GOOD KIDS

Sometimes a manly-man acquaintance will surprise me with unexpected sensitivity to the feelings of others. It’s one of the warmest emotions I get.

Sfmike’s posts regarding the demise of Junior ROTC in San Francisco’s public high schools are such an instance. [Photos here from Civic Center Blog.]

In San Francisco, being in the military is not cool. Many SFers thing that the US military, per se, is part of the problem, like organized crime, and must be eliminated.

In most high schools, being in ROTC is not cool. Like, what kind of geek wants to wear stupid uniforms and march around, and, like, obey orders?

So, at a time of frustration of the US’ immoral war on Iraq, and some b.s. about don't ask don't tell, it was easy for SF’s Board of Education to ban JROTC from city schools—a good slap at the Bush administration.

What the BoE fools didn’t consider was that JROTC, like any after school activity can be, was the primary peer-support resource for many of the participants. High school is tough enough. To eliminate existing resources on a whim of political correctness is callous.

The board’s symbolic slap represented a real loss for the kids.

When this was brought to the Board’s attention they said, no problem we’ll develop an equivalent alternate program to fill the gap.

A year later, no alternate program. [SFGate story.]

I guess there’s a lesson here: it’s easier to ban something than to replace it.

Pathetic.

The good news is that JROTC will continue indefinitely. Sfmike tells me that two Board members who pushed for the ban have since departed and the issue is likely to remain dormant.

Whew!

AMERICAN GOTHIC

The Matt Lauer interview with choirboy Larry Craig and his grandmotherly wife was white-knuckles all the way, but the Craigs came through just fine.

Matt failed to attack the gaping hole in “Mensroom Larry’s” argument. Craig's position:

1. I’m was an innocent traveler, naïve regarding any mensroom sex happenings, and I entered the airport mensroom simply to use the toilet.

2. I was using the toilet normally when I was arrested. I had no idea why I was being arrested.

3. I made a big mistake by not consulting a lawyer, keeping it secret, and pleading guilty.

4. The reason I made this big mistake was because I was deeply embarrassed by the event and hoped it would “go away,” and I wouldn’t have to tell my wife and kids and the public.

If #1 and #2 are true, then there is no reason for any “embarrassment.” Outrage would be the appropriate response. I’d demand a lie detector test.

Getting arrested is no embarrassment, it’s what you get arrested for that’s embarrassing.

Then, making your spouse face the music with you?

Has any man in America ever inadvertently “touched shoes” with the man in the next stall? Except as part of a sex-advance?

Larry Craig said in the police interview: “I looked down and saw that our shoes were close, but I don’t recall them touching.”

Almost sounds like “quivering lips.”

----- o -----

NEWSOM SHINES: DEFENDS SISTERS

Mayor Gavin Newsom came to the defense of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, per this SFGate story. Responding to criticism by Bill O’Reilly:

"This debate really is about San Francisco values. The Bill O'Reillys of the world are threatened by San Francisco because we value diversity, universal health care and civil rights for all. They will exploit any controversy to attack our values."

Good for you, Gavin!

Meanwhile, the Archbishop is apologizing for giving communion to two SPI’s.

A USF Jesuit says the Archbishop is obligated to give communion to all who ask for it unless there is some specific reason not to. Such specific reasons do NOT include unusual dress or heavy makeup.

I wonder what Niederauer was expecting. MHR has been a gay church for decades.

----- o -----

TWO POLICEMEN KISSING

I thought this was a nice picture.

There’s controversy attached—it was banned from some exhibit in Russia, I guess because of the gay thing.

Thanks to Guardian Unlimited for treating us to this story.

Shot among the birch trees and snow of a Siberian forest, two policemen kiss each other passionately on the lips. They hold and - this is not entirely clear - possibly caress each other's buttocks.

My guess is they're warming each other’s hip-flasks.

There are important art-historical issues involved.

Mr Shaburov said that he and fellow artist Viacheslav Mizin had created Kissing Policemen as a homage to the celebrated British graffiti artist Banksy. "We were inspired by Banksy's iconic image of two constables kissing. We wanted to do the same but in Russia," Mr Shaburov said.

