The defensive reaction of some (but not all – some have welcomed this public discussion) Greens to my story this week on the party’s declining fortunes in San Francisco seems to underscore a key reason for the fall: many Greens would rather hurl insults or adopt self-righteous postures than engage in critical self-examination or do the hard work of progressive organizing.
Researching my story, I was amazed to learn that nearly one San Francisco voter in three declines to identify with any political party. That represents a significant opportunity if progressive political parties and entities can figure out how to organize these independent voters and address their issues. It might even create pressure on President Obama to reengage with the left.
Yet the Green Party numbers have dropped just as the DTS ranks have risen. And in the comments section after my story, Greens try to simply deny that reality (falsely claiming a comeback has already begun), question my motives, and write-off the newsworthiness of this story (despite the fact that the Wall Street Journal today published a very similar story to mine).
But I’m more heartened by some of the thoughtful comments about my story, creating an interesting conversation about the relevance of third parties, the mechanisms of power, and the pitfalls of following charismatic leaders. That’s the kind of productive discussion that I hoped my article would create, and I hope that it continues.
One of the most important reasons to remember Dr. King was his championing the cause of Memphis strikers and others who sought union recognition
By Dick Meister
(Dick Meister, former labor editor of the SF Chronicle and KQED-TV Newsroom, has covered labor and politics for a half-century.)
“I AM A MAN,” the signs proclaimed in large, bold letters. They were held high, proudly and defiantly, by African-American men marching through the streets of Memphis, Tennessee, in the spring of 1968.
The marchers were striking union members, sanitation workers demanding that the city of Memphis formally recognize their union and thus grant them a voice in determining their wages, hours and working conditions.
Hundreds of supporters joined their daily marches, most notably Martin Luther King Jr. He had been with the 1,300 strikers from the very beginning of their bitter struggle. He had come to Memphis to support them despite threats that he might be killed if he did.
By Steven T. Jones
After going through a ridiculous security check (I waited 15 minutes for an “escort,” but they never even inspected my bag) to get into Mayor Gavin Newsom’s invite-only State of the City speech last night in the Asian Art Museum, I chatted with my colleague Melissa Griffin, the blogger and Examiner columnist, as Newsom worked the room.
The mayor eventually wound his way over to me, and when I turned to greet him, he gave me a playful shove, knocking me off balance and telling me, “Be nice!” Just minutes into his speech, in which he promoted corporate tax breaks and a discredited “local economic stimulus package,” I understood what he meant.
When he introduced this trickle-down economics initiative almost a year ago, we cited studies showing that it was a political gimmick that didn’t work and shot down Newsom’s claim that the city’s economist supported this giveaway of public funds to the private sector.
But last night, Newsom chided the Board of Supervisors for not scheduling hearings on his proposal to waive payroll taxes for new businesses and new jobs, create tax credits for health insurance costs, and extend current tax breaks for biotech companies, seemingly oblivious to the fact that such actions will add to the massive budget deficit that he barely mentioned.
The Chronicle today quoted gleeful Chamber of Commerce head Steve Falk and the chilly reaction that this strange initiative got from supervisors, but San Francisco Democratic Party chair Aaron Peskin went even further, this morning telling us, “I am so disappointed that the mayor of San Francisco is taking a page from the playbook of the Republican Party. This sounds like Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics. In an era when some of the richest corporations have made zillions of dollars and the U.S. government just gave them zillions more, now we’re going to close hospitals and say we can’t pave our streets.”
New Times Media LLC, the holding company for the Village Voice chain, has failed in its attempt to suspend the charging order entered last week in San Francisco Superior Court in favor of the Bay Guardian.
The charging order gives the Guardian a lien on all of VVM’s newspaper properties and furthers the independent local paper’s efforts to enforce a $21 million judgment.
Commissioner Everett A. Hewlett, Jr., rejected the attempted Ex Parte Motion to Stay brought by New Times on the basis that New Times failed to show the existence of any emergency.
Commissioner Hewlett also held that to suspend the charging order, New Times would have to post an appeal bond as in any other civil case, instead of a much smaller amount that was sought by New Times’ counsel.
New Times’ attorney Randall S. Farrimond argued that New Times could not post an appeal bond for the full amount, because it was merely a holding company and does not have any assets.
But Bay Guardian attorney Jay D. Adkisson pointed to a financial analysis produced prior to trial by New Times, which showed that New Times claimed total assets of $191 million as late as December, 2007.
