Further Evidence That Female Politicians Are NOT Screwing Their Interns

As if we didn’t already know this.  It makes perfect sense.  Women are better legislators than men, says a new study conducted by researchers at Stanford University and the University of Chicago.  According to Politico.com, the study has (preliminarily) concluded that “on average, women in Congress introduce more bills, attract more co-sponsors, and bring home more money for their districts than their male counterparts do.”

Duh.

As a former political candidate, someone who works with politicians every day, and a graduate of the Emerge program,  it’s pretty clear to me that female politicians simply work harder than their male colleagues.  Perhaps it’s because women are still under-represented in elective office and they feel as though they stand for their gender to anyone who is paying attention.  Or perhaps it’s just that, in the words of Gloria Steinem, women are never frontrunners.  Women have to work twice as hard as men to be treated equally, and this work ethic probably follows female candidates into office. 

And then there’s the elephant in the room. Perhaps female legislators are more effective because they are far less distracted by their libidos.  You know what I’m talking about, that study that has yet to be written that says that a female legislator is far less likely to be caught sexting with an underage intern or bragging into a microphone about how she boffed a lobbyist with a spanking fetish.  I mean really.  Just THINK of all the time female polititicans are saving by NOT traveling to Argentina for an extramarital affair or surfing the internet for porn once a week or more. 

I wonder, how much time during the day does your average male politician think about sex?

Apparently it’s about the same amount of time that their female colleagues are using to write legislation, win over co-sponsors, and secure funding for a hometown project. Oh yeah, backwards, in high heels.

on average, women in Congress introduce more bills, attract more co-sponsors and bring home more money for their districts than their male counterparts do.

 

OMG! TXTING ON TH PLYA!

Holy Bejeezus on a Ritz cracker!

 

There is cell phone service on the Burning Man playa this year.  I can’t even wrap my head around this, since the total absence of telecommunications and media is one of the things that makes Burning Man so special – a complete escape from the “default world.”

 

Of course, the cell service is probably designed for the capacity of Gerlach, Nevada, population 499 souls, and will most certainly be overwhelmed if every one of the 49,000 Black Rock City residents tries to call their mom while watching The Man burn.  In fact, I imagine that calling will be all but impossible after the gates open on the first Monday of the event.  BUT – text messaging doesn’t take nearly the amount of bandwidth as phone calls and it might work just fine. Whoah.

 

“OMG MACE IS GOING OFF AT BTx!!! CME NOW!!”

“IF U CME 2 OT, BRNG MY PNK PASTIES?”

“MONKEYGRL, STEP AWAY FROM THE WHPITS”

 

I hear from my friends on the playa that even though cell phones are useable this year, doing so is frowned upon – and renegade cell phone poachers are forcing the phone addicts underground.  Hooray!  The Burning Man spirit is alive and well.

 

I, for one, am going to turn my cell phone off for the entire event because I think the absence of instant communication is what makes for the wonderful serendipity out there.  It’s when I turn my cell phone off that my otherwise latent intuition start to kick in. 

I’ll be interested to see if people start to carry their phones around with them, or if they can keep a lid on their infomania for the week. Can’t wait to see how this new development changes the event, as I’m sure it will.

Not Laid Off Yet

Whoah! It’s been way too long. Sorry ’bout that folks. What a long strange trip it’s been.

I’ve been in and out of dire financial distress, exhausting job searches and interviews, staring contests with my mortgage lender, frequent bouts of crying and screaming, tense conversations with family, innumerable listings on Craigslist, interminable wait times on hold with credit card companies, and now? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… sigh. I can breathe again.  And it’s all good. For now.

In March I was put on the City of Oakland’s layoff list.  My doom was all but certain. I’m still not sure how it happened, but I was spared the axe in the 11th hour on June 30, the day before the fiscal year was to begin.  Four of us attorneys were put on the layoff list in March, and the other three were let go.  

Also in March  I received notice from my bank that my mortgage payment would be increasing by 50%.  Since that time, I’ve been able to modify that loan, and it’s taken a lot of time and headache, but it looks like it’s coming back down to a manageable amount.

