(Dawg fucks up)

(3-13-10)

Ya like that piece yesterday where I called for the Giants to take a whole new tact and
start the season leading off with Molina batting first and Aubrey Huff second because
neither were complete players (Bengie’s slower than Muni and has a pop gun instead of a
cannon for an arm and Huff doesn’t have big league defensive skills) … you recall
that? Hell, it’s only been 24 hours. What do you mean you didn’t read it?

So, anyway. I thought it was a great idea. Worth trying at least. Only on
the road. Molina leads off and totally pissed at h. brown drills a single to left.
He’s immediately replaced by the gazelle, Eugenio Velez and Aubrey Huff comes to the
plate. Totally pissed off at h. brown he scares the shit out of the pitcher with
his intensity and walks. He’s replaced on the basepath by Torres (what’s his first
name?) and we have two speed merchants on the base paths and averted 2 double play
grounders and at least one costly error later in the game.

Pablo Sandoval steps to the plate and coached ably by hitting coach Meulins takes 2
pitches wide and high (Meulins is gonna mean at least a 5 point rise in our team
batting average) and tags a pitch down the middle (he did this 2 days ago in the first
game we saw here in Scottsdale) … hits it into the left centerfield gap for a
double and the Giants are up 2-0 and here comes Freddie Sanchez.

And, Juan Uribe. And Aaron Rowland. And Renteria. And Nate Schierholtz.
When we take the field in the bottom of the 1st we’re up 5-0 and have our best
defensive team already on the field.

And, you can do this 81 times a year. On the road. If you hold true to the
model you never do it at home because you lose your defensive edge for the top of the
1st and that could cost you dearly.

Hey, it’s certainly worth a try. First of all, everyone gets to play and they get
to play using their best skills. The biggest difference is that guys like Molina
and Huff get to hit once instead of 3 or 4 times. They’re essentially top notch
designated hitters with a guarantee of one essential crack at the ball 81 times a year.
I like the equation. How many times have you seen a guy whom you thought was
overpaid come through in just the situation he was paid for and it changed the entire
season? I think overall it makes the team much stronger. It bothered me when the
the Giants traded 162 games for degraded defense and took away the earned ‘time in the
sun’ for Posey and Velez and Torres and Ishikawa for an occasional homer. I’m a
defensive kind of guy. And I like peace in the dugout and everyone knowing they’re
gonna play. Try this Brian Sabean. At least one or two games in Spring
Training. Like tomorrow before we leave and head back to Sf.

So anyway, how did this lead to the woman in the elevator in Scottsdale making the
exclamation about her son? Well, I was going down for my third cup of coffee of the
morning (I’m up early in the morning cause I pass out early at night – it’s an Irish
thing) and I’m relating my theory to the people in the elevator (almost everyone at the
Hilton where I’m staying is here to watch the Giants) … so, I’m selling my theory
and I make a disparaging remark about Huff’s poor defensive play and that’s when the
woman said with surprise and disappointment that indeed, Aubrey Huff is her son.

I cudda crawled under a rock

I want to apologize to Ms. Huff and her son. I certainly have no ill will for them.
I’m, in fact, a rabid Giants fan and most of us are from San Francisco where we
tend to think and unfortunately sometimes act outside the box. Ms. Huff, I think
your son is a great major league hitter. I want to see him bat second in the road
lineup and pinch hit at home while he catches thousands and thousands of ground balls
in practice and chases thousands and thousands of pop flies … in practice.
Shit, by the end of the season he might be a gold glover.

This is a vacation/family visit first

My daughter (Mona) … her boyfriend, he’s the majority owner of the group that hosts
the Giants’ Triple-A team in Fresno (the Grizzlies) … his name is Chris Cummings
and as you’d assume, he’s a baseball nut like me and my buddy Daniel Cohen who made the
trip down here with wife Becky (I’ve known them for 30 years) … Chris and Mona are
putting me up at the Hilton and he has provided tickets for all 3 of the Scottsdale
games we’ll see in our 4 days here …

So, that’s how an SRO political muckraker from SF’s Skid Row ended up crossing an item
off his ‘bucket list’ this Spring at Giants Spring Training in Scottsdale, Arizona.
And, it has been great and we’re only halfway done and yesterday while the team
traveled to Tucson we went to Jerome.

Jerome, Arizona … 8,000 years and counting

There were Indians in what we now call Jerome at least 8,000 years ago. They came
to take the precious metals and other minerals out of the mountain 120 miles north of
Tucson. Mostly copper. That’s why the white man came too. Personally, I came
looking for a shortcut to San Francisco in somewhere around 1980 (records for this
period of my life are scarce and incomplete). When you sit in the local bars in
Jerome (population 400, down from their record 15,000 in 1929 at the peak of their
mining) … they tell you that’s how almost all of the residents got there (I was
talking to this bartender and she was looking good but no Spring chicken and she said
that she used to be a pole dancer and - you don’t need to know more) …

So Chris drove and the Cohens and granddaughter, Tandiwe (who’s now 6 and a genius like
everyone’s grandkids and took pictures out the window all the way there and they were
amazing and Luke will post them with this piece when we get them to him) … we drove
through the cacti (did you know that the type called Saguaro are nicknamed ‘the
redwoods of the desert’ – they’re the ones that look like someone surrendering – that
they can be over a thousand years old?) … to Jerome at 5,000 feet just above the
town of Cottonwood.

After getting my friends to drive that far and take a full day out of a 4 day mini
vacation I was worried that Jerome had changed in the 10 years or so since I’d taken my
last friends there. Not at all.

It’s a town of old hippie artists. Was then, is now. Art shops. Bars.
Restaurants. A volunteer fire department (Daniel and I met the chief and chewed the
fat in a bar with the pole dancer). One cop and every sign on every building that
is restored (lots aren’t and there are a bunch of skeletal foundations on the steep
mountainside) everything is a work of art.

