Watching City Hall #390 (8-25-05)

"Dedicate it to 'Fallen Friends'."

(Jens names this column)

Adios to Hunter Thompson. Your remains fired from a cannon in the mountains of Colorado surrounded by drunken friends as a drunken nation watched and wanted to be invited. Of course, like Joplin & Hendrix &, hell, Mark Twain, you'll not leave us until your last book is burned and that could take the Republicans several more years. I never knew you but we'd have gotten along pretty well is my own humble guess. Probably not as well as I'd have gotten along with Charles Bukowski but then, you weren't really a complete degenerate. I've dedicated this week's Salon to you, Dick Hongisto, to honor you upon the reopening of the 'I' Hotel as a low income residence. You beat Shorenstein after all. You'll be amused to know that none of the corporate media saw fit to mention your name. They did carry real estate ads from Walter Shorenstein though. Your old buddies, Feinstein & Leno cut the ribbon on the new building but they forgot about you too. Do take it personally, but don't hold it against the reporters. They all know what you did. It's the editors and all of that ad money.

(8-27-05)

We had the friday lunch Salon yesterday and toasted Dick Hongisto just as a guy who actually looked enough like Hongisto to stop us in our tracks, walked by the door. It was eerie. These friday things are magic. This one was special for several reasons.

First, in a move that will probably be pegged by future historians as the turning point in American journalism, the San Francisco Sentinel has invited me back to do a weekly column. While we are declining to release the actual size of the compensation I'll be getting (lots of it is based upon increased circulation & other performance incentives minus the cost of lawsuits) ... it will certainly exceed 7 figures annually and with a very reasonable set of merchandising projections, could real a billion dollars a year. After the lawsuits are settled however, my legal and accounting people are advising me that I probably still won't make enough to get off welfare. Ah well, that's just the price of being brutally honest.

Seriously, I did my first new column for the Sentinel's Pat Murphy/Luke Thomas dynamic duo after our friday Salon and it is posted under 'Other Voices' on the Sentinel as we speak (sanfranciscosentinel.com). I want to thank Matt Gonzalez for taking time out from his preparations for Burning Man to lobby Pat & Luke on my behalf. I'll try not to get fired so fast this time out. And, of course, the Bulldog will go on and, hopefully, grow.

Gonzalez at Burning Man? Can Gavin be far behind? I swear to God, if Matt announced he was going to jump of the Bridge, he'd arrive to find that Gavin had gotten advance word and gone over the side 5 minutes before. Hmmm, that's a thought.

After we all stopped talking about what Gonzo would look like running naked in the desert, wild on peyote, the conversation turned to Angela Alioto (that happens when you aren't there to defend yourself.). I've kept in touch with Joe's darlin' who just bought an amazing little place in Italy at which she plans to write her next book. Check it out at http//sancostanzo.com. She's still planning to include Luke Thomas & I on her Fall Italian tour and Luke and I are already psyched. "We're gonna work nights too, h." I think he somehow has gotten the impression that I might be something of a malingerer. He's a hell of a serious photographer and the journal of the trip will be something. Kind of like having Ansel Adams & Charles Bukowski cover your kid's bar mitvah (no offense meant to Eric Jaye).

Angela flew in yesterday and is in court Monday presenting a suit on behalf of Cleve Jones who founded the Aids Memorial Quilt foundation, then got tossed in a callous manner by a new board. I'll get back to you on the exact location & time of the trial but it's in SF.

Marc Powell & his Mills college honey, Ali came by with Seth Walker, Marc Salomon & Frank Webster to talk about transitioning the Bulldog from a blog to a 'full-service' web site. I'm told the dog on the site already barks if you push his nose or something. Who knows? I'm a 19th century kind of guy.

Krissy Keefer was back from an annual Oregon conclave of the Wallflower Order and a week with another group in Michigan before that. She got locked in a conversation with Amy Laitenan whose name I can't spell and came away amazed. Krissy kept yelling: "Why don't YOU run for office! You've got it ALL!!" Saying that to Amy, she was. And, Amy would make a hell of a supervisor.

