The moral high ground in San Francisco may be the most valuable real estate of all. Last week Gavin Newsom -- who thumbed his nose at state and federal law on gay marriage -- tried to claim it by saying he couldn't help illegal immigrants because he has too much respect for the law.
The Board of Supervisors also tried to claim the moral high ground by saying that Gavin Newsom -- whom they supported when he thumbed his nose at state and federal law on gay marriage -- has to help immigrants because the city passed a law, damn it, and you must obey the law.
In politics, even the most righteous causes make hypocrites of their crusaders.
It would be hard to top the righteous histrionics of last week, but everyone's going to try: between another round in the argument over how to regulate nightlife, a measure to ban the declawing of cats, reforming lobbying rules, Clean Power SF -- it looks like the supes are going to take the moral high ground and convert the buildings on it into condos so that more of their friends can live there.
By the end of the week, they'll have formed a neighborhood association to keep everyone else out. It's like a Greek tragedy sponsored by ReMax.
Monday, Oct. 26
9:30 a.m. - City Operations & Neighborhood Services Committee
For the record, I support gay marriage, I support protecting immigrant children from laws that force them to fear and loath the police, and I even support Ross Mirkarimi's law to ban the declawing of cats in San Francisco.
But I'm asking him, and his supporters, to please just pass this law and be done with it. If you must, you can remind us -- in 30 seconds or fewer -- how cruel the procedure is.
But, for the love of God, don't get everybody in a line and have them go on for two minutes apiece about animal rights, how meat is murder, that God loves animals, how my cat is as smart as my children, that vegans are healthier, how to adopt a cat, that oppression of animals is the first step towards imperialism, how cats warned us about 9/11, that anyone who declaws a cat should have their fingers cut off, how the CIA is in league with cats, that that studies show that grad students who adopt cats are happier than orphan sweat shop laborers who don't.
Just pass the law, and move on. Just pass it, and move on. Okay? Please?
I have no such hopes for the continued attempts to reform the Entertainment Commission and the way nightlife is handled in SF, which comes before this committee today too. (It's coming up by a special order at 1 p.m., so if this is all you care about, no need to get to the meeting early).
As a number of Snitch articles and an SF Weekly cover story have shown, the Entertainment Commission is in desperate need of reform ... far, far more reform than the proposed legislation will ever provide. Still, it's a nice start. Or at least it would be if we could ever agree to pass anything. But that's okay: Effectiveness isn't required to live on the moral high ground. Just a righteous outrage. Effectiveness is for people whose principles don't fit on a bumper sticker.
1 p.m. - Land Use & Economic Development Committee
This meeting will be entirely devoted to a hearing on the Better Streets Plan.
Somehow, the need to get out of Afghanistan is going to come up. Somehow.
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2 p.m. - Full Board of Supervisors
The need to get out of Afghanistan is actually on the agenda at this meeting, as is a proposal that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors support Irish unification. Because that's exactly what Ireland needs: One more symbolic gesture.
What else is on the agenda? I'm glad you asked. First there's the flotsam and jetsam: various changes to Treasure Island leases (Hey, has anybody actually found the treasure yet?); settlement of lawsuits; and appointments the PUC rate fairness board, the Children and Family First Commission, and the Bicycle Advisory Committee.
Which leads me to the question: Do bicyclists actually need a committee? Or should they just have an open call for thousands of bicyclists to all converge on City Hall and make policy recommendations through a non-hierarchical, spontaneous action? Wouldn't that be more democratic, and in keeping with San Francisco bicyclists' long-held tradition of yelling at people?
The David Campos legislation on reporting the immigration status of youth arrested for a crime comes up for its second vote this week, so you can be sure there will be yelling, and clapping, and possible drinking on the moral high ground tonight. There will also be a vote on the proposed rental subsidy program for low-income families, and BOTH campaign finance and lobbying reform, AND Chris Daly's measure banning City employees and officers from soliciting donations to nonprofit organizations to fund City departments from persons doing business with those departments.
And, as mentioned before, there will be a vote on an ordinance "approving issuance of a Request for Proposals for Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) Services for the San Francisco CCA program, commonly known as CleanPowerSF."
Damn, that's a meeting.
Wow - looks like the moral high ground is going to get so crowded that we'll need to convert some of those condos into TICs. Hey, is there enough low-income housing on the moral high ground? Maybe if somebody moved to Fairfield, that would help.
Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11 a.m. - Budget and Finance Committee
I swear to God, the Monthly Overtime Report is the most interesting thing to happen at this meeting. Unless you want to talk about the California Environmental Quality Act report on the Exploratorium? Or the management agreement for the Cable Car Museum?
Those are important things, I admit: Somebody should really be paying attention to them. It's just that ... there's a Halloween party on the moral high ground this week (we'll all be dressing up as people who are more civic-minded than you) ... and I've got to get to work on my costume. I'll be going as the Nobel Peace Prize committee.
See you next week.
