Some Things About Ed Lee You Might Want to Read Since the Media Won’t

Watching the ongoing sh*tshow that is City Hall right now, with Ex Mayor Newsom still hanging around, the Supervisors mostly acting like fools, and the endless array of public commenters and the echo chamber of “insiders,” you can’t help but get scared. I mean what if something Truly Horrible happened, like an earthquake, a terrorist attack or something else bad happens? THESE people are the ones in charge?
God help us.
Anyway, whilst hearing all the chatter about Ed Lee, I kept thinking to myself “Hmm, wasn’t he involved in some weird shenanigans with Willie Brown back in the day?” But alas, it seems local media can’t even search their own archives, so I did a little snooping at the inimitable SFGate.
There, I found a few articles by Chuck Finnie and Lance Williams (both of whom have left the then-Hearst owned Examiner for bigger and better things) that might be worth a read by certain Supervisors and so on, just so we all know what we’re getting into here. There’s more, but this was just a sampler. If I were so inclined I suppose I could research and post more links, but this will do for now in advance of Friday’s showdown that’s moot, since it’s not like Supervisors or the Mayor or anyone involved in these dealings really cares about running a city on behalf of its citizen.
Take a look, and make up your own mind:
This piece from 2001 is the last part of a 6 part article about all sorts of shenanigans under Mayor Willie Brown.
Here’s another piece, detailing problems with the Human Rights Commission under Lee.
Remember when the FBI was buzzing around City Hall, finding all kinds of weirdness? Sure you do. Right?
There were all sorts of abuses of the minority set asides used in contracting. Basically companies were getting the set-asides, despite the fact that no people of color were owning or running them. In other words, the City was extolling its virtues, while living like sinners. Surprised?
Anyway, this only took me about 15 minutes of searching on the Gate. Kind of curious that the Gate doesn’t seem to read its own archives. Even more curious that all these grant-funded folks who allegedly are here to “save journalism” don’t seem to be aware of things that happened prior to 2008. Hmm.
PS: For all you fans of the sit/lie law, check out the raucous debate in 1999 about an anti panhandling law that did eventually pass. How’s that working out for you all?
And how’s the enforcement of Sit/Lie going?
(insert sound of crickets chirping here)