An UrbanIDEA forum will look at the changing electorate, the lessons of 2014, and strategies for the future
By Tim Redmond
FEBRUARY 12, 2015 — The November election didn’t go well for progressives – Sup. David Campos lost his bid to move to the state Assembly; the anti-speculation tax fell short. Both faced huge obstacles – giant campaign funds attacking them. And now Mayor Ed Lee appears to be running for re-election without serious opposition.
So what lessons have we learned? What can we do different in the future? How can progressives make inroads in absentee voting, in reaching out to West Side voters, to developing new strategies and tactics? How has the electorate changed in the past few years, and how should we respond?
That’s the subject of Urban IDEA’s first forum of the year, and it’s going to be a great discussion. The speakers:
-Corey Cook, University of San Francisco
-Supervisor Eric Mar, District 1
-Nate Albee, Legislative Aide for Supervisor David Campos
-Emily Lee, SF Rising Action Fund
-Maria Zamudio, Causa Justa :: Just Cause
Moderated by Dyan Ruiz, [people. power. media].
There will be time for questions and answers and the beginning of a new approach to local elections.
Thursday, Feb. 26, at the Bayanihan Community Center, 1010 Mission St. 6pm to 8pm. Here’s the link on Facebook.
See you there!
???
Use the “find” feature on your editor and you will find a picture of yourself
What does a three year-old article from Ed lee’s office have to do with anything? Are you sure you’re on the right website?
Ah, OK, yeah, here we go:
http://innovatesf.com/category/articles/page/3/
Explains your anti-colonial rant, I guess.
Wrong picture. Again, “Assume” makes an “ass” out of “u” and…, well, you.
Not interested in playing this game. Buh-bye!
TK, “Great Britain” means the contiguous land mass of England, Scotland and Wales (and a bunch of tiny islands).
The United Kingdom of Great Britain And Northern Ireland is the sovereign nation.
The Republic of Ireland (the southern 26 counties) is a sovereign nation not subject to the British crown.
The UK is in the EEC/EU but does not use the Euro. Ireland is in the EEC/EU and uses the Euro.
Your picture sure looks white to me.
Although if you are claiming to be non-white then hating on whites would appear to make you a racist rather than the more normal self-hating white liberal
“Assume” makes an “ass” out of “u” and…, well, you.
I am not of “European” heritage.
No, you’re white.
Wiener lives west of the Berlin Wall of Dense Housing, Castro/Divisadero.
“Not in Tim Colen, John Rahaim, Ed Lee, Scott Wiener or Aaron Bialick’s backyard”
Huh? How do you put Wiener in there? Have you never walked down Market from Church to Castro?
That’s not my heritage; neither is it yours, unless you’re Greek.
Sorry Sam, you’re right. I meant to say Ireland, Scotland, and Wales are part of the United (not) Kingdom, not Great Britain, which refers to the actual island. Ireland may be divided technically into Northern (UK) the Republic of Ireland, but in reality it is a vassal state, entirely dependent on GB financially and militarily. I mean, they produce…what?
And BOTH parts of Ireland are in the EU.
Wrong, TK. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom but not part of Great Britain. It is not a sovereign nation.
Ireland is a separate nation. That is why Ireland is in the EU and Great Britain is not.
Ireland is indeed politically and economically a “part” of Great Britain, you nincompoop.
The east-side of SF is best suited for upzoning
Not in Tim Colen, John Rahaim, Ed Lee, Scott Wiener or Aaron Bialick’s backyard it turns out.
Yes, not in _your_ backyard, of course.
The voters disagree with you by giving the pro-growth mayoral candidate a huge 60-40 win over his anti-growth opponent.
Heh. Would’ve been a better idea before property prices went through the roof, wouldn’t it? Too little, too late here in SF.
Memo to the governments of cheaper US municipalities now starting to experience a rebound: hoard that land, now. You won’t get it back later.
The City need not “grow,” there are plenty of sites around the BART ring that could grow to San Francisco’s 45′ easily but which are not as profitable as building housing in San Francisco.
The growth imperative is the ideology of the cancer cell.