I’m grateful, and for more than just keeping my job.  I’m thankful for the opportunity these last few months gave me to take a hard look at my finances, my wasteful spending habits, my shopaholism, my living situation, my friendships and priorities, and my career goals.

I’m a changed person, and I think it’s all for the better.  I have a new housemate who is a great addition to my life.  I am saving – saving! – a portion of my monthly pay.  I have freed myself of the impulse buying instinct.  I am making longer term plans for my career and taking more responsibility for my future.   I’ve sold off and given away lots of physical and emotional baggage.  As I’ve said before, I’m scaling my life way back, and it feels good.

But the stress!  It’s been difficult to peel myself off the ceiling, to unclench my teeth and my fists.  I’ve been in high alert mode for so long now, I had forgotten what it was like to relax, to be kind to small animals, to find joy.  I know I’m not alone in this, I see it in the faces friends who are struggling to find a job, or starting a new enterprise to make ends meet, or being forced to move out of their homes. 

And it’s particularly hard to unwind when I know that the City is almost certain to go through another round of layoffs this year.  The experts are saying that the economy is going to continue to get worse before it gets better.  The state legislature’s budget deal will steal billions of dollars from local governments, making it harder for cities to pay for essential services like, for instances, legal advice.

And yet unclench I must.  Because life goes on.  It might take me a while, and I’ll need a little help.  But if I squint real hard, and look at it from an angle, I think I can see that light at the end of the tunnel that everyone is talking about.

Party’s Over, San Francisco

Just in time for spring, the SFPD wants you to know the party’s over.

My friend Mike owns an underground party venue, and last night the cops raided a no-alcohol event at his place with 20 officers.  They told him that a new police task force is taking to the streets with military-style tactics to stop non-licensed parties.  What Mike didn’t know is that, as the Chronicle reported today, this is part of a larger effort by the cops to reign in all party spaces – licensed or not.

SFPD says that a shooting last weekend at 3rd and Folsom prompted the creation of this new task force.  And yet their own homicide investigators admitted that the shooting had nothing to do with a nightclub.   It seems as though they are looking for any excuse to raid nightclubs and parties.

And ironically, the police are making the violence worse.  An April 12 shooting in front of the club Whisper happened only after the police had cleared the club, leaving the crowd outside confused and itching for a fight.  I’ve also heard of rowdy partygoers being beaten by police in front of these clubs, and then later charged with “resisting arrest” and “assaulting an officer” only for these charges to be later dropped.

The struggle of underground venues has been going on for a while.  Another friend owns a space in SOMA that has been dogged for years by the authorities.  His space holds several hundred people, but it’s not licensed because the configuration of the building prevents him from having enough fire escapes to accommodate the City’s strict fire code. Now that the City is cracking down, he has stopped holding all but the smallest of events.

Now I’m not going to defend unsafe spaces.  If there were a fire in any venue, I’d want there to be adequate exits and fire sprinklers.

But what’s interesting to me is the timing of this crackdown.  For years, the authorities have looked the other way since the underground clubs didn’t seem to cause any problems. But not any more.  Suddenly, the War on Partying has gained momentum.

As my readers know, the organizers of Bay to Breakers are cracking down on partying, and we’re still not sure how the new rules are going to play out.   The organizers of the How Weird Street Faire are struggling against the SFPD to keep that fun and funky festival alive.  How Weird is being charged an unprecedented $10,000 for police protection, which is vastly more than what they’ve been charged before.  And, I might add,  How Weird has never had violence problems in its past.

The SFPD came close to shutting down the Bring Your Own Big Wheel event earlier this month, until the Mayor’s Office stepped in to cut a deal with the event organizers and the cops, keeping this Only In San Francisco event around to live another day.   Even Deep Jawa’s tame and silly-fun Flashdance parties are being cut short by the fuzz.

