Watching City Hall #455 (4-25-06)

Watching City Hall #455

(4-25-06)

Bulldog Weekly Board Review

(and other stuff)

Ahhh, what a week. There are several items I’d like to discuss other than the Board, so let’s get the list of screw jobs coming your way out of the way first.

Item #16 … Re-appointment of David Pilpel to the Sunshine Task Force

Mr. Pilpel used his position as chair of a Sunshine Task Force committee to rig a hearing in which City departments were given unlimited time to blast open government whistle-blowers, Kimo Crossman and James Chaffee. The following week, the City Attorney (who hates open government worse than Pilpel does) … City Attorney sued Chaffee. Can Crossman’s own summons be far behind?

Pilpel is part of a joint effort including a number of City departments and coordinated by Dennis Herrera to curtail the powers of the Sunshine Task Force itself and to slander and smash individual activists.

Furthermore, Mr. Pilpel is well-known to suffer from a phobia of technology so severe that he is unable to perform such simple tasks as making copies on a copy machine. As open government records requests in this day and age require access to computerized documents and whereas Pilpel is afraid of computers … this combined with his hostility to activists makes him unfit to sit on this body. Board should give him a bag of oats for his horse and send him packing.

You’ll lose this one 11-0 cause, frankly, the Board doesn’t like sunshine either.

Item #22 … Saturday Closure of portion of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park

Dede Wilsey is an unmitigated bitch. She once sent her personal maid to testify before a Board committee as to why it was important to close the Golden Gate Stables so that they could be converted into a facility for the rich. On this closure issue, she sent a handfull of guards from the de Young museum to tell Supervisor McGoldrick and the Land Use Committee that: “Missie Willsey, she done said that we goin’ be fired iffen you try and let more poor folk walk around her new museum.”

You’ll win this one by a 9-2 vote (or, 9-1 if Pier is still out). Pier and Elsbernd vote with the rich. And, rare kudos to Jake McGoldrick for making this happen.

Items #23 & #24 … Daly fights on with his losing battle to get the new terminal constructed. The price is outrageous. The route chosen to connect downtown to the terminal is idiotic. The initially proposed design of the structure is nuts. But, when gas hits $6 a gallon, you’ll understand that all that stands between us and nuclear war is high speed rail.

You lose 7-4 with Downtown’s usual suspects, … Pier, Elsbernd, Ma & Dufty voting against Daly and in favor of nuclear war. SF Weekly’s Matt Smith did an excellent piece a couple of weeks ago explaining that the actual purpose of the Mayor’s office (read Downtown developers) in opposing Daly was actually to clear the way for a land grab of the State land around the site.

Item #44 … Commending Diamond Dave Whittaker and his Bohemian buddies for creating the City’s first ever ‘Poem Under the Dome’ event.

You win 11-0 and charging Diamond Dave’s group is outrageous considering the myriad of events the Mayor’s Office tosses for free in the same space. The decision to charge the poets was made by the City Hall Manager. A bit more about this dung heap is interwoven into the next item.

Sing Pao, Commie Daily screws Sentinel

As I did one of my many daily traversals of Alioto Plaza in front of City Hall yesterday I noticed one of those little Morris Minor car thingies parked on the sidewalk in the plaza. I assumed it was a member of the press and went to see if they’d gotten a ticket. They hadn’t, which puzzled me. You see, I looked because the Dome Manager informed Sentinel Co-Publishers, Pat Murphy and Luke Thomas that they were no longer allowed to park in that same spot. Those of you who hate me are gonna love this one cause I almost got my clock cleaned:

h.: (no parking ticket on car - APA photographer hurries up to get in, I call out to him) “Hey! How come you get to park there and the Sentinel can’t?”

Sing Pao: (stops, looks up, puzzled) “Huh?”

h.: (approaching car but keeping dozen feet at least from camera boy) “I said, why can’t Luke Thomas park here anymore but you can?”

SP: (dismissively) “Luke’s a friend of mine.”

h.: (looking car over - not as nice as Whit Leigh’s, but nice) “He’s a friend of mine too, (I flash my Bulldog press credentials at him) so why can you park here and he can’t?”

SP: (pauses as answers honestly) “The City Manager said I could park here because I don’t stay very long. Luke’s here all the time.”

Now, that’s an interesting argument. The guy who works harder should have to walk further to get to work whereas the guy who does quickies get’s to go to the head of the line. The guy was perturbed, so I thought I’d push a few buttons to see if he’d tell me something I didn’t know.

h.: “The City Hall Manager? He’s the one whose office is now run by Homeland Security isn’t he? (pausing and narrowing my eyes in suspicion) Is your paper a Communist paper?”

