MacDonald not only represented the landlords but made some controversial comments to CBS saying of the tenants “They are Asian Americans. They’re smart, hard-working, industrial people, addicted to the acquisition of real estate.”
Wow. Just wow. His comments understandably received a strong denunciation from Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) and would make just about any decent tenant-loving person’s skin crawl.
Chiu was involved in the Jasper Alley eviction case, as it happened right in the heart of his District and he expressed sympathy for the tenants. When I spoke to him on the phone earlier today, he said that he hadn’t known MacDonald prior to meeting him at a Domestic Violence Consortium event and that he was unaware of his history of representing landlords in eviction cases including Jasper Alley. He also stated that his campaign would return all donations collected at Thursday’s fundraiser.
That Chiu would not know the reputation of an anti-tenant lawyer whose high-profile missteps in his own district raised the ire of the CAA, a group whose co-founder he honored as a San Francisco Woman Of The Year in 2012, is cause for concern itself.
Aware or not Chiu, is certainly feeling the heat on this one. It’s all well and good to tell tenants on Tuesday that you stand with them, but when you get your wheels greased by evictors and speculators on Thursday you certainly have some explaining to do.
It was an honor to attend last week’s LOVE FOR JUSTICE sendoff event for the incredible Alicia Garza. She has given her heart and soul to this City as the executive director of POWER and it’s safe to say San Francisco would be a far worse place today without her. She is moving on and bringing her skills and passion to all 50 states as part of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and as sad as San Francisco is to see her go, it will be exciting to watch her kick ass and take names across America.
MOVIE TIME: Guess who still hasn’t had time to actually go to the movies this year? This guy. How does Willie Brown find the time to go out to so many damn movies given his busy scheduling as our Puppeteer In Chief?
Anyhow – I did rent Elysium with the boyfriend and the only real highlights to speak of were Matt Damon’s abs and the audio reel of Jodi Foster’s coming out speech that I kept playing in my head every time she had a line on screen.
Tom’s Top Two Things To Do This Weekend
1) The Hard French Winter Ball. Saturday from 9pm-1am at the Cocoanut Grove Ballroom on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
This is as shameless as self promotion gets! My Hard French cohorts and I are throwing our big grand gay prom this Saturday evening on the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Every year folks of all stripes get together to dance away the night in a turn of the century ballroom in their finest gay apparel. This year we have drag performances by the legendary House of MORE! And we will again be crowning our Winter Ball King and Queen. The royal couple get to decide which community organization we donate $$ to so it’s a great party for some great causes. Also, the after parties…
2) The SFBG Goldies Afterparty. Friday from 8-11pm at the Folsom Foundry.
The Bay Guardian’s Goldies awards have paid homage to pretty much all of my favorite artists and after the formal ceremony they’re hosting a kicking afterparty this year with DJs Primo & Wam Bam Ashelyanne. All of the benefits go to Counter Pulse so you can honor arts and support future arts with a drink in your hand.
Tom Temprano is co-president of the Harvey Milk LGBT Club, which has endorsed David Campos for Assembly.