New Times and its subsidiary SF Weekly LP collectively owe the Bay Guardian nearly $21 million resulting from a jury verdict for predatory pricing that was entered in 2008.
In 2008, shortly after the jury verdict, New Times was successful in obtaining a temporary suspension of the judgment similar to the one that it unsuccessfully sought on Monday, but then refused to post an appellate bond.
New Times has instead attempted to rely on its complex corporate structure to defeat the collection of the judgment while it pursues its appeal.
In a statement posted on the website of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, VVM Executive Editor Mike Lacey and CEO Jim Larkin argue that the court order is “very limited.” Not so, says Adkisson; the ruling gives the Guardian considerable leverage to collect from the New Times papers. In fact, if the charging orders were so worthless, it’s surprising that the VVM legal team has spent so much time and effort fighting to block them on an emergency basis.
In the statement, Lacey and Larkin also insist that they simply want their day in court – that they don’t want to pay until the California Court of Appeals has rendered a verdict.
But that conflicts directly with what VVM and its lawyers have told the Guardian’s legal team on repeated occasions. Those communications have suggested that VVM doesn’t believe the Guardian will ever collect any money, since the chain has an asset-protection plan that would frustrate any creditor.
VVM has more than adequate assets to post an appeal bond – but if the chain posts a bond, and the Guardian wins the appeal, the bond guarantees that we’ll get paid. Posting a bond would render any asset protection plan moot.
Our position has been clear from the start: Either VVM should pay the judgment now, or it should offer a guarantee that the money will be there when the appeals are over. And over the past two years, in repeated legal rulings, four San Francisco judges have agreed.
Sumo will save us all! Andy Ristaino’s contribution to “Into the Ring, Sumo Style”
The life of a sumo wrestler, as it turns out, is not much unlike that of a thoroughbred racehorse. Both live in stables- called heya in the case of the Japanese martial artists, where life is highly stratified by the wrestlers’ ranks- and both live life according to their handlers. For the sumo wrestler, this is the head of their stable, always an ex-wrestler, and the National Sumo Association. Their stable head oversees their sleep schedule, diet, what clothing they can wear (novices get a paper-thin robe, even in the winter) and training, while the National Sumo Association takes care of everything else. One unlucky sumo wrestler had the bad luck to crash his car and the Association immediately suspended him from a game. On a short leash, them sumo boys.
Plus, they both do drugs. Racehorses have their ‘roids or horse tranquilizers or whatever they use to get quick, and it turns out sumo wrestlers have been known to toke the wacky weed on occasion.
This all to say that there is more than meets the eye about these exotic creatures. Something about all this regimen, their sleekly obese good lucks, and they way they throw themselves around… one begins to see why the mystique of the sumo has spread to the Bay Area artists that are putting on “Into the Ring, Sumo-Style,” an exhibit showing at the SOMarts Cultural Center.
Leading the pack is cartoonist Marinaomi, whose watercolor renditions of sumo wrestlers belching and excreting colorful balloons set the tone for an offbeat assemblage of pieces that pay homage to these whales of the Land of the Rising Sun. You get Sumo Elvis (Gabrielle Gamboa), Sumo Food Court (Fredrick Nolan) and even Sumo Godzilla Fighter Andy Ristaino). It all takes place in the arty SOMA industrialized wonderland that is SOMarts, a place I love for the sheer originality of their installations.
Picture it: fat men with their hair in buns, everywhere. All that and free sake to boot. Bomb.
“Into the Ring, Sumo Style”
Opening Reception: Fri/15 6-9 p.m. (exhibit continues through Sat/23), free
SOMarts Cultural Center
934 Brannan, SF
www.somarts.org
Get a copy of Roulette – or any one of your favorite Reel Queer Productions videos – signed by Madison Young or Courtney Trouble at Saturday’s special Good Vibes event.
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>> How to Be the Dominant Guy Women Want
BDSM veteran John Lichtenberg hosts this free workshop for men of all ages, experience levels, and relationship statuses (and also women who’d like to observe). The workshop is based on the concept that old models of masculinity no longer work, and men need to learn how to please women in a way that feels sexy and safe to empowered, sophisticated women.