The resistance to tech people joining the isn’t strictly a matter of hurt feelings; it involves actual policy disagreements. Specifically, plenty of us believe that, independent of any change in eviction or tenant laws, there absolutely must be policies that facilitate a significant increase in the housing supply. Progressives either fall into the NIMBY camp of opposing all housing everywhere, or else take the “I support new housing, but …” line and put sufficient qualifications on construction that make it infeasible.
Public/nonprofit housing? Well, okay. But there’s been no one presenting a convincing, _workable_ long term plan for that. anywhere. The bulk of the city’s housing needs are met, directly or indirectly, through market rate development.
Until housing activists can also get behind a plan to help the city grow and reasonably accommodate new populations, it’s a nonstarter.
Ireland is not part of Great Britain.
Is there no limit to your lack of knowledge about geography?
Hating your heritage must feel miserable.
OMG…..
OMG…..
Continents are a matter of geography and are objective. Nations do not change continent when their politics changes, and Greece didn’t suddenly become non-European a few weeks ago.
White people like you should be proud of your heritage.
You lost because you somehow think knowing my name is somehow more important than the topic at hand. You lost because you changed your name from Sam to “Guest” because most people on this site detest you. You lost because you are up at midnight writing inanities and insults, when the rest of us have lives. And what does where I live (not the TL) have to do with where Greece is located?
Oh, and you lost because you are a natural born loser, which is why you would even bother to write such a pathetic attempt at an insult, instead of staying on topic.
Joseph Thomas – 3
Afraid To Use My Real Name (coward) – 0
No, you were afraid to post under your real name – Joseph Thomas only after I made you look stupid.
I don’t blame you, but it’s still a little evasive.
When I lose a debate to a TL SRO dweller, I will hang up my debating hat.
Sam, I started using TrollKiller on this site when I caused you to change the subject because you could not back up what you were saying; long before Greece came up. I have never been “caught out,” whatever that means. As I posted before, I’ll use whatever name Tim wants us to in order to keep people like you in check. And WHEREVER Greece and Russia are is, what is happening there is the future of “Europe,” not the reverse. Turkey? The USA and Europeans will probably figure out a way to turn it into the next Syria. Your free market fundamentalism has failed.
TrolKiller – 2
Sam/Guest/Spam – 0
The Sound of Music was set in Salzberg, not Vienna.
To the extent Ireland is a part of “Great Britain,” the United States, Canada, and Australia could be considered to be partly “Irish” colonies. And Poland did have it’s imperial adventures back in the day; they just couldn’t conquer anyone. Again, “Europe is on the Western edge of is Asia. “Eurasia” is a creation of politicians and mapmakers. Your insistence on Greece, Turkey, and Russia being “in” Europe is simply wrong. I have no doubt some people in those countries consider themselves to have some European “values,” but if you actually have been to those countries as you claim, you would know the indigenous cultures in those places are not at all “European.”
Guest, did you notice that Joseph stopped using his real name and started using TrollKiller about the time he was caught out claiming that Greece, Turkey and Russia are not in Europe?
Who did Marke ban? Nobody I have seen. As far as i have seen, he only removes posts that offend his over-sensitivity about gays and TS/TV/TG folks.
I assume Tim gave him SA privileges to implement some form of registration.
Greek markets are in near freefall and nobody will lend them any money. they are royally screwed.
The former Soviet Unions could be said to be both European and Asian. The usual border is set by the Ural mountains. But since the break-up, each former province is either European or Asian. If you think Russia is in Asia then you must think that the Ukraine and Latvia are as well.
Greece is in Europe, no question.
Turkey is part in Europe and part in Asia, the boundary being the Bosporous.
Lots of places in Europe did not practice colonialism. Show me a Polish colony or an Irish colony.
Yep. I like both increased housing supply and better transit, and over the past few years I’ve gained as much respect for Wiener as I have lost for the local progressive bloc. The man gets things done – including things that progressives have advocated for and failed to get very far on (e.g. advancing public power).
I posted yesterday, but the posts didn’t appear. This site may be under cyberattack by the Trolls.
Sam/Guest it’s not my fault you guys appear to be the same person. “Europe” is a concept, not a place. Again, look at a map. “European” values include rapine, murder, colonialism, torture, theft of natural resources, and exploitation of human beings. These values have the world on the verge of WWIII. Greece refuses to participate in this failed neoliberal, neocon, capitalist scheme, and therefore is not “part of” Europe.
