Wednesday, February 14, 2007

CHICKEN ala NEWSOM

Our mayor decided to hold a neighborhood “townhall” on his own terms, in lieu of attending a voter-requested Question and Answer session with the Board of Supervisors, our city’s legislative body.

Some who supported the policy initiative are miffed that the mayor ignored the will of the people and they accuse him of cowardice, they call him a chicken. They say he’s afraid to defend his policies and performance in any forum that’s not under his own tight control.

To show their displeasure, a few of them attended the mayor's townhall wearing bright yellow head-to-toe chicken costumes. This was their way to emphasize the word chicken in a visually compelling way.

Conceptually it sounds ho-hum so I didn’t pay much attention. There was some TV coverage but the chickens didn’t get into frame too much.


Then one day, waiting for my call from the Nobel Committee, I clicked on a link and saw a series of stunning photos, one shown above. Click here to see the rest of the pictures. The Chronicle story is here.

The chickens were an enormous presence and I’m sure the mayor and the panelists were at least a little unnerved.

So what began as a kind of sophomoric idea made a powerful public statement that the mayor could not ignore.

It seems like the folks at SF Party Party are the poultry pushers here.

Good for them!
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