Recession gentrification courtesy Norik, TheNorkik.com.
By Tommi Avicolli Mecca
April 7, 2011
Progressives have just been handed another bum deal by our “friends” on the Board of Supervisors, and what are we doing about it?
There were no protests in the streets the other day when the Board of Supervisors passed, by an eight-to-three vote, legislation to give Twitter and other companies six-year tax breaks to move into the mid-Market/Tenderloin area which could effectively gentrify neighborhoods where the city’s poorest folks (many of them queer, transgender, immigrant and/or of color) currently reside. Three of the eight votes were cast by Supervisors who call themselves “progressives.” (Supervisor Jane Kim, David Chiu and Eric Mar). The three progressives Supervisors who opposed Twitter deal were John Avalos, David Campos, and Ross Mirkarimi.
The deal was introduced by newbie Supervisor Jane Kim and co-sponsored by Board President David Chiu.
A former School Board member, Kim swept through the district 6 race last November like a caped crusader (she even had a campaign comic book). With the help of former mayor (and now lobbyist and columnist) Willie Brown, she beat out longtime housing and economic justice activist Debra Walker, who has been a solid progressive activist for decades. Either the Twitter legislation is a mistake made out of inexperience, or Kim’s not what she seems. Time to rip off the cape crusader’s mask.
Chiu doesn’t have the excuse of being inexperienced. This is his second term as board president. He supported a land trust in his district back when he first took office, so he understands that there are other ways to do things when it comes to making neighborhoods better for poor folks without displacing them.
The Twitter vote wasn’t Chiu’s first betrayal.
In December, Chiu had the opportunity to lead the progressive majority on the Board in selecting a progressive as interim mayor, after then-Mayor Gavin Newsom got himself elected lieutenant governor and went off to play in Sacramento. The progressive choices were many, including State Assembly member Tom Ammiano (who declined the job) and Supervisor David Campos, who wanted the job, but didn’t have enough votes among his progressive comrades. Those progressives failed to see that the greater good was served by uniting behind a progressive and leaving the personal agendas at the door.
Clearly with his own agenda in mind, Chiu jumped ship with progressives and backed Willie Brown and Chinatown power broker Rose Pak’s top choice for the job, then-City Administrator Ed Lee, a move seen as a continuation of the Willie Brown machine. A public housing tenant advocate from a time long ago, Lee is no progressive, especially not with Newsom’s advisers still pulling the strings. Lee is backing the Twitter deal.
So is Supervisor Eric Mar, which is really odd, considering he’s usually on the left side of the fence. Politics really does make strange bedfellows.
It’s time we let our progressive representatives on the Board of Supervisors know that our voices can’t be ignored or dismissed. If they’re not going to work with us, then they need to be replaced. We’re the folks who walk the precincts and make the get-out-the-vote calls. We’re the folks who help raise the money and canvass the streets to give them visibility.
We elect them to represent us, not the interests of Twitter, Willie Brown or Rose Pak.
The Hunger Site
April 9, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Thanks to John Avalos, David Campos, and Ross Mirkarimi. As for the rest of the members on the Board I think of them as corporatist excrement. Some people call themselves a “progressive,” but all one has to do is to look at their actions and one will see that the person is anything but a progressive. Where were the protests? I wouldn’t have expected any. If anything, the corporatist SUV baby “factories” (with their sidewalk-wide strollers) who have moved into The City in recent years probably agree with this Twitter corporate welfare. It’s been years since I’ve seen any sizable protest come out of The Castro, for example. Most people have been corporatized or have allowed themselves to be. Then there are those who are more concerned with texting sillies on their gadgets all waking hours than being concerned about something really important. Then you have those who were involved in “radical” left groups 20-30 years ago who have since done a 180 and now they are rabid right-wing. I don’t understand people like that at all. As I get older I’m going the other direction (getting more left). I don’t buy this “moderate” label that is used to describe the corporatist excrement on the Board. I think of them as right-wing and there are degrees of right-wing just as the pro-war, pro-torture, pro-rendition, pro-illegal spying corporatist congress in DC is right-wing. “Moderate” is a just a label used to deceive people. Like that Scott Wiener piece of work who acts like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth while he votes with the right-wing of the Board. Why did D8 elect him? I’ve since talked with some people who voted for him and they couldn’t tell me why they voted for him other than “he’s a nice guy” and he personally came to their door and talked with them or he left them a little note. Talk about shallow people! But those I’ve talked with could not come up with anything of substance as to why they voted for him. I also expect that most are not paying any attention to how he’s voting on the Board. I know that the BAR have their lips firmly planted on Wiener’s anal orifice. I think they’ll raise him up to the level of another Harvey Milk in the future, but if Harvey Milk saw Wiener’s voting record he would be appalled, I suspect. Thanks for the article. Thanks again to the 3 supervisors who voted against this corporate welfare nonsense.
