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Eric any luck?
--- eric dupree <dupreeconsults@...> wrote:
apologies to Walter Shorenstein is this
is
a little bit lefty, but well worth the
read,
especially for you Eric...
Jester reviews Substitute Mayor
(12-9-06)
"It's business as usual."
(Francisco De Costa)
"The same people are dictating public
policy."
(Eileen Left)
Yesterday, SFSOS spinmeisters,
David Latterman (on SFist) and Phil
Matier (Matier and Ross) kicked off a
new round of the 'Gavin can't lose'
screed, both quoting a bullshit poll
(from
David Binder, a discredited hack)
reporting Gavin's popularity at
"80%" (questions and polling samples
were never provided - until a couple of
years ago, no credible news organization
would publish a poll without them).
The idea is to get not just the public,
but
other politicians thinking that a Newsom
re-election is a fait accompli. I
don't
think so. Not if those of us in the
alternative press spend the next year
hammering away at the mayor's actual
record. At the heart of Gavin's
vulnerability is his continual bait and
switch with the voters. At the behest
of his Downtown masters. That's why
I'm calling Gavin Newsom, the
'Substitute Mayor'. Downtown looks at
legislation they don't like, creates
'Evil
Twin' measures and tell Gavin: "here,
substitute this!!".
Newsom's people have all the
money and no imagination. So, they
create 'Evil Twin' legislation or
initiatives. Consultants like Clint
Reilly and Jack Davis made fortunes
defeating good measures by copying
them, adding a poison pill paragraph and
outspending reformers 10 to 1 to make
certain that no real reform took
place.
When the voters are able to pass
something they desperately want (say, a
fully staffed police force - ignored
since
'97 cause it would cost the cops
overtime) ... when the voters pass
something Downtown doesn't like, they
drag their feet, get a ruling from a
conservative judge flipping the voters
off, or simply ignore it. As long
as
the developer-driven Downtown machine
can hold onto the mayor's office, the
City
bureaucracy (and, the mayor) can ignore
the wishes of the voters. And, as
long
as they control 90% of the local media,
they can spin tales pretending they
aren't
doing just that. Ahhh, that's a long
gravy train.
Both the short and long-term
consequences of usurping the will of the
electorate are disastrous. That's
because they maintain and perpetuate an
application of resources and a moral and
ethical status quo that ... that are
racist
and elitist and are destroying the soul
of
the City.
The present San Francisco
economy is built around tourists and
greedy landlords and developers and
spoiled mega-richsters and corporations
that have no conscience. They aim
to
keep it that way and Newsom does their
every bidding. It is an economy built
on sand. Our major revenue streams
are one anthrax attack away from
collapse. One car bomb. One
crashed airplane.
I'm not gonna get into the variety
of scenarios possible for any of the
above disasters to cut the City's income
in half. For who knows how long?
I
won't get into who holds the mortgages
but I will mention that most of the large
projects were funded by money presently
in public retirement trusts and promises
of future taxes (that should go into our
General Fund) ... taxes that instead,
go
to a Redevelopment Agency monster
whose ruling directors are all chosen by
the Substitute Mayor.
What does Redevelopment use the
money for? Well, traditionally, for
'Negro Removal', but with most of them
gone, they've broadened their cleansing
efforts to simply remove the poor in
general. They do this by building
housing that is out of reach for all but
the top 10% or less of the citizenry (if
you buy) ... and reducing units (new)
for those making less than 32k yearly
(that's the Mercy Housing requirement)
which includes pretty much every new
artist, dancer and musician in Fog
City.
Hey, these clowns enunciated their
philosophy through their think tank
(SPUR) 40 years ago and it hasn't
changed. Chester Harmann quotes a
SPUR document called 'Prologue for
Action' in his 'City for Sale':
"If San Francisco decides to compete
effectively with
other cities for new 'clean' industries
and
new
corporate power, its population will
move closer
to standard white Anglo-Saxon Protestant
characteristics. As automatation
increases,
the need of unskilled labor will decrease.