There’s a little museum behind a gift shop on a corner. Not so little, really.
They have a history of the place going back the aforementioned 8,000 years and the guns
of the original sheriffs and marshals and the first doctor’s little black bag and
ancient photos of all complete with a fancy red satin bed from one of the more
prominent brothels from the 1800’s and a bar and roulette wheel from same and a
reconstructed dark section of the copper mine complete with the one man cage to lower
miners and equipment and a portable 2 seater shitter with removable buckets for
transport to the surface (that’s interesting, no?).

There are samples of the vast varieties of ore that were taken from the mountain and
pictures of the crews going back to the birth of photography and it is all so amazing
to go up and down those streets and eat great food and drink $3 a brimming glass well
bourbon and …

And we drove the rest of the way (2,000 more feet to an elevation of 7,000) up the
mountain where we all had a snowball fight with Tandewe and there are pictures and we
came back to Scottsdale and took a nap and were out last evening using all of our time
possible to enjoy the vacation.

And Daniel and Becky treated us to a ride on a horse drawn carriage through the
touristy and really fun Old Town and the horse was named Leo and the dog riding under
the afghan next to the driver was a very old rescue poodle named Pookie who fell off
into the street at one interseciton (very few cars there even on a busy Friday night)
and he was OK and I retrieved him and everyone went to the hotel’s hot tub but me and
here I am the next morning writing to you.

Today we see training for 200 and a game

John Avalos wrote to ask me to look at a player at the Giants Double A franchise in San
Jose named either Thomas Neal or Neal Thomas or something or other. John’s a Giants
nut like Daniel and Chris and I. We’re going to the team’s main training facility
which is a couple of miles from the baseball stadium (sold out with around 11,000 first
game we saw) … and the facility has a couple of hundred players directed from watch
towers by coaches like Bear Bryant used to watch his players in Alabama and that’s
enough for this morning.

Closing notes

Best of luck to my good friend, Tom Dean who is battling for his life back in St. Louis
from a variety of ailments that hit us as we age. I’ve thought of him often as I
watch Renteria and Uribe and Sandoval move after ground balls. Tommy was the
shortstop on our city chamionship softball team at Dunn Recreation and Civic Center in
St. Louis in 1958.

Congrats to Gavin Newsom for entering the Lt. Governor’s race which he will certainly
win in a walk and leave chaos on the SF political scene which I truly do love.

Thanks to the lower echelon D-6 supe candidates (Villa-Lobos and Zamura) for telling
lies and throwing crap at each other early and doing my job while I’m on vacation.

Good luck and a wave of the tattered Green Party banner to Ross Mirkarimi who has
become yet another political tranny and emerged an outed Democrat. The Green Party
is a great place to be born into politics but … just ask Matt Gonzalez and Ralph
Nader and …

Go Giants!

(3-4-10)

It costs $500 and the signatures of 20 local voters to get on the official ballot to
run for supervisor in San Francisco. It costs $5,000 to get on Chris Daly’s
unofficial ballot. Daly’s a champion of the poor. Nowadays that means you gotta
show him the money to play in his game. Is that curious?

How about the third draft of John Avalos’ proposed Charter Amendment that’s on the
Rules Committee agenda today as Item #6? It’s all about the ‘Add-Back’ process the
BOS has gone through for years. They take the Mayor’s budget and cut out around ½
of 1% and replace it with items they don’t want cut. Then, the Mayor ignores them.

The much amended Avalos legislation asks the voters to agree that it’s OK for the BOS
to ‘mandate’ these miniscule budget adjustments and that it is also OK for the Mayor to
ignore their ‘mandate’. In short, it changes absolutely nothing and is a waste of
ink and paper and time. Now tell me that’s not curious.

Only Campos on message

Rules Chair David Campos is calling in the Juvenile Probation Department for a hearing
as to whether they are following the letter of his ordinance from last year (passed,
vetoed and passed again with veto override) … the ordinance that says that the City
cannot turn juveniles over to the feds (ICE) for deportation until said juveniles have
at least seen a judge (all this bullshit about requiring ‘conviction’ is just that …
bullshit – the law only requires that the arrested individual be deemed worthy of
prosecution by a judge – no trial required – then the ICE referral) …

Everyone paying attention to this issue suspected that not only would the cops and
probation ignore the ordinance (shit, the Mayor ordered them to ignore it) … but
that they’d inflate misdemeanor charges into felonies to insure deportations.

Well, they’ve done that and the upshot is that there’s a case gaining notoriety (family
named Washington – husband a MUNI driver who married an Aussie w/two kids – one
obviously with serious behavior problems) … family reported to ICE before being
allowed to see a lawyer or a judge. That makes this one (Item #5 on today’s Rules
Agenda – 10am for those of you who can tell time) … makes this a potentially
interesting item. If Juvenile Probation shows up. Mayor might tell them to
ignore the request for their appearance just as he ordered them to ignore the
ordinance.

That’s really about it for Rules today. There are a handfull of uncontested
appointments to municipal bodies and a contested one for the SOTF (Sunshine Ordinance
Task Force) that will give you the opportunity to see some new and old faces of folks
tired of being ingnored as private citizens and wishing to be ignored in some official
capacity. I’m just gonna ignore em all unless they start yelling or taking off
their clothes or say something bad about my mom.

Giants win sloppy in 10 (8-7)

Bumgarner tosses 2 scoreless innings

Again today 12:05pm (680 AM)

(3-2-10)

Bigger is not always better. Aaron Peskin gave the MTA tens of millions of dollars
and 1,500 taxis to add to their fleet. They promptly gave away all of the money for
phony invoices (like from the cops) and put the taxi operating permits up for sale.
And, they’re broke.

MUNI cannot be reformed

If Willie Brown couldn’t reform the Municipal Railway then it cannot be done. The
only answer is to provide government sanctioned alternatives to MUNI and the newly
privatized taxi fleet both of which will only get progressively less competent and
responsive.