But wait! There’s more.  As if they smelled blood in the water, the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control has jumped into the fight.  According to the Chronicle, ABC is cracking down on all-ages music venues for minor violations, such as not serving enough food.   What the?! Now that’s just gratuitous.  When does it end?

Rumors abound as to why this is happening now.  Is it something about the economy? Are the cops manufacturing a problem to help justify their already bloated overtime budget?  Is the City trying to slit the throats of those who are competing with tax-paying clubs?  Is Captain Tacchini of the Mission Station gunning to replace Heather Fong as Police Chief? Is Fong looking to cement her legacy in these last few months of her tenure? Are a few bad apples causing the cops to overreact, going on an anti-fun rampage?

I don’t know the answer, but this trend is really disturbing.  Surely there’s a way to keep these businesses and events operating in a way that is safe and fun.  Without the wide variety of nightlife options, the spontaneity of harmless parties like Flashdance, and the wackiness of events like Bring Your Own Big Wheel, San Francisco just won’t be the same.

Running Bay to Breakers? Bring a Garbage Bag and a Stadium Pal

OK, here’s the scoop.  Even though the race organizers lifted the bans on nudity, floats and alcohol this year, they haven’t offered any leadership in making this year’s race better.  And what’s worse – they are refusing to provide enough garbage cans and toilets to serve the tens of thousands (a hundred thousand?) of participants and spectators along the course.

There is no doubt that the race last year was a mess.  Garbage  everywhere, neighborhoods were trashed.  Race organizers (AEG) have blamed it on the alcohol consumption, but this blame is misplaced.  It’s not about the alcohol, it’s MUCH bigger than that.  The entire culture of the race needs to be changed.

Events like this have a life of their own, they are a living embodiment of the zeitgest.  But this body can be shaped.

Just as a person can be coached to put the toilet seat down, B2B race participants can learn to treat their city with care.  They’ve figured out how to recycle at home (some of them even compost!) – they can do the same while walking down Fell Street with 40,000 of their closest friends.

But it takes leadership. And the help of the news media.  And a large advertising budget.

And while the participant advocates have been working hard on media coverage, AEG has failed to show leadership and they have so far refused to use their hefty advertising budget to change the culture of Bay to Breakers to make it a more pleasant experience for everyone.  It’s terribly disappointing.  And it is, unfortunately, setting the stage for another messy unsanitary sloppy race.

SO – here’s your to-do list if you’re running in Bay to Breakers this year.

1.  Bring a Stadium Pal. AEG has said that there will be a zero-tolerance policy for public urination.   And yet, they are only providing a few hundred additional portable johns this year.   This is a disaster in the making.  There will not be nearly enough toilets for all of thousands of participants and spectators, and the ones caught peeing in the park will be punished for this lack of adequate planning.  If you don’t have a Travel John (ew!), plan your fluid consumption accordingly, figure out which friends of yours live along the course, and ask them nicely if you and your 50 pirate friends can use their bathroom.

2.  Bring Your Own Garbage Bag. If you’ve been to Burning Man or Yosemite, you’ve heard it before: Leave No Trace.   AEG is refusing to provide enough garbage receptacles for this year’s race so plan to PACK IT OUT.  I know, I know, it means you have to carry that empty handle of Stoli all the way to the Great Highway.  But since you’re not actually running the race, think of it as your personal athletic challenge.

3. Register. Yes, it’s $44!  But do it – this money helps pay for toilets and trash cans, street closure permits and emergency medical teams.  And you should definitely register if you are in charge of a float, or are planning to break any of the new rules (ahem) – in case the police have a few questions for you.   No bib = no credibility.  We’re recommending a two-tiered registration for future races, so you can pay a smaller amount if you don’t want a t-shirt or a timing chip. But this year? Pay up.  It’ll help ensure the longevity of this important San Francisco tradition.

4. Bring Your Float to the Embarcadero. If you’ve run B2B before, you know that no one takes their tiki bar to the starting line.  It’s a lot of work getting it down there, and it’s much easier to get it on the course after the hill in Hayes Valley.  But this year, AEG is insisting that floats enter at the beginning of the race.  If you try entering it mid-course this year, know that the cops might try to stop you.  That is, if you enter at an intersection where they are paying attention.  And if they aren’t being distracted by all the middle age nudists.

