UN-NEWSOM: HOPE AND DESPAIR

DESPAIR

This blog was shocked when Tony Hall removed his name from the ballot in the upcoming San Francisco mayoral election.

Historically, former Supervisor Hall was snookered by Mayor Gavin Newsom to give up his elected job for an appointed one, from which Hall was almost immediately fired.

This allowed the mayor to appoint sadsack amateur golfer Sean Elsbernd to fill Hall’s empty seat, and to run for the seat as an incumbent.

Tony has plenty of personal motivation to run against Newsom.

Hall said he had to drop out because Newsom’s crew threatened Tony’s potential moneybags donors with City Hall reprisals.

This explains why Hall can’t mount the kind of campaign that costs money.

But there was no need for Hall to spend money. Hall had a firm hold the secondary position. All he had to do was hang around and wait for an airliner to drop a hunk of frozen shit on the frontrunner.

So why did Hall ask to have his name removed from the ballot?

It must be one of the “B’s.” Bribery, blackmail, or buttheadedness.

There are some ethics charges pending against Tony Hall, with a hint of potentially more to come. Could that have scared him off the ballot? Will Newsom’s cronies now go easy on Hall?

No doubt Newsom’s investors have looked at the shit-from-the-sky scenario and have decided that chaos is preferable to a Tony Hall mayoralty. So they got his ass off the ballot.

I’ve been seeing a Hoogasian flowers commercial on cable TV recently urging listeners to patronize a San Francisco family business employing San Franciscans blah blah blah.

Of the challengers remaining on the ballot, Harold Hoogasian probably has the highest name recognition, but of the same quality as Harold Stassen, also a Republican.

It’s like, Harold Hoogasian? –he’s the guy that always runs for office and will never be elected to anything.

On his webpage Hoogasian promises to enforce ALL laws. Does he mean indiscriminately? It looks like Harold should probably stay in the flower business.

The rest of the candidates have close to zero name recognition.

So, there is no new un-Newsom. It’s Newsom or chaos.

Problem is, this is supposed to be a democracy.

Dictatorships and other totalitarian regimes are noted for sham elections, in which there is only one candidate for the top office. The explanation offered is that the dictator is doing such a good job that there’s no reason to consider someone else—there simply are no other candidates.

Such, apparently, is San Francisco.

Newsom will be re-elected, assuming Zeus doesn’t crap on him.

This is terrible! This is no fun!

[End despair.]


HOPE

sfwillie's blog implores Cindy Sheehan to come to San Francisco and become a write-in candidate for mayor.

Not that she would be elected, but

-It would be good practice for her run against Nancy Pelosi.

-It would give non-Newsom supporters a meaningful voting opportunity.

-It would focus national attention on the disconnect between Pelosi’s positions and those of her constituents.

-A high vote for Cindy Sheehan might nudge Pelosi a little toward the left.

-Even Gavin supporters might be tempted to vote for Sheehan, figuring Gavin has it wrapped up.

-It would be a lot more fun than not.

Fifty thousand people gathered recently in Golden Gate Park for the fortieth anniversary of the Summer of Love.

Please come to San Francisco, Cindy Sheehan. Put some flowers in your hair. We’re ready for some more good lovin’.

[End hope not.]

----- o -----

AMERICAN STANDARD

Just as the name Ford is associated with automobiles, Carnegie with steel, and Rockefeller with oil, so, at least in the state of Idaho, the surname Craig will forever be associated with furtive mensroom sex.

Senator Larry Craig in recent public appearances has shown himself to be a moron—it’s ill advised to ever say “I’m not gay,” but it’s utterly moronic to say, “I never have been gay.”

Not that we expect much from Idaho. Heck, even the great state of California has sent the likes of Murphy, Hayakawa, and Feinstein to the Senate.



But you’d think that somewhere, even in a state famous for potatoes, a criminal defendant could find a decent lawyer.

This fool Larry Craig actually pleaded guilty!

He couldn’t have been sane!

There are a host of reasons why Larry Craig could be completely innocent.

But when Craig foolishly gave a recorded statement to the Minneapolis policeman who caught him, his options were narrowed.

If Craig had said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” all defenses would have remained on the table, but Craig went with the “wide stance” explanation.

Craig claims he wasn’t signaling for sex when his foot went under the partition into the adjoining stall, he was just wide-stancing.

This is basically an Americans with Disabilities Act defense: the design of the toilet stalls in that airport mensroom discriminates against men who have wide stances.

We’ve seen the pictures of the toilet stall in question. It’s so narrow that any man with a wide stance could get busted for gay sex.

The only question would be one of fact: does Larry Craig really have a wide stance? The guys pictured here definitely have wide stances.


I’d advise all of them to be careful changing planes in Minneapolis.

Eventually the ADA will someday be amended to protect men with wide stances.

Senator Larry (wipe that stuff off your lips) Craig his determined to hang around, drawing a Senate salary for another month. Since his party has stripped him of his committee assignments, maybe he could occupy his time advocating for a wide stance amendment to the ADA.

Discredited now, yes even humiliated, the butt (he’s definitely not into that) of everyone’s jokes, Larry Craig would be revered by future generations of wide-stanced men.

Nixon’s secretary (pictured below), Rosemary Woods, wrenched her back while erasing the worst eighteen minutes of her boss' recorded conspirings. This focused national attention on office ergonomics.

So, too, Larry Craig’s ordeal could spotlight the need for forensically neutral mensroom architecture.

Be a hero, Larry.

----- o -----

LENNAR: BOMBS AWAY!

Some Bay View Hunters Point residents are concerned that Lennar’s redevelopment project will produce more rather than less toxicity in their neighborhoods.

In most cases, victims of environmental pollution experience some sort of “slow death.” BVHP residents are told that their asthma couldn’t be caused by asbestos dust—asbestos takes twenty or thirty years to kill you.

Residents of two Orlando, Florida, Lennar development have more immediate health concerns—sudden death.

According to this Orlando Sentinel story:

The two neighborhoods -- about 450 homes in all -- are part of the 950-acre Vista Lakes community built atop the western fringe of a forgotten Army bombing range.

The Army Corps of Engineers said in July that at least two live, unexploded bombs dropped there in the 1940s were found on some cattle land about 1,500 feet behind nearby Odyssey Middle School. No one was injured by the recent find, but in the late 1940s, three boys playing with what they thought was metal junk were maimed in an explosion.

Lennar has promised a thorough search of the area for unexploded ordnance.

A private company specializing in such things will be performing the search. It’s unclear if this effort will allow Lennar to advertise the homes as “certified bomb-free.”

----- o -----

BENEFIT RE-DO, FLOOD BLDG SPRUCE-UP

It looks like Tim Gaskin’s gone. Looks like Ruby, too, is now part of the bad old days at Benefit Magazine.

According to the mag’s Executive Director, Paul Corso:

"Benefit Magazine is on the verge of releasing a vastly improved editorial product in terms of depth and quality of coverage and of aesthetic design. We have come a long way in the past year. We are now responding to the stream of constructive feedback we have received from our board of advisors and our audience."

A “stream of constructive feedback”?

“Vastly improved…aesthetic design”?

If that ain’t disrespect, what is? Tim and Ruby poured their life’s passion into Benefit Magazine. Mayor Gavin Newsom himself graced the first cover.

How could anyone "vastly improve" this "aesthetic design"?

To celebrate the re-launch, Benefit Magazine has found some support from a San Francisco leading Interior Design firm, SophiSticate Interiors, which has underwritten the cost of a complete remodel at the Benefit Magazine headquarters in the historical James Flood Building in downtown San Francisco.

