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SFPO Pre-Empts Newsom’s “State of the City” Address
by Paul Hogarth‚
Nov. 01‚ 2006
At last month’s annual convention of the San Francisco People’s Organization (SFPO), Board members released “State of the City: Style Over Substance,” a 17-page mid-term Report of Mayor Gavin Newsom that included detailed recommendations in five major policy areas. Last week, to coincide with the Mayor’s Annual State of the City address, SFPO sent out the Report to the press, hoping to get substantial media attention on the “progressive response” to the Mayor’s speech. But while Chronicle reporters were initially interested and even mentioned the Report in their initial coverage, the Chronicle editors weren’t interested in the other side of the story.
Because the Mayor has such high approval ratings that Supervisor Chris Daly once complained that he’s “bigger than Jesus,” it’s hard to be critical of Gavin Newsom when the mainstream media gives him such a pass. But the SFPO Report was hard-hitting and substantive, while giving Newsom credit where credit is due. “SFPO is committed to working in partnership with Mayor Newsom when our values align with his,” it writes, “but we will not sit quietly by on the sidelines when San Francisco needs a mayor who lives up to his promises, who addresses the real service needs of vulnerable San Franciscans, and who is not afraid to challenge the status quo.”
The Report focused on the following five major policy areas – (1) Public Safety, (2) Economic Development, (3) Land Use and Housing, (4) Transportation and (5) Homelessness. While critical of Mayor Newsom’s record, the Report also gave concrete policy recommendations on each of these five issues that can serve as a blueprint for the people’s agenda.
On Public Safety, the Report chided Newsom for offering lip service and PR stunts, and an excessive focus on simply hiring more police officers. Policy recommendations included funding a re-entry initiative to combat the high recidivism rate, true community policing efforts like foot patrols, and addressing the root causes of crime such as housing and education. “The City needs to overcome simply installing security cameras at housing projects,” it wrote, “without ensuring that the physical conditions of the properties themselves are clean, habitable and conducive to public safety.”
On Economic Development, the Report recognized that San Francisco has changed and relies heavily on the tourist industry – but argued that the City needs to create more living wage jobs in that industry to help everyone prosper. “Mayor Newsom deftly posed with hotel workers on the picket lines,” it wrote, “but did nothing to steward the confrontation toward a victory for labor.” Policy recommendations included supporting Proposition G on formula retail stores, replacing the payroll tax with a gross receipts tax, and dedicating benefits from real estate development for the arts.
The strongest criticism of the Mayor came from the Report’s section on Land Use and Housing. “Nowhere has Newsom more brazenly shown his true colors than in his refusal to protect some of San Francisco’s most vulnerable populations from being displaced in a wave of speculative real estate profiteering,” it wrote. Recommendations included creating a set-aside to fund rentals for extremely low-income households, supporting measures that protect tenants (which Newsom has repeatedly vetoed), and using the Mayor’s political leverage in the Democratic Party to get more affordable housing funds.
On Transportation, the Report criticized Newsom for not supporting or proposing alternative funding mechanisms for Muni, such as Proposition E (the Parking Tax) on the November ballot. While the Mayor gladly rides a bicycle on “Bike to Work Day,” he has vetoed Healthy Saturdays in Golden Gate Park and his Office has not taken steps that will achieve a goal of getting 10% of San Franciscans to commute on their bicycle. Even the Mayor of Los Angeles, said the Report, has used his bully pulpit to provide leadership on regional transit issues. The Report specifically called for a Bicycle Facilities Implementation Plan, and that the Mayor “should exhaust all other funding options, including increased parking fines and fees, before raising Muni fares.”
Homelessness has arguably been the Mayor’s “signature issue” – and he certainly used it as a Supervisor to get elected Mayor. But the Report criticized his record for not having a consistent policy, and criminalizing the homeless – such as the recent sweeps in Golden Gate Park. “Homelessness is a national issue,” it wrote, “which directly reflects the increasing poverty and inequity in our society today.” Recommendations include preserving emergency homeless services (including the replacement of a new 24-hour drop-in center), creating permanently affordable housing units – especially for homeless families, and leveraging Prop 63 (mental health) funds to ensure a continuum of services.
On the Day of the Mayor’s “State of the City” address, SFPO organizer Carolyn Tran made sure that members of the press received the full 17-page Report. “Chronicle Reporter Cecilia Vega was very positive about receiving our Report,” said SFPO President Jane Kim. “She even suggested that had she gotten it sooner, they could have done a full article about progressives pre-empting the Mayor.” Ironically, the Report complained that San Francisco is “essentially a one-newspaper town,” and chided the Chronicle for rehashing media advisories put out by Newsom’s Press Secretary.
The Chronicle’s initial write-up of the Mayor’s Address, as featured on SFGate.com, included three paragraphs at the end of the article highlighting the SFPO Report. But this part never made it in the print edition – and within a few hours, the last three paragraphs were even removed from the website. SFPO was later told that it was removed due to lack of space but it’s likely that the Chronicle editors weren’t happy about being called out for parroting the Mayor’s agenda.
Since you won’t hear about the SFPO Report from the Chronicle, Beyond Chron readers can access it here.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Paul Hogarth was elected to the SFPO Board at the September 30th Convention. He was not involved in the writing or editing of the SFPO Report, which was written and finalized prior to the Convention.
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