I dragged Marshall Foster of Gavin's office in the door when he strolled by the little taqueria and introduced him to Janet Tandy who announced that she was straight and used to date Meyer Lansky's nephew in Vegas and hung out with Frank Sinatra once. The fact that she's 50 years his senior never came up. The new 'Greening SF' wunderkid smiled and shook a few hands. Gotta give that to Newsom. Rosenfield, Hillis, Ron Vincent & Foster. He's awash in new talent. Including Francis Somsel who came in to join us along with Susan King. They both stomped me in the D-5 race (so did everyone else) last year. Somsel ran as a 'Newsom Democrat' and should have gotten an IRV endorsement from the Mayor, I thought. Adriel Hampton and John Dunbar and Michael Strickland and Joe Lynn talked about the future of American journalism. It was a good Salon. It gets better every week. Last week we had Rob Anderson and Christopher Caen and Paul Barwick for first visits. Sue Vaughn 'crashed'. Writers all. In fact, the very best local political writers. God, I love my life. Rachel is always asking: "Is there anything that you want or need that don't have?" She's got a point. The answer is always: "No." and, that's saying alot for an old guy on welfare.

Your DBI & mine

With the Board on vacation, I have to get my sfgtv political fix from the commissions. While these kids are minor league compared to the firepower and drama of Full Board or Board Committee meetings, each has it's stars. And, their own little dramas. Take the Department of Building Inspections Commission.

Take this week when Joe O'Donoghue tried to get the commission to put a guy on some sub-group of one kind or another having to do with survey of unreinforced structures (means brick I think & there are 2,000 of them in the City) ... this guy wanted the 'disabled chair' as it's called. ... Fellow was disabled. No doubt about it. Wheelchair and everything.

But, he'd also been in jail for fraud from coast-to-coast. I mean, ... he was a person with whom I share so many values. Got himself appointed to a number of public entities and never bothered to attend meetings for years on end. Then, he says that the mayor (don't recall which one) told him he didn't have to go to meetings. He formed a fake political organization which he claimed represented thousands but was actually just a front for his own use in extracting everything from meals to cash contributions. I'm guessing he patterned his group after the DCCC. Or, maybe the Bulldog? Shit, even the disabled community sent people to speak against him.

Still, with O'Donoghue pulling the strings, the boy only lost on a 4-3 vote. The deciding vote came from Joe's nemesis, Debra Walker who noted: "I know enough law to know that just because you finish your probation doesn't mean that you don't have to fulfill the 'restitution' part of your parole." That, plus the guy's lack-of-attendance record sealed his fate. Joe Dough was livid. He talked about the IRA and himself and how "public figures" such as himself and, yes, Debra Walker and ... Chris Romero should be prohibited from from serving on public commissions. Commissioner Gunine (pardon my spelling) ... ruddy dude who seems to be the RBA voice on the commission called across to Romero: "Didn't you say that you'd been in prison?" He hadn't. A relative had and he'd mentioned it at a previous hearing. Just another vicious and crude RBA cheap shot from a leadership noted for it's crudeness and bullying ways. I used to laugh at these guys but they are two sides of the same coin with Willie's goon squad of Charlie Walker and Mohammed Nehru and the like.

I do recommend the DBI hearings. Commission President Hirsch has surprised me with a gruff humor and an ability to basically ignore O'Donoghue. Personally, I think the new head of DBI should be Larry Kornfield except I think I'd rather have him run Planning.

My favorite commission of late is the PUC. I don't see how the hell Richard Sklar keeps the job. He puts up with no bullshit from the most carefully crafted staff of spoils politicians in the City. That starts with Susan Leal, moves on to a top staff of hundred grand plus obfuscatory talking heads who practice hypnosis by power point presentation. Sklar cuts right through it. Word is he was head of the PUC a generation back and went on the be Clinton's U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

The United Nations!?! No wonder a project with a 5 billion buck budget seems easily manageable to him. No wonder hacks like Tony Irons & Denise Hale are not tolerated. And, think a minute, aren't they paying Gerald Green over a hundred g's a year over there? When are we gonna see him and Sklar face off?