Economically and socially, the population
will tend to range from lower middle-
class
through lower upper-class ...
Selection of a population's composition
might
be undemocratic. Influence on it,
however,
is legal and desirable for the health of
the city."
SPUR was referring to the
Redevelopment Agency's Yerba Buena
project and the necessity at not just
getting the poor out of the area, but
making certain also, that they didn't
return when the neighborhood was
rebuilt. Go check out Yerba
Buena. They've succeeded. They
have 33 cameras watching the
development and their own police force
who'll toss your ass out if you don't
pass
dress code. Taxes from the project
don't go to our General Fund where the
Board of Supervisors would have at least
a small voice in how they're spent.
Nope, they go back to Redevelopment
and will for a few more decades.
Same with the new garage in
Golden Gate Park. Private property
for at least another 35 years. Union
Square ... same thing. And
SPUR? 40 years after the release of
their 'Prologue for Action', their
Executive Director (Gabriel Metcalf in
today's Chron - 12/10/06) continues to
look at SOMA as an area where "several
hundred thousand more living units could
easily be built".
And, they move onward. With
no concern for the things that make a
city
habitable. Let's measure Newsom's
1st 3 years on along those lines, seeing
how often he reverses the voters, the
Board and even his own departments and
their heads:
1. Air ('Environmental mayor'
folds
to polluters & Swells)
Gavin vetoed the 'Healthy
Saturdays' legislation pushed by
everyone in town except for a few old
biddies (rich ones being what counted)
for a trial 'no cars' in Golden
Gate.
The 'Healthy Sundays' program has been
Park & Rec's biggest success and even
Newsom thought it was worth a try to
keep the air clean in at least that small
section of the park on Saturdays.
Gavin liked it, that is, until Dede
Wilsey
put her size 3 high heel up his rectum.
C3 parking legislation. This
one was a doozie. Designed to keep
down automobile emissions in the Mid-
Market business district, it set
limitations
on garages and curb cuts and the
like.
Everyone, including Newsom loved it.
Dean Makris, his Planning Director
loved it. The Planning Commission
loved it. The Board loved it.
Everyone but Walter Shorenstein loved
it. Guess who won? Newsom
reversed field in a scandalous 'C3-Gate'
fiasco that included a forged letter from
Makris (written by Matt Franklin - who
blamed it on Marshall Foster - brightest
of the administration's whiz kids - he
quit
and went north shortly thereafter) ...
whole thing stunk and the results are
that
Shorenstein makes more millions and
you get the fumes of a few thousand
more cars to breathe when you go
downtown.
2. Water ('Environmental mayor'
folds to Swells)
What's the problem with Donald
Fisher being handed control of the soccer
fields in all of the City's parks?
Well,
as many as he wants, anyway. And,
Donald won't be running them. He's
handed them to his kids as a kind of
timeless legacy.
Problem is, he's gonna pave over
all the fields first, then lay down fake
grass. What this does is to divert
hundreds of acres of catch basins that
have been feeding the City's only aquifer
(Lake Merced to you) ... will divert
the
millions of gallons of water that
normally
filters through these fields into storm
drains and on out into the Bay or
ocean. And. And, with the Swells
controlling scheduling (judging from
what they've done elsewhere), kiddie
leagues can be charged up to $160 an
hour to use the Fisher's private turf.
3. Power (Newsom folds to PG&E)
What happened to our 1 megawatt
Tidal Power demonstration project?
As I predicted, Newsom's move into
Room 200 was the end of that.
PG&E's influence is stronger than
ever. They're not only not talking
favorably of Tidal Power (that would
gore the entire Neocon petro industry)
... they're pushing more nuclear power
plants. I know, he could put one in
Hunters Point.