This, from a press release issued by SophiSticate, posted on Extra Realty blog.

Poor Ruby! Out in the cold. Maybe she really should write that book.

No word yet on the re-launch date.

----- o -----

DEDE AND THE LESSONS OF VIETNAM

I used to think that the ugly tower of the new de Young Museum represented the arthritic middle finger of San Francisco’s dowager class.

It’s an extravagantly ugly gesture, one only the rich can afford.

I was wrong again. The de Young’s design is functional and purposeful. It reflects the one clear lesson learned in Vietnam—the need for adequate helipads.

The U.S. embassy in Saigon apparently had only one place for a helicopter to land and pick up ugly Americans and their Vietnamese collaborators. Forget the hundreds of thousands of deaths—people die in wars —but this scene was plain undignified.

Never again.

The de Young is designed like a goddamn helicopter carrier.

The tower is the superstructure, the roof is an enormous flight deck.

So, when the homeless rabble of Golden Gate Park, demanding canapés and good champagne, surround the de Young during an after-hours charity party for the rich (it’s a party venue, not an art museum), the socialites can call in multiple helicopters, all at once, to swiftly rescue them.

Despair, park rabble, you have been out-thunk.

----- o -----

THE UN-NEWSOM

Through my work I became aware of a funky marketing strategy called “Secondary Positioning.”

A familiar example of secondary positioning is the Avis rent-a-car campaign, “We’re number 2, we try harder.”

Hertz' primary position in its market was unassailable. While all car rental companies might wish to be number 1, Avis saw the value of seizing the second position.

It’s like a word-association game.

Q. Name a rental car company.
A. Hertz.

Q. Name another rental car company.
A. Avis.

Here’s a website celebrating the 40th anniversary of the We Try Harder slogan, which is still in use today.

The idea is that if for some reason Hertz is not available, or if someone is looking for a change, or if someone has a bad Hertz experience, Avis is there for you, and they WILL try harder.

Another easy example was the 7-Up “Un-cola” campaign. The position 7-Up was seeking was THE Un-Cola. When you get tired of cola beverages...

In San Francisco’s current mayor’s race, Tony Hall has undisputed (by this blog) possession of the secondary position.

Q. Name the next mayor of San Francisco.
A. Gavin Newsom.

Q. Name another candidate.
A. Tony Hall.

If this were a horse race there would be only three entrants to bet on: Newsom, Hall, and the field.

Newsom has a commanding lead over Hall. More importantly for this analysis, Hall has a commanding lead over the field.

This is relevant only because it’s impossible to predict the future.

Short of some major unforeseen event, Newsom will be re-elected. But what happens in the event of an unforeseen event?

What if Newsom gets struck by lightening and dies two weeks before the election? I’d say, “Mayor Tony Hall.”

Or gets hit by a bus.

----- o -----

RACE AND ART

The map below shows the major museums of San Francisco. Boxes 1 through 5 designate existing museums. Box 6 designates the approximate location of the proposed new Fisher museum of modern art.

1. DeYoung Museum
2. Academy of Science (natural history museum)
3. Legion of Honor
4. Exploratorium
5. Museum of Modern Art
6. (Proposed) Fisher Museum

Note that the proposed site of the Fisher Museum (#6) is just south of the Golden Gate Bridge, which makes it closer to Marin County than to the southeast corner of San Francisco. The neighborhoods that surround the proposed site are, like Marin County, almost all white and affluent.

The proposed site is as far away from the poor, mostly non-white, high crime neighborhood called Bay View Hunters Point (BVHP), near the arrow-tip.

Recently there has been much discussion of “environmental racism” in BVHP, both past and present. Currently Lennar Corporation is the general contractor of a massive redevelopment effort in the BVHP.

Some BVHP residents have complained about health problems caused by unmitigated dust from the construction. There is also generalized distrust of the Lennar effort, since to many in San Francisco “redevelopment” has meant “negro removal.”

It would go some way toward demonstrating good will if City Powers could locate the new museum, with its jobs and educational opportunities, in the BVHP redevelopment area.

To place yet another museum in the white, affluent part of San Francisco, insinuates that black, poor people don’t or can’t appreciate art or other museum fare. Why can't there be even one museum in the southern half of the city?

----- o -----

SOME GAY HISTORY

David Patrick McIntosh, my boyfriend at the time (1970-72), founded the first Gay group in Nebraska, actually two groups:

Lincoln Gay Action Group (LinGAG)

University of Nebraska Gay Action Group (UNGAG).

I’m proud of the important role I played but the driving force was David. He was my first love. We were both Jesuit-trained poets, as evidenced by the catchy acronyms for the two groups.

I’m reminiscing because of the Democratic presidential candidates forum last night that was sponsored by a gay group and addressed gay issues (according to reports, I didn’t watch it.)

I’m having a how-far-we’ve-come experience.

It had to be the summer of 1972, pre-convention, George McGovern was gaining inevitability as the demcand, and he was swinging through Nebraska and there was a townhall thingie in Lincoln that David attended.

David came home that night excited. During the Q&A he was able to get to the microphone and he asked George McGovern this elegant question:

“What is your position on Gay Rights?”

David said that McGovern sputtered, and sputtered some more, and embarrassingly sputtered some more before coming up with some sort of general platitude.

According to David it was abundantly clear that McGovern didn’t have a position on Gay Rights—never thought about it.

So, I would surmise that my boyfriend, David Patrick McIntosh, was the first person ever to ask this question of a presidential candidate. In those days what David did took guts.

The Jesuits should be proud.

----- o -----

BVHP GETS NEW LENNAR LIAISON

Lennar Urban announced this afternoon the appointment of a new Director of Community Relations for the Bay Area. Lennar press release here.

Cheryl M. Smith, a BVHP native, will be tasked with taming vocal community residents who can’t believe that Lennar and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency have their best interests at heart.

Last week’s tumultuous Supervisors meeting, in which the Lennar redevelopment project came within one vote of a shut-down recommendation, could be just a skirmish in a battle that amounts to the San Francisco African-American community’s “Last Stand.”

At the very least the close vote showed Lennar that they needed to improve their community relations.

----- o -----

MAXWELL: YOU WANT DUST. . . ?

In last week’s emotional, sometimes clamorous Bd of Supes meeting on stopping (temporarily) the Lennar redevelopment project, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell in whose district the project is taking place got beaten up pretty good by many of the public commenters.

The measure, sponsored by resurgent supervisor Chris Daly, was defeated 6-5 after a marathon hearing.

Now Daly continues to embrace the issue of environmental racism regarding the Lennar development, even visiting her district to personally inspect the site. To supervisor Maxwell this must feel like poaching.

Now it looks like Daly could run for Mayor after all.

In today’s meeting of the Board, Supervisor Maxwell proposes an ordinance to punish the meddlers by imposing dust standards (and additional red tape) on all construction projects in the city. To me it seems like a touché thingie.

Her final comment—is that what they used to call “snarky”?

It’s four minutes long but there’s hardly a dull moment.

Protecting poor, disadvantaged neighborhoods from being redeveloped out of existence is a classic leftist organizing cause. I guess it’s kind of old fashioned.

----- o -----

SF BAY AREA

The comedy called Newsom-Tourk-Tourk (as Robert Solis terms it) included some shtick involving an entity called “Benefit Magazine.”

Benefit Magazine first appeared as an out-placement program for Mayor Newsom’s office/bedroom staff. It was definitely some sort of nexus, even a nest of nexes.

So when the Ruby-shopping-a-book rumor came around last week I again checked the Magazine’s website to see if the May-June issue had finally appeared. (The site was down, under construction.)