Bulldog Ballot measures

Elect the Police Chief

Elect the entire MTA board of directors

Authorize 400 new Patrol Specials to enforce Sit/Lie

(And, return the powers of arrest to them)

Remove minimum staffing requirement for SFPD

Authorize permits for 200 Jitney buses

200 million a year Gross Receipts tax

That’s a start. I like an Excess Wealth Confiscation bill too. I’d push to form
a mutual aid pact with communities up and down the West coast who have also been
invaded by the same Manson Gang wannabees who are small in number now but wait until
there are a thousand of them hitting the Haight like locusts.

Full Board

There are 36 items on the agenda of today’s meeting of the BOS Full Board. I’m
picking out 9 that I think are worth your attention. Five of them are proposed
ballot measures and 2 of the five are competing measures.

Item #12 Extending Just Cause eviction protections to post ‘79 units

This ballot measure is the brainchild of D-11’s John Avalos and was veto’d by the Mayor
a few weeks back as I recall. Of course it will win at the ballot. Shit, almost
70% of San Franciscans are Klingons. I mean, tenants.

Items #13 and #15 Elsbernd’s Benfits reform vs. Mar’s doppelganger

D-7’s Sean Elsbernd is not proposing anything radical here. None, repeat, none of
his reforms would affect anyone now working for the City. That’s Item #13. It’s
co-sponsored by the Mayor and is designed to have new employees pay a fairer share of
their own benefits.

Item #15 is sponsored by supes Eric Mar and John Campos and is a sop to SEIU 1021 aimed
at opening a few more veins in the body of SF City revenue. It’s simply stupid.
Thinking like this will get us to Vallejo status before you know it. And, anyone
wanna buy City Hall? We promise to rent it back from you.

Items #16 and #17 Halting privatization of SF Public Defender’s Office

It’s a bad idea to outsource your legal work or your sex life to the lowest bidder but
that’s what the City has done for years and with an irrational passion for the past 8
months. It always costs you more in the end as they say at the Power Exchange.

Let’s be real here. Everyone involved on both sides of this issue knows that it is
cheaper for the duly elected Public Defender and his office to provide a
constitutionally legal level of defense for those who cannot afford a lawyer.

The goal of those seeking to outsource PD work has never been about saving money or
providing a better public defense. Nope, it’s all been about weakening Public
Defender Jeff Adachi. And, it’s cost the City over 3 ¼ million this fiscal year.

At last week’s meeting of the Budget and Finance committee it seemed that everyone was
finally on the same page. It’s cheaper to keep it in the family where lawyers don’t
get paid for overtime. Both the 3 ¼ million supplemental to the Superior Court’s
indigent defense fund and the 1 ¼ million to fill vacant lawyer (5) and paralegal (2)
positions (these are not new hires) passed unanimously. We’ll see if Elsbernd’s
vote holds at the Full Board or if he’s succombed to pressure.

Pressure from the Newsom camp which had to be there. The main point to keep in mind
here is that both Sean Elsbernd and Jeff Adachi are lawyers. Newsom is not.
Elsbernd and Adachi realize that there is a constitutional floor defining the term ‘due
diligence’ and they can be disbarred for not performing same. It will be
interesting to see if Sean maintains his independence.

Item #26 How much is that bodyguard in the window?

Mirkarimi wants to know how much the Mayor spends on cops as bling and the cops don’t
want to lose all those free vacations. The new chief, in fact, defended the
secrecy of the BBB (Bodyguard Bling Budget) for several months before finally admitting
that he didn’t know what it was himself because no one would tell him because he was
new there and they didn’t trust him. This one is a Ballot Measure and will both be
approved for the June ballot and passed overwhelmingly.

Item #27 Regulating Pot Clubs

Last Ballot Measure. Sponsored by David Campos and Ross Mirkarimi who is the father
of the entire structure under which SF clubs operate. Congratulations to Ross who
saved us from the nightmare L.A. now endures. This should make the ballot and soar
through with no sane opposition. I have a very personal interest in all such
legislation.

Item #32 Mirkarimi puts more fig leafs on Bay to Breakers

If ever there were an odder couple than Ross Mirkarimi and Philip Anshutz I haven’t
seen them. Anshutz is the provincial homophobic evangelical christian who owns the
SF Examiner and a dozen or so other publications all of which are a font for right wing
propaganda. Mirkarimi is a mix of Russian Jew and Iranian Muslim whose partner is a
South American soap opera star.

Still, this is San Francisco and when Anshutz found he’d inherited the nation’s second
oldest foot race (after the Boston Marathon) along with his purchase of the Examiner he
immediately went after all the sinful drinking and nudity and general debauchery
associated with the parade/race. It was left to Ross as the D-5 supe (the most
intense part of the race is in his domain) … Mirkarmi has been dealing with the
Anshutz prudery and the cops’ general hate for all things fun and kept the race a
little bit authentic. Like the pot club industry, nice work Ross.

Sit/Lie Law A tool to reign in some occasional visitors from out-of-town

It’s ripe for abuse but it will pass. It will be largely ineffective (Sheriff says
those charged under this statute will get out of jail just as fast cause it’s just
another misdemeanor) but it will pass.

It will do one thing that makes me a big supporter. It will remove the
respsonsibility of citizens and shop owners from signing complaints and appearing at
hearings and in court. Down that road lies retaliation. Under the new ordinance
as I read it, the cops can do the citing. As I said, it’s ripe for abuse as PD
Adachi pointed out at yesterday’s meeting of the Board’s Public Safety committee but
I’ll take my chances cause we’ll have …

400 Patrol Specials to enforce Sit/Lie Law

And, as I said, return the powers of arrest to them. The Specials are ground
pounders and they almost always walk alone. They have the same Police Academy
training as regular cops. Neighborhood people and merchants love them.

Go Giants!

(2-25-10)

I have to admit it. That George Gascon? He’s got a serious set of balls.
Yep, no coward is this guy. I say that because my sidekick Eileen Left caught up
with him last evening and asked him a few tough questions and this is how it went.