Thurs/14, 7pm
free
Fort Mason, SF
RSVP to johnlitchenberg@gmail.com
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>> Sneakeasy Speakeasy
The cocktails will be cheap but the girls will be high class when Dottie Lux hosts burlesque performances by Bunny Pistol, Honey Lawless, sASSy Hotbuns, and more at this one-time-only show at the soon-to-be-closed venue.
>> Little Minksy’s
The cocktails will be cheap but the girls will be high class when Dottie Lux hosts burlesque performances by Bunny Pistol, Honey Lawless, sASSy Hotbuns, and more.
Tickets to Burning Man 2010, with its art theme of “Metropolis: The Life of Cities,” went on sale today and they’re going quick, with the first tier of 9,000 tickets for $210 selling out in about 100 minutes and the second tier’s $240 tickets (same quantity) selling out a few hours later.
And unlike in previous years, when glitches and crashes caused frustrations among those who waited in online lines for hours, today was basically problem-free. “Things were super smooth,” says Burning Man’s communications manager, Andie Grace. “There was just so much preparation.”
The next batch of tickets goes for $280 each, with the price moving to $300 after 9,000 tickets or March 31, whichever comes first. Black Rock City LLC, the San Francisco company that stages Burning Man, encourages people to get their tickets early so they commit to spending time acclimating to the culture and preparing to create a marvelous city in the desert near Gerlach, Nevada.
As I’ve reported, there’s lots of excitement for this year’s event among lovers of cities, with the Metropolis theme seeming appropriate for an event that started on Baker Beach in 1986 and has grown into a unique temporary city of nearly 50,000 souls. The frontier has become a city, with a vibrant year-round culture that’s particularly evident here in the Bay Area.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm about the theme and the art conversations that are out there,” Grace said.
Yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting was thrown into disorder when a woman began shrieking, “Get away from me!” She was yelling at Sheriff Deputy Thompson as he forcibly led her to the door of the Board Chambers, gripping her by the arm.
An angry showdown manifested in the corridor just outside the doors when a group began shouting chants in protest of the officer’s move.
The woman, Maria Cristina Gutierrez, is a principal at Mission-based preschool Companeros del Barrio, she later told reporters. She and other preschool staffers had attended the meeting with a group of kids, ages 3 to 5, to deliver handmade cardboard messages to Sup. David Campos opposing the Muni layoffs, since some of the kids’ parents will be affected. She told reporters that once she realized they were short on time and wouldn’t be able to stay for the whole public comment session, she was scrambling to get the signs completed and hand-delivered to the supervisor.
Exactly what took place next will come under close scrutiny in the course of an investigation, but it’s clear is that the situation escalated to the point where the entire meeting was disrupted, Gutierrez wound up with a mark where her arm was twisted, and the kids were frightened. This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened at a Supervisors meeting — last July, Fog City Journal blogger Luke Thomas was also forcibly ejected from a meeting by Deputy Thompson after being told he was getting too close while photographing an event.
According to a sheriff’s incident report containing a narrative from Sheriff Deputy Saenz, who was also on duty, the trouble started because Gutierrez, her adult son, and two of the kids were blocking the center aisle when they were working on the signs. They did not respond to requests made in English and Spanish to return to their seats, the report notes.
They’re spending a lot on prisons, but not on lunch — this is what CDCR serves
According to an article in the SFGate and the governor’s State of the State address the governor wants to increase spending on higher education and reduce spending on prisons. Personally, I don’t care if this is political wrangling or not, it’s about the most sensible thing to come out of the governor’s office in quite some time with respect to prisons and prison spending.
“It’s a very simplistic solution to a very complex problem,” said Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster. “I believe the first priority of state government is to keep people safe. To cap that certainly doesn’t make any sense to me.”
You know, sometimes simple solutions to complex problems are the only solutions that work. It seems as if California and its government have been over thinking the whole issue on prisons for quite a while. If more money is spent on higher education then maybe less people will go to prison? Simplistic, yes, but makes sense, right?
What’s so complex about the problem anyway? The complexity really lies in how, after many years of an increasing prison budget and a decreasing higher education budget, years of crying out how awful EVERY SINGLE PERSON in prison is, years of political maneuvering, the political folks will reduce costs while standing by their claims that less spending on prisons erodes public safety. That is the complex part.
There will be many detractors like Sen. George Runner, but they are not thinking long term or big picture. They appear to be concerned only with their political futures, either that or they are just idiots (maybe both). I have, in many past blogs, expressed the idea that if you educate you reduce public safety risk. If these politician’s are really concerned with public safety they will gladly make more funds available to higher education.