Further googling got me to a nice post called power begets power powerlessness beget… zilch nada nothing oblivion.

This was on a blog called SF Bay Area, authored apparently by Robert Solis. I looked at a bunch of his posts and he has a POV I find simpatico. He is hot on the Tourk trail.

I’m putting a link to his blog, SF Bay Area, in the right column.

It looks like Benefit Magazine has changed hands. That hotshot Gaskin appears to have departee’d. I’ll be looking to SF Bay Area for insight on this.

I’m hoping Mr Solis will also explore Aware Magazine (publisher Christopher Caen) for us.

Oh the humanity! Oh the clay paper!

----- o -----

WiFi: NON-BINDING

Armed with information from public citizen Kimo Crossman along with the ACLU and the folks at SNAFU, the Board of Supervisors resisted Mayor Newsom’s pressure to quickly approve a citywide WiFi franchise agreement with Earthlink.

Instead, the Board, led by president Aaron Peskin, started to negotiate for more favorable terms. Apparently Newsom had accepted Earthlink's first offer.

Anyway, during the delay Earthlink announced they are reexamining their approach to such deals in general. The original agreement as “negotiated” by Newsom appeared dead.

Someone came up with a face saving ploy. Instead of announcing that the deal was lousy from the start, and that the whole thing was a waste of time, and that we need to go back to the drawing board, Peskin and Newsom put a non-binding policy resolution on the November ballot urging city officials to provide free WiFi to SF’s populace.

As Glenn Fleishman at wifinetnews suggests, we might as well add free ice cream and free ponies to the wishlist.

So, good for Kimo and his allies.

Here’s a previously posted clip of Kimo testifying before the supes.

Remarkable about this story is that citizen participation was essential to stopping the crappy contract, and, that the citizen participation was non-political.

The opposition to the Earthlink deal was technical—we’re not getting enough bang for our bucks—as opposed to being pro-Newsom or anti-Newsom. I think even self-identified progressives split on this issue.

Kids whose families don’t have phone service will still need to access the internet at school or at their public library branches. The Earthlink deal was touted as a way for kids in violent neighborhoods to access the internet without having to walk to their local libraries.

If the kids in BVHP can’t go to the library because the streets are unsafe, it’s time to make the streets safe.

They called out the National Guard to escort kids to school in Little Rock. If need be, we should have the National Guard escort kids to their local branch libraries in BVHP.

The inability of Mayor Newsom and Chief Fong to provide safe passage for school kids who want to go to the library is a failure of government so monumental that we hardly notice it. It’s a disgrace.

Of course we won’t have a “safe streets” ballot measure—why bother! WiFi is more “doable.”

----- o -----

TRUST LENNAR

Residents of Bay View Hunters Point are told that the Lennar development in their neighborhood is environmentally safe. This, despite numerous asbestos exceedences and the outright failure to monitor asbestos dispersal for the first months of the project.

The residents, mostly poor and/or people of color, are told that everything’s safe and not to worry.

The 8/13/07 issue of BusinessWeek has an article titled You Call This a Home?, about a nationwide increase of angry, litigious homebuyers.

I wonder if these quotes from the article will reassure the concerned BVHP residents.

Lennar Corp. (LEN ), another large builder, has drawn scrutiny in South Carolina. Residents of its new Pebble Creek development in North Charleston, such as Bill and Holly Hurley, say they have suffered from light-headedness, lethargy, and depression. Home inspections they commissioned showed unsafe levels of methane gas, which the Hurleys and others fear may be linked to possible soil contamination by a previous land owner.

Miami-based Lennar says in a written statement that it "hired a consulting firm before the land was developed and found no evidence of recognized environmental conditions" at that time. Playing down health concerns, Lennar acknowledges that methane has seeped out of "broken sewer pipes and improperly seated toilets," which it says it has now repaired. The ultimate source of the gas hasn't been determined, however. The company has bought back one house as a result of the controversy.

----- o -----

BUT WHERE DOES HE SHOWER?

According to the latest Fog City Journal article on his preliminary hearing, Ed Jew, appears to be in trouble. Nine felony counts, stemming from lies about his official residence, is a lot of felony counts.

Maintaining one lie (or residence) is a significant burden.

The dispute had been whether District 4 Supervisor Jew lived in his San Francisco district as required by law, or in Burlingame, a few freeway miles away.

Now prosecutors have presented an under-penalty-of-perjury loan application on which Ed swore he lives in Chandler, Arizona, and that he lived in Burlingame the previous six years, a time period in which he registered to vote in San Francisco.

As the Teletubbies would say, “Uh-oh!”

In the FCJ story the prosecutor breaks it down for us:

Ackiron said that if Jew was truthful in the loan application, he could not have been truthful when he registered to vote in San Francisco in 2003.

"If the reverse is true, this document is false and Mr. Jew has committed a federal crime," the prosecutor said.

Jew’s best defense is that truthfulness is a higher standard to which no other San Francisco public officials are held.

----- o -----

BAD FAITH?

A recent announcement by Earthlink (passed along by public watchdog Kimo Crossman) spells an end to San Francisco’s “Free” WiFi charade.

Basically, Earthlink says they can’t make a profit from the kind of contract that is being negotiated with San Francisco. For Earthlink to make money from “free” municipal WiFi they need the municipality itself to a sign long-term contract to use Earthlink services. Earthlink calls such a municipality an “anchor tenant.”

Earthlink's announcement makes the entire process look like a bad faith effort, possibly on the parts of both Mayor Newsom and Earthlink, to sign a quickie contract and work out the (expensive) details later.

Newsom wanted a cool-sounding resume item. A number of public-commenters hauled in to a Supes Committee meeting said they needed “WiFive,” which sounds cooler yet.

With the Earthlink deal all but defunct, we’ll see if our mayor has a Plan-B for bridging the digital divide.

----- o -----

WiFi UPDATE: Peskin Waits by the Phone

As a gay man I know, all too painfully, that just because a guy says he’ll call doesn’t mean he’ll call.

The young man from Earthlink seemed sincere…

----- o -----

ABDUL COMMENTS

Over on Civic Center blog sfmike covers San Francisco’s treatment of Egyptian Revolution Day. Mike mentions a City Hall watcher named Abdul.

Here is Abdul’s public comment to the Board of Supervisors (7/24/07) regarding this importatant matter.

----- o -----

GOOD NEWS – MORE WIFI DELAY

My impression is that Mayor Newsom wanted to shove the sixteen-year Earthlink WiFi agreement through the Board of Supervisors quickly.

Why? It turns out that if you slow the process down and look at the actual terms of the agreement, it’s a really crappy deal for San Francisco.

As Kimo Crossman and other concerned citizens have pointed out, the San Francisco deal isn’t even as good as deals Earthlink has with other cities.

Free WiFi—who could turn it down?

How about some free sciatica? Or some free dysentery?

Sure, the best things in life ARE free, but so are some of the worst.

The agreement is scheduled to be considered today, Wed 7/25/07, in Budget and Finance at 1:00pm.

Kimo thinks the item will be continued because Earthlink hasn’t responded to Peskin’s queries from last week.

This is very good news. These sorts of decisions have lasting consequences. Think Candlestick Park. Think Muni Metro.

From Kimo comes this link to a nice overview of the SF/Earthlink plan, written for a British site. It discusses possible delays for environment impact studies, which are being advocated by SNAFU—an anti-microwave group.

A vote requiring the review could prove fatal to the proposed network, which is becoming an increasingly contentious issue between Newsom and his critics. Environmental reviews can take as long as a year to complete, a sizable delay that could ultimately cool enthusiasm for the project.