No, I’m promoting an exchange of ideas different from yours. And it’s not my site, Scoop.it is actual social networking, as opposed to gossip. “Malware” is not other opinions, malware is incessant contrarian posts by Sam/Guest/Spam.
The Russians I know don’t consider themselves “European.” They have fought numerous wars to avoid that indignity. Russia is still “in” Asia Sam; look at a map.
TK also thinks that Russia isn’t in Europe.
Over broad generalizations are ugly
Guest #7: when I said of ‘western neighborhoods’ that ‘[i]t’s foggy and cold out there, anyway,’ I meant it.
The southeast has the best weather in town. Better that the Mission, if only slightly.
It’s okay, vrrm00. Guests #a-#b are tempting targets
Guest #1, my Opa was sent to Poland by the Nazis. If his survival somehow offends you, please explain.
Guest #2, as vrrm00 notes, Vienna ‘today’ is a pretty nice place to live. Old socialist stuff is relevant.
vrrm00, my fave Sound of Music info is that at the end of the film, they are walking into Germany. Oops!
Triumphalism is ugly.
Of course, as a rule it’s silly to engage the trolls. But some times the idiocy is too much to resist being provoked (so good job, you’ve succeeded in trolling me!) But perhaps other will find the information useful.
Viena is infact the 5th richest econnomic (in real per capita terms) zone in all of Europe.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/help/new-eurostat-website
It’s population is 1.7 million and is now the largest that it’s been since 1923. It has continued to produce a vast amount of public subsidized housing, aprox. 5000 units a year. http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6205#.VOHLS4fiv3U
In short, far from being a museum piece, Vienna is a large, rapidly growing dynamic city that has mastered its housing problem in a rather obvious, straight forward and efficient manner.
Also, Sound of Music tours may be booked in Salzburg .
Me too. They are really living in la-la land. Fortunately, they’re all getting priced out or will be priced out shortly. And all of their gov’t hand-out orgs, I mean non-profits will be dead, and that will be the end of the left in SF.
Marke B banned their names. Another Stalinist idiotic tactic by the left.
” The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good.
Greed is right.
Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.”
~~~ Every word of that is true.~~~
Promoting your spammy website that is filled with malware again TK?
BTW, Vienna TODAY is only known for the Sound Of Music Tours. No one but old elderly men who are retired would even think about that old socialist stuff. Not even in Wien, jetzt.
Red Vienna, again from you old grandpa punk who has never worked outside of “teaching” ? Give it a rest. Red Vienna was from 1919-1934. That’s going backwards, not forwards, and people do not want to go back to that time, ever. No one but elderly grandpa punks want to go back there.
The Southeast is not “foggy and cold”! It’s not as balmy as the Mission but it seems to be sunnier than the Sunset & Richmond. It is windy out there in the southeast but I would say a microclimate would be that it’s sunnier over there than the S&R.
No one tried to shame you NancyS – we did point out that you live in Malibu now in your dad’s, er your “friend’s” home.
First of all TK, I’m not Sam. Second of all I’m very familiar with the internet, I work in IT. BTW, Greece IS in Europe and I’ve been all over Europe many times.
The US is not going to help Greece. Russia is also broke, and that would be a deal with the devil, one which most Greeks, if you spoke with them, do not want.
Even Ireland wants Greece to complete every part of their austerity program. They’re actually furious at Greece (oh and these are real links, not links to social justice spam conspiracy sites that you probably own). Real news links.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/dd4511a6-b3a9-11e4-9449-00144feab7de.html
Hi Sam. I missed you. NOT!
There’s this wonderful invention called the “internet.” It was developed to facilitate research, not trolling. I suggest you start using it to explore this big wide world you seem so unfamiliar with.
Oh, and Greece is not in Europe either.
“Greece Could Seek Russian, US, Chinese Cash if Germany Blocks New Deal” http://sco.lt/7pyiNF
You’re bringing up Syriza (Greece) & Podemos (Spain). Greece is broke, Spain is broke. And both of those countries have weakened the Euro to almost 1-1 with the dollar! I would not look to them to do anything about anything. Greece isn’t even taxing their shipping magnates. Both are just empty suits, empty rhetoric. I’m sure Marcos can tell you that they’re both absolute horse manure.