Meanwhile, take a look at the pictures in this blog and ask…who is really making money from CDCR. It ain’t the inmates!
CDCR celebrates the capture of inmate cell phones — but who do you suppose smuggles them in an makes money off them?
Oh — and they aren’t spending much money on maintenance, either — at least, not when it comes to the plumbing. Everything at CDCR seems to be in the shitter:
Come, join me by the fire … Photo by Virginia Miller
Deep South elegance in a San Mateo cottage: Dollie Marie’s
I can never get enough of that unique-to-the-US cuisine: Southern cooking. Enter Dollie Marie’s, delightful, boisterous Chef Gator’s latest, whose restaurants I’ve had the pleasure of eating at through the years (and sadly saw close), from Noe Valley’s Alcatraces to Gator’s in downtown San Mateo. When Southern cuisine has a touch of white suit jacket (the waiters), fine dining elegance at reasonable prix fixe prices of $38 for three courses or $49 for four, I’m lured in.
Add in an amuse bouche, a palate cleanser, homemade candies, and courses cooked with love and finesse, place it in a gorgeous cottage, fireside glowing, each room lined with photos of Chef Gator’s family through the generations, and I’m won over. I’m already thinking about when I can next make it to this new gem in the Bay Area dining scene, tucked away off El Camino Real in a non-descript part of San Mateo. For less than the cost of many mid-range San Francisco restaurants, there’s the finest frog legs I’ve ever eaten, blackened catfish, alligator and caramelized onion gratin, turtle soup, pan-fried oysters and bananas foster. Service is attentive and the atmosphere welcoming, like dining in a friend’s New Orleans’ home. You feel like it’s a special occasion, even if it’s not. 1602 South El Camino Real, San Mateo 650-638-938 www.dolliemaries.com
(c) The Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu / Photo Credit, David Barker
1/20 – Science of Cocktails
Yes, there is a science, in creativity and experimentation, to cocktails, and next Wednesday at the Exploratorium there’s a one-of-a-kind event, answering questions like "Will drinking absinthe make you hallucinate?" and "Which hangover cures actually work?" Unfortunately, this night is now sold out, though word on the street is that the Exploratorium’s website will recap recipes and experiments you can try at home post-event. Maybe Science of Cocktails will become a tradition, returning next year – especially since so many of us SF locals geek out on the craft of mixology. Why not explore the physics, chemistry, and biology of the delicious drink you hold in your hand? Wed, 1/20 7-10pm Palace of Fine Arts, 3601 Lyon Street visit.exploratorium.edu/events/science-of-cocktail
The California Independent System Operator (ISO), the body that for years has required the Mirant Potrero Power Plant to stay in operation despite grave health concerns raised by the surrounding community, put it in writing today that it will allow the entire plant to be shut down by the end of 2010. Following years of pressure from community activists and elected officials, the commitment signifies a hard-fought victory that will eventually mean better air quality in San Francisco’s southeast sector.
In recent months, the ISO agreed to lift the operating requirement from Unit 3, the largest electricity generating unit at the plant, which produces smokestack emissions nearly 24 hours a day. Because the Trans Bay Cable, a transmission line that will run under the bay, is expected to go live as early as next month, the ISO agreed that Unit 3 would no longer be needed to ensure electricity reliability. But until today, the ISO would not budge on lifting the requirement for three smaller units — known as Units 4, 5, and 6 — which are diesel-fired and more polluting.
But during a telephone discussion with Mayor Gavin Newsom this morning, CEO Yakout Mansour of the ISO finally changed his tune, and then submitted in writing that the ISO would allow all units to be released from must-run status by the end of 2010. The reason is that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has a re-cabling project underway that will fill in a power gap in the city, making it unnecessary to keep the three diesel units going. Mansour’s decision followed a technical study based on PG&E data.
“PG&E provided new data regarding the load carrying capability of two replacement underground transmission cables they are installing between Martin, Bayshore, and Potrero substations,” Mansour explained in a letter sent to Newsom this morning.
