Watching City Hall #404 (11-17-05)

“When you’re elected supervisor, we’ll do it your way.”

(or, in other words, ‘When Hell freezes over’.)

I think I’m getting under the skin of some of my fellow ‘Progressives’. I got the above reply when I asked a top negotiator in the just-passed pot legislative battle why they didn’t bring in testimony from Amsterdam as a guide to how San Francisco might craft their own legislation. That was a telling fact.

I’d asked the Mirkarimi camp to hear testimony from the Dutch. I’d asked them to consider having the City both grow and dispense medicinal pot. I’d asked them to consider going to the edge of the envelope and hear testimony from admitted, hard-core recreational pot users seeking access and protection. I’d requested that they hear from druggists and liquor store and bar and restaurant owners as to how they felt about selling pot in their places of business.

Every suggestion was rejected. Mirkarimi instead, placed control of the clubs under the totally intact, Willie Brown appointed pigs who run the Planning Department. … Maybe he’ll learn, but this does not bode well. And, suggests what we all feared. Which is: …

Mirkarimi is ‘Gonzalez-lite’

Republicans cast around 10% of the votes in San Francisco. Their leaders, however, are able to control the bottom line on most of the legislation coming out of the Board of Supervisors. I admire that very, very much. On the marijuana legislation, they polled about 15% in their opposition to Prop 215. Nevertheless, they were able to turn their loss into victory by exploiting the naivite’ of the new D-5 boss and a few pulled strings of their puppets in the planning department. Thus, there’s to be less pot available at fewer outlets. This will, of course, drive up the cost which is anti-consumer.

Understand that the goal of the Republican minority is to make certain that no one has any fun because they don’t have any fun. It is truly that simple. San Francisco had a chance to make a statement with our new marijuana laws. Something new. Something enlightened. Something, pray tell, … ‘Progressive’.

Didn’t happen. The new City rules were designed by the Republicans to drive the sale of pot back into the street. Honest. Be real here. It costs over $10,000 just in licenses and fees to open a club now. That is, if you’re able to blow and bribe your way past Larry Badiner and his trolls in Planning. Brownie Mary couldn’t survive in this environment. As a matter-of-fact, a right-wing local judge charged a ‘medicinal sweets’ vendor (fully licensed) $8,000 to get out of jail after the pigs busted her at the Folsom Street Fair. That’s this year. The cops are only too happy to bust pot smokers. (Enforce a ban on steroids, however, and half of the force would get fired.)

Go ahead and appeal this shit. Know what happens? Well, I do cause I watch the Board of Appeals on the tube and they’ve heard their first cases. They couldn’t wait to drive the pot clubs out of business. … Remember, these people were appointed by Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom at the behest of the likes of Donald Fisher and Richard Blum.

The new legislation is lame because it’s ‘lite’. It is no cause for rejoicing. It is yet another sign of the co-option and dissolution of another Progressive cause. Same thing Ross did with Public Power. Turned completely around on a local career built around his championing of Public Power to support the watered-down ‘Community aggregation’ which can be blocked by PG&E so easily that it is actually a step backward.

Have Progressive values changed?

Nope. Not one bit. It’s our leaders who have been influenced to move to the right. Let’s take the case of Aaron Peskin and Laguna Honda in which, much to the amazement of local wonks, Board President, Peskin has made Louise Renne look like Mother Theresa.

First, he stacks the Committee hearing

No doubt, to give cover to Sean Elsbernd who ‘represents’ D-7 where our local ‘old folks home’ (call it what it is) is situated. The situation is that the Republicans have had so much success with gentrification that there are fewer poor people in town. So, who needs facilities for them?

Fewer blacks too. The older artists have been moving for years. … Lemme run through this fast cause I got a lot of other items and gotta go back to my cat and babysitting duties.

Laguna Honda doesn’t need rebuilt anymore than the de Young museum needed it. Nor, the stables in Golden Gate Park or the boat slips in the Marina or Harding Golf course or the Old Mint. Or, for that matter, Janis Joplin’s bathroom in the Panhandle. These are all scams designed by people like Warren Hellman to fleece the people of money and power. Not so oddly, as each of these rebuilds are completed, access to the poor is all but eliminated.