Eleen: “Chief, lots of people including the ACLU believe that tasers pose an
unnecessary risk to the public and that officers tend to use them too freely. What
are your comments on that?”

Gascon: (exasperated) “I’m really tired of having to repeat myelf on this but I’m
going to say once again, I wouldn’t ask for Tasers if they weren’t safe.”

Eileen: “Well then, would you be willing to be stunned with a taser yourself just to
prove that they aren’t that dangerous?”

Gascon: “Well of course I would. What you think I’m afraid? You think I’m
some kind of coward or something?”

Eileen: “I meant no disrespect chief but I have to ask the questions for my audience.
I’m amazed that you’d do this for the public. And, can the public watch?
Would you, for instance, agree to being tazed under the dome at City Hall and allow the
public to watch?”

Gascon: “You betcha Eileen, just give me the time and bring it on.”

Eileen: “As long as we’re on the subject, some law enforcement officials in Europe
don’t agree with you. They believe that tasers are too lethal and that the best way
to disable a suspect is with rubber bullets. How do you respond to that?”

Gascon: “You can shoot me with rubber bullets all day and all night and they won’t
stop me. Tasers are the way to go.”

Eileen: “What about police dogs?”

Gascon: “I eat police dogs for breakfast.”

Eileen: “Well chief, as luck would have it, we’ve brought along several taser guns, a
couple of rubber block guns and a 140 pound German Shepherd attack dog. We’re just
gonna stand back to give you some room.”

Gascon: “Wait, what are you doing? I’m wearing my good suit!”

Eileen: “We’ll be using all three methods in an attempt to subdue you chief, but don’t
worry, I’m certain you’re correct and you won’t be seriously injured.”

Gascon: “Don’t let that fucking dog loose you crazy bitch!”

Eileen: “Oh, too easy? OK, we’ll start with a couple of rubber bullets.”

BANGGGG!! BANGGGG!!!

Gascon: (writhing on the floor) “Eiiihhhhhhh.”

Eileen: “He’s still moving around. It looks to me like he could be reaching for a
gun. Better tase him.”

ZZZZIIINNNNNGGG!!!

Gascon: “AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Eileen: “Are those convulsions and that better be a roll of quarters in your pocket.
Better let the dog go.”

GRRRRRRRR … CRUNNNNCCHH …

Eileen: “Back down, Lassie. (moves closer and and peers at him) I think you can
cuff him now. Or, should you use your billy club a bit?”

Well OK, none of this ever happened. But, it should. Before we give yet another
lethal weapon to a force that includes juiced up steroid junkies who love to beat the
shit out of defenseless people.

Seriously. We have some real monsters out there wearing badges and if the
experience with other police forces who use tasers is accurate, it’s not unusual for a
suspect to be stunned multiple times.

If they’re safe, Gascon should prove it by allowing himself to be stunned by one.

How about it, George. You ready to stand up like a man and take one for the force?

Go Giants!

h.

(2-19-10)

OK, walking along Fisherman’s Wharf today thinking of the permutations possible should
Newsom win the Lt. Governor’s race (which he will) and came up with this. Tell me
it ain’t nifty.

Dufty and Sophie Maxwell resign on March 1st at 10am

Newsom appoints Rebecca Prozan and Lynette Sweet

Newsom resigns March 10th to run for Lt. Governor’s

This is just a mind fuck now gamers so don’t get all excited. But think about it.
Dufty can’t vote for himself for Mayor as a supervisor but Prozan certainly can and
Prozan and Sweet get the benefit of running as incumbents. Maxwell could certainly
get another 6 figure job out of it and Dufty’s only giving up a few months and being
replaced by an ideological twin.

Newsom gets to go all in on the Lt. Gov race without getting accused of deserting the
City. The only hitch (and it’s a biggie) is that it could hand Peskin Room 200
cause although there are 6 avowed Progressives on the Board they can’t vote for
themselves so they’d have to go for someone like Peskin. However, …

I keep remembering David Campos voting for Dufty over Daly for head of the
Transportation Authority and I’m wondering if he’d choose Dufty over Peskin for Mayor.
Or if Chiu would swing to Dufty in return for appointment as D.A. Should Kamala win
the State Attorney General’s office. He donated a total of around $2,000 to Harris’
various races.

OK, pick it apart.

Side note: Joshua Arce and the POA both like Mark Farrell in the D-2 race. Arce
passed on $200 from his Brightline Defense corporation (which has refused to file a
mandated 990 form to show who supports them – he has a member of Fiona Ma’s staff on his
Board of Directors) … So, Arce is rubbing shoulders with the dark side (also,
David Fix who is a past head of the tenant hating Small Property Owners Association
tossed in a Ben Franklin). I’d like to hear a comment on that from a certain
articulate Green Party member.

Go Giants!

(2-18-10)

Rules Committee (10am)

Chair: D-9’s David Campos

Vice Chair: D-1’s Eric Marc

Member: D-2’s Michela Alioto-Pier

Items #5 and #6 and #7 Bodyguard bling, walking the walk, up in smoke

Police Chief George Gascon had an opinion piece in the morning Chron launching a
pre-emptive attack on likely Green Party mayoral candidate Ross Mirkarimi. Say what
you will, this boy with the reverse comb-over is not the shy and retiring type.

And, he’s as full of shit as the next lawyer. Take Item #5 where Mirk wants to find
out just how much it costs to send unneeded cops all over the country as a layer of
celebrity bling for vain politicians. Ross isn’t even asking them to stop the
practice. He just wants to know how much it costs. The chief says asking such
questions endangers the Gavin and the Kamala, one of whom gave George his job and the
other whom he has endorsed for State Attorney General … this kind of information
can be dangerous says the chief. Yeah, dangerous for the politicians and the chief.
Ooooh, overtime … yum, yum eat-em-up.