April 9, 2011 at 3:55 pm
el Greco,
Hey, I’m a realist. Your side won. They usually do. Gentrification has worked all the way down to the ballot box and it’s hard for me to imagine a Progressive Board majority again in my lifetime (maybe 20 years if I hold to family form). I’m not bitter at all. It’s not unusual to wait a generation for your local sports teams to grab the gold hoop of a championship and politics is no different. Congratulations on your victories. I’m having a great time partying with your troops at Daly’s Dive.
The alternative to ‘trickle-down’ economics of the sort that Chiu and Kim are practicing is to tax the Shorensteins and their ilk to the hilt. I doubt Progs can get a winning vote on that while Dennis Herrera is still there to write the ballot measures.
The bigger problem is that the legs of our economic structure (tourism and offices) are not sustainable. One car bomb and tourism is gone and businesses like Twitter are always looking for greener pastures.
Best bet for the City is to encourage more schools to set up shop here and they’re actively discouraging that. So, up is down and black is white and I’m gonna smoke a bowl of great pot to ease the pain.
Go Giants!
h.
April 8, 2011 at 5:41 am
Y’all are in denial or something. Progs were against the Twitter/Mid Market tax deal but offered no alternative except “let Twitter move out of SF and take their jobs with them.” To folks who have to work for a living, that sounded pretty lame, but Progs never crafted a message other than “No”. It’s sounding like local progressives have become the party of No–against a lot of things but offering no solutions.
April 7, 2011 at 9:05 pm
tommi,
The Board w/Kim and Chiu siding with Moderates replaced Eileen Hansen as the Board appointee to the Ethics Commission with a Moderate corporate lawyer opposed to televising their meetings. Campos joined them and said he thought the committee hearing hadn’t found enough wrong with the candidate (Dorothy Liu). Except she’s opposed to open government. And, she’ll be there for 6 years.
Couple of weeks ago Sean Elsbernd shot down David Campos’ nomination to the MCI and replaced him with Scott Wiener. That was at committee and Kim did not object. That’s another 6 year appointment.
The list goes on. Last month Kim unseated a long time (30 years) creator of gardens in neighborhoods and schools and a landscape architect with a realtor. Kim said she likes, “new blood” . Hmmm, is Willie Brown ‘new blood’?
Yet the Progs still claim Kim and Chiu are in their camp and condemn Jeff Adachi by trying to save jobs through Pension Reform. Jeff and Gonzalez are the only two true Progs who have run major City-wide campaigns and they’re anathema?
What’d that character say in the movie?
Oh yeah:
“I got a bad feeling about this one, Vern.”
Go Giants!
h.
April 7, 2011 at 6:52 pm
I meant David Chiu is in his second term as board president, my bad for not making that clearer. I never supported Jane Kim, I supported Debra Walker for district 6 supervisor.
April 7, 2011 at 5:13 pm
I must have all my facts wrong. I thought David Chiu assumed office January 8, 2009 and was only in his first term. I also thought Tommi Mecca supported Jane Kim.