Considering that almost no one agrees on what a G-spot even is — an area of internal erectile tissue within the upper wall of the vagina? Similar tissues surrounding the urethra and/or the vaginal vestibule? Glands and ducts making and secreting some sort of prostate-ish ejaculate? An “orgasmic platform?” An imaginary friend? Without any clear sense of what may or may not be rattling around in there, variously unnoticed and/or cherished, it doesn’t matter how many women are asked, “Well? Got one? Huh? Well, do you or don’t you?” So either there is more to this study than reported, or it may be the all-time winner, poorly-designed sex research, women’s division. And that is saying something.
“But,” you protest. “They used twins. Doesn’t that make it all sciencey and stuff, since they had a proper control for the experiment built right in there? Sure, kinda, if they had been poking around with ultrasound dildo-cams and comparing the results. But this wasn’t that kind of study. (Italian researchers did do this recently, and found “an area of thicker tissue” that was promptly dismissed by the G-spot deniers.) The most conclusive search for some sort of heritable, distinct internal tissue would probably be conducted using deceased twins, so they could excise, measure, and weigh the likely tissues, as both Slovakian and Australian researchers have done with small numbers of cadavers. You find me 1,800 deceased female twin pairs who thought to will their bodies to science and I will design and conduct that research myself. I’ll rent a storage space or something. Like Dexter.
Even the scalpel-wielding mad dissectors, though, had no idea if their subjects’ differing amounts of glandular tissue corresponded to different degrees of sexual responsiveness. So they were not answering the question in a way that is actually applicable and useful to live women wondering if there’s something hiding in there worth issuing their partners a miner’s helmet and emergency rations in case they get lost.
I don’t even know why I’m still bothering to consider “is there a G-spot?” a serious question worth spending time and money to investigate. Frankly, I’ve had it up to here (and down to there) with G-spot zealots and G-spot dismissers. Yes, of course I’m interested (and so ought you be) in the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. And I certainly want to know that any descriptions of female generative organs I happen to proffer are rigorously accurate. I don’t think these are the questions that women and their partners are really asking, though, when they corner a sexpert and beg her to draw them a map.
Most want to know why vaginal intercourse feels OK but doesn’t make them come. Or why it does, when everyone knows that’s the clitoris’ job. They want to learn to be more responsive to vaginal stimulation, or learn to ejaculate, or not to. They want to know why that one thing that one partner did worked so well and if they can teach their new partner how to do it, or they want to know why their last partner went crazy when they did that thing and their new one doesn’t. They want to learn how to have more fun with vaginas. And they can.
Not all women are going to learn to go off like M-80s the second someone sticks something in there, but with the right partners, angles, and attitudes, most can get a lot closer. The twin subjects couldn’t have given identical answers without identical sexual histories, and since you can’t find such subjects, you would have to make them. I don’t even want to imagine how you might go about doing that. OK, I do, but that’s because I kind of like kinky science fiction, which I realize can be an acquired taste, just as vaginal responsiveness can be an acquired trait. Go forth, spelunkers, and explore.
It’s easy to pick on the Café Gratitude cabal of which the “vegan taqueria,” Gracias Madre is the newest representative. At the original CG raw vegan menu items are named after affirmations- from their “I am insightful” spring rolls to the “I am cherished” cheesecake special. Plus, there’s the issue of their
By Steven T. Jones
When the Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 this morning to approve Assembly Bill 390 – legislation by Tom Ammiano that would legalize and tax marijuana, even for purely recreational use – it was an unprecedented action in the United States.
“It’s huge. It’s exciting. And we really have to thank [Democratic committee members Nancy] Skinner, [Jerry] Hill, and Jared Huffman for their support,” Ammiano told the Guardian. “I’m feeling really gratified.”
Unfortunately, the bill has now been referred to the Assembly Health Committee and the full Assembly must approve a rule waiver to get it heard by Friday’s deadline for such two-year bills to clear committee. Even if that happens, the Health Committee is larger and filled with more moderate Democrats, so it’s chances of being approved in this session are slim.
“It doesn’t diminish what happened today. If it dies, we’ll reintroduce it by the end of the month,” Ammiano said. His press secretary, Quintin Mecke, told us, “This is the first time in U.S. history – not just California history, but U.S. history – that a bill that would legalize marijuana has passed a legislative committee.”
Kamala Harris is in a perfect position as the San Francisco D.A. to file charges against PG&E for violating state law
EDITORIAL When Carole Migden, then a state senator, introduced the bill that allowed cities to form electricity co-ops through community choice aggregation in 2002, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was at the table. Migden didn’t kick PG&E out or deny the private utility its chance to have input on the bill — for better or for worse, according to all participants, PG&E was part of the process that led to the bill’s passage. And in the end, the company actually supported the measure.