Gascon can play politics with the best of em. He weighed in on Item #7 also.
That one is yet another attempt to get the cops off their asses and out of their patrol
cars to walk the streets with me. And you. George says forcing cops to walk
beats or get on the buses is a dangerous idea. No shit? He should try walking
my Tenderloin or riding the 14 Mission without a gun. Look, a big part of the job
of police officer is to put yourself in harm’s way to protect people and property.
Our cops don’t do nearly enough of that and everyone in the City knows it. And,
they commit fraud regularly to cover their negligence. As in turning in false
reports regarding their time on the pavement and MUNI.

Item #6 is Chair Campos taking the reins of the legislative chariot that is the San
Francisco pot industry from, again, Ross Mirkarimi. Again, the cops consider pot
arrests to be a legitimate way to fatten their totals. Even if they’re illegal
arrests.

One thing on this item, please dear God don’t let this be an attempt to put the Jim
Jones cloned Axis of Love in charge of the local pot scene. This is looking more
and more like an attempt by Campos to reward this group for campaign work by giving
them a majority vote on a soon-to-be-impaneled BOS pot advisory group.

Side issues

I’ll give the cops their tasers. If they’ll agree to be tested for steroids. I
know there are some mean mother fuckers out here on the streets. Shit, they’re my
neighbors. So, I’ll give the cops tasers which can be used selectively. Roid
rage ain’t selective.

And, no more power for the chief. That’s a change in my position. At first I
thought it was a good idea to let this chief clean house. Then I realized that the
next chief would use the power to fire the best cops who make them look bad. People
like Andrew Cohen. The fact that a violent and insane prick like POA VP Kevin
Martin has a job and that Joe Dutto and Andrew Cohen are forced out is an outrage.

Go Giants!

(2-17-10)

In all the minor swirl about Mayor Newsom’s impending announcement of his run for Lt.
Governor I’d forgotten that the ghost of former SF top cop, sheriff, assessor,
supervisor and businessman Dick Hongisto told me on the morning of November 6th 2004 as
I walked past Walter Shorenstein’s parking lot down the street from Original Joe’s …
said to tell Matt Gonzalez that he should enter the race for Lieutenant Governor of
California cause he’d win easily and then be elected governor in 4 years and then win
the U.S. Presidency in 2008.

A friend wrote to remind me and she was right. We all have plans for our favorite
people, politicians or third basemen whatever and mine was that Gonzalez would be the
second youngest president in history. So, Gavin gets it all. People don’t
listen to me.

Oh well.

Did you know that Hongisto and present Sheriff (since 1980) Michael Hennessey both
hailed from Minnesota and that it was Hongisto who gave Hennessey his start at the
Sheriff’s department by hiring him as his legal counsel?

Or that the New York Times noted in Dick’s obit that he was the first person elected in
SF by: “a coalition of liberals, radicals, minorities, homosexuals and the young”?
Sounds like the Gonzo bandwagon in 2003.

Or that Dennis Kucinich (elected Mayor of Cleveland in his 20’s – see Time Magazine,
‘The punking of Cleveland’) … or that Kucinich hired Hongisto to be top cop in
Cleveland and then fired him live on TV?

Or that he was one of the SF BOS that created Prop M in the early 80’s and that’s the
law that restricts the kind of condo towers for the rich that CW Nevius’ masters have
him pushing in the Chron?

Or that he refused to evict poor Filipino veterans from the I Hotel which was right
down the street from the proposed site of the Prop M wrecking 430 foot palace for
millionaires … refused to evict them and was locked up himself by a judge for doing
so and I wonder if Hennessey was the department lawyer yet?

Did you know that Walter Shorenstein owned the I Hotel through an arm’s length straw
party and that an arsonist burned the last of the veterans out of the building and one
was killed and that Shorenstein sold the building that night to a shady South East Asia
group called Mandalay?

Politicians were more interesting

Chris Daly is the only recent local politician I can think of who has gone to jail for
supporting the rights of the poor and downtrodden. Yeah, they don’t make em like
Dick Hongisto anymore. Of course Nevius and Kenny Garcia who is his counterpart at
the SF Examiner write hateful things about Daly because they are running dog lackeys
of rich people like Shorenstein.

Mar and Chiu: A mission for mediocrity

There were 4 items on the agenda for new ‘chair’ Eric Mar’s first meeting of the
Board’s Audits and Oversight committee yesterday. Mar, I’m guessing on orders from
Chiu – he read from a script – combined the last 3 unrelated items which meant only one
bite at Public Comment for citizens in attendance.

The public was confused as hell. After the items were read they kept trying to come
up and address them individually but to no avail. After a discussion of the MTA
people tried to come up and speak about the Allemany Market fiasco but D-11’s John
Avalos subbing for Sophie Maxwell told them they couldn’t cause it was included with
the MTA item and they should have spoken then. I’m telling you, these fuckers are
in league to shut the public up. It smells of backroom influence by Aaron Peskin who
hated listening to the Public almost as much as he hates listening the the Parrots of
Telegraph Hill. And Mar as chair of anything? Maybe later but right now he’s
not ready to be anything but a fall guy who carries Progressive extortion notes to big
bad guys like the SFFD’s union. The man is the classic ‘Deer in the Headlights’ half
the time and the other half he’s reading from a script.

It was chilling to say the least. Combined with the Daly/Campos strategy of placing
items on a ‘Consent Agenda’ at the committee level and holding the most important
discussions in private (Campos’ excuse for not calling appointees to the podium for
public scrutiny was: “But, we’d all – the BOS – already met all of them.”) … I’d
say we’re well on our way to hearing almost nothing of any substance whatsoever on
SFGTV. Again, discredit Peskin who used to say that he only talked to, “Playahs”.

Budget and Finance (11am)

Chair: D-11’s John Avalos

Vice Chair: D-5’s Ross Mirkarimi

Member: D-7’s Sean Elsbernd

Item #1 Public Power Lite

That’s what Gonzalez used to call ‘Public Aggregation’. The Board is like a bunch
of children playing in the middle of a dusty Texas road oblivious to a semi approaching
at 100 mph.