The Banksy:

----- o -----

TITLE IX AND PARK RESTROOMS

I played gay softball for twenty years, seventeen of them in San Francisco. During that time the SF Gay Softball League went from ten to forty or fifty teams.

At first there were only a few women playing, and those on mostly men’s teams. The league now includes two women’s division.

At some point, maybe in the early 1990’s we began to hear complaints from the women players about locked or substandard restrooms at the public parks where the league played.

When I first heard this, I scoffed. “These gals must be from out of town,” I figured, “no San Franciscan expects adequate public restrooms in the parks. How silly.

“They’ll learn.”

But they didn’t. They spoke at every meeting about working with city Supervisors and with Rec and Park to get the restrooms opened. The even wanted toilet paper!

Our softball playing lesbians were the first generation to be raised under Title IX, a 1972 federal provision mandating equal resources for male and female students, with the major focus becoming athletics.

So our women grew up thinking their lockerrooms should be as good as those provided for male athletes.

While Rec & Park did provide equal restrooms for men and women (i.e. none) the women nonetheless demands facilities for themselves.

A few months ago Newsom was so irked about the toilets at Portsmouth Square that he made Rec and Park and the PUC actually clean them. Those two agencies made the bureaucratic overhead so burdensome that Newsom would never spasm like that in their direction again, but the issue was engaged.

So, now we have a bond issue on the ballot (which sfwillie’s blog opposes) that includes $11M for new park restooms. That aspect of the bond has made San Francisco an international laughing-stock—but that’s another rant.

Anyway, I find it interesting that San Francisco’s restroom issue has been advanced by Title Nine-inspired lesbian athletes. Good for us!

----- o -----

CIRCUS COMING TO TOWN

Mayor Newsom’s decision to employ the City Charter to oust criminally accused, but not yet convicted, Supervisor Ed Jew could set the stage for some entertaining political theater.

Here’s the process:

1. Mayor suspends Supervisor Jew and names his own employee, Carmen Chu, as “interim” replacement.

2. San Francisco Ethics Commission holds a hearing and otherwise investigates Newsom’s allegations against Jew.

3. The Ethics Commission concludes either that Jew should be permanently removed or not, and communicates their opinion to the Board of Supervisors.

4. The Board of Supervisors considers the recommendation of the Ethics Commission (and conducts its own hearings and investigations?).

5. The Board of Supervisors votes on permanently removing Ed Jew.

NOTE: There are eleven supervisors, one of whom, Jew’s replacement Carmen Chu, will not be allowed to vote. The City Charter requires nine votes for Jew to be removed. So Ed Jew needs the votes of only two supervisors to keep his seat.

Also NOTE: This City Charter provision has never before been utilized. Procedures are ill defined—nobody knows what they’re doing. Surprise? Newsom?

Ed Jew is fighting the mayor. Ed has a smart lawyer, Steveen Gruel, who’s going to make things tough for the Mayor. (Photo from SF Sentinel.)

This could get interesting.

Steven Gruel has issued two requests that Newsom can’t possible like:

First: Gruel demanded that the members of the Ethics Commission to immediately cease any ex parte communications regarding this case with the Mayor’s Office and its reps and likewise cease any ex parte communication with the Board of Supervisors and its reps. (Fog City Journal story here.)

As Gruel explains:

A basic precept of due process, of course, is that adverse parties and fact finders do not communicate about an active case in the absence of all interested parties. I see no reason why this simple rule ensuring fundamental fairness should not be followed here.

At least some of the Mayor’s critics see an unwholesome relationship between the mayor and the Ethics Commission.

The second Gruel letters really pissed off the City Attorney’s office (FCJ story here).

Gruel requests copies of all documents and communications used by or in possession of the City Attorney that were used as basis for his (actually the Mayor’s) charges against Jew.