But now that cities and counties are trying to implement it, PG&E has shifted position and is spending millions on a statewide initiative that would, for all intents and purposes, destroy CCA. The initiative would mandate a two-thirds vote in every community before any public power effort, including CCA, could take effect. That’s an almost impossible threshold — particularly when PG&E will be opposing every single proposal and using its almost unlimited resources to do so.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a petition with the California Public Utilities Commission today urging it to restrict Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s hostile attacks against Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), a program that allows local governments to establish alternative power programs.
The petition asks the CPUC to modify one of its decisions by inserting clear language spelling out that that investor-owned utilities are prohibited from sending out anti-CCA marketing materials, making misleading statements, or engaging in other activities that interfere with the creation of these alternative energy programs.
San Francisco’s CCA, dubbed CleanPower SF, is in the phase of reviewing five different applications from prospective electricity service providers. The goal of the program is to offer San Franciscans electricity derived from 51 percent renewable sources by 2017 at rates that match or beat PG&E prices. Contract negotiations with the highest-scoring candidate could begin as early as next month.
PG&E initially supported to the 2002 legislation, AB 117, which enabled the creation of CCAs statewide and prohibited utilities from interfering with efforts to set them up. But in recent months, California’s largest utility has made a complete turnaround, spending $5 million on a proposed ballot initiative that would require a two-thirds majority vote in local jurisdictions before governments could implement CCAs.
As Marin County and San Francisco move forward with their respective attempts to set up greener alternatives to PG&E, the pressure is intensifying. Several weeks ago, a wave of attack mailers paid for by PG&E crashed into San Francisco homes and businesses. This is the sort of activity Herrera is seeking to prevent by filing today’s petition with the CPUC. Because the city is short on time, he requested an expedited review.
“We cannot let Californians be denied the benefits of cleaner, cost-effective energy alternatives — consumer choice is simply too important to ratepayers and the environment,” Herrera said. “The California Public Utilities Commission exists to police giant utilities, to assure that their monopoly advantages aren’t abused to exploit consumers or frustrate the policy objectives of our state lawmakers. Yet that is exactly what has happened since PG&E locked CCA into its crosshairs. It is critical for state regulators to move quickly and decisively to tighten regulations, and restore teeth to the law as the legislature intended.”
Nobody likes the folks who drive around and issue parking tickets, those poor souls who used to be called “meter maids” and are now known much less lyrically as “parking control officers.” It’s a tough job — PCOs get assaulted, abused and sneered at. But they bring in a lot of money for San Francisco.
And frankly, it’s not their fault that it’s hard to park in this city. There are too many cars in too little space — and too many San Franciscans who came from more suburban areas think that they ought to be able to drive anywhere and find a free spot to park. But it’s not like that in this city.
Anyway, I was intrigued to see that the SF MTA is now planning to lay off 24 PCOs. That’s along with four mechanics, 10 people who clean trains and buses (eew, that’s going to make things nice on Muni) and handful of others.
First of all, I understand that the MTA has a budget problem and nobody wants to raise Muni fares any more. We could have solved a lot of this by extending parking meter hours, but the mayor didn’t want to do that. So now we’re looking at cuts.
The problem with cutting people who write tickets is that, in the end, I think less tickets will be written. And however joyful that may be to the free parking set, it will wind up costing the city money in the long run.
The overall problem with all of this? Muni, for all of its problems, is one of those public agencies that just get better when you throw money at them. That doesn’t always work; the solution to every public-sector problem isn’t more money. But when it comes to Muni, I’ve followed budgets and performance over the years, and I think it’s pretty clear: When Muni is better funded, the buses run more often, are on time more, are cleaner and come closer to providing a valid alternative to driving.
When you make cuts, the system gets worse, more people drive, and everyone complains that Muni is no damn good.
City employees and working people generally need all the friends they can get in these perilous times. Willie Brown is not likely to be one of those friends in need.
By Dick Meister
(Dick Meister, former labor editor of the SF Chronicle and KQED-TV Newsroom, has covered labor and politics for a half-century.)
As former Mayor Willie Brown suggested in his Sunday Chronicle column on Jan. 3, “it’s time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue” about civil service. For starters, Willie should get his facts straight and get off the anti-public employee bandwagon that so many politicians are riding these days.
