Thursday, October 11, 2007

San Francisco Mayor's Debate/Zombies











Where do I begin?
Very sedate crowd, almost all the candidates dressed up (George Davis was dressed up with an apron on with a naked body- he believes people should be allowed not to wear clothes).
Mayor Gavin Newsom was a little late. Comments were "have Ed Jew replace the Mayor" - "maybe he took muni".
The format was dicey because each candidate could only speak for 30 seconds with no rebuttal.
Question: "What is the biggest problem"
Answer: The mayor runs away from discussion, crime, live ability, housing, public safety, poverty, lack of democracy,
Question "What would you do about homeless?"
Answer: Building coalitions to solve problems, legalize drugs, be innovative, education.
Question: "What would you do to improve Bayview Hunter's Point"?
Answer: Don't sweep problems under the rug, put development on hold, Ahimsa Sumchal wants to stop all building of above market housing.
Question: "Who inspires you"?
Answer: Grasshopper Kaplan said Dennis Kucinich and having his taxi taken away, Quintin Mecke said Tom Ammiano, Mayor Newsom said his mother and father. Ahimsa Sumchal said Carlton Goodlett, Wilma Pang said Gordon Lau, Harold Brown said Donald Fisher, Lonnie Holmes said Barack Obama and families who have lost loved ones. (then my notes turn into scribble...muni, violence, what would you change? what do you think about survellience cameras? etc.)
Each candidate had a 30 second closing statement.
Actually, everyone behaved themselves.
I support Mayor Newsom. But I adore John Rinaldi (chickenjohn) - the guy with the hat. He asked that everyone vote for him as their second choice so he would come in last and win (no I am not going to explain ranked-choice voting - go to sfgov.org/election - way to complicated!) Rinaldi is the media favorite.
I like Lonnie Homes and I think he would make an excellent supervisor (but I understand he does not want to run for Supervisor).
Quintin Mecke is impressive and it is refreshing to hear his candid answers. He is very articulate.
It was fun being able to laugh, there isn't much to smile about now days. Watch this debate on public access (sfgov.org) around the middle of October.
Then we all left and were met at the library doors by the "zombies". (I looked up the definition "a reanimated human body devoid of consciousness - undead corpses). Everyone was laughing, but they were gruesome and they were making terrible noises, there was pushing and shoving which got a little scary. The library doors closed and things calmed down quickly. A little political theatre- or was it art?
I am little tired of all this "San Francisco crazy" bashing. Residents in this town take things very seriously. Our critics should start talking about solving problems instead of all this "media hype".
P.S. Last day to register to vote is Monday October 22th in reference to the November 6th election.

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