The case against Supervisor Mirkarimi

[Later: This indictment was also on my doorhanger for my campaign, such as it was, as one of Supervisor Mirkarimi 's opponents in the 2008 election]:

Mirkarimi supports Critical Mass.
Supervisor Mirkarimi supports Critical Mass, a demonstration by the city’s bike people that, on the last Friday of every month, deliberately flouts the law and disrupts traffic for city residents and commuters. Mirkarimi: “Critical Mass gets my support because of the attention they’ve brought in influencing the City to become more bicycle and pedestrian friendly.” (October, 2005, email to Rob Anderson) Mirkarimi agrees with the anti-car SF Bicycle Coalition---which endorses him for reelection---that it’s okay to deliberately snarl city traffic. Insult to injury: The Critical Mass demonstrators are escorted by 40 city cops on overtime.

Mirkarimi ignores CEQA.

Supervisor Mirkarimi voted to make the anti-car Bicycle Plan part of the city’s General Plan, even though the city had done no environmental review of the 500-page plan to redesign city streets---taking away traffic lanes and street parking to make bike lanes---on behalf of a small, politically aggressive minority. Hard to believe that one of the founders of the Green Party of California doesn't understand the most important environmental law in the state, the California Environmental Quality Act.

Mirkarimi votes for thousands of luxury highrise condos.

Supervisor Mirkarimi voted for the construction of thousands of luxury highrise condos on Rincon Hill, which he called a “fine deal” for the city: “[Rincon Hill] seemed like a fine deal considering the evidence of the project’s adverse impacts to the neighborhood and to the lower income and working class residents.” (October, 2005, email to Rob Anderson) Why not just vote against a massive luxury housing development that has “adverse impacts” in a city that desperately needs affordable housing?

Mirkarimi ratifies UC's lies and greed.

Supervisor Mirkarimi supports UC’s land-grab on lower Haight Street, where it wants to shoehorn 450 new housing units onto the six-acre former extension property. UC has had the property tax-free from the city for 50 years only because of its education “mission.” It now wants to cash in with a massive housing development that will trash the property, which is now a state and national landmark. UC lied to the public about why it was abandoning classes on the site, claiming that it was too poor to maintain the property! UC later admitted that it’s now paying $2,106,000 a year to lease space downtown to house the same extension classes. Mirkarimi is validating UC’s lies and surrendering for private development property that’s been zoned for “public use” for 150 years.

Mirkarimi for a free fire zone for developers in heart of the city.

Supervisor Mirkarimi supports the developer-friendly Market/Octavia Plan rezoning more than 4,000 properties in the heart of the city to encourage population density in an already densely populated area. The M/O Plan will eliminate setbacks and backyard space, loosen density limits, loosen height limits, and of course restrict parking for new housing units. The M/O Plan also includes at least four 40-story highrises at Market and Van Ness that will literally cast shadows on our historic Civic Center.

Mirkarimi is a windbag leftist.

Mirkarimi talks like a revolutionary when he addresses fellow leftists, but he votes with the big developers (Market/Octavia Plan, Rincon Hill, UC on lower Haight Street).: “You look at change throughout history, from civil rights to environmental justice…and it wasn’t politicians who got it done. It was the activists. Today is about more than just policies and agendas---it’s about the beginning of a revolution.” (Mirkarimi to the SF People’s Party Convention in June, 2005)

Mirkarimi is responsible for the Harding Theater eyesore.

Supervisor Mirkarimi is responsible for the fact that the Harding Theater on Divisadero Street is still an eyesore in the heart of District 5. Back in 2005 he supported a misguided effort to save that derelict, undistinguished building that a developer wanted to demolish to build housing. The “progressive” Mirkarimi supporters who saved the Harding---and prevented the construction of 18 housing units---had no realistic plan to restore or use the property, which is why the Harding remains a vacant eyesore three years later.

Worst idea of the year

Supervisor Mirkarimi proposes eliminating the traffic underpass at Geary and Fillmore. Mirkarimi: “Geary Boulevard has been the invisible Berlin Wall that’s separated Japantown from the Fillmore…Now it’s time to correct that.” The SF Examiner accurately called this crackpot idea the worst idea of the year. (SF Examiner, January 24, 2008)

Mirkarimi supports Josh Wolf, not city cop Peter Shields.

Supervisor Mirkarimi supported Josh Wolf, who was rightly imprisoned for withholding evidence from the Federal Grand Jury. Wolf refused to surrender his video of an anarchist demonstration during which city cop Peter Shields had his skull fractured. Mirkarimi on Wolfe’s imprisonment: “We are witnessing the unraveling of the very fabric that made this country great.” Mirkarimi has never expressed any concern about the well-being of officer Shields.