Brown said, for instance, that “the deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life.”
Not so, Willie. Public employees were paid less because, if they were qualified for their jobs – as shown by civil service tests and other means – they were more likely to continue working for the government and were willing to accept long-term benefits – primarily health care and pensions – in lieu of higher pay.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that banning cameras in the courtroom for the Prop. 8 trial is worthy of an emergency order, the best way to follow what’s going on is to pick up the live updates from prop8trialtracker.com. Rick Jacobs is offering not only good news coverage but some poignant commentary:
UPDATE] 12:47 It’s hard to think while this goes on. I’ve never before been on trial, but today every gay or lesgbian person in the country is on trial. The testimony brings up all of that “stuff” that I keep pretending I’ve left behind. I grew up near Knoxville knowing I was gay, but never wanting to be. I dated girls, just like Jeff did. I hid from myself. I became an Orthodox Jew in LA and almost got married because I did not want to be gay. When Boies asked Jeff if he’d be in a more loving, stable relationship if he married a woman, it was not a throw-away. That’s what the NOM folks want you to believe. They want you to believe that if Jeff or me or so many others of us who were born homosexual would just marry a woman, the world would be a better place.
But nothing is further from the truth. How many marriages have broken up because one partner or other was not in love and finally had to leave to be true to his or her nature? How many times in history has a person committed suicide, drunk himself to death or even abused a spouse because he or she was in a marriage that was not real? Society is weakened by these false constructs.
One last point: the defendants had better spend time in the five states in which same sex marriage is now legal. Mr. Cooper, the defandant’s lawyer, said we need more time to see if same-sex marriage will do harm. That means he must support it in those states. His position is regressive and without sense, but if he really believes what he said, get he to New Hampshire and Iowa to preserve same sex marriage!
One of the odd elements of all this: Vaughn Walker, who is hearing the trial without a jury, could wind up issuing one of the most important queer-rights rulings in legal history, and so far, he’s been more than open to the anti-Prop.8 side. In fact, the Prop. 8 supporters were the ones who didn’t want cameras, and Walker ruled against them. But there was a time when the queer community did everything possible to try to block his appointment to the court.
Caitlin Donohue isn’t a sports writer. But she sure likes to win. Check out the last installment of “Game Theory” here. Oh, and give us a shout if you’ve got a big game coming up in the Bay.
Hoot, holler and chug that 22 ounces of Coors Light- Anthony Morrow’s deal-sealing three pointer just sank for the Golden State Warriors. Photo by Erik Anderson
Last night I stepped into the vertigo-inducing bowl of Oracle Arena and got the immediate urge to fall in with rest of the belligerent Golden State Warriors fans. This team just makes you want to get crazy. Down in the seats to my right, a pack of teenage girls in high school volleyball sweatshirts screamed obscenities over the aisle at a gang of over-matched, thirty-something Sacramento Kings fans. The next section over eight women in sparkly pink tiaras danced proudly to AC/DC’s “T.N.T.”, their gyrations fantastically recounted in the Jumbo-tron overhead. In the middle of it all, large men with dismal season records dunked the ball and juked the defense and strutted about.
One is tempted to give credit for this happy mayhem to the 22 ounce beers. They are one of the most awesome parts of Warriors games at the Oracle Arena. Snack bar workers keep tall cans of every light beer on the planet behind the counters and when you order one ($9-12), they pour them into mega plastic cups for your convenience. Why can’t we just have the cans? Yet another great American mystery.
The Bay Guardian has moved a step closer to enforcing a $21 million judgment against SF Weekly and its parent company.
A California judge ruled Jan 4th that the Guardian may tie up the assets of the Village Voice Media chain. Commissioner Paul Slavit granted the Bay Guardian’s motion for an order charging the interests of the various Village Voice newspapers with liens.
The lien affects 16 companies nationwide, including the LA Weekly, Minneapolis City Pages, Denver Westword, Kansas City Pitch, Miami New Times, New Times Broward-Palm Beach, Phoenix New Times, Riverfront Times, Ruxton Group, Seattle Weekly, Lancero Associates, Dallas Observer, Houston Press, OC Weekly and the flagship publication The Village Voice.
