San Francisco

Predictions for 2009: America’s Road to Change

For the first time, I approach a new year optimistic that the United States government will implement progressive change. The Obama Administration and Congress will invest hundreds of billions of dollars in new jobs, enact dramatically new energy policies, implement universal health care, impose long overdue labor law reforms, and reverse the Bush Administration’s reactionary social and (anti) civil rights agenda. George W. Bush’s failures have made even radical change politically possible, and President Obama will seize upon this in 2009. While the new president faces a potential pitfall – that his proposals, particularly on health care, will be seen as reformist rather than transformative – Obama knows better than anyone the nation’s hunger for meaningful rather than cosmetic change. Obama’s political astuteness will enable him to do for progressives in 2009 what incoming President Ronald Reagan did for the Republican right in 1981: enact an agenda that both serves and expands his political base. Here’s my detailed assessment. (read more)

Arnold Ruins the State; Media Lets Him Get Away With it

Since Beyond Chron left on vacation two weeks ago, the state is no closer to resolving its $40 billion budget crisis – after Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the Democratic plan to plug $18 billion in the hole. Despite the very real threat that the state will soon run out of money, Arnold lamented their proposal’s lack of “economic stimulus.” Specifically, he wants to gut labor and environmental protections for various highway projects – while the press gives him fawning coverage as a “green crusader.” Arnold’s latest budget package (proposed on New Year’s Eve) would steal mental health funds out of Prop 63, include even more education cuts than initially proposed and – as if recklessly borrowing money didn’t put us into this mess in the first place, borrow $5 billion off future anticipated revenues. The Governor announced this while vacationing in Idaho – but no one in the press bothered to care. Meanwhile, the SF Chronicle criticized State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass for being out of town during the budget standoff – although she was trying to get help from the feds. (read more)

Brodkin Has Earned Newsom's Support

What is Gavin Newsom thinking? That’s the question children’s advocates are asking themselves as rumors of the removal of Margaret Brodkin as Director of the Department of Children, Youth and their Families swirl around San Francisco like litter around Civic Center Plaza on a windy day.

A licensed clinical social worker and grandmother of three, Brodkin, 65, served for 26 years as the executive director of Coleman Advocates for Youth, prior to being appointed to the top post at DCYF by SF Mayor Gavin Newsom in late 2004. Among her accomplishments at Coleman was getting the initiative called the Children’s Amendment approved by voters in 1991; described as a “fiscal bill of rights for children,” it created the Children’s Fund, a set aside establishing a baseline budget for services to benefit the youth of San Francisco. It was the first measure of its kind in the nation. As Brodkin said at the time, “Kids have been just so shortchanged. Even the most liberal, progressive politicians have been wonderful on the rhetoric and wanting to do the right thing. But when push came to shove and the resources were limited, they didn't want to waste political chits on a constituency that had no clout.” (read more)

Disability Perspective: MTA Neglect of Disability Responsiveness

This is a new and expanded critique regarding what has been approved by the MTA Board of directors for the much-publicized Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP.) Much has been written about how data-oriented and analytic has been the research and suggestions that formed the basis for the TEP. That allows the uncurious to form the impression that this TEP will provide better service.

Yet, careful reading of the document shows a lack of an emphasis on what has recently been termed "San Francisco values" -- on service for ALL and inclusiveness for any and all, no matter where in the city they live, work, shop, go to school, recreate, or whatever. (read more)

Newsom Approach to Board Makes Mid-Year Cuts Worse

First published on December 10, 2008.

The problem isn’t that Gavin Newsom announced $71 million in mid-year cuts yesterday (or as his PR folks call it, $118 million in “mid-year solutions.”) Everyone knows we’re in a bad fiscal mess, tough decisions must be made, and the Mayor’s health cuts are less severe than first proposed. But you don’t address the Board of Supervisors after repeatedly snubbing them for years, talk about cuts without making specifics available until a press conference two hours later, deny the Board a chance to formally have a say (because the opportunity to “vet” these cuts were made by the Mayor’s Commissioners) – and then expect the legislative branch to want to work with you. Supervisor Aaron Peskin has proposed $8.5 million in mid-year cuts to address the crisis, and Chris Daly is moving forward on plans to de-fund the Community Justice Center – both moves that are likely to rattle the Mayor’s cage. But when the City has a shortfall that requires leadership, Newsom has brought this hostility upon himself – by flaunting our “checks and balances.” (read more)

Guest Editorial: Hosing the Homeless

First published on December 01, 2008.