Gruel’s letter might have sounded kind of hardass, quote:

Finally, I expect that your response will be complete, truthful and in full accordance with the law. Not only will your response, or the lack thereof, possibly serve as an exhibit in any future federal or state lawsuit, but anything less than strict adherence to your lawful obligations and duties could provide clear grounds for removal proceedings under San Francisco Charter Section 15.105.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera was so pissed he had his press secretary issue a statement that is simply nasty (forwarded by h. brown).

In it Matt Dorsey says:

Apart from running up his client's legal bill, I don't understand the rationale for Mr. Gruel's continued theatrics.

and:

At this point, I think Mr. Gruel would better serve his client to focus on Mr. Jew's numerous legal problems than to engage in this ongoing publicity campaign.

These statements sound political rather than truth-seeking. Our tax dollars pay Mr Dorsey to fire off this crap. The pretense of concern for the accused is cheap rhetoric. I think Ed Jew and Steven Gruel is beyond taking advice from Dennis Herrera or Matt Dorsey.

The Ethics Commission, isn’t quite ready to proceed. They have scheduled a meeting later in October, not to hear the case, but to discuss how to go about hearing the case.

I hope the hearings are on TV (Comcast cable channel 26).

Now Gruel wants certain supervisors to recuse themselves from voting on Jew’s ouster, if and when the case reaches the Board (SFGate story). Gruel says some supervisors have made public statements that show prejudice against Jew. Gruel threatens a federal lawsuit. SFGate story here.

Gruel’s strategy is to treat the Ethics Commission/Board of Supervisors proceedings like any other legal case in which all of the defendant’s civil and procedural rights are protected. This seems an impossibly high standard for the Ethics Commission.

There's no telling what will happen next.

I guess Mayor Newsom thought it was a good idea at the time.

----- o -----

H. BROWN FOR MAYOR

Of all the candidates for San Francisco Mayor this year, political analyst h. brown has done the most to improve the quality of my life as a San Franciscan.

His columns are fun, informative, and well written. He names names.

h. has also created his Salon, a spontaneous, grassroots, community institution that costs the price of a burrito to attend, (plus I think you’re supposed to buy h. a beer).

h.’s greatest failing is possibly excessive passion for good government.

His last couple of columns in Fog City Journal have convinced me it’s time to endorse.

The first of these columns is his “Vision for the City.” In it he states his position on the sale of surplus city property:

The City should never sell land as surplus because, as Will Rogers said: "It's the only thing they aren't building more of."

I thought I was the only one to believe this. Now it’s me and h.

The second column contains h. brown’s answers to an SF Chronicle Candidates Questionairre. Some samples:

On streamlining City government:

Answer: Move all the pretty girls to the front of the room. Well, that didn't work out too well for Gavin, did it? Now that he's surrounding himself with ugly women, he's doing much better. I plan to hire pretty young gay boys and bull dykes. With no distractions I'll be able to concentrate better.

And on Ethics:

Answer: Always give a receipt for your bribes and keep a copy for yourself. Don't screw the staff and if you do, never admit it. Be presidential.

Just as in matters of religion the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence pretty much speak for me, so, in matters of local politics, h. brown speaks to me.

Another good one, on “paying more attention to detail”:

Answer: Is there something of value I haven't already given to Don Fisher?

sfwillie’s blog endorses h. brown to be the next Mayor of San Francisco. He is dedicated to the well being of all San Franciscans.

----- o -----

CLIMBING THE FENCE

When I started playing tennis eight years ago I had access to a great “bang wall,” as Irishman Desmond calls it, aka a “hitting wall” in the play yard of Ulloa School, my alma mater if you count half a year of kindergarten.

It’s a fifteen foot high concrete retaining wall that runs maybe 250 feet and forms the eastern boundary of the school’s grounds.

I’d go there on weekends and after work for an hour at a time. Hitting against a wall is a way to get a lot of strokes in a short time, and it’s a good workout. To be realistic, a person doesn’t really belong on a tennis court until they can sustain a twelve or twenty stroke rally with a wall.

Sometimes teachers leaving late, at 5:30pm or so would look at me warily, but the yard was so big, with almost no kids around, and I must have looked non-threatening.

I got to know a female custodian who would alert me when she was about to lock the last gate. Usually I’d tell her “thanks, I’ll just hop the fence when I’m through.”