"He closed the Hunters Point
Power plant!" Yeah, and replaced it
with 3 huge turbine engines. But, at
least he put the turbines in Pacific
Heights, right? Well, actually not
(where do you get such an idea?) ...
they're in Hunters Point.
4. Public Safety (Sold out
completely)
Gavin's handlers are big on
choosing appointees (top to bottom) on
the basis of Political Correctness
instead
of ability. It looks better on his
long-
term resume'. Thus, you get an over-
the-hill incompetent like Annemarie
Conroy put in charge of OES. He
says she's 'improved' the place? I
lobbied her for over 2 years to simply
paint neighborhood fresh water cisterns
(lids) so's people could find them after
'the big one'.
His fire chief's main
accomplishment has been to destroy the
program combining fire and medical
services. She refuses to live in the
home the City built for its chief (told
us
to make it into "a bed and
breakfast").
The new fire trucks are painted damned
near camouflage colors (one of em's
already been in a wreck). To her
credit, though, technically, she's not
qualified the job, her grandfather was
one of the most powerful Democrats in
the Sunset.
The cops? Don't get us
laughing. The POA runs the force and
they're all about risk-avoidance.
Willie let them ground, then sell their
helicopter fleet and warehouse their
pagoda/cobins. There are more of
them, they are better paid, equipped and
educated than at anytime in SF history
and crime is up and arrests are down.
They refuse to staff the force up to full
complement; they harass the OCC,
threaten the members of the Police
Commission, the Board of Supervisors
and the Mayor. The force is actually
more arrogant and out-of-control than
they were under Willie. I didn't
think
that was possible. They're the only
department operating emergency vehicles
whose force is not required to subject
themselves to random drug tests.
They've continued their unabated attacks
upon the press, continuing to reduce
press passes (they shouldn't issue them
at
all) ... they even colluded with the
feds
to put Josh Wolf (freelance video
journalist) in prison for refusing to
turn
over his sources.
Newsom should be defeated just
for his failure in the area of Public
Safety. Once again, his funding,
staffing, equipment, training and
benefits
are at all time highs and performance is
horrible. In the 3 years since he and
Kamala Harris have been in office, there
have been 167 murders. Thus far,
Gavin's SFPD and Kamala's prosecutors
have combined for exactly 1
conviction. While nationally, fire
departments are combining with
paramedic forces (those really out in
front have 'Public Safety Officers' who
are cops as well) ... while the rest of
the country creates multi-disciplined
forces, San Francisco heads the other
way.
5. Park and Recreation ("Would you
like these poor kids' lunch money?")
Another abominable record.
Newsom diverted almost 20 million
dollars from the state that was ear
marked for repair and upgrade of parks
in poor neighborhoods ... diverted it to
his 'World Class' makeover of the
Swells' Harding Golf Course (it made
money til Gavin took office, now it's a
big loser and we're told that he just
might have to privatize it). The guy
spent a million bucks landscaping the
friggin' parking lot at Harding before
the
only PGA event to be held there. That
was enough to unclog and repaint 50
toilets in the parks, but Newsom wanted
the Swells' place to look good for Tiger.
I've mentioned his handover of the
soccer fields to the Fishers. He's
closing the Boat House, has kept the
stables closed (I've seen the drawings
and you won't be riding there). He
pushed through a 47 year lease of the
most valuable piece of land in town.
That's the parcel the St. Francis Yacht
Club sits on. Gavin gave them reduced
rent for a half century and for a few
bucks more they can discriminate and
keep it all private. That's only a
piece
of the Yachtsmen's deal. The City
will
also remove most of the slips (parking
spaces) for the small sailboats so there
will be more room for larger yachts.
But, it's tough to get a really big yacht
in
without spending 40 or 50 million to
build a new breakwater. Even though,
experts have said the new breakwater
will destroy the sea wall that protects
Marina Green. You seeing yourself in
these plans?