The technology is changing so fast that this proposal, in a year’s time, will be an anachronism.

Hooray for Kimo! Go SNAFU! ACLU, we love you!

----- o -----

THOMAS JEFFERSON - TEN QUOTES

One of the Big Lies pounded into American ears is that the United States is a Christian nation, founded on Christian (sometimes they ignorantly say “Judeo-Christian”) principles.

My friend Jim, who introduced me to the Cockettes and is revered by many Fomers as a prophet, sends along these ten quotes from Thomas Jefferson about religion. Jim is a real artist. Check out his Blue Elephant blog.

Thomas Jefferson probably qualifies as an American “Founding Father.”

Not only did Jefferson famously pen the Declaration of Independence, he served as the nation’s first Secretary of State, second Vice President, and two terms as President.

Plus he did a lot of other stuff, some of it unsavory and sinful.


TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

There are eleven quotes below. Ten of them are attributed to Thomas Jefferson, one of them is attributed to another American Founding Father. Can you pick out the non-Jefferson quote? Can you name it’s author. Answer in Comments.

1. Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

2. Religions are all alike -- founded upon fables and mythologies.

3. This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.

4. Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.

5. The Christian God is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust.

6. The authors of the gospels were unlettered and ignorant men and the teachings of Jesus have come to us mutilated, misstated and unintelligible.

7. If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, then and only then will truth, prevail over fanaticism.

8. The loathsome combination of Church and State…

9. In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.

10. On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

11. We discover (in the gospels) a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication.

This is all very tame compared to, say, Denis Diderot:

“Let us strangle the last king with the entrails of the last priest.”

Of course, Diderot, Jefferson, and Guess-who lived in a long-ago era called “The Enlightenment.”

[Note: This is a cross-post from Jesuit Watch.]

----- o -----

DALY DIES TWICE

Yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting saw an extraordinary, embarrassing event: a Supervisor, Chris Daly, made a motion and failed to receive a second. A few minutes later, Daly made another motion, with the same result.

At issue was final passage of the C&C’s $6.1 billion yearly operating budget. Daly’s un-seconded motions were attempts to make it, in his words, more of a “Robin Hood” budget.

There’s nothing wrong with being a lone voice. Worthwhile amendments should be advanced even if they have only the mover’s support.

But, before taking a motion to the floor, most politicians would sort of query their colleagues to see what kind of support is out there.

Daly’s seemed surprised that his motions “Died for lack of a second.” So him praises his own motives and impugns the motives of the other supervisors.

It seemed a painful moment for everyone there.

----- o -----

ESPANOLA JACKSON COMMENTS

“Redevelopment” in San Francisco has a major component h. brown calls “Negro Removal.”

Actually, those were the bad old days of the 1960’s, etc. Now, in the enlightened 21st Century, it would be called “African-American Removal.” Same difference to the removees.

Resistance to the current round of Redevelopment aimed at Bay View Hunters Point can’t help the moderate and low income, mostly non-white residents hold onto their neighborhood. Rather, my hope is that current residents can receive ample compensation for their displacement.

Prominent City Hall watcher and long time Bay View resident, Espanola Jackson, is on the scene to witness the skullduggery and to scold the skullduggers, and negotiate that fair price for her community’s grief.

San Francisco Magazine, in an article on the African American exodus (removal) from San Francisco, describes Ms Espanola Jackson thus:

Jackson is a round marshmallow of a woman who can usually be seen in what she calls her trademark church hat. She calls everyone baby, honey, or sweetie. She is 73, but moves more like she’s 60, stomping around as she rants about this or that. She is very stubborn.

Reportedly Ms Jackson has more than forty great-grandchildren—great qualifications for minding the Board of Supervisors.

----- o -----

MAYBE I'M SLOW

For simplifying, rhetorical purposes, Newsom’s free gift to the City’s digitally-divided could be called “slow internet connectivity.”

Obviously Newsom wants to emphasize the last two words. I would emphasize the first.

The entire contract, for rhetorical purposes, can be summarized in one word—“Slow.”

“Say NO to Slow.”

“Vote NO on Slow.”

“No Dough? Go Slow.”

“Rich go fast, poor go slow.”

The radiation people might call it “Slow and Glow.” [If BVHP-VVSD residents don’t like getting asbestosed, they probably don’t like getting microwaved either.]

It’s great that SLOW rhymes with NO, also that WiFi rhymes with DiFi.

Here's an inspirational flyer from Kimo Crossman:

----- o -----

CORNER TURNED ON WIFI, MAYBE?

I watched BOS Budget and Finance yesterday, regarding WiFi, expecting to see a fight, and an actual meeting broke out! No kidding! It was, like, grown-ups.

Instead of the crappy long-term deal which Mayor Newsom “negotiated” with Earthlink, we might actually get a better, shorter-term deal.

Even the Earthlink guy seemed happy to have a serious negotiating partner (Board of Supes).

Board President Aaron Peskin, along with Ammiano and Mirkarimi treated the public advocates--Kimo, ACLU, EFF-- as valuable information resources, not nuisances.

Below is Kimo Crossman’s report on the meeting. [On a day when Kimo was being attacked by the Hearst flagship Examiner for “asking too many questions,” Kimo continued working to improve the WiFi deal for all San Franciscans.]


Kimo’s Report:

"Bridge the Divide, Before City Wide"

There was a productive hearing at Budget and Finance today (7/11) watch here:

There were no fake Wi-Fi Now demonstrations. Oblivious seniors weren't bused in from their jamboree sessions.

Peskin started by saying he did not want to see another city franchise and then discussed some significant potential improvements to the deal which EarthLink *is considering* most of these were announced over the weekend - but also improvements to the privacy on the free tier to at least match premium tier privacy (still not even close to address ACLU/EFF concerns) ,an ability for the city to purchase network after the 8 year term and 500k free speed min. and that the city receive the same rental fee for its poles that PG&E negotiates (Most Favored Nation) as well substitution for the standard city indemnity agreement. Most importantly a requirement that Service Level Agreements SLA - performance standards be agreed to *before the contract is executed* and that the Board has an opportunity to *give thumbs up or down* after the Proof of Concept before additional network build-out may occur - hopefully informed by an independent audit of OUTDOOR and especially INDOOR access.

ACLU showed up once again with detailed suggestions to improve Privacy and Free Speech which was endorsed by EFF. "The poor shouldn't have to pay with their privacy for free internet access." see here:

For the first time in two years, the Supervisors appeared receptive to finally addressing these concerns.

Gilbert Criswell raised concerns about privacy and why the speed was only 500k vs the 1,000k Mountain View and other cities are receiving.

Kimo Crossman mentioned that Google previously indicated that PG&E in Mtn View quoted to Google a price of $5,000 a pole (vs the $99 a pole SF is getting for the city poles). Also, that the network needed a tested Proof of Concept - "Bridge the Divide, Before CityWide" with an independent audit, board approval for up/down and a ban on overuse of Trade Secrets claims to prevent transparency - remember Google claimed 90/100 pages of original proposal were Trade Secrets.

EarthLink spoke honestly and were open to the Supervisor's input and acknowledged they still had some challenges with coverage for geography and indoors and that they were committed to resolving them and indicated they would report back to Peskin on the requests early next week for a Budget hearing on the 25th... The Wi-Fi Categorical Exemption Environmental appeal is now set for the 24th. If EarthLink accepts the changes, the Supervisors will sponsor a resolution amending the contract accordingly.

DTIS at this point, is not part of the discussion.