After a year of this I went to the schoolyard on a summer weekday and jumped the fence but was quickly and nervously shooed away by a guy who, I gathered later, was running some sort of summer program for kids. Small and private, he wanted me out of the facility he had rented with good money.

A week later signs appeared on the fences at the easy climbing spots warning against illegal entry. Very unfriendly.

I wasn’t the only one climbing the fence. Teenagers would play baseball-oriented games. Moms and dads would lift there kids over the low part of the fence and play in the little kids’ section. For a while there was a guy doing very disciplined footwork exercises, I think he was a boxer.

By the time the signs went up I was a good enough tennis player that access to the hitting wall was not that big a deal. But without it, I doubt if I would have gotten good enough fast enough to want to keep playing.

Community access to schoolyards for recreational purposes has just been in the news. Pat Murphy over at the Sentinel covers it thoroughly in this story. Mayor Newsom is proposing a trial program that would open fourteen schoolyards to the community on weekends.

The fact that this is a big deal tells you what a hick town San Francisco really is, and what a can’t-do spirit our civil servants have.

Anyway, Newsom is allowing his newly appointed interim Supervisor Carmen Chu to introduce the legislation.

I guess it’s nice of the mayor to give her a readymade resume item so warm and fluffy.

I don’t think that Ulloa School, with it’s great hitting wall is included in the pilot program.

After my tennis session this morning, I stopped by Ulloa School to photograph one of the nasty do-not-climb signs on the fence near the kindergarten classrooms where I debuted academically.

I hoped the kids would be in class but the playground was full. I worried I’d look like a creepy old man taking pictures of kids in a schoolyard, but I was greeted enthusiastically.

“Hey mister! Could you get us our ball?”

It had come over the fence and rolled down the street a little.

At first I didn’t see it. The kids told me it was a “Batman ball.” Then I spottedit, a smallish rubbery kickball thing clearly marked “Batman,” under a red sports car, and threw it back. One of their teachers came over to thank me.

The sign I found was different from the ones they originally put up—not quite as nasty, but still not too friendly.

----- o -----

ST PAUL RETURNS

I’ve always had the New York Times in my favorites. Not that I expect truth, or high mindedness.

I imagine the Soviets used to read Pravda and Isvestia the same way I read the Times: see an official version of the story in order to compare it to other versions.

Also, I used to enjoy Paul Krugman who is smart enough to communicate to the likes of me, and who aims at conveying truth high-mindedly.

Krugman had become a liberal star and NYT tried to cash in with their “Times Select” pay-to-view service. They included Krugman’s op-ed pieces in their paid-only section.

Considering the low level of the rest of their offerings I didn’t pay and so missed Paul Krugman.

Now Paul Krugman is available again, for free. Here’s his latest piece, which compares Countrywide Financial’s CEO’s behavior with that of Ken Lay.

Countrywide, he says, made bad real estate loans, then re-sold the loans as securities but continued to “service” the loans and collect servicing fees.

Countrywide seems peculiarly unwilling to work out deals that might let borrowers hold on to their homes — even when such a deal, by avoiding the costs of foreclosure, would actually work to the benefit of both sides.

Why block mutually beneficial deals? As the article points out, Countrywide can make money from the fees it charges on foreclosures, while the losses from mortgages that could have been saved, but weren’t, are borne by others.

----- o -----

SF SCRAMBLE

The struggle for possession of Bond’s 756th home run ball occupied only a few seconds of air time but it was as stomach-turning to watch as any of that awful cage-fighting proliferating in cabledom.

There were multiple crimes of violence (probably misdemeanor battery mostly) as well as multiple attempted grand thefts committed in the scramble.

Of course it’s embarrassing. It’s also an instructive metaphor for what we have become.

----- o -----

BAD CHU-JEW

Mayor Newsom’s ouster of District 4 Supervisor Ed Jew and appointment of “interim” replacement Carmen Chu was a slap at District 4 residents.

At 29 years old and having lived in San Francisco just three years, Chu admitted in her first public statement that she knew little about the district she is now sworn to represent.