SP: (that got his attention big time - already in his car, he leaped out and charged me) “You looking for trouble?”

Now, of course I was looking for trouble. That’s pretty much all I ever do. Clearly the guy was clueless about who I was or what I did. I’d watched him on TV at the end of the Board’s press box dominated by Sing Pao and sitting next to the young black dude (Tyrrell, I think?) who was recently hired to assist City Hall Homeland Security Detail head, Eric Steinberg. Sing Pao is out of Hong Kong which means they’re dominated by the commies.

h.: (SP - who is shorter than me - first time in my life I’ve been threatened by anyone shorter than me - I couldn’t help it and I started to laugh - he closed to within a foot of my face) “You’re getting into my personal space, mister. Do you understand that’s illegal?”

SP: (saw I wasn’t budging - backs off finally and gets back in his vehicle) “It’s none of your business!”

h.: (on a hunch) “Falun Gong forever!”

SP: (guy stops backing up and acts as though he’s going to get out of car again but doesn’t) “It’s none of your business!”

h.: (SP has backed up & is changing gears to drive the 10 feet or so down the curb cut and into the street - I double my volume) “Falun Gong Forever!!”

SP: Doesn’t speak. Simply floors his gas pedal as throngs awaiting entry to da Dome for the Environmental Awards ceremonies are now watching us. He’s seen them and just wants to get out of there. He drags the undercarriage of his car as he makes the dip from the sidewalk to the street too quickly. I hope he’s destroyed his muffler. I don’t like the Department of Homeland Security and I don’t like the Communist Chinese governement.

The Press and City Hall

Why does the SF Chronicle get 3 offices inside the City Hall Press Room? Who the hell ever said that Barbara Taylor should be in charge of anything to do with City Hall reporters? What’s Steinberg’s assistant doing sitting in the Press Box at the Board of Supes? Why do you need a key to get into the Press Room at City Hall now? Who pays the salaries of Steinberg & Tyrrell? When’s the next hearing on the thousand press passes the SFPD cancelled? Why is the City Attorney trying to shut down the flow of information to the public? Is Luke Thomas’ car simply too ugly to park across from the Mayor’s office? Also, … “what’s so ‘good’ about goodbye and how can farewell be ‘fair’?” All of these are mysteries I pondered as I unwrapped my small Subway sandwich (they take food stamps, you know) … opened my coke and wandered across the plaza to get high.

“I’ll beat your ass!!!”

I get alot of that. This one came from an unexpected source. It seems the 4th floor of Civic Center Residence Hotel where I live has acquired a troll to block crippled people from taking out their trash. If this weren’t so fucked-up, it would be funny.

I was just returning from my run-in with Sing Pao and was taking out my trash when I ran into my next road warrior. The trash chute in our building is one of those old fashioned, heavy, round, galvanized tubes. It is attached to the rear fire escape and you have to go out the back door to reach it. The back door is equipped with one of those push-handle, panic hardware mechanisms and an alarm.

The alarm is on from 10pm til 8:30am. It was around 1pm and the reversible sign that hangs above the panic handle was incorrectly switched to read: ‘If you push this Alarm will sound’. There were a couple of bags of trash propped against the exit and the tenant directly next to the door had his door open.
I flipped the sign and pushed the door open and all hell broke out as a monstrously tall and broad black man with tiny glasses charged out of the open door.

Disturbed Tenant (hereafter - ‘DT’): “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?!”

h.: (looking up warily - not much room to manuever) “Taking out my trash. The sign was turned wrong.”

DT: “You’re disturbing me!”

h.: “I’m just taking out my trash.”

Guy is really, really loud (later an office person told me he’s really, really violent too) … he’s yelling and doors start opening and a guy at the end of the hall who’s in a wheel chair comes out. His name is Dan and he’s hell of a cook and a musician who plays several instruments. It’s a great place to live because of people like him. Congo Phil, the percusionist lives across the hall from me. Walter, the famous Board, Public Comment speaker/singer/poet lives next door … I feel protective of them.

Dan: “I haven’t been able to take my trash out for 3 days.”

h.: (being followed by DT, I go and get the 3 bags of trash and head back toward the rear door - DT blocks the way and I walk right around him, maintaining eye contact - recall, I’ve a masters degree in working with Severely Emotionally Disturbed people and I don’t rattle - weeping women scare me, not angry giants) “I’m just gonna put these bags in the chute. You can’t keep people from taking out their trash. It’s not healthy to keep garbage in your room.”