The ’semi’ is, of course, PG&E. Taking a cue from fellow monopolistic sister
corporation Comcast, the utility will have an item on the June ballot that will make
SF’s venture into Public Power illegal without a public vote with a 2/3rds approval.
Comcast did the same thing to get out of having to support a small amount of public
service programming in SF and elsewhere around the country. Verizon did it so they
can put up cell phone antennas anywhere without a local public hearing.

Items #5 and #6 Dufty’s tax break for business

Dufty like Newsom is a Republican masquerading as a Democrat for the obvious practical
reasons. He hates tenants and loves billionaires. He’s together with ‘Ken doll’
on this one which is applying the old fashioned Ronald Reagan Voodoo Economics of
‘Trickle Down’ to further take funds away from the children playing in the middle of
that dusty Texas road. Only the road is in the Bay View. The most interesting
thing here will be to see a guy the size of Sean Elsbernd tap dancing on top of his
desk as he explains why it’s good to cut the salaries of workers while giving the money
saved to his buddies in the business community.

Items #7 and #8 George Armstrong Custer’s battle strategies

DCYF, DPH, DPH, SFFD and the Office of Emergency Management will explain how to (as a
semi-retired politico used to say) … they’ll be giving a seminar on how to make
chocolate ice cream out of shit.

Power Exchange across from TL Cop Shack

SF cops aren’t very good at policing the streets directly in front, side and back of
their own station houses. Hell, Northern Station doesn’t have a single window on
the street and the few the Tenderloin have are forever covered.

Tenderloin is the worst. The spacious park across the street from the station
(Boedecker) is chained shut most of the time to keep out the winos and crackheads who
instead gather against the walls under mine and other TL windows.

Cop cars clog the streets surrounding the TL station like covered wagons under attack
because the cops keep their personal vehicles in the garage beneath the structure cause
they can’t keep the streets safe enough without walking them and damned if they’re
gonna do that for more than a few minutes a day.

And, directly across from the Jones street side of the TL station is Terrance Alan’s
building, the former ‘Pink Diamonds’. Yeah, the place with all the trouble every
night and the shootings is across the street from a fully manned cop shop that refused
to control their own doorstep.

Hither cometh my buddy Mike Powers to battle anti-funsters Bevan Dufty and Elaine
Zamora and Randy Shaw and David Villa Lobos and at least one preacher with his hand
out.

I’m not gonna dwell on this cause this piece is longish and y’all know my positions on
sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. Suffice to say that Powers runs a tight ship and as
someone who lives directly across the street from his previous incarnation on Mason
street let me tell you that he’s a great neighbor.

No loud crowds. No blaring music. No alcohol. Being very real here, Carl’s
Junior draws a lot rougher crowd than the Power Exchange. I’m hoping Mike get’s the
place open and that the issue of the business stays front and center in the coming D-6
supervisor race of which I am a candidate (though Jim Meko is my first choice – see my
window poster and get your own).

Pitchers and catchers arrive at Spring Training today.

Go Giants!

(2-16-10)

It was a busy day on Fisherman’s Wharf (yesterday) and there was a crowd circled around
and photographing the cop wearing Badge #192 as he threatened the Techno/Robotic Silver
Man who sat on his plastic bucket and took in the abuse. I pulled out my Bulldog
press pass, clipped it on and moved closer to listen:

Cop #192 (angrily writing citation):

“So, I can arrest you and you can tell it to a judge tomorrow.
Do you want to do that!?!”

Silver Man: Looking at ground mumbles “No.”.

Cop #192 to me: “What do you think you’re doing?”

Moi: “I have an online blog and I watch cops.”

Cop #192: “I don’t have to answer any of your questions!!”

Ellen Gamble’s youngest: “I just hate to see street artists hassled.”

(Tourist cell phone cameras rolling on busy sunny day)

Cop #192: “You’re jumping to conclusions.”

Bulldog: “You seem very aggressive for a cop working around tourists.”

Cop #192: “I don’t have to answer your questions!”

Me again: “I never asked you any questions.”

I was on the return leg of my daily walk from the Tenderloin to Marina Green and back
by way of Mason street (takes in whole of Tourists area of Fisherman’s Wharf) … I’d
noticed further up the street that the ‘Bush Man’ who was doing a brisk business
(surrounded by laughing crowd from Peoria clicking away with cameras) … the Bush
Man was gone on my return trip (did #192 get him too cause behind his bush, like Silver
Man under his paint, he was a black man?). I’d hate to think that.

Two poor black micro-businessmen destroyed for the day by a white cop with an attitude.
Two black men whose talent (Silver man is hell of a performer and Bush Man is,
well, Bush Man) … I truly doubt that any of the million people who come to the
Wharf every year come in hopes of watching Badge #192 give a black small businessman a
bunch of shit. But, that’s the image they were all taking home on their cell cams.
Anger welled up inside me and I wished I could have given the cop a $500 ticket for
hurting the image of SF and the SFPD on that sunny morning.

Chess Guy and clients mostly black

At the other end of the Cable Car line at Powell and Market is another small street
business run by a black entrepreneur. He’s John Powell (how appropriate) and a
month or so back the cops ran his enterprise away from the turnaround at Powell and
Market where it’s been for 14 years. He works a block further up now and doesn’t
want any trouble. The City won’t give the chess concession a permit at this time.
It keeps em at their mercy.

City attacks on Allemany Market farmers

The Allemany Farmers Market worked just fine as a collective for 50 years until Amy
Brown became head of the City’s Real Estate Office. She and her fellow
empire-building aide, John Updyke then made it a mission to seize control of such
neighborhood markets, shuffle the stands, raise the fees, install micro-wave towers and
generally fuck things up (plus they get to hire a new employee who answers only to
them).

They tried the same thing at the Civic Center Farmers Market across from City Hall but
Chris Daly and the D-6 neighbors were able to hold them off. Brown and Updyke held
forth with how the farmers vehicles were destroying the plaza (bullshit, the City
bought a lousy brick paving job that’s failing for blocks in either direction and wants
to pawn it off on the small farmers – it’s the City trucks who attack the bricks with
high pressure hoses every night at midnight and I know cause I’ve watched them for
years).

