Chris Daly to SF: "Hasta la vista, suckers"
In 18 months we won't have Chris Daly to kick around anymore (his statement below in italics). What can we say, except don't let the screen door hit you in the ass on the way out, Chris.
More than four years ago, I posted my first item on Supervisor Chris Daly, whose career in San Francisco has been one political melodrama after another.
He first came to my attention when he was arrested at a sit-in at Hastings College protesting the fact that the law school was building a parking garage. The bastards! How dare they provide parking for their 1,500 students and staff?
Then we had the appointment of Adam Werbach to the PUC when Mayor Brown was out of town, the luxury highrise condos on Rincon Hill, his opposition to regulating the city's many pot clubs, and his push for the "question time" dog-and-pony show hoping to embarrass Mayor Newsom, to name a few Daly fiascos.
Judging from his blog---he hasn't made a post there since last April---Daly has been disengaged on city issues for some time.
In his short statement, he has to tell us that he'll continue to ride his bike in the city, which progressives will no doubt find reassuring. After all, the bicycle fantasy is about the only issue they have left, since, with crucial help from Daly, they've screwed up every other issue---homelessness, housing, development, traffic, etc.
By Chris Daly, special to Fog City Journal
July 22, 2009
As an elected official, I take seriously my obligations to my constituents and to San Francisco. As a father of two young children, and a husband, I take seriously my family responsibilities as well.
Recently, my wife, Sarah, and I had an opportunity to purchase a house in Fairfield, two doors away from Sarah’s childhood home, where her parents still live. Last month Sarah and the kids moved in. It is in a diverse neighborhood that Sarah loves, and it gives our children the opportunity to grow up with grandparents steps away.
Even though Sarah and the kids make frequent visits to the City, it is tough to be apart from my family. But Sarah and I are determined to do what is best for our kids---which means moving them closer to multi-generational family support.
I continue to eat, sleep, and bathe in my home on Stevenson Street.
I bicycle to City Hall and to district meetings from my home and intend to continue to do so until the end of my Supervisor term and probably for longer.
Labels: Chris Daly, Highrise Development, Parking, Question Time, Right and Left
posted by Rob Anderson @ 10:09 AM
15 comments
15 Comments:
As always I disagree. I hope the door hits him in the ass - hard.
I don't even think of Daly regarding bikes, he's had so many stupid ideas during his tenure that he gets everyone's blood boiling. But at least you could respect that the guy was committed (even if you think he needed to be committed - to the nuthouse).
Now it looks like he was "having fun playing politics" and is leaving us the mess, and god forbid his kids have to go to the SF Public Schools.
"Everyone hates Chris"
Typical of Daly's kind, shit in the nest and then leave the mess for someone else to clean up. Wonder if he bicycle commutes to/from Fairfield?
Yeah, right. Just like his inlaws and his wife and the kids never use a car out there in the burbs. No doubt he verified that the community was "diverse" before purchasing a home.
Gosh, Chris Daly has become like 99.99% of the rest of the country. Will the sfbc rescind his membership?
Article in Chronicle from June 21, 2007 reads: "Daly had said he would run against Newsom this year if no other challenger stepped up to do it, but the supervisor backed down because he and his wife are expecting their second child shortly before the November election."
WTF! His wife was four months pregnant and he just found out about it!! Daly's got bigger problems than finding a "Progressive" to run for mayor. Maybe he should also try to find out who the father is.
Your comment is legitimate until you get to the part about his wife and child. No need to get personally nasty about Daly. His political antics in SF are more than enough fodder for his critics.
Maybe he can take Randy Shaw with him.
Lose two poverty pimps at once? I can dream, can't I...
Not sure what you mean by "poverty pimp" here. Daly of course is paid by the city for being a supervisor, and Shaw provides housing for some city programs. What's wrong with that? Daly opposed Care Not Cash, and Shaw supported the program. Shaw has actually written well about Care Not Cash and the circumstances that led up to it.
http://district5diary.blogspot.com/2009/05/randy-shaw-and-care-not-cash.html
Rob, that is because Shaw is one of the chief beneficiaries of Care not Cash. His Tenderloin Housing Clinic is the city's primary contractor for housing the homeless, and he's paid rather handsomely for the privilege of being what is basically a publicly-funded slumlord.
And slumlord he is: his buildings are dangerous places staffed by dangerous people, where drug dealers roam free (and it is rumored most of the staff is on the take), and when employees complain about conditions they are summarily fired. Randy Shaw is a slumlord and a union-buster and a hypocrite. He can write as many books about Cesar Chavez as he wants, and publish sugary progressive screeds on "BeyondChron", but he's as duplicitous as Chris Daly.
I've heard these charges about Shaw before, but I've never seen any evidence for them. The fact that he works with the city to house the homeless clearly isn't wrong. And the problem with Daly isn't that he's "duplicitous" but with his "progressive" politics, which I think are essentially crap.
"At a victory celebration after Daly's re-election last November, Sarah Daly took to the stage at DNA Lounge to lambaste her husband's political tormentors, including the police union and a local plumbers union. But her choicest words (captured on a video that turned up on YouTube but was later removed) were reserved for restaurateurs who've sued to block the city's universal health care, which Chris Daly has long favored. 'To the mother-fuckers who don't want to pay people a living wage at the Golden Gate Restaurant Association,' she shouted, 'fuck you!'"
--Ron Russell , sfweekly, August 29, 2007
kwk - I recall that incident very clearly, and I think that really underscores the hypocrisy - Sarah is supposedly the one who wants to move to Fairfield, and certainly that was on her mind that night, yet despite her already being halfway out the door, she wanted her fingerprints on the future of San Francisco.
It doesn't matter if she's right or wrong. If you want to put a long lasting imprint on a place - commit to being there. If Daly was going to move, he shouldn't have run for re-election.
If Daly were to try to run for another office out of SF, this would dog him and prevent him from winning. If Daly runs in Fairfield - heh, good luck with that sir.
Yes, I read this at the time. I don't think it has much significance. She may have been right about the Restaurant Association.
Daly sucks, but as for "How dare they provide parking for their 1,500 students and staff? "
Last I heard, Hastings was in San Francisco, basically on top of a BART station. Why would they need parking? If the students are too stupid to figure out how to get there then they don't have any right to be lawyers in my community. Stat!
Why does anyone need parking? Because they often find it more sensible to drive. Many of the students and staff at Hastings don't live in the city, much like any of the other major schools in SF. Some no doubt take BART and Muni to get to school, but many others find that impractical. And Hastings also has special events and gatherings after hours, which makes it dicey for those who are forced to park on the streets in that area. It's much safer---especially for women---to have a secure parking garage nearby.
Rob, a friend sent me a link to your blog saying you are a good pedestrian activist. so thanks for sticking up for those of us still able to walk.
i hope you can write more about cell phone distraction for drivers? the streets are dangerous sometimes, but we can make them safer. Thanks, Rob!
For an example of how the Tenderloin Housing Clinic deals with the rampant drug abuse in its hotels and the dealing of drugs see here. It's their policy not to prosecute their staff for selling drugs to the residents of the hotels:
"Tenderloin Housing Clinic will encourage and reasonably accommodate employees with chemical dependencies, drug or alcohol, to seek treatment or rehabilitation."
The THC's mission to provide housing for the poor is laudable; if they're going to take city funds they need to enforce city law. They're a big part of why the Tenderloin is so dangerous.
CD represents a larger problem with sf, and his loss of influence is long coming and much deserved.
if interested i have some anecdotes on CD contained in a broader criticism of social/legal/political structure in sf and the results we get for bearing it:
here
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