The ruling creates additional opportunities for the Bay Guardian to collect the money. Attorneys for the Bay Guardian will next be exploring the possible sale of one or more of the Village Voice chain’s newspapers, the appointment of a receiver to take control of the companies, and the possibility of placing the Village Voice chain into an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding.
“We are very pleased with the order and will press on aggressively to collect the money owed us as a result of the SF Weekly’s illegal below-cost sales campaign aimed at putting us out of business,” said Bruce B. Brugmann, editor and co-publisher of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
The judgment stems from a 2008 verdict in a Guardian lawsuit charging SF Weekly and its owner with selling ads below cost in an effort to harm a locally owned competitor. After a six-week trial, a San Francisco jury awarded the Guardian $6.3 million, which Judge Marla Miller increased to $15.6 million. With attorney’s fees and accrued interest, the judgment is now worth close to $21 million.
The Weekly and VVM have appealed — and in most cases, collection efforts would be delayed until after the appeal. But most defendants post an appeal bond — in essence, a guarantee that the judgment will be paid after the appeals are exhausted. VVM hasn’t done that — and instead has sought ways to avoid payment.
Dennis Herrera’s son believes his dad will do a great job–and here he says so in Mandarin.
There were a lot of things to like about City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s Jan. 7 swearing-in ceremony.
Alex Tourk and Aaron Peskin chat each other up.
It brought together a who’s who of Democratic elected officials, past and present, a string of supervisorial candidates, department heads, union leaders and other party cling-ons. In other words, prime feeding ground for sharky journalists in search of juicy pieces of chum.
State treasurer (and former State Attorney General) Bill Lockeyer did a good job of kicking off the event.
And it ended with cupcakes–in other words, prime feeding ground for snarky journalists in desperate need of calories.
Board President David Chiu, Mayor Gavin Newsom and City Attorney Dennis Herrera await the swearing-in.
And, as an unexpected bonus, we got to see Herrera’s eight-year-old son Declan get up and say, “I know you’ll do great, Dad,” (amongst other things) in English–and then switch into seemingly fluent Mandarin–a skill he apparently picked up by attending Chinese school, according to his obviously proud dad.
Declan wows the crowd with his bilingual prowess (and we suspect he speaks Spanish, too.)
But there was a protest action that marred Herrera’s otherwise flawless swearing-in–and it bothered the City Attorney no end, even though it was a silent protest and did not interrupt his ceremony.
Organized by the San Francisco Immigrant Legal and Education Network (SFILEN), (oops, supporters of the action subsequently contacted me to say it was organized by the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Defense Committee) the protest sought to keep the limelight on the city’s newly amended sanctuary legislation, which the Board of Supervisors approved with a veto-proof majority last fall, but which Mayor Gavin Newsom has repeatedly said he intends to ignore.
Hererra, for his part, says he will doing everything he can to defend the amended legislation, which seeks to ensure that juveniles get their day in court before being referred to federal immigration authorities.
The legislation was amended in fall 2009, 16 months after Newsom ordered city officials to start referring suspected undocumented juveniles to ICE, when they are booked on felony charges.
Since then, immigrant advocates have documented how Newsom’s policy has needlessly ripped families apart and had a chilling effect on the local immigrant community. And they believe it’s within Herrera’s powers to tell the mayor that he must implement the new policy, which Sup. David Campos authored, personal preferences notwithstanding.
This is why a string of immigrant rights advocates showed up at Herrera;s swearing-in and silently held up signs that, pieced together, read, “Herrera’s advice sends kids to ICE”. But while their message was intended to goad Herrera into pressuring Newsom into implementing the newly amended sanctuary law, it obviously succeeded in exasperating the City Attorney, who says he is doing everything within his powers around this legislation,
Reached by the cupcakes, Herrera told me that “nothing could be farther from the truth” than the protestors’ message.
“I just say what the law is and what the risks are,” Herrera said. “Folks spreading misinformation are doing a disservice to a very serious issue. The policy objective is important. We don’t want innocent kids deported. I’ve had good meetings with immigrant advocates and lawyers. We are working with them to see what sort of arenas that might allow us some possible implementation.”
Herrera also noted that the letter his office sent to the US Attorney Joseph Russoniello, warning of possible legal action, was simply laying out a standard legal option.
“It’s not saying we are going to do it,” Herrera explained, addressing advocates’ concerns that the City was going to enter into a legal suit instead of implementing duly-enacted legislation.