Mirkarimi asked about starting with 1,000k speed free vs 500k or 300k and pointed out that the deal is only between EarthLink and the city (Google is buying access to EarthLink's network for the free tier).

Rumors still circulate that the Mayor may put the initiative on the November Ballot (deadline August 3rd) if the Supervisors do not approve the deal.

----- o -----

WIFI CHALLENGE

First bridge the divide,
Then go citywide.

Once again City Powers plays the race card, this time to advance the “free” WiFi deal with Google/Earthlink.

City Powers says the deal will “bridge the digital divide” which keeps poor people, mostly of color, from accessing the internet.

A commenter brought up how in her neighborhood, Bay View Hunters Point, she and her kids couldn’t use the computers at the public library because it wasn’t safe for them to walk to the nearby branch.

Problem: unsafe streets; Solution: free WiFi. It’s, like, City Powers accepts the idea that BVHP residents are prisoners in their own homes.

If this is the way we want to go, we should at least guarantee that the free WiFi actually does bridge the divide.

We must insist that infrastructure be installed and service rolled-out in neighborhoods suffering most from the digital divide, BEFORE, AND AS A CONDITION OF, installation of the system in more lucrative neighborhoods.

Until we know, for a fact, that the digital divide has successfully been bridged, it is only a promise, made to a community that’s sick of broken promises.

Without such a provision the Google/Earthlink deal holds as much hope for BVHP as the T-Third, another cruel joke played on poor people of color.

----- o -----

MEMORABLE PUBLIC COMMENT

In yesterday’s Board of Supes Land Use Committee meeting, residents of Bayview Hunters Point and their supporters testified against the Redevelopment Agency and its Nancy Pelosi connected contractor, Lennar Corporation, who they see as destroying their mostly black community, and in this specific case, their health by contamination from the building site.

Among the commenters was this gentleman, who employed a most striking visual aid:

Mr Shepherd's "mendacity" refers to the previous testimony of SF Dept of Public Health officials that the Lennar project was safe and the neighbors fears were unfounded.

----- o -----

BAD WIFI = BAD GOV'T

Below is a list of 19 problems or issues with the proposed agreement between SF C&C and Google/Earthlink to provide "free" wireless internet access to the City's residents.

The list was compiled by public citizen Kimo Crossman, an sfwillie'sblog hero, who has scrutinized the agreement to find the true public costs and benefits. The remainder of this post are Kimo's words. (Three cheers for Kimo.)

The reference to the Legislative Analyst (LA) memo is part of the packet located here (July 11th Budget and Finance Committee 1PM meeting):


1 Per LA Memo: Controller's report significantly overstates savings to citizens.
2 Per LA Memo and ACLU: Privacy concerns not addressed
3 Per LA Memo: DTIS and Earthlink agree to performance criteria after contract approval with no board input
4 No outdoor coverage requirements in contract
5 No no indoor coverage requirements which is where most people use computers, Will Earthlink pay for DSL for those who can't get indoor coverage?
6 Free 500kb/s speed is already an option in the revised contract
7 Mountain View has free 1,000k from Google, Why not San Francisco?
8 Pole agreement is actually exclusive to Earthlink because additional mountings by other vendors may not interfere in anyway with EarthLink devices. Earthlink will get most of the desired poles and building tops.
9 Budget Analyst report says that the agreement is a Franchise - this requires additional city procedures that are not being followed by this contract.
10 Why aren't city services part of this contract? Prediction: city will issue a Sole Source contract to Earthlink right after this deal goes through - basically subsidizing the Free WiFi.
11 EarthLink is playing both sides of the game by providing the infrastructure and retail services - this is a conflict of interest.
12 Google has exclusive free access - why not let other providers compete to provide this as well like MSN, Yahoo, Anchor Free?
13 CPE which will help indoor coverage (only sometimes) will cost between $100-$150 for the Free access.
14 Per LA Memo: Revenue from Earthlink in range of 150k-220k + Pole rental 100k = 250k-320k annually or 1.2M for 4 years rather than the 2M for 4 years in press releases.
15 No requirement for a network solution that is disaster tolerant or uses green concepts like solar panels for the network design.
16 No requirement to use city fiber in the creation of the network.
17 Proof of Concept should occur before any contract for a complete network is executed just like in Philly.
18 Every MuniWifi rollout to date has resulted in negative press with people unimpressed with the reliability of the network and the need to "manage expectations"
19 Eight years is too long when other wireless technologies are on the near horizon - four years would be more appropriate.

----- o -----

JUST A NOTE

Some condemning the Libby commutation say that it disrespects the rule of law.

Many of these admirers of the rule of law were ardent advocates for the recent Immigration Bill, which would have granted commutations to 12-20 million law violators—so many commutations that we don’t even have an exact number.

By simply enforcing existing laws, illegal immigrants unable to find work would deport themselves. Not too hard to understand, is it?

Without the illegals, our economy would change. Low wage legal workers would get paid more. Eventually, even CEOs would have to wipe their own asses.

This is an issue about which Nancy Pelosi in her Pacific Heights mansion and George Bush in ‘bunkport or Crawford agree: we simply cannot have the entire workforce making decent wages and benefits.

It’s the inequality, stupid, that makes America great!

Happy fucking Fourth.

----- o -----

OH YEAH?

I’ve been so busy over at Jesuit Watch. The good news is that the ability of the Roman Catholic Church to do harm is diminishing worldwide. It’s influence in US politics continues to astonish and disgust. The five RC supremes must be impeached!

I’ve begun to propound the tenets of the karass I’ve mentioned here before, FOME, Familiars of Mineral Existence.

I’ve also been installing a remodeled net-game in mostly beautiful weather. Today in Golden Gate Park we stopped playing for a few seconds to watch a red tail hawk on patrol around the tennis courts.

I’ve been observing local politics and it’s too depressing, but I have to comment about yesterday’s Board of Supervisors discussion of “incivility.”

Wimps! You want incivility! Check out this AFP story, though you don’t have to go much past the lead:

BERLIN (AFP) - German politicians on Wednesday condemned as "tasteless" a mocked-up photo on the cover of a Polish magazine of Poland's ruling twin brothers sucking German Chancellor Angela Merkel's bare breasts.

That would be like the Bay Guardian running a photoshopjob of Gavin Newsom sucking you-know-who’s ****.

----- o -----

RACE CARD?

In an op-ed Chron piece this morning defender of Ed Jew asked why the rush to get him out of office.

There are allegations of election improprieties (felonies) and public corruption (extortion), but hey!, so what.

Allegations are allegations. That Louisiana guy. Jefferson, finally got arrested, but he spent months in the US Congress after $90k in cash was found in his deep freeze.

The op-ed writer suggests that the anti-Jew vehemence is rooted in racism. This is obvious poppycock. I'm sure there are plenty of corrupt Asian public officials who don’t get the kind of treatment afforded flower-boy Ed.

So why the drumbeat to throw Ed out? The answer to that question is more complicated and probably more nefarious than any garden-variety racism.

Image-googling I came across the above from edjew.net. Man! It cost’s a hundred bucks just to be his friend!

----- o -----

MY BOB BARKER STORY

I was maybe eight years old so it was fifty years ago that I met Bob Barker. My family was living in North Hollywood and our next door neighbor, who was a some-time stunt man, was doing a gig for Truth or Consequences, hosted by Mr Barker.

It was at NBC in Burbank so it wasn’t far away. I think my brother and I might have gotten out of school for a couple of hours. My dad took off work and drove us plus the stunt-man’s wife and two girls to the morning taping.

We’d just gotten settled, the two boys and two girls, in one row, my dad and Mrs Benson in the row behind us, when the warm up started.