5.  Hide Your Keg. While the alcohol ban is lifted this year,  AEG insists that kegs will not be allowed (in fact, floats aren’t to be used to transport alcohol).  I understand the argument, that mass quantities of alcohol lead to more drunk behavior.  But kegs have been around for years, even when the race wasn’t nearly as messy.  There’s a good argument  that this policy is hostile to the environment, as kegs create far less waste than bottles and cans.  The police don’t have the resources to pull every keg off the course, so if you’re  discrete they might look the other way.  Besides, a shopping cart with a keg in it? You can do better than that.

6.  Tell Your Friends to Do The Same. Since AEG has refused to spend any part of their marketing budget on changing the B2B race culture, we’ll have to do it the old fashioned way: word of mouth.  And the new fashioned ways: text message, email, Twitter, Facebook. Tell your friends to party responsibly.  Let’s clean up after ourselves.  Show them we can reduce our impact on the urban environment.  Because if we don’t, AEG will most certainly will try to ban the nudity, the alcohol and the floats again next year. And next year they might succeed.

…And the Recession Hits Home

Friends, I haven’t posted on the blog for a while because it’s been a rough couple of weeks.  First I learned that my monthly mortgage payment is increasing by 50%, and a week later I was informed that I’m on the layoff list for the City of Oakland.  Me?  Me.  Wow.  Big ol’ smack upside the head, a dramatic reminder that I’m not immune to all of the scary and fascinating things that are happening to the national economy.

And yet… there’s hope.  The Obama housing rescue plan might actually help me renegotiate my monthly mortgage payment (YES!).  And I may not actually be laid off if the City receives certain stimulus funding (Go Oakland!).  And if I am laid off, my monthly COBRA payments will be subsidized (yay Congress!), and unemployment benefits keep getting extended (whew!).  And so for the first time I can remember, the folks that I voted for at the national level are making decisions that are directly impacting my day-to-day.  Huh.  Who knew?

And so I’m starting to do things I should have done years ago:  scaling back the size of my life by cutting my monthly expenses and getting rid of all the stuff that I don’t need.  I’m rooting around, taking stock, selling it off, giving it away, and shaking it up.  I’ve been reconnecting with my community – friends and acquaintances who might help me land safely, or who are walking their own paths of crisis and renewal.

And I’m reducing my imprint on the planet – literally.  I’m converting my dining room into a bedroom, so that I can rent it out and defray some of my housing costs and energy use.  I’ve fired my beloved dog walker, and so I’m bonding with my beagle and gettting more exercise.  And I’m physically shrinking – cooking at home more, I’m eating much healthier and losing those last few pounds.  I’m driving less, BARTing more.  I’m finding creative (and free!) things to do with friends that are far more fulfilling than expensive dinners and fancy political fundraisers.  This is kinda fun!  My life is a big Rubik’s Cube of problems to solve, and the colored squares are starting to line up.

And while this Total Life Upheaval could have happened in a less traumatic way (Are you listening, Universe?), I’m actually beginning to feel thankful and more grounded, and looking forward to whatever’s next.

I’m Not Running, But Here’s Who Is

I’m not running for District 8 Supervisor. There, I said it.

And while the election is 21 months away, it’s already getting hot in here.

This is going to be the biggest Supervisor race in 2010.  The district includes the Castro, Noe Valley, Glen Park, Diamond Heights, the Inner Mission.  It hosts a wide range of interests, including gay tenants and realtors, Noe Valley moms, Mission hipsters, bike commuters and park enthusiasts.  D8 residents are a passionate and politically active bunch.  The district is home to an inconceivable number of neighborhood groups, political clubs and merchant associations, whose members are very active and whose endorsements are closely followed.

