The defining characteristic of 2006, the third year of the Newsom administration, is perhaps its return to the old and tired tough-guy approach to homelessness. Although the administration continued to spin its housing first model, it has failed to bring to bear the resources needed to make good on its promises. It has become manifest that the City officials, led by the Mayor, are increasingly frustrated by poverty’s continuing visibility in San Francisco daily life.

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In front of the Federal Building we assembled. Banners waved in the wind, saying, “Stop the criminalization of homelessness. Being poor is not a crime. Housing Justice For all!”

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The particular brand of spin employed by the Newsom régime has made excellent use of statistics (see here ), damned statistics ( ibid. ), and some other stuff. Of note is the claim in this year’s State of the City Address that 4,263 homeless people have left San Francisco’s streets since Mayor Newsom took office. Fourteen months prior to Newsom’s swearing in as the Mayor, da Mayor Willie Brown’s City government conducted a census in which 8,640 San Franciscans without houses were counted. This should mean, then, that there are a mere 4,377 homeless people left in the city of San Francisco, and that Care Not Cash and the Project Homeless Connect merry-go-round have effectively halved the city’s homeless population, right?

Right?

Well. No. Wrong. (more…)

Why is it that those who live in glass houses always throw the first stone—or any stone, for that matter? This came to mind when I read the Chronicle editorial characterizing Supervisor Chris Daly as, “a civic embarrassment.” Given the state of journalistic practice at that paper, one might think the editors would avoid that particular stone. To whom, and for what is Daly an embarrassment? To Gavin Newsom? To the Golden Gate Restaurant Association?

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Just few days shy of Halloween this year (October 26, to be exact), Mayor Gavin Newsom delivered his third annual State of the City Address. The speech, a lengthy affair that clocked in at something under two hours but well over one, touched at least briefly on virtually every issue of conceivable public interest (potholes to parking to parks, and that’s only the P’s), in tones that varied from the frankly self-critical (“…one of the ongoing frustrations for anyone who lives here is just how hard it can be to get a simple answer or basic service from City Hall”) to the fully self-congratulatory (“San Francisco is nationally and internationally recognized as a City of innovation, entrepreneurialship [sic] and discovery”); suggested no small number of new initiatives; and overall touted San Francisco as a great place to live—a place where , according to our Mayor, “quality of life” for all of its residents is key.

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