Some interesting bits on Gavin Newsom in this week's New Yorker magazine:
"Facing a $370 million dollar budget deficit, a record, he cut his own salary by 15% and fired more than a thousand people from jobs he had identified as superfluous. Many of those let go had been hired by Willie Brown."
"Newsom put a finger on his temple and said, "No other major city in America hands out as much cash, which is why all the Bay Area homeless come here - San Mateo gives fifty-eight dollars, Alameda twenty-five, and Chicago gives no dollars - but all we're doing is reinforcing failure... Check day is when drug dealers come to town, emergency rooms are overwhelmed, there's a precipitous drop in shelter use."
"In the months since then[Care not cash passed], the city's homeless caseload has dropped by almost fifty per cent - bearing out Newsom's argument and, for now, nearly silencing his critics."
-- Steve