Eight is the largest district in voter turnout by a long shot  – in 2006, 37,000 voters cast their ballot for Supervisor in District 8,  compared to 20,000 in District 2 (Pacific Heights/Marina) and a mere 14,000 in District 10 (Potrero/Bayview).  To illustrate the  point, chew on this:  I lost my race with only 30% of the vote, and yet I earned more votes in 2006 than either Supervisors Chris Daly or Sophie Maxwell, both of whom were re-elected that year.  Ha!

Many people are rumored to be running in District 8, but the candidates to watch are Rafael Mandelman, Laura Spanjian, Rebecca Prozan and Scott Wiener.

I listed the candidates in order of their political leanings: Rafael being the most lefty, Scott the most right-y of the four.  I might be wrong; it’s still very early, and so the candidates haven’t yet started positioning themselves.  No one has a campaign website up yet (way too early for that), though Rafael, Laura and Scott still have sites up for their 2008 race for the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC): here, here and here.  Rebecca has a personal blog.

First, the similarities: All are openly gay, all are registered Democrats, and all have paid their dues politically.

Rafael Mandelman has consistently aligned himself with labor.  He is a proponent of tenants rights and alternative transportation, and he’s president of the left-leaning Harvey Milk Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club.   A graduate of Yale, Harvard and Berkeley, he works as a land use attorney for public agencies and affordable housing developers.  He has served as chair of the Noe Valley Democratic Club, and he lives across the street from Dolores Park.  After a brief stint on the SF Building Inspection Commission, he was recently appointed to the city’s powerful Board of Appeals.  Politically, he is most closely aligned with Carole Migden, who lost her State Senate re-election bid last year to Mark Leno in a nasty fight and huge political upset.  Migden’s got some free time these days, and Rafael is probably hoping she’ll wield her formidable fundraising abilities on his behalf.  In his DCCC race, he was endorsed by a wide range of folks, including labor and the environmental groups, though he was able to get some moderate endorsements as well.

Laura Spanjian has recently moved to the Inner Mission from Noe Valley, and like Rafael, has served on the Board of the Noe Valley Democrats.   She is close to both former Treasurer (and former SF Public Utilities Commission General Manager) Susan Leal and Democratic Party Chair (and former President of the Board of Supervisors) Aaron Peskin.  Laura is smart and savvy, having graduated from UCLA and Stanford, and having figured out how to hold onto her job as the Assistant General Manager of the SFPUC after her mentor Susan Leal was ousted.  I hear Laura has lined up Jim Stearns – the progressive campaign consultant and political powerhouse – to run her campaign.  Laura threw all her eggs in the Hillary Clinton basket last year, representing Clinton at the Democratic convention and serving on her LGBT national leadership committee.  As for her ideological leanings, she has been able to straddle the left/right line so far, though she won’t be able to do this for long once the campaign begins in earnest.  She also served as Co-Chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, which is widely considered to be the moderate-to-conservative gay rights group in town (if an LGBT rights group can be called conservative) (…only in San Francisco).  Scott and Rebecca have also served as Co-Chairs of Alice.

Rebecca Prozan has worked in political jobs for former Mayor (and SF Chronicle columnist) Willie Brown, District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty and District Attorney (and Attorney General candidate) Kamala Harris.  (Go Kamala!)  A graduate of UC Santa Cruz and Golden Gate University, she currently serves as an Assistant DA.  Along with her boss, Rebecca was an early supporter of Barack Obama, who named her to his LGBT Leadership Committee.  She has also served as a Commissioner with the SF Recreation and Parks Department, and she lives in the Castro with her partner.  In 2003, while managing Kamala Harris’ campaign to unseat DA Terence Hallinan, Rebecca was busted trying to infiltrate Hallinan’s campaign email list with a false identity.  Look out, D8 candidates, Rebecca’s in it to win it.

