Ed Lee is in the red. The Chronicle reports that numbers previously omitted from a recent Chamber of Commerce poll conducted by David Binder Research are fairly damning for the mayor's camp.
Why were the figures previously left out, other than the fact that they apparently weren't good? As the Chamber of Commerce's Jim Lazarus told the Chronicle, his organization just releases those numbers “we think (are) most relevant and important to the public.” In keeping with that attitude, we aren't provided an exact figure on the Mayor's disapproval, but we do learn that something north of 50 percent said they disapproved of Lee.
That might not be a huge surprise — this is the same phone-conducted poll of 500 San Francisco voters that showed 51 percent opposed to the direction in which they saw their city headed.
Those who did approve of the mayor numbered fewer than ever before, somewhere in the low 40 percent range. Meanwhile, a single digit percentage of respondents meet Lee's moves with "strong approval," and voters were split 45 percent to 45 percent over whether the mayor was likeable, a drop from twice that likeability percentage held in 2014.
Concerned citizens like those polled, citing homelessness followed by affordability as major issues facing the city, appear to hold the Mayor accountable for San Francisco's woes. On top of that, consider that Lee can't appear to give a speech without being confronted by police violence protestors — his January inauguration included.
Nonetheless, just as homelessness and affordability are no newfound crises, the numbers of those criticizing Lee are in keeping with trends. A survey released in December by a different group, Oakland's EMC Research, showed Lee's disapproval rating outweighed his approval rating. That was a first then, with the 49 percent who disapproved of the mayor nearly representing a majority.
Anyway, maybe it's time for Lee to take another business trip — Rio sounded divine.