6. DPW (where election thugs go)
When Mohammed Nuru got
busted for using his crew (over 20 ex
cons) in the SLUG program to campaign
for Newsom and intimidate voters, the
SLUG program was eliminated. OK,
good so far, right? Uh huh, but then,
Newsom moves Nuru over to DPW and
promotes him to Deputy Director. Not
only that, he then proceeds to fire 20
perfectly good DPW workers and replace
them with Nuru's goons. So, the
dismissed workers appeal to the Board of
Supervisors who add enough money to
add the positions back. The Mayor's
office promises to do so but pulls a
double-cross. Instead, Phil Ginsberg
(head of Civil Service) devises a multi-
part screening process which cuts out the
fired workers. Because they were
whistle blowers.
DPW is huge. Second only to
Health Department in budget. But,
they'd much rather farm their work out to
private contractors who donated to the
mayor. That's why you see the same
curb cut replaced 3 times in 5 years at
an
intersection while the busy street in
front
of the cuts has pot holes that reach
China. Don't believe me? Check the
intersection of McAllister and
Leavenworth.
7. 49'ers (Newsom's fault all the
way)
What developer wouldn't want to
build a 40 story condo tower across the
street from a brand new football
stadium? What football team wouldn't
rather have a parking lot? Put
simply,
as with the C3 legislation and the
Healthy Saturdays initiative, Newsom
got pressured into giving favors to
donors
instead of looking out for the public
interest. Gavin simply got rolled by
Lennar here just as they rolled him in
the
the Hunters Point development where
they removed half of the 'affordable'
housing they promised out of their plans
before a single shovel of dirt was
turned. Oh, the Redevelopment
Agency OK'd that move (the BOS having
passed the reins a few weeks ago and
thus legally out of the picture for the
next half century or so). Then,
Redevelopment voted to use future taxes
to pay for the roads and sewers and
water and so and so that most places
make developers pay for. But, most
developers don't own a mayor.
But, Gavin tried to make it
right. Now, you aren't gonna believe
this, but it's true so listen
closely.
Once Gavin had given up so much to
Lennar at Candlestick that the Niners
gave up on him, Lennar comes to Gavin
with another proposal. There's a
parcel of land at the Hunters Point site
that Lennar is developing. True, this
place is a nuclear waste dump.
However, Lennar says they can 'cap'
it. I guess kind of like
Chernobyl.
And, Lennar says that they can build
their stadium over the nuclear dump and
since they'll only play there 12 times a
year, the radiation accumulated shouldn't
be too bad. Don't you love this mayor
and his playmates?
8. Community Demographics
("Don't let the door hit you in the ass.")
SFUSD lost another thousand
students this last year. That's
Newsom's fault too. All studies agree
that the high cost of housing is the
number one reason that families with
school age children leave San
Francisco. Since Gavin has only
increased the rate of gentrification,
this
is his fault.
9. Public Discourse ("What the
voters meant to say.")
The voters said they wanted to see
Newsom do a 'Question Time' with the
BOS in the Board Chambers once a
month. How much do you figure it
will cost to move the Board and all of
the
SFGTV staff and the mayor and his
people to a different rich white
neighborhood each month? That's the
mayor's idea. Just another substitue
idea from the Substitute Mayor.
Conclusions
For those who say that Newsom is
unbeatable, I saw that they should study
this superficial look at what's really
happened to San Francisco under Gavin's
watch. The streets are more
dangerous. The air is dirtier. The
49'ers are leaving. The prime
recreation facilities in town are either
privatized or are in the process of being
privatized. The fire department is
headed backwards. The cops are out
of control. The libraries are open
fewer hours. The streets are full of
potholes. Most of the public
restrooms
are locked shut or filthy. Tidal
power
is buried while giant new gas generators
spew more pollutants into the Bay
View. The mayor only listens to the
rich. He's overruled the voters or
twisted the meanings of their words.
This boy can be had.
Just ask Walter Shorenstein.
We need a real mayor.
Not a Substitute.
h@...