Scott Wiener might be the best known of the four candidates.  As Chair of the SF Democratic Party until last year, he was able to feature himself prominently on Democratic Party mailers to improve his own name recognition citywide.  Last year newly-elected DCCC member Aaron Peskin staged (and won) a great battle of left-versus-right against Scott, promising to align the party with San Francisco’s more progressive values.   Scott is a moderate Democrat, and affiliated with the more conservative Democratic groups in town including the Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club and Plan C (“The Moderate Voice of San Francisco”) (in San Francisco, moderate IS conservative, IMHO).  He was endorsed in his last race by the Police Officers Association, a landlord group, and the right-leaning City Democratic Club.  A graduate of Duke and Harvard, Scott works as a litigator in the City Attorney’s office defending the City in police-related lawsuits and MUNI accident claims.  His loyalties lie with Mayor Gavin Newsom, State Senator Mark Leno, and his boss, City Attorney Dennis Herrera.  Scott has recently become involved with (and elected chair of) the small-but-vocal Eureka Valley Promotion Association, whose focus is “quality of life” issues in the Castro, cleaning up the streets while encouraging gentrification.

Scott, Laura and Rebecca will split the moderate vote. They have a long list of common allies, and they have all served as Co-Chair of the moderate gay group in town.  They each worked on incumbent Supervisor Bevan Dufty’s campaign in 2006 (as did other candidates rumored to be running), and so I think Dufty is likely to stay out.  Their mutual friends are faced with the difficult choice of (1) damaging important political relationships by endorsing one over the others, (2) opting out of the race completely, or (3) diluting their endorsement by picking all three.  I don’t envy them.

Rafael, Rebecca and Scott are all lawyers. And, strangely, all three are Jewish – which J Magazine will find very interesting. It seems that being Jewish is a requirement for winning in District 8, though this factor is not dispositive.  Past winners Mark Leno and Bevan Dufty are Jewish, but so are losing candidates Eileen Hansen and Alix Rosenthal.

Based on my direct personal experience, I think Rebecca and Laura have an uphill battle based on their gender. The District has the highest proportion of male voters in the City, the Castro tends to vote for men, and everyone knows all the lesbians have moved to Bernal Heights (District 9).  I doubt the women’s groups will get engaged in either candidate’s campaign, since Rebecca and Laura have been less involved in these organizations than the many fantastic candidates rumored to be running for Supervisor in Districts 2, 4, 6 and 10.

But here’s the most interesting part: Rafael, Laura and Scott all sit on the Central Committee of the SF Democratic Party.  They will all be running for re-election in June 2010 in a district that includes, but is larger than, District 8.  They will be able to raise money for this race simultaneously with their supervisorial campaigns, and there is no campaign contribution limit for the DCCC. Therefore, anyone who maxes out (at $500) on Scott’s or Rafael’s or Laura’s supe campaign can donate an unlimited amount to his or her DCCC committee. The candidates will have to be careful about how they advertise themselves using DCCC campaign money, but to be sure, they will all be focusing their DCCC resources on one special corner of the district.  My advice to Rebecca Prozan: Run for DCCC.

In the 2008 DCCC race, all three incumbents were defending their seats.  Rafael raised and spent $12,000, Laura raised and spent $24,000, and Scott raised and spent $30,000.  [Though this is somewhat hard to discern in Scott's files with the San Francisco Ethics Commission - his most recent form is missing some important information, and his treasurer filed no fewer than 11 corrected forms in January of this year for past errors made, starting in 2006.  I won't hold this against them.  Having been a campaign treasurer, I understand how inane some of these forms can be.]  Laura came in 4th, Rafael 7th, and Scott came in 10th place, below Chris Daly.

Based on what I know about these candidates, I am endorsing Rafael Mandelman.  He is smart and energetic, and he wants the job for the right reasons.  Rafael’s values are a great fit for the district, and he knows the neighborhoods as well as anyone (except of course the incumbent Supervisor Bevan Dufty, neighborhood services guru).

But Scott has access to gobs of money, Laura has lined up the best campaign consultant in town, and Rebecca is a fierce campaigner.

Glad I have a front-row seat.