Item #4 on today’s agenda of the Board’s Audit and Oversight committee
is a hearing called by D-10’s Supervisor Sophie Maxwell to investigate how the City’s
stewardship of the Allemany Market is going. We’ll see won’t we?

Newsom takes future from 1,700 cab drivers

People wait in line for up to 15 years to receive a cab medallion. If they’re lucky
they might get another 15 or 20 years use out of them before they’re, by law, returned
to the pool where the next waiting drivers get their shot at running their own small
business.

These are all small businesses you know. The cabbies. The Bush Man. Silver
Man. The farmers. The Chess Guy. The Night Club owners.

Hip Hop venues attract rowdy blacks

Remember when there was no Entertainment Commission? The cops made it impossible to
get permits for virtually any large party where black people might gather. Stories
of how the cop in charge of rating sound levels in spaces screwed around and
manipulated them are legendary. So, the parties went on but like black street
entertainment, without permits. The cops prefer it that way.

Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic

If you’re a white millionaire with a vintage car you and your friends can take over Nob
Hill and any other area you want in this town to parade your toys. The cops will
kiss your ass at every intersection.

If you’re a red neck with a mint shape ‘62 Impala or a Latino with a custom low-rider
and you’ve been showing at Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic in Golden Gate Park for 22 years?
Fuck you.

They deported the Crepe Guy

Greg Corrales’ truncheon-wielding Mission Station thugs follow the Tamale Lady and her
ilk from block to block and park to park trying to drive them out of business. Last
year the Port Authority tried to drive Red’s Java Hut on the Embarcadero out of
business with a huge rent increase.

The City is anti-Small Businesses

While the Newsom administration calls for tax cuts for businesses they define as
’small’, on the ground their forces are waging a systematic campaign to destroy true
entry-level micro enterprises. Particularly if they are run by people of color.
Everyone who knows the streets of San Francisco knows this to be true.

What you can do

You can’t do shit. Just as you suspected. It’s all part of the Gentrification
war that lower income San Franciscans have been losing since the Redevelopment Agency
was created to force them out of Yerba Buena.

The cops love it. Hell, like C.W. Nevius who touts the goal of increased
gentrification in the Chronicle, they’re from Walnut Creek. They’d prefer a City
full of Wal Marts and Home Depots. Sometimes these places hire a clown to stand
outside and pitch their products. But, if you rinse off their makeup? They’re
all white.

Go Giants!

h.

(2-1-10)

So, in this scripted for the stage piece I’m working on the mayor of SF is killed in a
late night car accident and what is initially a great tragedy becomes sci-fi humor as
rumors from Public Safety personnel at the scene are confirmed:

Reporter, Dan’s Boys: “You’re telling me that the mayor was an android!?!”

Chief Gasbag: “Yes, it looks that way.”

Supervisor Choo-Choo: “I thought he was doing a great job!”

Supervisor Daly: “Doesn’t the Charter require you be human?”

… It goes on like that. Part of a Sunday afternoon’s musings at Tony De Renzo’s
crib over Pandora music, good smoke and a pint of Jim Beam.

But, just a lead-in to today’s Board Committee hearings.

Public Safety (10am)

Chair: D-3’s David Chiu

Vice Chair: D-5’s Ross Mirkarimi

Member: D-8’s Bevan Dufty (aka Pee Wee Herman)

Item #1 Self-assessment by Child Welfare and Juvie Probation

This has all the validity of a take-home SAT test. I mean, c’mon. I’m gonna go
out on a limb here and predict that the departments report that they are doing as well
as can be expected but that they need more money.

What should be asked? How about asking how many juveniles were reported to ICE
since the Mayor rolled over on our Sanctuary City policy? Really, controversial
ghetto gang defense attorney Eric Safire told me that most juveniles are reported to
ICE by Juvenile Probation officials who interview them before they have legal
representation. The accused simply don’t know that they don’t have to talk to the
juvie staff who quickly report them to ICE before their case ever see’s a judge.
How many times has this happened?

Item #2 Chief Gasbag’s cooked crime numbers

Steve Martin has to play George Gascon in the movie. Really, he’d nail him in an
instant. Distinguished looking and charming but uttering the most outrageously
inappropriate things while the whole town fawns over him.

For instance, a couple of weeks ago the chief told the Police Commission that they
couldn’t believe any of the numbers they’ve received from his department because their
records keeping for decades has been at least incompetent and often suspect. Then,
he takes a podium a few days ago and brags about what good numbers his department is
reporting?

Foot Patrols? Forget it under Gascon. Even though the department is fully
staffed for the first time in decades they can’t spare feet for the street. And
anyway, that’s an independent call that station captains make daily on their own.
Guess what? They can’t spare a square.

Cause they still have well over 200 officers riding desks and doing jobs that civilians
should have been doing for decades. Year after year through mayor after mayor and
chief after chief they promise to civilianize these positions and year after year they
do nothing. For example, the clerk of the Police Commission is a full lieutenant
with 30 years on the job and he’s doing a job that any competent junior college grad
could do. Hey, maybe he’s injured, I don’t know. But if he is, retire him with
the usual 85-90% of his base pay. And then hire someone who’s young enough to walk
under my Tenderloin district window.

So, the department’s records are shit by the chief’s own admission. Their
deployment is decided by what’s safest for the officers and the public be damned.
But, Chief Gasbag is ready to go to the ballot to stop the monthly Critical Mass bike
ride. Gosh, wonder how many officers on overtime that will take? How many of
Mike Hennessey’s jail cells is George willing to fill with cyclists? How many
hours will Kamala Harris and Jeff Adachi’s lawyers have to rack up trying defend and
destroy a SF tradition?