Whichever Guest you are — and could I ask nicely that you use names? — you are absolutely right. There are a few things in the Mission you want to preserve, and after that, knock ’em down and build ’em up.
The Greeks are not villains.
Videlicet http://blog.mpettis.com/2015/02/syriza-and-the-french-indemnity-of-1871-73/
‘Above all this is not a story about nations. Before the crisis German workers were forced to pay to inflate the Spanish bubble by accepting very low wage growth, even as the European economy boomed. After the crisis Spanish workers were forced to absorb the cost of deflating the bubble in the form of soaring unemployment.’
C’mon, Guest. You can do better.
Play nice!
That’s a fine song.
I have lived all over the world and I have never encountered a group as dumb and clueless as the left in San Francisco.
Typical of the know-nothing left. It’s real estate speculators and developers from China, S. America, Russia, SE Asia and local investors who are building and buying up SF’s precious real estate. Government pension funds and private lending are a much bigger source of real estate funding than Wall Street.
Simplistic soundbites make progressives sound like idiot doufuses. The local left seems to enjoy talking down to people and treating them like they have the intelligence of a 12-year old. No wonder voters are repelled, especially in a city where residents have some of the highest educational levels anywhere.
Agree, Wiener is easily the most effective Supervisor and the one most in tune with his constituency.
As the largest neighborhood in SF, and probably the one best suited to large-scale up-zoning after SOMA, it absolutely is to large.
I’d give a special use designation to Liberty Hill and Dolores Heights, and for the rest I would build, baby, build.
You’re mistaken about Weiner. He’s very engaged with housing, development and transportation issues as much or more than other supervisors. He even grabbed some extra money for MUNI in the last election against the wishes of a popular mayor. It’s understandable progressives want candidates who reflect their priorities and values, and Weiner doesn’t fit that description, but to a general voter just looking for competence, energy and a positive outlook, Weiner probably looks pretty good to voters.
Progressives need to do a better job promoting well-rounded, non-alienating community leaders in their 30’s and 40’s who can build deeper connections with dozens of active progressive groups, developing three or four key priorities they can run on to show the larger voting public that progressives are smart and focused. The “protest and whining years” over the last decade haven’t been much help growing the local progressive movement. Some questionable progressive leaders haven’t helped either.
I’ll take that as a concession speech.
The Mission is not too large for interim controls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTTC_fD598A
The Mission is too large an area to have a special use district for. Typically that is done for enclaves like Liberty Hill.
The Mission needs more development, not less.
The Greeks are debtors here, not heroes.
Wall Street is German?
Now Campos has proposed interim controls to put some kind of moratorium on development in the Mission. This, after he took money from the developer of 490 South Van Ness for his failed Assembly campaign. Problem is that he needs 8 votes to pass controls and those 8 votes against developers will not be forthcoming.
Worse than useless.
Yes, Syriza and Podemos have reached the point where they realize that this is no longer a fight between “left” and “right,” rather a fight between all of us and the gangsters on Wall Street.
When you owe your banker €1,000,000 and can’t pay, then you have a problem.
When you owe your banker €1,000,000,000 and can’t pay, then your banker has a problem.
German financial institutions need the Greek government to pay up more than Greece needs what the German financial institutions have in store for them.
LOL, yeah, bankrupt Greece is the poster child for successful liberap policies.
Not.
Progressives win elections with credible candidates and thoughtful policy positions.
More exciting than the relative status quo of the SF progressive movement is the linkage being created around worldwide housing and development issues: displacement, gentrification and rent extraction. The broader issues are often the same in each city and country, although the particulars may vary. Since the exploitive disease is global, the fight needs to be globalized too.
#housingaction
Thankfully some alternative political parties like Syriza and Podemos are providing real economic alternatives in their countries, while in California we fight over which Democrat is the most liberal.
“Experts: Unaffordable rents here to stay”
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/32938
Glass-Steagall has been being eroded for decades before the poor sad thing was put out of its misery by Clinton. More successful economies than us never had anything like that so I do not think it was the savior that you imply.
Politicians are only as progressive as they need to be to obtain and maintain power. Given that no more than 40% of SF residents are progressive, and maybe only 10% of the money, any politicians who hits too far out of left field is going to find themselves out of a job.
