San Francisco Diary--Journal Of An Exile

Another day, another journal entry. The wind has been blowing so hard it loosened some sheet metal on the roof, and last night was like sleeping inside a bass drum since I live on the top floor of the building (I laughingly call it the penthouse). My assistant, Kitty Kelly, is not too pleased. She thinks it's thunder. But this morning the sky is gorgeous, the Bay is blue, and the wind has let up a bit. Now if the temperature would get above 50 degrees, we'll have a beautiful San Francisco day.

NOTE: In the interest of protecting The City's status as a sanctuary city, another law will cease to be enforced which initially has nothing to do with immigrants. This coming Sunday, SF cops will no longer enforce the law requiring that those caught in a traffic stop who cannot produce a valid driver's license will have their cars impounded. Instead, unlicensed drivers will be given twenty minutes and the use of a cell phone to get someone with a valid driver's license and proof of insurance to come to pick up the car and the unlicensed driver. The law always seemed a bit draconian to me, but that isn't the only reason behind the sudden period of grace.

The underlying reason is that a very large percentage of unlicensed drivers in San Francisco are here illegally. Thus--we're picking on the poor, downtrodden, and wretched refuse of somebody else's teeming shores. So while this new policy protects the occasional slob in a hurry who forgot to stick his wallet in his pants while running off to work, it really protects the illegal who didn't just forget the wallet, but forgot the insurance and the immigration laws as well. That puts San Francisco to the left of Berkeley, which recognizes that the issue is driver's licenses and insurance, not immigration status.

The new police chief said "San Francisco is trying to be sensitive to all of the communities we serve. We recognize that this is a problem within the Hispanic community, where people working here can't get a driver's license because of their immigration status." Well, boo freaking hoo. Those are weasel-words for saying "we'll risk public safety in order to avoid calling attention to an unlicensed driver's illegal immigration status." Police officers who obviously chose to remain anonymous had a different take. "People without licenses are often lousy drivers and this change means more dangerous streets for everyone else." And "These are the same people who are sailing through stop signs and injuring people."

The message is if you're here illegally, you can now drive around town without a driver's license and insurance. You now have a license not to have a license. Needless to say, Supervisor David Campos and the Latino politicians are delighted with the decision. Most San Franciscans, not so much.

Note: An eleven year old boy was recently stabbed multiple times on a Muni bus, and a dead body found on another. Let's check the videotapes to see who might have done these things. Oops--no can do. The camera/recorders weren't working on either bus. A study has shown that of the 960 vehicles equipped with camera/recorders, 22 percent were completely non-functional and another 30 percent were only partially functional. That means only 48 percent actually served any kind of protection or investigative purpose. Muni claims to have worked on the problem and gotten it down to only 20% non-functional or semi-functional. But that means that you still have a one in five chance of being mugged or murdered without any surveillance to bring help or discover who the perpetrator was. And this is the same Muni that tells me my buses are on schedule most of the time. Well, I know that's a lie.

Note: Remember that Labor Day [planned] one-day shutdown of the Bay Bridge that ended up being nearly two full days? Some major repairs had to be performed to make the old section of the east spans safer until the new span is completed (some time between now and the beginning of the next century). How did that work out? OK, I'll tell you. On Monday night, high winds began to blow throughout the Bay Area. The bridge was not spared. And suddenly, a driver had his hood lifted and his windshield smashed by a flying four inch-thick cable which was whipping all over the roadway. Traffic screeched to a halt, and other cars were damaged by the flying cable and the heavy anchor which had fallen from above and embedded itself into the roadway.

No coincidence, this. The very anchor stay and cable which caused this mess were exactly the same ones that caused the extra day's delay over the Labor Day weekend. And now the busiest route between San Francisco and the East Bay is closed indefinitely for further evaluation and repair. That causes major transportation problems for between 250,000 and 300,00 daily commuters. We're about to experience a traffic jam of epic proportions for an unknown period of time.

My take on this is that the repairs are being performed by the same agencies and contractors who are building the new span. If their work won't withstand a 50-60 mile an hour wind, how is it going to withstand a 7.0-8.0 magnitude earthquake? And that is the underlying purpose behind this massive repair and massive building project in the first place. I think I'll take BART.

Note: Never a dull moment for activists in The City. Youth With a Mission drop-in center just had a major celebration, complete with star performers and athletes serving up food and good cheer to the unfortunate in the City's Tenderloin district. The event celebrates the second annual fundraiser for One x One (say, one by one), a group dedicated to health issues and quality of life for children in the poor sections of town. A very good cause, I might add. Actor David Arquette, MLB player Nomar Garciaparra, Laila Ali (boxer, and daughter of Muhammad Ali), and ESPN sports commentator Jay Bilas handed out boxes of mushrooms to older women, and food bags to poor families.

After the event in the Tenderloin, the celebrities then went to the fund-raiser at Bimbo's 365 Club in North Beach, where they were joined by Charlize Theron though not by actor Matt Damon who was scheduled to be there, but must have gotten side-tracked finding something new to blame Bush for. They didn't raise a lot of money, and even some locals who support the cause groused that "the food pantry event never seemed like anything more than a made-for-media photo op."

But what made the event at Bimbo's worthwhile was the moment when a street denizen broke through the door, began shouting incoherently and demanding money from the participants. Does this sort of thing happen in Beverly Hills? Workers from the Center, who were invited to the fund-raiser, said the man was a regular. They steered him over to the piano, where we're told he played a few songs, then got up voluntarily and left. As Chronicle writer C. W. Nevius said, "welcome to San Francisco."

Note: Our favorite local writer, Mark Morford, wrote another doomsday article this week. But it's too lengthy to rip apart here, and actually contains some truths. So instead, I will simply link to the article for you to read at your leisure: 10 Amazing Truths. Needless to say, all the bad things are caused by Republicans.