Newsom touts her as a policy person, not a political person—she’s fresh to politics.

These two attributes—ignorance about her constituents and political inexperience—do not promise well for District 4, but they’re the sort of thing that make Mayor Newsom lick his chops. Like, soooo innocent.

Despite this admission, Ms Chu was able to cast votes on all issues before the Board meeting just a few hours after her appointment.

I’ve requested that Supervisor Chu tell us how she decided which way to vote on those complicated issues. Maybe she’s a real quick study. Maybe she just voted Gavin’s way.

It’s interesting to note that Ms Chu’s email address as District 4 Supervisor is unchanged from the address she used as an employee of the Mayor’s office. Will she still answer Mayor’s office mail? Will she still work on a few Mayor’s office odds and ends? Or will she be a full time supervisor?

I’m pessimistic. A smart person in Ms Chu’s position would have turned down the offer.

----- o -----

LENNAR FIGHT MOVES TO BOE

According to the blog Educational Justice, Tuesday evening’s regular SF Board of Education meeting will consider a resolution supporting the stoppage of work at Lennar’s redevelopment site in Bay View Hunters Point.

Educational Justice is written by a team that includes Eric Mar and Kim-Shree Maufas, two Board of Education members who are sponsoring the resolution.

Their blog post, which includes the full text of the Stop-Lennar resolution, includes a link to BVHP commenter and activist, Francisco DaCosta. Mr DaCosta is extremely outspoken in his opposition to Lennar. I’m impressed that elected officials such as Mar and Maufas would align with him.

Here’s the agenda item description:

In Opposition to Lennar Corporation’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Development and In Support of the Community’s Demand for a Temporary Stoppage and an Independent Health and Safety Assessment to Protect Our Students and Their Families
- Commissioners Eric Mar and Kim-Shree Maufas
(Per Board Policy 120, Section 9.4, the Board may suspend its Rules in order to consider action to this resolution at First Reading)

The meeting is open to the public.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2007 6:00 P.M.
555 FRANKLIN STREET, FIRST FLOOR

The meeting will be shown live on cable channel 78, and can also be viewed via live webcast.

----- o -----

REMEMBERING WILLIE

Not sfwillie. Mayor Willie.

Remember when Brown ran for mayor and he said he would “fix Muni” in his first 100 days?

Remember how he left office eight years later and Muni was (is) still fucked up?

Here’s my favorite part:

Remember, after it was clear that he had no clue how to fix Muni, he proposed buying the Muni drivers new, snappier uniforms.

Brown hypothesized that their drab brown uniforms were at the root of the drivers’ low morale.

Mayor Brown, a noted clotheshorse, must have “put himself in the drivers’ shoes,” as it were, and found them hideous.

It’s all a big laugh to Willie.

[Note: click on pictures for sources.]

----- o -----

DESIGNER DONATES, AGAIN

Business must be slow in the high-end interior design industry. Designers are so available that they’re donating their services to worthy causes.

Back in August we mentioned a high-end re-do of Benefit Magazine offices.

Now the Sentinel covers the “high-end” redecoration, this time of a homeless family shelter.

Raphael House, for 35-years a residential provider to homeless families, celebrated its new ambience with rising San Francisco personality Sophie Azouaou and Executive Director Father David Lowell joining Mayor Gavin Newsom to cut a red ribbon of renewal.

There are lots of great photos. The article says Sophie has some connection to Benefit Magazine.

The writer, Pat Murphy, purveys a very dry irony. He is a master of deadpan, as in his lead:

San Francisco philanthropy shone this week as privately funded Raphael House received a high-end makeover from some of the classiest design mavens in town.

Oops! My fact checkers tell me Sophie IS Sophisticate Interiors, the “high end” design firm that redecorated Benefit Magazine’s offices.

I’ll have to spend more time at SFLUXE.

----- o -----

JEW: "I'M STUPID, NOT EVIL."

I can’t stand the way high paid officials plead stupidity when malfeasance is revealed.

