Mayor Gavin Newsom
Photo by Luke Thomas
By Chris Carlsson, SFStreetsBlog
Editor’s Note: Mr. Carlsson assesses political ladder climber Gavin Newsom’s sudden embrace of environmental values, exposing a deceptive branding campaign that belies Newsom’s record.
July 14, 2009
Gavin Newsom is running for President, er um, I mean Governor (you gotta take these things one step at a time). Maybe he’ll make it, maybe something will wreck his chances.
It’s an interesting drama from the point of view of recent American history, as he follows in the footsteps of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, and has surrounded himself with a retinue of advertising professionals… you know, those people who do nothing useful for society but are extremely well-paid to craft lies and deceptions and help the powerful stay on top.
Newsom is a vacuous politician with no rudder or internal gyroscope grounded in any values other than what will get him on to the next stop of his political ambition. His advertisers (do they advise? I think they just advertise) are shrewd enough to keep associating the Newsom Brand with the innovative thinking and practices that are practically boiling out of political sight in San Francisco.
But we cannot and should not think of him as an ally since his track record is demonstrably empty when it comes to doing what he says.
Continue reading Newsom’s Empty Promises
The Hunger Site
July 14, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Gavin Newsom started out well as mayor but ran out of steam.
At the start of his term, he broke through the supes’ logjam on homelessness, reduced (for a while) the bureaucracy, and brought a new, can-do spirit to City Hall.
But then he got bored with the practical details of management, hit the bottle, and let city agencies run on auto-pilot.
He revived later on, but has been putting most of his energy into becoming governor. He seems unaware of how much the city has deteriorated during his tenure.
Unfortunately, the progressives have not been able to present a credible alternative.
David Chiu, the rookie prez of the board of supes, is a self-serving climber. He tells everybody what they want to hear, then does what will promote his career.
Chris Daly is a divisive figure, inspiring many in his own district, but disgusting the majority in other districts.
Ross Mirkarimi, although smart, has been focusing on tangential skirmishes, such as the cost of the mayor’s security detail. He has been unable to articulate a large, inspiring vision for the city.
John Avalos comes across as a mix between a numbers-crunching bureaucrat and a bullying high-school principal.
David Campos’s big priority is restoring the practice of giving sanctuary to young illegal immigrants who are suspected of committing felonies.
In other words, the city will continue to be screwed, thanks to the mediocrity of its governing class at both ends of City Hall.
Too bad for the people of San Francisco.
July 14, 2009 at 7:43 am
Like a lot of bike people, Carlsson is still bitter about losing on the garage under the Concourse. The bike people opposed it, but city voters voted for it. Many readers will forget what the Concourse was like before the garage was built; it was in fact a lot like a parking lot, with 200 parking spaces on the surface of the Concourse. Those parking spaces are gone, along with 600 other parking spaces in the area to match the 800 spaces in the underground garage. Newsom supported the garage, and a majority of the Board of Supervisors did, too, not to mention a solid majority of city voters. The Concourse is now a lot closer to being a “pedestrian oasis” than it was before, since the traffic that does cross through is minor and slow-moving. A little enforcement would reduce even that to a trickle.
Carlsson and the bike people preferred the park the way it was before the garage was built—gridlocked with people in cars looking for a place to park—so that they could weave in and out of the perpetual traffic jam on their bikes, thus demonstrating the superiority of their “mode” of transportation.
Once the decisions were made to keep the de Young and the Academy of Sciences in the park, the garage was essential to handle the crowds. And the ballot measure authorizing the garage included an important provision that’s never mentioned by the bike people—guaranteeing access to the park for everyone, including families, old people, and handicapped people. The garage does in fact allow easier access to that part of the park to everyone.
Weird that Carlsson even mentions the Healthy Saturdays issue. In fact the SFBC had to compromise—a compromise facilitated by Newsom and his staff—because they understood that if it went to the ballot they would probably lose, as they did on the issue twice on the same ballot in 2000. This is the unpleasant reality behind all the huffing and puffing by the bike people: they really aren’t terribly popular in the city, which is why the SFBC backed down on their threat to put the Bicycle Plan on the ballot a few years ago.
http://district5diary.blogspot.com/2005/04/interview-with-mike-ellzey-executive.html