San Francisco Diary--Journal Of An Exile

Pictured: The Chambers of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. As the crime rate soars, the physical infrastructure of the city collapses, the debt grows by leaps and bounds, unemployment soars as businesses leave town by the droves, and the transportation system collapses, the Board this day was considering a resolution by Supervisor Chris Daly to support the Free Tibet movement.

NOTE: And speaking of the Board of Supervisors, Arizona's new illegal immigration legislation has the Board's panties in a bunch. How dare those racist primitives declare war on every brown person in an entire state? Since San Francisco never has racial problems or problems with illegal immigrants (see below), it was a simple matter of course that the Supes would be upset with those white people in Arizona reinstating Jim Crow and slavery.

So San Francisco's governing body has decided it would be a very good idea to boycott all things Arizonan (there is still a question whether that includes Arizona Iced Teas, which are manufactured in New York). What this cash-strapped city needs is to offend an entire state and the 60% of Arizonans who support defending Arizona's sovereign borders. They still need to work out the details so they can arrest illegal Arizonans who come to San Francisco for a visit.

At the same time, a less gutsy Mayor Gavin Newsom has the matter under review, but will be ordering that no public money will be spent on city employees traveling on city business to Arizona. The Board of Supervisors made it clear that our sanctuary city will not tolerate any interference with the tide of illegal immigration, gang violence, drug importation and cartel border wars. Newsom, on the other hand, is a little less sanguine about the whole thing since he has openly defied the Board's order that the police not report illegal aliens to the feds unless they have been tried and convicted of a crime first. Newsom was responding to the citizen outcry over a series of grisly murders committed by illegal immigrants who had been released from custody without having been reported to ICE because they hadn't been convicted of their previous felony charges yet.

Arizonans are, of course, shaking in their boots at the concept of San Franciscans not coming to their state. Barry Broome, CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council says" "It's a really poor strategy--hypocritical, grandstanding, and a cheap shot." Because of extensive ties between San Francisco and Arizona, an unnamed source within City Hall has said that the proposed boycott could seriously damage as many as 2500 jobs in San Francisco. Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for Intel Corporation points out that Intel has two chip plants in Arizona with 10,000 employees who will be negatively affected by a Bay Area boycott of Intel products coming from Arizona.

SunPower, an Arizona company, has just completed plans, lauded by Governor Schwarzenegger, for building a plant in Milpitas, a San Francisco suburb. SunPower manufactures solar panels, a concept beloved in San Francisco. But if SunPower loses major contracts because of the boycott, it has no reason to stay in California. And of course there's Hewlett-Packard which is developing flexible display technology with Arizona State University. San Francisco-based Wells-Fargo (which took no federal bailout funds) has dozens of branches in Arizona.

But those are mere details about jobs and income, and how can those be important when brown people are being rounded up in droves and sent off to internment camps by a racist state government? If there's one thing San Francisco considers important, it's principle. Just ask the Tibetans.

NOTE: And since you asked, our racial relations are excellent in San Francisco. Beside the sanctuary policy for illegals, we have watchdog Supervisor Chris Daly to keep us on the straight and narrow. At the most recent Board meeting to discuss the City bailing out the Municipal Transportation Agency, there was considerable discussion about the poor performance of Muni, the ridiculously high wages of Muni employees, the nearly total power exercised by the Transport Workers Union over the agency, and the need to preserve present routes and timetables rather than the elimination of routes and reduced service currently planned.

In case you don't remember his name, Daly is the supervisor who vowed to drop the f-bomb at least once during every meeting of the Board. The proposal before the Board for helping out Muni included some strings. Muni would have to reduce its 10% cuts in service by half. It also asked for concession on wages from the bus and train operators who are now the second highest paid transport employees in the nation. The proposal also said that the money from the City cannot be offset by Muni raising fares any farther than they've already done. But Daly put his finger on the real danger of attaching strings to any Muni bailout.

Daly disrupted the debate with one of his classic manic outbursts. "If the city wants to save money, it should look at agreements with all unions, beginning with the police. Supervisor Elsbernd targeting basically what amounts to a largely black and/or African American union not only has the issue of racial undertones . . ." His rant was interrupted by Supervisor Elsbernd demanding that Daly apologize for calling him a racist, and to cut off the race rhetoric. Presiding Supervisor Mirkarimi allowed Daly to continue anyway.

Elsbernd's completely logical argument is that the transport workers are the only ones whose salaries are rigidly fixed by the City Charter at a guaranteed rate of 90% of the highest paid transport workers nationwide. All other union employees, police or otherwise, have to negotiate their contracts from scratch. Only the transport workers have a guaranteed base from which they can only negotiate upwards. Said Elsbernd: "I just want every union treated evenly and fairly and collectively bargain." Board President Chu finally intervened, saying: "I am concerned about the suggestion that any of us are acting in a racially motivated way." I'm sure this will be very instructive for the citizens of Arizona.

NOTE: And speaking of our sterling record on perfect race-relations, Mayor Newsom has offered a $100,00 reward for the arrest of the young gentlemen who were among the roving gangs of disaffected youths who have been attacking elderly Chinese in the Bayview District. There have been injuries ranging from bumps and bruises to serious physical injury. But this case was a little different. Huan Chen, age 83, was beaten and kicked on January 24 while on his way to visit his ailing wife in a Bayview convalescent home. Huan died of his injuries on March 19. As The Chronicle put it: "The youths attacked him from behind and then fled, laughing."

NOTE: A former San Francisco network engineer was convicted of felony computer tampering. Terry Childs was found guilty of denying computer access to the City that employed him. He has already served two years in jail awaiting trial, so it seems likely the judge will reduce his potential five-year prison sentence by credit for time already served. It's another one of those "only in San Francisco" stories. Childs had the attitude so common among public employees that the City's resources were actually his own personal property. He had systematically engineered the system, which included police records, so that if the City ever got rough on him for some reason, he could block them from access. He had the only passwords that could unlock the system.

The jury did not want to impose the full $500,000 potential fine, since they found the city partially responsible in that it allowed any one person to have such singular and unique power over a major city computer network. Can't say I disagree with that. After Childs was fired for not revealing that he had a felony criminal past, he refused to give up the passwords. Estimates are that it cost the city about $200,000 to remedy the problems Childs had created. It could have been worse. Somehow, Mayor Newsom had a meeting with Childs during his incarceration, and got Childs to give up the passwords, which ended the need for further attempts to reconstruct and repair what Childs had done.

NOTE: And finally, speaking of Chris Daly, f-bombing Supervisor Extraordinaire, there has recently been contentious debate between Police Chief George Gascon and Daly over the proposed anti-bum sit/lie sidewalk ordinance. Daly he wants to consider a lying (as in not telling the truth, not sprawling out on the sidewalks) ordinance at the same time as the squatting ordinance. Says Daly, "If we are to determine what kinds of behavior are acceptable on city sidewalks, I'd like to see the discussion extend on how people relate to one another. At question here is how we best can build better relationships and a stronger sense of community."

Rather than say "huh?," which was my reaction, a spokesman for Mayor Newsom said: "If he's willing to amend it to also prohibit using the f-word during public hearings, it might be worth considering."