-Ken Lay got paid millions a year but had no idea what was happening at Enron.
-Our former Attorney General can’t remember which hand he wipes with.
-No one in Gavin Newsom’s office knew the timesheet policy (there wasn’t one).

Now we have disgraced Supervisor Ed Jew claiming naiveté in handling cash bribes, forty large.

The feds finally busted him for shaking down a Tapioca joint.

In the Chron story Ed explains:

The consultant, Jew said, had agreed to take only half the $40,000 fee and leave the other $20,000 with the supervisor as a charitable donation to a Sunset district park development project.

"That was an unorthodox way of paying," Jew told The Chronicle in May. "I don't know if it violates the law. I know now not to venture into these waters."

So, Ed, this constituent agrees—you ARE a dumbfuck. You’re way too stupid to be a Supervisor.

[Photo from ebar.]

----- o -----

BYRD DISSES PATREUS

During this week’s congressional hearings on General Patreus’ Iraq status report, Senator Robert Bird delivered this zinger (quoted from recollection.)

Speaking to Patreus, Byrd said:

You have told us, General, at one point, that reconciliation in Iraq depends on security. Elsewhere you’ve told us that security in Iraq depends on reconciliation.

This circular dilemma resembles a dog chasing its tail, and any reputable breeder will tell you, “Don’t pick that puppy.”

Long live old coots!

----- o -----

ROSS DISSES JUSTIN HERMAN

Much tribute was paid at this week’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting to the recently deceased Bill Sorro.

Sorro gained local fame and admiration in the I-Hotel fight, a 1960’s-‘70’s anti-displacement effort.

Ross Mirkarimi , when his turn came, suggested changing the name of Justin Herman Plaza to Bill Sorro Plaza.

Redevelopment (negro removal) continues in San Francisco with the same, some would say, rapacious spirit attributed to Justin Herman.

If Ross can get Justin Herman’s name removed, we’ll send Ross to Washington to get J Edgar Hoover’s name removed from the FBI building.

An exhibit, A Serving of Love: the Passion of Bill Sorro, runs through October 6, 2007

----- o -----

MAXWELL: BRING BACK THE #15

Inauguration of the T-Third light rail line caused a meltdown of the San Francisco’s entire light rail system.

At the time, this blog advocated a return to the status quo anti—essentially reinstating the 15-Third Street diesel bus line, which the light rail T-Third was supposed to replace.

The construction of the T-Third line is another example of capital expenditure boondoggles touted as helping poor folk.

This morning Sophie Maxwell, the supervisor representing southeast SF, requested a hearing before the Transit Authority board on T-Third ridership versus the 15-Third Street diesel bus statistics.

Maxwell said she’s been hearing requests from her constituents to bring back the 15-Third Street busses.

In other words, the new rail line doesn’t work, and can’t be made to work in any reasonable amount of time.

Why did they build the T-Third light rail line?

The only explanation I can think of is the personal benefit of the Mayor and his cronies.

Capital expenditures are a great opportunity for kickbacks. The awarding of contracts is a great way to pay off political debts.

Nowhere in the planning was there a believable statement of benefits to the residents of Maxwell’s district.

San Francisco’s idea of light rail is one set of tracks in each direction.

The googlemap below shows six lanes of traffic on Third Street.

You can easily see the asphalt lanes, two northbound and two southbound. In the middle are two sets of light rail tracks, one heading south, one heading north.

When a diesel bus on Third Street breaks down, or has a medical emergency or is delayed for some reason, the bus coming behind it can get by and continue its route. Even if Third Street is completely blocked, diesel busses can detour on side streets.

With SF’s one track per direction policy, when a streetcar (light rail vehicle) breaks down, or something blocks the tracks, streetcars coming from behind are also blocked.

It’s not unusual to see a broken down streetcar with six or eight streetcars backed up behind it.

This is bad enough on an individual line like the T-Third, but there is a section of the underground where five lines all use one track in each direction. One set of stuck brakes and thousands of people are late.

The T-Third infrastructure—tracks, platforms, control systems have provided no public benefit.

The least City Powers can do for Sophie Maxwell’s folks is give them back their funky but reliable diesel busses.

----- o -----

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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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