Announcing during the show (“Mrs Grunwald come on down!!!”) is the gravy part of the second-fiddle's job, his main responsiblity is to warm the audience up before the show. This one did a good job.

One of his jokes sticks in my mind:

Show of hands: how many men are here with their wives?

Ok, how many are here with other men’s wives?

Of course, I turned around and urged my dad to raise his hand. He didn’t.

After the show we went down to the stage and Mr Benson, the stunt man, introduced us to Bob Barker. I got to shake his hand. I was impressed at how personable he was, as if there was nothing in the world he’d rather be doing than greeting us strangers.

A few months later Mr Benson turned up with blond hair. He was stunt doubling for Fred Astaire in the car race scene in On the Beach.

Culturally, North Hollywood in the late 1950’s was a little more happenin’ than San Francisco’s outer Parkside district.

----- o -----

PARROT-BRAIN v. BROWN

My favorite political commentator (local) was on TV today. h. brown spoke at a Budget/Oversight Committee meeting that had been called on short notice to ram through a four-year contract with the city’s police.

h. pays attention to SFPD issues and strongly advocates steroid testing for violence prone officers.

For a nutty, gadfly, city-hall watcher, the pols take him seriously. They all know him. And they’re all just slightly afraid of what h. might say about them in his next Fog City Journal article. See his latest article here.

We hear Board President Peskin interrupt h. brown in the middle of h.’s allotted two minutes. It was rude and designed to put h. off his stride.

I checked the official agenda on the Board’s website and sure enough, h. was correct. At issue is when the committee planned for the full Board of Supervisors to consider the motion (MOU).The listing of this agenda item includes this statement:

The Chair intends to entertain a motion to send this item (File 070721) to Board as a Committee Report for consideration on June 12, 2007.

Peskin apparently had agreed, possibly because of heat generated over the weekend by h. brown, to wait two weeks before the full BoS considers the package. So Peskin ambushed him.

Anyway, it's impolite to interrupt a speaker who's been waiting hours and has only two minutes to make his point.

At the end, after h. has accused the committee members of election-year largesse, Peskin does a parting nyah-nyah, reminding us that he, Peskin is termed-out from the board.

I hope Peskin tries the private sector. They'll teach him some manners.

The contract is over fifty pages long, see it here.

----- o -----

ED JEW HUMOR

We in San Francisco’s District 4 are learning more and more about the real estate empire of our supervisor, Ed Jew. Soon we'll have a final tally of residences-owned and a designation of the “official” residence.

Presumably, behind the scenes, investigators are tallying the number of sets of books (financial records) supervisor Jew keeps, and, assuming the answer is an integer greater than one, which set of books is the “official” record.

Pathetically, it all boils down to tapioca. Such is the nature of local politics. It’s the bush leagues (baseball metaphor) of graft. Politicans are not allowed to participate in multi-million dollar military contracting bribes until they’ve proven they can handle little $40k tapioca deals.

It looks like Ed won’t be called up to the majors any time soon.

I found a great report on the $10k donation Ed is trying to make to a local playground-improvement group. The site is new to me, Crooked Street Press. The article, Ed Jew Finds $10,000 in Couch Cushion, is way amusing.

Sub-head and lead:

“I should really clean my couch more often.” -Ed Jew
by Fritz

Sunset, San Francisco- Ed Jew was busy doing spring cleaning in his house in the Sunset Wednesday after the FBI trashed the place when he reportedly found $10,000 under one of his couch cushions. No word yet from authorities on if the money found was part of the $40,000 that Jew took from the Quickly chain store.

Full story here.

----- o -----

APOLOGETICS

My other blog, Jesuit Watch, has attracted the attention of a Catholic apologist who is commenting anonymously on current and some previous posts.

The job of an apologist is to defend his or her organization against any and all verbal charges and attacks.

Regarding the Inquisition, for instance, Catholic apologists say that the Church didn’t kill anyone—all executions were performed by civil authorities.

Commenting on my story of the little swindle a Jebbie tried to pull on me, Anonymous called me “a bit paranoid” and suggested that the facts as I presented them couldn’t be true. Check it out in Why the Jesuits?

Apologetics is a dull, thankless job, that draws the same disrespect afforded to lawyers and dieticians.

Some of us are old enough to remember the dis-flavor of CPUSA’s defense of Stalinism.

The other day we saw on the Tucker Carlson show, Medea Benjamin defending Hugo Chavez’ closure of the opposition press.

My best friend, Pud, is on his way back from Venezuela as we speak. Pud says he had a major project about to be inked with the now-closed TV station. The “documentary” was to have propounded Pud’s Yamomami Paradigm for Human Survival. [I’m pretty sure the “paradigm” involves lots of hammock-time and ethno-botanicals.]

“It was the world’s last, best chance,” Pud said over a crackly cell connection, “I’m coming home to get drunk.”

Catholic Answers Forum has an Ask an Apologist section. Check out this Q&A titled Can You Answer a Question About Masturbation?

In answering the sincere young male convert, Father Vincent Serpa, O.P., makes this remarkable statement:

Nowhere will you find a higher understanding of sexuality than in the Catholic Church.

Survivors of re-assigned priest sex abuse might beg to differ.

----- o -----

THREE-MONTH FORECAST

The first week or so of June in San Francisco is as overcast and dreary as any stormy day in winter.

I remember playing baseball in the first week of summer vacation and having the balls get waterlogged from the fog-soaked grass.

Ironically, the best weather in San Francisco occurs during the first week back to school in September.

For June, July, and August, the weather forecast is:

Fog along the coast extending inland night and morning, little change in temperature.

The western half of the City experiences moderate seasonal affective disorder—in the summertime!

At 9:00am this June 2, the courts in Golden Gate Park were unplayably wet from the low fog.

----- o -----

ANOTHER POLISH JOKE

According to this story in Catholic World News, two books have been added to Poland’s compulsory reading list for high school students. They are a biography of Pope John Paul II and a book by the same pope.

To make room for the Pope, Kafka and Goethe were removed from the list.

----- o -----

TOO DEPRESSED 2: PESKIN

A major shame of the so called progressives or Greens in San Francisco is their failure to advocate for public transit.

The recent meltdown of Muni Metro barely raised an eyebrow on our so called progressive Board of Supervisors. It is amazing to me how no elected official in this town takes any responsibility of any kind for the functioning of our transportation system.

Now Board President Aaron “flight-risk monitor” Peskin has concocted a voter referendum to solve Muni’s problems.

This legislation will be voted on in the November election, five months from now. After that, implementation may take, what?, years. So Muni riders have to endure the same shitty service.

It’s hard to find a copy of the proposal but it reportedly has four main sections:

1. Rearranges funding for Muni, supposedly to fill the gap between what they need and what they currently receive.

2. Changes of work/compensation rules for drivers and supervisors.

3. Upgrade entire diesel fleet to biodiesel.

4. Something about bicycling.

Of these only the first two have anything to do with possible improvements in on-time performance.

Biodiesel/green issues may be a good thing, but it has nothing to do with on-time performance.

And why there would be anything in this legislation about bicycling baffles me.

So once again, Muni riders are getting the shaft.

When the referendum passes, the environmentalists and bicyclists will rush to get what the legislation promises to them.

Muni drivers have already expressed vehement opposition to the work rules and compensation components. So those things will take forever to implement, it at all.

Why is the Muni problem so intractable?

Peskin’s plan has some association with SPUR, San Francisco Planning and Urban Renewal something-or-other, a true wolf in sheep’s clothing, that has been steadfastly blocking Muni reform for many years.