Back to Laguna Honda. Renne, as City Attorney, helped write the legislation to replace Laguna Honda at it’s original capacity. This is why she’s continued to support the idea. Even, go figure, when her SFSOS crew has put in the fix to cut at least 25% of the beds. They’ve given Peskin the lead on pushing through this cheap double-cross (it fits - cut welfare checks and hospital beds while pushing through tax breaks for the wealthy - even on a bicylce race, for God’s sake!?!) …

So, the downsizing on orders of SFSOS proceeds through various departments and agencies pushed by D-7 supe, Sean Elsbernd until I criticize his move against the poor in his own district and then he can’t make the committee hearing. So, Peskin, who could have appointed another Progressive to replace Elsbernd and killed the fucking reduction of Laguna Honda in committee, instead replaces Elsbernd with Alioto-Pier and uses his position as Chair of the Committee to berate supporters of replacing the hospital as the voters decreed.

It shouldn’t be a surprise. He did the same thing with the Comcast deal a few weeks back. Pretended concern to the people who helped make him Board President as they lobbied him for weeks, then mocked them when the vote finally came down (”Did you think I was gonna change my mind?” he declared) … watch for him to make the same moves behind the doors in Suite 200 on the wi-fi deal. Mark my words, whomever gets the contract to blanket the City will do it with a ‘proprietary code’ which means it will never be ‘free’. (And, he did it with Home Depot. … God, I hate to say that Timmy Redmond is right.)

Let’s get off Peskin’s ass for now while noting one more item of interest from the Laguna Honda screw job. That would be that as patients and doctors and nurses and SEIU members and leaders stood up to be counted, only Robert Haaland refused to make a stand.

It was truly extraordinary. He kept saying: “There are a lot of good people on both sides of this.” ad infinitum. He never called for the one-to-one replacement of beds the other union officials sought. Beds that mean hundreds of jobs for his union members, by the way. Go back and watch the hearing. Haaland would have been smarter to have pulled an Elsbernd and just not show up.

How about those 49′ers?

Class counts with me. Real class that is. San Francisco Forty-Niners coach, Mike Nolan has class. Ergo, the team has class. Ergo, they reflect well upon the City on national TV throughout the Fall and early Winter.

There are enough pro sports teams dominated by selfish assholes. Personally, I’d rather lose every game than have Terrell Owens wearing my team’s colors. Or Jamie Winborne. Or Lawrence Phillips. Or, Barry Bonds. I’m betting most niner fans agree with me.

I do have a couple of suggestions. I wrote a column a couple of years back calling for the team to put the shotgun back in their game plan to keep Steve Young from getting killed. And, to dump Lawrence Phillips. They didn’t listen. Then, Phillips declined to block for Young and it cost us a Hall of Fame quarterback.

I suggested that they move Bryant Young to defensive end. They moved him for a couple of plays and dumped the idea. Now that he’s old, the niners have moved Young to end and he has 8 sacks at the half-way point in the season. They should really walk on the wild side now. You know, move him to outside linebacker. It would improve his field of vision. He still has the agility. And, can you imagine the 295 lb All-Pro tackle chucking a 170 lb wide receiver? C’mon Coach Nolan, what have you got to lose?

And, here’s one for the future. Start playing your corners and wide receivers both ways. They’re both wimp positions anyway. Draft em with that in mind. It will give you a whole new dimension to contemplate in the salary cap/parity era. And, play your tackles both ways for at least a dozen plays a game. I’m so tired of watching Kwafme Harris flailing away while trying to block while back-pedalling. Give him a chance to kick some ass. The others too. No finesse. Just bull rushes. Good for them. Good for the fans. Good for the staff’s reputation.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Welcome to Planet Earth!

Born last friday, November 11, 2005

Twins

Maggie Ruggles-Hillis @ 9:47am

Liam Ruggles-Hillis @ 9:50am

to:

Rich & Michelle Ruggles-Hillis

Liam weighed in at 5 lbs & 2 ozs.

Maggie says that her weight is a private matter

Other odds & ends

Last weekend for Dance Brigade’s Festival for Social Change

MANIFESTI - VAL

Spell

13 INVOCATIONS
for
REGIME CHANGE

NOV 18 - 19 - 20

Created by KRISSY KEEFER

Performed by Dance Brigade:

TINA BANCHERO
LENA GATCHALIAN
SARA BUSH
KAREN ELLIOT
RICHELLE DONIGAN
KRISSY KEEFER

Music written and performed by COPPER WIMMIM

@

DANCE MISSION THEATER, SAN FRANCISCO

3316 24th Street

San Francisco, CA 94110

(415) 273-4633

TICKETS: $20 in advance, $22 at the door.