Rally for Bay to Breakers Thursday

There’s so much happening on the Bay to Breakers front that I don’t know where to start.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s Office, along with participants and advocates, have organized a rally and press conference at 11:30am Thursday morning (February 19).  Expect to see neighborhood activists, small business representatives, and members of the Outdoor Events Coalition arguing on behalf of keeping the event as weird as possible.  No one will be defending the out-of-control partiers, the public-urinators, the participants who make a mess of the place and give the race a bad name.  They’ll make the case to save Bay to Breakers, and they’ll probably offer many suggestions to make it better, including registering floats, increasing the number of johns and trash cans, adding recycling bins, increasing enforcement for public drunkenness and public urination, and same-day race registration, among others.  

There are many solutions that ING and the race organizers haven’t considered.  It’s time to have a public conversation about how to keep this important San Francisco tradition safe, clean and fun.

If you’re interested in voicing YOUR opinion, a public hearing will be held on plans for this year’s Bay to Breakers on Thursday, February 26, at 9:45am, at the Office of ISCOTT (Interdepartment Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation, a division of the SF Municipal Transportation Agency). 1 South Van Ness,  San Francisco, Room 7080.  See you there.

Bay to Breakers Revived!

An exciting movement is afoot to save Bay to Breakers from oblivion.

Several groups have organized themselves on Facebook to keep themselves informed about the latest happenings in the movement to save B2B. Many larger groups have merged into one, claiming at least 4600 supporters as of this morning.  They are keeping each other posted with constant news about negotiations, media pieces, contacts with stakeholders.  They are researching the impact of B2B on San Francisco sales tax revenues, staging a mass divestiture from ING. And presumably these 4600+ FB supporters are keeping their powder dry for the moment they are called into action.

In today’s Chronicle, C.W. Nevius made a compelling argument that B2B is an indispensable San Francisco tradition, and that it should be kept as it is – so long as we weed out the drunk idiots and keep folks from trashing the neighborhoods. While Nevius has a reputation for being a suburban fuddy duddy, his column came as no surprise to me. He was a supporter of keeping Halloween in the Castro, arguing for planning the event with more care and common sense.

District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has stepped in to negotiate on behalf of the participants. With Mirkarimi’s leadership, this new coalition is in touch with the sponsors, neighborhood groups and city officials to push back against ING.   I’m looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s ON.

Why Newsom Won’t Be Governor

So I heard this story the other day.

A friend of a friend works at a Russian Hill restaurant where Mayor Gavin Newsom often goes  for takeout.  He stopped by the restaurant a few weeks ago, wearing his running clothes, iPod and all.  A customer approached him, looking to shake his hand.  Focusing his gaze straight ahead, Newsom tapped his earbud, letting the guy know that he was too busy listening to music to be bothered.

Wha?!?

Is it true? Who knows. But it sure sounds right.  I’ve never met a politician who has such disdain for the people he represents.  The last several speeches I’ve seen him give, he bolted out the door before anyone could say hello.   Have you shaken his hand? Did he make eye contact? Have you ever seen him work a rope line?

Newsom is very good at the charming, self-effacing speech-making shtick.  He’s a very good actor and statistics-memorizer.  He does the Al Gore style presentation very well.  But when it comes to meeting with individual voters, especially those who don’t have gobs of money, Newsom doesn’t seem interested.

Presumably, the restaurant customer is a white upper middle class voter who lives in the Russian Hill neighborhood. This voter falls right in Newsom’s sweet spot.  The man probably wanted to shake his hand because he supports him; perhaps he has even donated to Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign.  He won’t make THAT mistake again. And neither will his family, his friends, anyone he or the restaurant staff tells the story to.

I mean really.  When I ran for office I used just about any excuse to meet every voter I could, to shake every hand, kiss every baby.  And that’s what candidates do.  Their job is to go around collecting supporters, winning people over, one by one.

I met Bill Clinton on a rope line in 1994. That man can shake HANDS.  He grabbed my elbow with his free hand, paused, smiled, made eye contact. It was as if I was the only other person in the room. And when he walked away I felt like I really knew him. I liked him. I wanted to give him money. Now THAT’s the way it’s done.

But Newsom? He’s too busy listening to his iPod.