I hope Aaron Peskin’s political career ends with his term-limited Supervisorial stint. If he runs for Mayor, I’ll vote for Newsom.

BTW: Peskin as snitch.
When he found out that his colleague, Ed Jew, who is under federal investigation for corruption, was taking a trip to China, Peskin notified the FBI that Jew was a “flight risk.”

What a fucking fool! Aaron’s been watching too much Law and Order.

Word to the wise: Peskin is an FBI snitch.

----- o -----

TOO DEPRESSED TO POST

Local politics has me down. I’ve been paying more attention than usual and nothing is very uplifting.

The global ecology situation seems to be heading toward major dieback, just based on world population.

The Ameican culture of production and consumption is unsustainable. Americans seems willing to go to war to keep gas prices low.

The sense of camaraderie and generosity felt by the American survivors of World War II and their offspring seems to have dissipated.

The nation votes against the war and we’re still at war.

Locally we vote for auto access to Golden Gate Park on Saturdays, now we have a compromise with the Bicycle lobby.

Republicans cheer for torture.

[For the record: I was taught that even if the human race should perish, we are never permitted to torture.]

Our most important civic asset is the Municipal Railway System. We have a transit first policy. Yet no politicians or pundits, including blogs-progs, care about Muni’s miserable performance.

“Progressives” recommend private bicycles as the alternative to Muni. But we’re getting green grocery bags, and they’re going to run Muni (late) on reprocessed restaurant griddle grease (only $1.45 more per gallon than regular diesel).

Word is that Jared Blumenthal’s burgeoning Department of the Environment will soon announce a major new initiative to turn shit into Shinola.

My District 4 Supervisor Ed Jew gets caught with $20,000 of FBI sting money in his flower-shop safe. Examiner story here.

The cash, $40k total, came from “businessmen” seeking “help” with the difficult process of getting permit and licenses for some stores they wanted to open. At one point Ed said he couldn’t even remember the names of the men who gave him $40,000 in hundred-dollar bills.

Early on Ed said the $20k remaining in his safe was to be donated to help fix up a playground in his district. (The cash was to be delivered to Rec & Park via flying pig.)

Now I’m not so depressed. This is kind of exciting.

Public corruption is under-reported and under-prosecuted in this town.

The odors emerging from Ed flower shop smell like felonies. It would be a lot of fun if Ed started blabbing. Maybe the FBI will follow the other $20k.

----- o -----

SOMETHING BORROWED

A couple days ago Mayor Newsom and D.A Kamala Harris held a press conference in the Bay View to announce four new gun laws they are introducing. Chron story here.

Supervisor Chris Daly, who spearheaded Prop. H and regularly opposes Newsom, said he was glad to see the mayor focusing on gun control.

Frequently the Mayor’s announcements of new initiatives includes phrases like “first in the nation,” “first in the world,” “groundbreaking,” “a model for the rest of the country.”

Not this time. And I rejoice. San Francisco does enough service as a social-engineering laboratory, its residents as lab rats. At least this time we’re piggy-backing on the efforts of other jurisdictions.

When asked about legal, constitutional challenges to the new laws, Harris said the laws had been modeled on laws implemented and tested in other California cities.

I salute such cost-effective efforts.

In a sort-of related theme, one commenter at this week’s WiFi hearing explained the need for WiFi thusly:

Where she lives, in Bay View Hunter’s Point, they have computers in the libraries, but it’s not safe to walk to the libraries. Solution—provide wifi access to those imprisoned in their own homes.

I guess “free” wifi for the entire city is cheaper than providing effective law enforcement for the “underserved” neighborhoods.

----- o -----

KIMO CROSSMAN, HERO

Mayor Newsom is eager to provide free wireless internet access to the people of San Francisco. To this end he is promoting an exclusive franchise agreement with Earthlink/Google to offer 300K wireless (as opposed to 56K dialup) for free and and 1,000K for something like $21.00 per month.

Earthlink/Google receives the right to put up poles and exclusive access to a presumably large advertising audience.

In the couple of months that I’ve been paying attention, the franchise deal is being advocated as a way of delivering internet service (of any kind) to poor people, especially poor school kids, many of whom are black or Hispanic.

So the franchise agreement is presented a matter of social justice.

To its supporters, the question is, Should poor kids have access to the internet?

To critics, the question is, How good a deal is this for San Francisco?

Today there was a hearing before the Board of Supervisors’ Budget Committee about whether to move the proposal forward to the full board.

To Mayor Newsom the deal would be a feather in his cap, an important resume item in his search for higher office. The Board, generally at odds with the mayor is exploring an alternative plan.

The clip below shows the testimony of Kimo Crossman, one of sfmike’s heroes, and a star of his Civic Center Blog.

According to sfmike, Kimo was instrumental in creating public skepticism about the proposed deal.

Kimo points out, among other things, that despite the sales pitch, there is nothing in the proposed contract that guarantees coverage to all San Franciscans.

Check out Civic Center Blog for coverage of the rally on City Hall steps of proposal supporters, prior to going inside for the hearing.

The rally was organized by the Mayor’s reelection campaign.

[I love my cable internet (6000-8000K) service and I don’t have a laptop or blackberry or anything like that, so the presence of WiFi service won’t mean much to me unless it brings down the price of my cable. I had a bad experience with Earthlink and I wouldn’t to do business with them again.]

----- o -----

MR FORD: STATUS QUO ANTI

According to this morning’s Examiner.com story Nathaniel Ford will do what it takes to fix the current Muni crisis caused by the introduction of sevice on the new T-Third streetcar line.

Ford, however, has ensured that all options are being explored with a focus on quality customer service.

He can begin by returning to pre-T-Third scheduling: shut down the T-Third, bring back the 15, and run the same schedules as before the bomb hit.

Since no one has benefited from the introduction of T-Third service, the elimination (temporary) of the T-Third would hurt no one. Returning to normal service on the 15 and other lines eliminated or changed by the T-Third would bring immediate relief to many riders.

This would give Muni management breathing room to figure out how to introduce service on the T-Third in a way that actually improves the public transit experience and doesn’t mess everything up.

Don’t they do computer modeling and stuff?

----- o -----

PESKIN ATTACKS JEW

After watching yesterday as a Supervisors' Committee furthered the giveaway of public land to Lennar Corporation, I awakened this morning to this bullshit Examiner story.

The gist: There are a number of street paving projects scheduled to be done in District 4. Our District 4 Supervisor, Ed Jew, looked at the District 4 projects in the queue and suggested a change, based on perceived need, in the order in which the District 4 projects by done. This doesn't affect the schedule for projects in other districts in any way.

But in the Examiner story, Board president Aaron Peskin attacks Ed Jew for using "politics" to influence how a city department does its job. Maybe I'm dense, but isn't that what an elected official is supposed to do?

So I sent this email to Aaron Peskin. I'll post his response if any.

Dear Supervisor Peskin:

According to this morning’s Examiner story you are attacking my supervisor, Ed Jew, for practicing “politics.”

As a native resident of District 4, I must take exception to your attack.

The readers of my blog would like to know:

1) Is the Examiner story accurate? Anything you would like to add?

2) Who exactly was harmed by the scheduling change?

3) Since all the work is within District 4, what business is it of yours?

4) If our district supervisor can’t help City departments fine-tune their services to meet his district’s needs, who will?

5) Don’t you do the same thing in your district?

6) Aren’t you just punishing Ed Jew for his insistence (so far) on furthering his constituents’ interests instead of going along with the Board’s majority?

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Willie Morrissey

----- o -----

LENNAR IN THE NEWS

The Board of Supervisors Land Use Committee unanimously voted to approve and send to the full Board a resolution endorsing a controversial development plan.

