By Bruce B. Brugmann
Well, one of Don Fisher’s little helpers is James G. Maxwell, principal architect of Architects II and president of the San Francisco Council of District Merchants Associations.
He sent out an email plea, late Monday afternoon on election eve, trying to help the Republican billiionaire and his downtown buddies round up more little helpers in the small business community to vote against their self interest and help Fisher reverse decades of good transit first planning and jam thousands of more cars into downtown San Francisco for the rich folks in their new highrise condos.
Maxwell was happy in his letter to further highlight and tee up more of Fisher’s little helpers: the Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods. Which means that lots of merchants in the various neighborhood merchants associations and lots of residents in the various neighborhood associations found themselves lined up by Maxwell and his allies as Fisher’s little helpers in his ruinous onslaught against good planning and common sense.
Imagine: he wants more cars to service the highrises and downtown (Prop H) at the same time he is opposing a measure to help the Muni (Prop A), which would help the rest of us throughout the entire city. And the associations representing neighborhood business and neighborhood residents get suckered into being little helpers for Don Fisher. Fisher has a lot of explaining to do about his use of child labor in India and the business and residential associations have a lot of explaining to do about their support of Fisher’s wrongway campaign for more cars in San Francisco.
Maxwell repeated that the SFCDM put the measure on the ballot. But he was doing the bidding of Fisher, who was the driving force and major donor behind H. See the attached Steve Jones story. For more on the little helpers, see the Ammianoliners.
Postscript l: Let me be specific about Fisher’s involvement in H. He has personally given about $250,000 to the No on A/Yes on H campaign, funding the signature gathering initially and splitting the cost with condo developer WebCor. Fisher has since funded the mailers and the consulting fees for Jim Ross.
Postscript 2: I am happy to report that the Potrero Merchants Association figured out the issue quickly and refused to go along with the Fisher measure. B3
Click on the articles below to learn more about the Gap’s Don Fischer in San Francisco politics.
Transit or traffic: There’s a real chance to fix Muni
By Steven T. Jones
Joining the battle: Records show how Newsom opposed downtown parking limitations.
By Steven T. Jones
Continue reading after the jump for an example of Fischer’s little helper.