As San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom heads into his re-election year, many of his top priorities remain unfulfilled. The San Francisco Chronicle is focusing so intently on the Mayor’s social life that it is easy to forget that Newsom had unveiled a very ambitious agenda, one that went well beyond his work on the 49ers stadium. Remember when the Mayor played basketball in Bayview-Hunters Point and vowed to improve the neighborhood? When he said he was committed to changing the “culture” of the San Francisco Police Department? And what about the city’s homicide rate, which the Mayor said should subject him to a recall if not reduced? The Mayor also said he would take action to stem the exodus of families with children from the city---has he fulfilled this pledge? Evaluating the entire Newsom record requires multiple pieces, but our early sense is that the Mayor has prevented a sense of voter grievance from emerging around the "incumbent unseating" issues of Muni, homelessness, housing and the quality of life in neighborhoods. But much of his overall agenda remains unfinished.

As Mayor Gavin Newsom starts up his re-election campaign, the disconnect between the Mayor’s stated priorities and the San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of the Mayor has never been greater. One would conclude from the Chronicle’s reportage that San Franciscans are primarily concerned with who the Mayor is dating, and the “he said, she said” debate between the Mayor and the San Francisco 49ers over the new stadium.

Bayview-Hunters Point

To be fair, the Chronicle did have a good front-page story on Lennar Corp.’s questionable financial projections for its Bayview-Hunters Point projects. But the Chronicle ran this important story on Thanksgiving, not exactly a day of high readership, or one calculated to provoke a response from a closed City Hall.

Editors usually run an investigative story on Thanksgiving because they are trying to bury it.

In Newsom’s first months in office, the Chronicle repeatedly ran long, front-page stories about how he was the first mayor committed to improving the neighborhood. But the paper has apparently forgotten all about Bayview-Hunters Point, and it now seems to exist solely as a site for whatever backroom development schemes the 49ers and Lennar Corp (and/or Forest City Development) can assemble.

The lack of progress in Bayview-Hunters Point over the past three years is tragic. The community’s voting percentage has fallen far behind other neighborhoods, and residents seemed resigned to decisions being made for them, rather than by them.

Is Mayor Newsom to blame for the current state of the neighborhood? Only if you believe that San Francisco’s Mayor can make up for the Bush Administration’s withdrawal of funding for housing, employment and social programs for distressed urban communities.

But the Mayor raised unrealistically high expectations in Bayview-Hunters Point. He has not provided the day to day focus that he promised residents in his administration’s early days. The Mayor may believe that making the community a Redevelopment Area has set the stage for neighborhood-led improvement efforts, but the entire 49ers-Lennar-Forest City debate shows how irrelevant Bayview residents’ desires are regarding the planning for the neighborhood’s future.

The Police Department

As for Newsom’s vow last year at this time to change the culture of the San Francisco Police Department, the mayor’s record is mixed. On the one hand, he has stood by Chief Heather Fong, whose attempts to reform the SFPD has led me to reconsider my previous view that the department would benefit from her replacement.

The San Francisco Police Officers’ Association (POA) ran such a vicious and dishonest campaign against Supervisor Chris Daly that it is clear that Newsom has his hands full keeping the department under civilian authority. Fong’s removal would be a huge victory for the POA, rewarding their staunch opposition to reform.

But while the Mayor deserves credit by sticking by Fong, at the same time he catered to the POA and undermined his chief by opposing foot patrols. Fong had a difficult time keeping up with the mayor’s changing stance on the issue, and ended up looking foolish by saying that she might not abide by the Board of Supervisor’s legislation mandating patrol.

Rising homicides

Homicide rates are a function of national, state and local economic policies, and there is little that a mayor can do to reduce the rate. Mayor Newsom supported Supervisor Mirkarimi’s call for security cameras at key Western Addition intersections, and has backed the installation of cameras in other high-crime neighborhoods as well. Whether these cameras will reduce homicides, or even have any impact in reducing crime, is unclear. But residents and merchants have called for the cameras, and, as with foot patrols, politicians should support measures that make low-income people feel safer.

Family Exodus

The current budget has $2.1 million in new money for family rent subsidies and eviction/ homelessness prevention assistance. True, the Supervisors added $1million of this amount through a supplemental appropriation, but the Mayor approved the funding and added another $1.1 million in his budget.

The Mayor recently claimed while in New York City that his top initiative priority for November 2007 was a bond to upgrade the remaining rundown public housing units. This would be a major step forward in keeping low-income families in San Francisco, but since the Mayor’s announcement there have been few details released of what he specifically has in mind.

The Mayor has spoken of building market-rate housing on public housing land to subsidize the cost of renovating/rebuilding the low-cost units. Given the difficulty in securing major new public housing money from Washington DC, the Newsom plan may be the only viable option for preserving San Francisco’s existing public housing supply.

MUNI

Complaints about MUNI have not reached the level that would pose a risk to the Mayor’s re-election. There are structural funding problems with MUNI that eventually must be addressed, but this hot-button issue will not be a political factor in 2007.

Homelessness

Despite the persistence of homeless persons on city sidewalks, Mayor Newsom’s administration has offered quality permanent housing to virtually all homeless single adults receiving county welfare. But the Mayor has had less success with the more intractable group of chronic homeless people who either receive SSI or have no income. This is the population visibly homelessness in many neighborhoods, particularly the Mission, SOMA and the Tenderloin.

The Mayor acknowledged this problem when he framed his “State of the City” speech around the need to address quality of life issues impacting neighborhoods. Supportive housing is one of the areas where Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be able to secure additional funds, which means that within a few years the city may well be able to make serious inroads on that portion of the homeless population whose years of alcohol and/or drug addiction requires more expensive on-site services.

By the time the Mayor faces the voters next November, public attitudes toward his success on homelessness may be based less on his success with Care Not Cash---which has apparently become “old news”—than on his ability to make progress on reducing visible homelessness and quality of life problems on city streets in the next ten months.

Housing

The Mayor agreed to increase the city’s inclusionary housing requirements, and will soon sign his second piece of pro-tenant legislation (with Housing Director Matt Franklin playing a key role in protecting tenants from eviction and rent raises through tax-credit scams). While the Mayor has not succeeded in expediting the glacial pace of reviewing development projects at the Planning Department, only those who own property or are involved in the building process seem to care.

As I stated at the outset, reviewing Mayor Newsom’s record requires multiple pieces. This overall summary necessarily excludes key parts of his agenda, and does not address every aspect of the Mayor’s record on the issues discussed. But the goal is to get people to start thinking of how the Mayor’s performance relates to his stated agenda.

We intend to hit all of the bases in the weeks and months ahead.

Send feedback to rshaw@beyondchron.org