Category Archives: San Francisco Politics

So far this election season has been one of the most depressing ones we’ve had in a while. At a time when San Franciscans have a chance to change our City and make things better, we’ve seen the full force of political corruption joining with corporate/plutocrat funded media to rig this election as much as possible.
It’s bad enough that Temporary Mayor Ed Lee has proven to be a liar, and to be a corrupt, arrogant “business as usual” politician, but it’s worse when we see the lamestream media pimp a candidate like the Chronicle and the Bay Citizen, to name a few, have this year. The print journalism people wonder why it is that they’re going the way of the dinosaur – perhaps their corruption is just too much for readers to take.
As for the charity-funded “media” – their days are numbered when the wealthy find a new fad to invest in, but in the meantime have provided some of the most biased news in town, so bad it would make even the political pamphlet known as the Bay Guardian blush
However, thanks to the bullshit voting system known as Ranked Choice Voting (or whatever the f*ck it’s called now), things get even blurrier. Because one has to vote for three candidates, you can bet that many people will end up putting St. Ed Lee on their ballot somewhere. This will do more to help him than anything else, because under ranked choice voting, if you put the front runner ANYWHERE on your ballot, you’re more likely to help them, even if they aren’t your first choice.
Yes, that’s right. I am hoping we abolish this system after this election and send it back to the east coast lefties who sold us this snake oil, and we can go back to honest elections.
In the meantime there is one solution to the corruption at City Hall – vote for ANYONE but ED LEE. Vote for whomever you want, but for the love of God and City, don’t put this thug’s name anywhere on your ballot.
If you’re wondering who to vote for, three reformers come to mind: Public Defender Jeff Adachi, an effective administrator, author, businessman and filmmaker, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, an effective reformer who fought for gay marriage and is against the Central Subway to Hell, and Assessor Phil Ting, who’s trying to run a campaign not based on lies, but instead asking voters to help create solutions at City Hall.
These are just a few, but whatever you do, vote for ANYONE BUT ED LEE. We can’t afford another four years of corruption and lies and Willie Clown Brown and his minions.
Artwork created by Eric of Baghdad By the Bay.

Debates are a tricky proposition when you have more than 2 candidates running for office. Endless side debates begin about Who Gets To Participate and Who Doesn’t, and so on. This has been especially difficult since we still may have more candidates running for Mayor here in San Francisco after the official filing period ends.
That’s why the debate on August 16th at 7:30pm, co-sponsored by the Alliance for Jobs and Sustainable Growth, and Comcast, is worth checking out. This will likely be the first major broadcast of a debate, post-filing, and given the sponsors, should be a quality event. If you’re not familiar with the Alliance, it’s a coalition of business, labor and community groups dedicated to finding long-term prosperity for San Francisco that benefits everyone, not just the connected. Comcast, you know of course, but the fact Comcast is putting time and effort to produce this event deserves a high five.
Best of all, you, the voter can participate. Go to the Facebook Page for the debate, and once you “Like” the page, you can post suggested questions for the candidates for all to see. This is your chance to ask the tough questions and see what happens. Check it out!

So there I was, reading yet another “What if Temporary Mayor Lee Runs For Office” blather on some news site or whatever, and it got me to thinking – just how many people are running for office, while (supposedly) serving the public?
Let’s take a look:
Current Mayor – Running? Not Running? (this tease is getting very tiresome, btw)
City Attorney – Running for Mayor
Assessor – Running for Mayor
President, Board of Supervisors – Running for Mayor
Supervisor Avalos – Running for Mayor
Supervisor Mirkirimi – Running for Sheriff
District Attorney – Running for DA (Appointed in 2011)
State Senator – Running for Mayor
To be honest, with so many people in office running for another in an “off year,” if Mr. Lee decides to have a “do over” on his promise to be a caretaker, look for City Hall to basically shut down for the rest of the year.
There’ll be so many people posturing and looking for short term gimmicks so they can slap some crap on a piece of dead tree mail and spend special interest cash to pay for it, you can’t expect much to happen.

After much talk, hearings, discussions, screaming, and caterwauling, the Board of Supervisors gave preliminary approval to a plan to transform Park Merced, an aging post-war, suburban style development into something from the 21st century.
Depiste expanding rental opportunities, offering to pay for Muni improvements, building facilities, reducing car dependence, and using earth-friendly building techniques to reduce carbon emissions, predictably, the “change nothing” crowd, in concert with the left-leaning supervisors, voted against it (but it passed anyway.)
Ironic. Despite all these things San Francisco allegedly values, 5 Supervisors voted “no” anyway. I guess being a “progressive” in San Francisco means that it’s better to talk big in campaign junk mail vs. doing something in the real world. Mindblowing.
However, let’s put aside the bizarro politics for a moment for now and talk about something we can all factually determine about Park Merced, as is. It sucks.
It really really sucks.
Seriously.
I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again: Park Merced has sucked for decades and will continue to do so unless it is substantially redeveloped/rebuilt. Anyone thinking this place is some sort of rent-contorlled Shangri-La is either an idiot or delusional. Pick one, I don’t care.
In my entire adult life I can’t remember a time when people didn’t find these units to be overpriced, easily damaged, and had problems with deposits, repairs, etc. Many people I grew up with went to San Francisco State in the mid 80s and would end up renting a place there since it was near the school, and back then it sucked too. In the ensuing decades, every so often I’d know someone who’d move there, only to move out within a year or so because of all sorts of problems. (You’d think that someone who’s worked at SFSU for 20 years would know this already, but I suppose not.)
While the current owners deserve some praise for getting the asbestos out and at least trying to make the place look nice, even now you can do a Google Search for “Park Merced Sucks” and you’ll find a long list of blogs, Facebook pages and more decrying the decaying apartment blocks and bungalows.
The point is simply this: If we leave Park Merced to continue to be what it is, it is going to fall apart soon anyway and all that housing will simply go off the market, rent control or not. Good luck getting anyone to pour more money to “save” these decaying, cheaply built blocks – no sane owner would bother to do so, laws and “rights” be damned because it’s a money pit. They’ll just let it rot and collect the rent.
In the end, this whole episode exposes once again how some people in San Francisco sure like to talk big on issues like “the environment” , “climate change” and “housing” , but when asked to do something beyond a meaningless “non binding resolution” or a symbolic law that doens’t really do anything, some people are content to simply walk away and vote to keep the status quo, no matter how screwed up it is. Worse, they cloak their do-nothingism in politically charged rhetoric about “tenant rights,” even though they supported a similar deal a few years ago downtown.
The big difference? Someone on “their side” authored the deal. Partisanship trumps practicality once again at City Hall.
Meanwhile, Park Merced STILL SUCKS.
PS: Comments that are polite and stick to the issues are welcome. Comments that are rude or stupid, however, are not.