(Show runs 1hr.)

**Note** The audience is invited to join the cast after friday’s show for complimentary wine & snacks. Friday and Saturday shows begin at 8pm. Two Sunday shows … 2 & 6pm. ( Wonks be alerted … Steven Hill saw the show 4 times and it is his favorite show. He has the dvd and goes around quoting excerpts of it.)

Also, the Bulldog has 2 dozen free passes. Contact me online to reserve. Come to support independent revolutionary dance in San Francisco.

Other

“I want to blow them all up!! … (pause) … Except kids.”

(one view on the war in Iraq)

“Can you get a child-proof bomb?”

(Jens’s answer)

Newsom praises ‘Fibrous Tumor’ installation

I’m headed to babysit my granddaughter, Tandiwe in a couple of hours and I’ll walk across Alioto Plaza on my way up into the Haight. On the way, I’ll pass a ceremony at which Mayor Gavin Newsom will be turning on the lights of the 50′, natural Douglas Fir municipal Christmas tree. … NOT!

Actually, Gavin will be praising a piece of sculpture that, for all the world, most closely resembles a cross between a hairball and a malignant tumor. Unless he’s lying, that’s his idea of art. Go see it and see if you think I’m wrong. I once said that there’s nothing more dangerous than a billionaire with bad taste who thinks they have good taste. … Please Gavin, tell us that this particular installation was not your choice. Please tell us that, Gavin. Please, please, please.

Taking it on home

I’ve no reason to think that Newsom has bad taste. Although, like all men, he looks better in a baseball cap, sweatshirt & jeans, his normal ‘expensively subdued’ look works for him. And, though one could easily question many of his appointments, his ‘arm candy’ has always been off-the-scale and his top staff are mostly an urbane and witty group. (There, Luke, I said something nice about Gavin.)

Of course, I have it better than the Mayor. I go to sleep and wake up whenever I choose (that took 60 years) … I don’t much give a shit what anyone thinks of me. I’m not worried about my future and I don’t owe anyone any favors.

I have two fabulous kids all grown up (no fault of mine) with 4 grandchildren and another due in January who aren’t waiting for me to die cause I ain’t worth shit and it could end up costing them.

It’s way too late for me to die young and I’ve done things in and out of bed that scholars will ponder for a hundred years.

Like Dede Wilsey, I basically live from party to party. On fridays, I have a standing invitation for my 40 favorite political wonks to meet me for a late lunch. Usually, a dozen to 15 and sometimes more show up. It’s a writers’ salon. Together, the group could elect Elmer Fudd to congress. That’s where I come in.

I don’t mean to brag but, if it weren’t for me, many members of that powerhouse group wouldn’t be in the same room together, let along, sharing and analyzing. People go out of their way for me because I truly am, when you get past the bullshit, a caring and generous human being and a valuable resource in every area from how to change a diaper to how to elect a governor. I’m a friend. … And, all those things are equally important for me.

This isn’t all ego, folks. A dozen people who frequent these little soirees could easily become POTUS in their lifetime. And, deserve it. I just love smart people. If you’re invited, show up. If not, come with a friend. You might meet your campaign manager. Or biographer. Or new boss. Or mate. … Or, (if you’re lucky) all of the above.

So, tomorrow we have salon at 1pm which runs to 3pm or later of late … Mirkarimi’s monthly art opening starts at 5pm. (He’ll be happy to see me.) He runs out of wine by 7pm which will give you just enough time to make Dance Mission by 10 minutes before 8pm. We should be out of the cast party by 10pm and I just happen to be catsitting Alex Clemens’ ‘cats with no names’ a few blocks away in a loft with windows 15′ by 20′ on an upper floor from which Rachel & I lay in sweaty lust a couple of nites ago and watched a full orange Harvest moon float diagonally across the Bay and Mission and on to China. … I don’t know if you’re invited to that one. … What did the old people used to say as they leaned back and sipped good wine after Thanksgiving dinner? Ah, I remember: “I wonder what the poor people are doing?”

Bring an extra bottle!