San Francisco: A one-party town

Beyond Chron's Randy Shaw on David Chiu's election yesterday as President of the Board of Supervisors:

 

Again demonstrating the strong political skills that have typified his career outside his mayoral race, Supervisor David Chiu won unanimous first ballot re-election as President of the Board of Supervisors. The vote followed a debate that began with new Supervisor Norman Yee nominating David Chiu. Jane Kim then nominated Malia Cohen, who in turn nominated Kim. Scott Weiner then announced he would not be a candidate, and he seconded Yee’s nomination of Chiu. John Avalos then seconded the nomination of Kim, and David Campos did likewise for Cohen. But a potentially competitive three way race never occurred.

 

Who cares? Aside from serving his political ambitions, David Chiu exercises his "strong political skills" in support of development and traffic policies that are bad for the city: the Central Subway, Smart Growth/transit corridors development, the city's predatory anti-carism, and the Bicycle Plan. (Chiu's leadership skills also require not answering difficult questions.)

 

The other day in the Chronicle, Marisa Lagos pointed out how few serious policy differences there are on the Board of Supervisors:   

For all that's made of the city's political divisions, though, the scorecard reflects how little actually separates its various factions. Overall, the board as a whole agreed with the Chamber of Commerce on 13 of 16 votes; even Avalos voted with the business group far more than he disagreed with its positions.

 

The reality: As Elizabeth Stevens pointed out in Bay Citizen, San Francisco is a one-party town. That wouldn't be of serious concern if that party didn't support such bad projects and policies.