At 4:00 a.m., the silent street waits. A row of swathed bodies slumbers along the Tenderloin Health Center wall at Leavenworth and Golden Gate. Brilliant lights stab the darkness. A siren screams. A police car hurtles just ahead of a Department of Public Works “flusher truck.” Seconds later, orange-vested men approach, shouting groggy sleepers off the street. People scatter, gathering belongings. A huge white vehicle roars past jetting a powerful water arc over struggling people. A phosphorescent halo spray glows eerily around carts, heads, and bodies.

Memphis was there. “They run me off four times this morning.” He pointed. “I moved here and over there and up there, circling the block. They start at 2:30, 3:00 o'clock. You just keep moving. You’re tired all day. You don’t get no sleep. Three days ago around 3:00 a.m. they soaked me three times when I was asleep. They didn’t give me no warning. I was soaked through and through. (read more)

Why Union Organizing Often Fails

First published on December 08, 2008.

Blame for declining union membership is usually attributed to structural changes in the economy, increased globalization, and unions’ failure to devote adequate resources to organizing. But a recent union drive at a private college in South Florida tells a much different, and far too typical, story. It is an account of immigrant workers who got tired of earning minimum wages, and submitted cards authorizing representation by SEIU Local 11. Their employer, UNICCO, accepted the workers decision to unionize, and prepared to begin collective bargaining. Story over? Not quite. After UNICCO informed Nova Southeastern University, which employs the contracting company, that it was recognizing SEIU, Nova put UNICCO’s contract out for bid. A non-union company, TCB Systems, then replaced UNICCO, and farmed out Nova’s janitorial work to multiple subcontractors. The leaders of the union drive and other pro-union workers soon lost their jobs, and people’s lives were destroyed for the “crime” of seeking decent wages, benefits and working conditions. SEIU Local 11 and its supporters did everything right to fulfill Nova janitors’ desire to unionize, but the nation’s labor laws do not reward successful organizing. The Obama Administration must change this. (read more)

Evangelists: Cashing in on Hard Economic Times

First published on December 15, 2008.

When times get tough, as they are now, people turn to all sorts of things for comfort, drugs and alcohol among them. According to a recent report in the New York Times, they also traditionally find comfort in that great opiate of the masses: religion. Especially of the evangelical kind. Evangelical churches are reportedly booming because of the fear and uncertainty that people feel at a time when unemployment is at a record high and more people in this country are hungry, homeless and without healthcare than ever before.

Catholic and Protestant congregations are experiencing a windfall as well, but not to the extent of the fire and brimstone religions that make their preachers into media stars, not to mention very wealthy men. It’s a good time to be in the business of that old-time religion. As one evangelist preacher told the Times, “We have the greatest product on earth.” The world’s oldest profession might dispute that. (read more)

“No on 8” – When Reactive Politics Become Losing Politics

First published on November 05, 2008.

It pains me to describe it this way, but “No on 8” – like Michael Dukakis – blew a seventeen-point lead. Progressives were lulled into complacency by early poll numbers, and distracted by the Barack Obama campaign – even after it became apparent he would win.

But “No on 8” was also a reactive campaign that did not anticipate the opposition’s arguments to sway swing voters. Bloggers were effective at pushing memes to define the opposition, but it failed to define much of the race. And “No on 8” did not push a simple and compelling message – “Obama Opposes Prop 8” – to the African-American community until the other side beat them to it, forcing them to play catch-up. This is no time for making excuses, or inspiring words that we’re part of a greater struggle. Our right to marry just got taken away from us, and we’ve got to be smart if we’re going to get it back. (read more)

Where is California’s Barack Obama?

First published on November 17, 2008.

Fresh off a thrilling presidential campaign, California Democrats face a Governor’s race without a candidate that can rally a multi-racial, class-crossing grassroots base. The three most talked about candidates — Dianne Feinstein, Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom — neither offer a sharply new direction nor provide the transformational message that was at the heart of Barack Obama’s appeal. Why can’t a Democrat do in California what Barack Obama did nationally? Why are California’s labor unions, environmentalists, and women’s advocates not rallying behind a strong, progressive, grassroots candidate? Such a candidate has a better chance than Obama faced against Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic primary winner in 2010 will almost certainly be our next Governor. It is clear that activists need new candidates in this race. One possibility is Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who said last week that she is still considering the Governor’s race. Antonio Villaraigosa and others should also be encouraged, as California desperately needs a leader who can mobilize the electorate behind a call for change. (read more)