Don't get me wrong. Sklar isn't particularly combatitive at all. He doesn't have to be. He is just so friggin' formidible in presence and preparation ("I've read this!!" ... "I can read. Just leave a copy.") ... They don't dare challenge him as he tosses back single source contracts and constructs observable and measurable objectives for a staff assembled to avoid exactly those things. It will be interesting to see how long he lasts. Here's a couple of roughly exact quotes from this guy who'd make a great mayor:

"I wasn't here when you signed these contracts.
Have you shot the person who did it yet?"

"You trust PG&E?
They went bankrupt and gave their brass a
couple of hundred million in bonuses!"

Sklar dealt with 199 nations and many more international fiduciary agencies. He's seen every kind of crook possible. He doesn't like PG&E and he's honest. Gavin Newsom designed this PUC to serve PG&E. Ignore Mayor Getty's little outburst against the greedy utility this week when the transformer blew up. That's all a sideshow. If he were serious or ever had been, he'd be saying that he was going to do everything in his power to get Public Power back on the ballot at the next possible opportunity and would use part of the City's reserve to get the Hydro-Ventura tidal power demonstration project set up as fast as humanly possible. The City should, in fact, become Hydro Ventura's partner.

Naw, Gavin ain't gonna lead the tidal energy/Public Power/Public Cable charge. No support for transfer taxes on high end property. None for any tax on the rich whatsoever. Naw. Know what Gavin's gonna do? He's gonna fire Sklar. Count on it.

Let's get off on another tangent. This week I got a call inviting me to bid on another room. You put yourself on all these lists when you're on welfare. I'm just happy as hell to have my little room here at the Civic Center Residence where my neighbors are all about as old and broken down as myself. That makes the halls safe. The staff is young and cheerful. There's free food most days when you're really down financially. I have basic sfgtv cable (that's illegal for them to charge me to watch my government) ... government tv and a dsl line from SBC that they keep gouging me for. And, I have this view out my window that overlooks 80 rear bedrooms of the Renoir Hotel.

Happenstance titillation

Flashing female flesh flies flaunting flanks flustering ... you get the idea. I think we are all closet peepers. I mean, c'mon. Shit your mom & dad or husband or wife, don't bullshit da dawg. I know how you think. ... What I'm getting at though is that some nights, you just can't beat the view out my window. Some days too, for that matter.

One night, a woman laid out around a dozen pieces of lingerie on her bed directly across from my window and proceeded to slowly try on each and every one. With all the lights on. And, the shades, I mean, like ... totally wide, wide open.

She was one of the conservative ones.

People on vacation become the most shameless exhibitionists. Thank you, lord.

That's enough. Suffice to say that the 'new' room I looked at further down 6th at the Dudley had more amenities for less of my welfare dollar. A full bath. A microwave. A half fridge. ... I told them to take me off the list.

Here, I'm only 2 blocks from Gavin's office. I'd have to move my dsl & cable & phone. Last night 'Critical Mass' pedaled under my window. Last month, 'Dykes on bikes' paused there too. I live over the largest Bart station in the City. I know my neighbors and I just love the local cops. My un-girlfriend knows the way and can park safely. Matt Gonzalez & Angela Alioto & Ross Mirkarimi & Jens Nielsen pick me up at my door. Shit dude, for a nobody, I've got it made. Yeah, I took my name off the list, then got out on my fire escape and washed my window. I washed it good. Who says 'Care Not Cash' doesn't work? Wow, look at the hooters on those two blonde tourists. What the hell are they doing? Isn't that illegal?

keep your opinions to yourself

(See yesterday's Sentinel piece under 'Other Voices' section)