DT continued on with a long litany of what he was going to do to me but never actually struck out. I told him I was going to report him to management and did so. I noted throughout the rest of the day and evening that tenants had begun sitting their trash outside of their doors. I’d been seeing that for the last few days but hadn’t paid it much mind. Later, I saw a caregiver for another disabled tenant, taking his trash to the basement by way of the elevator to avoid the monster guarding the back door.

I tell you this because it made me think about Laguna Honda and Prop D. I live in supportive housing. Lots of my neighbors have serious disabilities. IHSS caregivers come through the building all the time. There are social workers assigned full-time here. I’m one of the healthier people in the building and I’ll find out today from tests made last week if I have TB or lung cancer or liver disease or this or that. Vials of blood and x-rays are a part of my regular life now. There is no place for that violent, gargantuan bully amidst this population.

And, the people at LHH are even frailer. Go to sfusualsuspects.com and click on the chat room, Junto in the right column. The LHH thread in there is the best running discussion of the Prop D controversy available in the City at the moment. Right now, for me, Prop D is winning in the exchanges. Not because it’s not flawed, mind you. But, only because, right now it is the only thing being offered to protect people weaker than me and my neighbors from monsters like the asshole at the end of the hall. The doctors who birthed this Prop D are an extraordinary group and they’ve begun to participate in the thread on Junto. Go there and get informed. Don’t let the wording on the ballot throw you. It was written by Herrera’s anti-oldster shill, Julie Moll, who claims it limits services at LHH, when in fact, it protects the elderly from violent psych patients. Moll’s other job is smashing whistle-blowers. She is some piece of work.

Other Stuff

Those of you on my mailing list have been watching me fight with my buddy, Matt Gonzalez all week.
Don’t take it too seriously. Matt has until Tuesday, May 23rd at 5pm to file as a write-in candidate for the United States Congress. That’s 29 days as the crow flies. Krissy Keefer is already the Green Party candidate for the SF congressional seat and Matt, himself endorsed her.

The campaign to replace Keefer is being run by despicable backroom operatives who registered their web site out of state and used a double-blind to hide their identities. That would be Rob Arnow who is encouraged by Enrique Pearce who was Matt’s Campaign Manager in the last mayor’s campaign.

I’m most saddened by the folks who have signed the petition to remove Krissy. Why should I support Jane Kim who leads the roster for anything? Or, Boris Delepene? Liz Ross’ music will never sound as sweet. This petition is a dirty and sneaky thing. And, once you’ve signed, you can’t remove your name. Arnow has set up the software so that you are unable to un-endorse the effort while Gonzo himself has amazingly begun to equivocate upon the meaning of the word ‘endorse’ and the circumstances under which he would withdraw an endorsement. Thus, you cannot withdraw your endorsement of Matt, but he reserves the right to withdraw his from you. He has even suggested that perhaps Keefer might want to reject his endorsement and thus let him off the hook. It looks very, very bad for our Progressive White Knight but fairness dictates that he’ll keep his word. We’ll see for certain in 29 days.

This backroom effort has been underway for almost a month. The plotters (including Tim Redmond of the Bay Guardian and Randy Shaw of Beyond Chron) were able to keep it from Keefer because they knew she’d be doing her yearly show in San Jose and had her guard down because she was supposedly running unopposed. Redmond made the petition his ‘web site of the month’ but only listed it online because he knows I read everything printed via dead trees. Both Redmond and Shaw have written pieces advertising the scumbag petition in an attempt to get people to sign it. Neither bothered to mention that there was already a candidate. Tim Redmond is a particularly egregious shithead. If he doesn’t block your email, he uses the channels to send viruses to shut down opposition computers.

Like I said … don’t take it too seriously. Matt says he knows nothing of the effort and that he’s still behind Krissy and we have to take his word for it. 29 days and counting.

Bottom line on this is that Krissy Keefer is the better candidate. While Matt has the greater name recognition, that’s his only advantage. He knows virtually nothing of subjects like: advancing women’s rights or global warming or the war in Iraq. Keefer has not only totally researched them, but has done entire stage productions on the subjects. And, he refuses to debate Keefer. We’ll see. We’ll see.

I apologize for not being so funny these days. I could write about watching the Police Commission and how it looks like a Baghdad hospital emergency room. I could touch upon how the Telegraph Hill Dwellers’ Association is seeking to expand their boundaries from the Canadian border to Mexico. I could rant on about how Ross Mirkarimi got an award for cutting the legal pot cards in town in half while handing over all information on patients and doctors to the DEA through the Republican State House. Things like that are always funny. Like Kissinger getting a Nobel Peace Prize. Or, …

save the last smile for yourself,