander walked into his car, which seems consistent with the whole "we have only ourselves to blame" rhetoric he spouted in his column nearly 18 years later.

But never mind that whole business! This week, Brown is calling out another right turner:

I must report that driving through downtown on Friday, I saw a van blow through a red light and make a right turn from the far left lane, cutting in front of three lanes of traffic.

I didn't get the plate number, but I did catch a company name on the side of the van: San Francisco Chronicle.

It's not like this is the first issue citizens have raised regarding the Chron's delivery folks (assuming that's what the van Brown saw was up to): who can forget the paper's Repeat Delivery Pee-er of 2013?

In any case, was Brown's j'accuse merely an attempt to deflect from his own alleged crimes, or a refreshingly honest look at his employer's failings? Then again, who knows what he's thinking? This is a guy who goes bitchcakes over deviled eggs.

Previously on SFist:
Driver Kills Pedestrian On Van Ness, Attempts To Flee Scene
Video: S.F. Chronicle Delivery Woman Peeing In Elevator, Reports S.F. Examiner

[SF Examiner (Now SF Gate)]
[Streetsblog]
[Willie's World]
[BC]