And, like the Reverend Amos Brown before him, Chief George wants to post photographs of
guys who pay for pussy and take away their wheels. Now, there’s an enlightened
approach. This in a town where over 40% of those who went to the polls voted to
de-criminalize prostitution completely. This fucker’s a real breath of fresh air.
What if the customer doesn’t drive? I guess you could take his shoes and his
MUNI pass. Yeah, I think definitely Steve Martin plays him in the movie.

Land Use (1pm)

Chair: D-10’s Sophie Maxwell

Vice Chair: D-1’s Eric Mar

Member: D-3’s David Chiu

Item #1 Interim Controls for Rincon Hill

First thing to note is that Chris Daly is not the sponsor although he is the D-6
supervisor (that’s Rincon Hill) and he’s the one who negotiated the original
legislation requiring developers to pay into a specific pot for neighborhood services.

This one has the smell of Eric Mar’s legislation last week that switched City solar
dollars from public structures to wealthy businesses and condo owners. Taking into
account the Green Party’s push to privatize the solar array on the Sunset District’s
reservoir and now SF is second in the nation for solar works per capita but virtually
every bit of it is privately (i.e. PG&E) owned. Thank the Greens and their liberal
buddies like Mar and Leno.

This item is tough for an old cowboy like me to figure out. It’s designed that way.
Chiu’s great at that. What it says on face is that it’s changing where
developer money goes temporarily (18 months – until Daly’s gone) until they can cook up
permanent legislation. My guess is that the in-lieu fees that are to become,
“interim affordable housing fees” will now cease to go for things like neighborhood
centers and trees and go to Calvin Welch. Wonder what he promised the mayor for
this? If it’s true. Like I said, pretty complicated stuff for me. Meant to
be. For sure.

Item #3 Apt. mgrs. arrested for tenants loud sex and smoking

Woody Allen plays Eric Mar in the movie. Gotta be. As I read this latest
engraved tablet from the Richmond District I was ’sore amazed’ as the good book says.
Now, I used to manage apartment buildings in this town and it appears this
legislation would make me responsible for tenants who leaned against any part of the
exterior of my building to smoke instead of standing at the curb. Or, if I have an
ash tray in the laundry room or on the roof deck?

Angela Alioto has to be chuckling about now. It was she who wrote and passed the
nation’s first ‘no smoking in restaurants’ legislation (was it bars too?) quite a few
calendars back. People attacked and mocked her for what was very sensible
legislation and is now revered. And, here I am after Mar.

The ‘No Loud Sex’? Just teasing. That isn’t in this particular offering at the
Board today. Naw, that’s next week. Mar and Gascon are meeting with Chiu to
make the public notice on the matter as confusing as possible even as we speak.

Go Giants!

h.

(1-28-10)

Today’s Rules Committee (10am)

Chair: D-9’s David Campos

Vice Chair: D-2’s Michela Alioto-Pier

Member: D-1’s Eric Marc

Last time I saw Chris Daly on sfgtv he was trying to put a measure on the ballot that would make any firefighter testing positive for alchohol … have them fired outright for a first offense.

That’s just stupid shit. Especially for a supposedly Prog politician. What the fuck ever happened to redemption? The way things are going it looks like Daly would rather free a murderer than pass up a chance to take a hack at the SFFD. That’s strange at least. Or, as Supervisor John Avalos put it: “Are you fucking nuts!?! Did you see them out on flat bed trucks in my district when I screwed around with them?”*

OK, Avalos didn’t say that but it happened and Prog supes want no part of Chris’ weird ass vendetta.

It’s Item #5 on today’s agenda. Daly wants to have the firefighters work an extra 4 hours a week for the same pay. That works out to nearly a 10% cut in pay if my math serves me. And, he’s not suggesting it for anyone but SFFD.

Disclaimer. Long ago I spent 5 years as a firefighter and believe me, they’d rather take all of the bunks out of the houses and work a normal 40 hour shift like everyone else.

Items #1 and #2 Elsbernd leaps on horses of runaway money coach

This one takes a pair. The real battle here is one I wudda never thunk could happen. It’s the one between Sean and the Examiner’s, Melissa Griffin who proves that she doesn’t just have a great ass but also is smart. What a combination.

In this morning’s Ex Griffin runs the first of a 3 part column in which she compares the relative stability of the SF pension system as opposed to other major California cities. By far the best thing she’s written. Lady did her homework and it turns out that while: “Last year employer contribution was the equivalent of 9.5 percent of the total city payroll. This year, it will be 13.5 percent. But back in the ’80s, there were times when it ws more than 100 percent for safety personnel and almost 20 percent for miscellaneous employees. The fund was established in 1889. It survived the Great Depression and it’ll survive the current crisis.”.

Nice fight. Two sharp lawyers. I’m glad to see that Griffin is getting away from snarky cheap shots as a basis for her columns and is starting to do some serious journalism. She got this perspective the old fashioned way. She talked to major players and then used deductive reasoning. She just might make a decent blogger yet. And, fore I forgets, congrats to retiring SFERS Executive Director Clare Murphy. I’ve never heard anything but good things about the lady.

“Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”

(’Rhyme of Ancient Mariner’)

SF gets its water from three sources. The sky (it falls on porous earth and flows through the sand which filters it back into our natural water table). Piped in from Hetch-Hetchy and other sources (see attachment). And, from our sub-surface creeks and watersheds (about to be polluted - see Bonnie Sherk’s research).

The Fisher family has utilized the fortune they made from child slave labor (da Gap) and used it to level ancient redwood forests and, most recently, to destroying every blade of living grass possible in SF parks. Kudos to Karen Babbitt for staying on top of the Fishers’ City Field scam. Kamala Kelkar of the Examiner did a blurb today picking up on the efforts of Babbitt and other environmentalists who want an EIR on the family’s paving of their largest SF target yet. Which would be the Western end of Golden Gate Park. Can you believe that Planning didn’t think of looking at the effects of such a project on our water table and Lake Merced?

One minute till hearing starts.

Go Giants!

h.