The “Conceptual Framework,” adds Candlestick Point land to an existing project at Hunters Point being conducted by mega-developer Lennar Corporation.

Some critics refer to this as a “gift” of public land to a private, for-profit corporation, Lennar.

You can view the resolution here, along with the Conceptual Framework.

There are two elements to the resolution:

1) Expanding and moving forward on the “plan.”

2) Lennar Corporation will be the sole developer.

The affected residents of Bay View/Hunters Point fear that their homes and neighborhood will be stolen from them for the benefit of private corporations and upwardly mobile new arrivals to the City.

And rightly so. My impression of the history of redevelopment in San Francisco is one of shame. Basically it’s: Promise the colored folks and poor folks anything in order to get them out of their homes, then, don’t return their calls.

The residents of BVHP will have their homes and neighborhood taken from them, the only question is what, besides promises, they can get in return.

At the meeting today, public comment divided between “let’s move the project forward,” and, “Lennar Corp is a bad actor and should be dumped from the plan.”

As proof of their contention that Lennar Corp is a bad actor, BVHP speakers hammered on an incident in which Lennar Corporation, already grading at the Hunter’s Point facility, failed to monitor the disbursal of asbestos into the surrounding neighborhood.

Other instances of Lennar’s failure to obey environmental regulations, with possible health effects on the neighbors, were cited as examples of why the community doesn’t trust, and why the City government shouldn’t do business with, Lennar.

Here’s my favorite speaker:

All three supervisors, Maxwell, Sandoval, and Dufty, after public comment ended, expressed concern and outrage about the possible environmental threat, and chided Lennar.

They treated the critics as being concerned about discreet health issues, which they wholeheartedly agreed with. The Supervisors completely ignored the commenters’ assertion that Lennar should be dumped from the project, or at least should be investigated.

Basically, the residents were pleading for a developer that might be less rapacious. The supervisors did not even recognize this plea as having been made.

So the message is clear: Lennar is more powerful than the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor, or the voters of SF. BVHP constituents are on their own to negotiate a fair price for their homes.

Good luck.

Lennar Corp has been in the news recently for failing to repair timely gross defects in a new “luxury condo” building in San Francisco. Here’s a recent Chronicle story lead:

When Michael Cullen used the stove at his new $1.5 million penthouse in San Francisco's trendy South Beach, the ventilation failed and his condo filled with smoke. When he filled his spacious new bathtub, it leaked, soaking subflooring beneath bathroom tile and damaging wood paneling.

The entire complex has defects, according to Cullen. The garage walls leak, the water pressure is weak and inconsistent, and the entire west wing of the building experiences temperature swings due to ventilation problems, he said.

The article goes on to explain the difficulty of getting Lennar Corp., the builder, to correct the problems

"It's really disheartening to pay this much for a brand-new home and to have all this stuff happening," said Cullen. "It's been three years of absolute hell fighting ... and I don't see any end in sight."

If a white guy who just paid $1.5 million for a condo finds Lennar unresponsive, imagine what will happen to the mostly black, mostly poor residents of Bay View/Hunters Point.

----- o -----

POETRY IS, AS . . .

I’m sort of a trained poet.

In 1967 (or so) my teacher, Dan Langton, who always took an anti-heroic attitude about the poetry profession, used to say that he was a poet because, when he graduated from college, he realized it was the only thing he knew how to do.

There’s not much of a career path for poets, at least in the USA.

Dan’s pitch was:

“How much does it take to sustain life these days? Twenty-five dollars a week?” [This was forty years ago.]

“So how many poets in the world make $25/week in royalties for their poetry?

“Zero.”

Working poets require “real” jobs or independent means.

The standard career path is to get an advanced degree, kiss the proper asses to get published in sufficiently stuffy poetry magazines, win some awards, then get a university teaching position. That’s a “successful” poet.

A failed poet was someone who followed this same path but wound up with a high school teaching position.

Then why train poets?

Two reasons:

1) Poetry creation is a major part of some occupations; and

2) Poetizing skills enrich the language and make life more fun.

One of my favorite definitions of “poetry” is “utterances repeated verbatim for pleasure.”

One of the most satisfying events in my life is when someone quotes me. Even better is when I can’t remember having said it, and it sounds really good. Like, did I say that? Good for me!

I woke up smiling this morning thinking about a cheer I created one afternoon years ago. I sat for a few innings with some fans of a softball team I didn’t like very much and they didn’t much like me.

Rolo, a Castro District fashion empire, was kind of snooty, tending toward A-gay. They did, however, have a couple of players that were way cute.

Poor Rolo was getting beaten and they were hanging there heads. They needed some perking.

Their beautiful uniforms (the team was more about fashion than athletics) were white with purple trim, so I made up this cheer:

Purple, purple, white white white,
Rolo, Rolo, fight fight fight!

So simple! I shared it with four or five folks near me, and after just one sotovoce rehearsal, we yelled it clean, first time through.

I can’t remember if Rolo’s play perked, but their ears pricked.

Poetry is an essential ingredient of stand-up comedy, advertising, and speechwriting. Also title and headline writing. I guess we should include song lyrics and rap.

Dan Langton used to say that, if you include song lyrics and advertising jingles, the average American knows thousands of lines of poetry by heart.

This is a utilitarian view. Some poets pursue purely personal goals, such as, “To be lucid at the moment of ecstasy.”

I say, “Where’s the beef?”

Yesterday with my old friend Paul, when I expressed pessimism about the future of the human race and the decline of my own culture, he quoted one of my familiar lines: “I’m glad I’m old and I’m going to die soon.”

Great!

----- o -----

VIVA LA MIGRA!

According to this Reuters story an illegal immigrant from El Salvador was deported two days ago to his native country.

Liberal outrage? Protests in the streets?

Not exactly.

He wasn’t hurting anyone. He was a humble janitor at a motel, but Gonzalo Guevara-Cerritos, 43, had been a Salvadoran army officer who was convicted of participating in the military's 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests.

Reuters provides this background:

Los Angeles is home to some 250,000 Salvadorans, many of whom fled to the United States during the Central American country's 12-year civil war in which the U.S. government supported the right-wing Salvadoran government and its army.

More than 75,000 people died in the 1980-92 conflict, including 17 priests, most murdered for their leftist political views.

Guevara had served his sentence in El Salvador but he must have wanted to ditch his reputation and start a new life in the U.S.

Guevara, who had been maintaining a low profile for fear of being identified by pissed off Salvadorans, was turned in to ICE by a member of the public, quite possibly a fellow illegal immigrant.

According to the story, former death-squader Guevara was not identified by any public agency. In California, inquiries by public employees about the immigration status of individuals is mostly forbidden.

My city, San Francisco, is a “sanctuary” for people like Guevara, so too, Los Angeles where Guevara was arrested.

Apparently Guevara had broken no U.S. laws except those involving his undocumented status. The only legal reason ICE had to arrest and deport the man was his illegal status.

Yet, who will protest his deportation? Who will tell me that I, acting in concert with my fellow U.S. citizens, do not have the right to kick this mass murderer out of my country?

Viva la Migra!

Click here to go to a School of the Americas Watch pdf showing SOA grads in the news.

My alma mater, St Ignatius High School, sends a contingent to the yearly protests at the now (more ominously) renamed School of the Americas (wikilink). Not only did Guevara and his fellow right wing death-squaders kill the six Jesuits, they killed the housekeeper and the housekeeper’s daughter. This really irked the Jesuits. If a Jebbie dropped the dime on Guevara, good for him!

----- o -----