“Progressives” could start by getting their house in order. They can’t even get a majority on the BOS in the most “liberal” city in the nation. Oh excuse me, that would be Richmond.
“Progressives” could also actually do something that benefited their constituents. I like Campos, but what is he doing to prevent the zarooney-plex from going up at 16th and Mission? I like Jane Kim, but the residents of “MidMarket” are still dealing with the same problems as 10 years ago. Are London Breed and Malia Cohen supposed to be progressive just because of their race and/or gender? And here’s the kicker, what has ANY local politician done to deserve higher office (but especially Weiner)?
No need to borrow money: “Why Public Banks Outperform Private Banks: Unfair Competition or a Better Mousetrap?”
http://sco.lt/8s9B21
If you want to prospect San Francisco, come and bring your retrograde politics, but if the matter involves cultural material, you can only read that which is not designated Entarte-Kunst. Gotcha. And the south is bad again why?
Clinton signed Gramm-Leach-Bliley that repealed Glass-Steagall as well as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that insulated derivatives from regulation. That unleashed a torrent of capital that stoked the dot.com boom. It was all classic neoliberal.
Clinton’s only stroke of luck was that the market crested in March of his last year in office and the crash did not happen until Bush II was coronated.
Identity politics was for ever thus.
Let us deny nobody their opportunity for the American Dream.
Campos lost because he was a timid politician who expended his efforts on delivering policies for people who can’t or don’t vote.
The neoliberal project is what it is and I oppose it. The next step is to ask where there’s been no successful challenge to it given the froth of activism and nonprofiteers who say they’ve been working fulltime on it.
The media will work overtime to frame resistance in the least favorable terms. That’s the hand we’ve been dealt. Framing issues in terms favorable to activists that have zero resonance with anyone outside of the activist core will get you framed out of your message.
If you are going to write off more than half of the electoate a priori, then why even bother, I mean seriously did you all fail math? Successful political movements play the math of addition and multiplication not subtraction and division. If you all can’t handle my criticisms of your failures, then you’re not in any position to build the political power required to bend the arc and arrest the decline.
We are still falling further, faster and more so since you all started your merry band of performance pranksters. And there is no analysis afoot to to arrest the decline and begin to make headway. But there are pictures of you and your friends bleating into bullhorns, being seen being radical.
The same thing happened at OSF, where the nonprofiteers grafted their gangrenous, zombie, RoundUp activist movement onto green shoots. It is not all about the activists and their beliefs, needs and friends. It is about organizing the people to build political power in our neighborhoods.
Your neighborhood is in Oakland, right? Are the words “self-determination” alien to you, or are they some neoliberal right wing plot?
You mean the same south from where the immigrants to SF are coming to bring their backwards ways to us as they seek riches? Yeah, that south.
Guest 1, don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.
Guest 2, it must be a cramped existence only to enjoy art produced by those who share your politics.
You are clever: Vienna did welcome me. Not as friendly as Budapest, but certainly a nifty town.
Aw, c’mon, Guest: it isn’t all of San Francisco that needs my gentle, helpful suggestions — just you.
Keep at it!
I demonize only by behavior and not because of member ship of some stereotyped class.
Exclude youth, males and tech workers, and your electoral majority has gone. You appear to not care about the opinions of those who disagree with you but, if they are a majority, and they are, then what is your plan B?
I”m sorry, but I think that is a cop out. There is far too much handholding that seems to be required to convince the young males to join us…but I don’t think their heart is even it and it’s just a convenient excuse. I, for one, do not have the time to make sure everyone’s feelings are 100% secure, according to their idea of how the rhetoric would go.
Half of our helpers in the anti-eviction mapping groups are high-level tech workers, many of them women. They have no problem with us criticizing their bosses and colleagues when they do things like evict schoolteachers or evade taxes or paying for public infrastructure–it seems like, you either get it or you don’t, and we don’t have to waste energy on convincing the apathetic… A critique shouldn’t be taken personally. Go ahead and criticize the company I work for–I can take it– or call me out if I get drunk and tweet offensive, ignorant comments about The Other–I would deserve it. And it would probably be a good learning experience.
It is not about being “anti-tech” ; that’s just some bullshit created by the media. Critics of neolliberal governance are concerned by witnessing the inequality, the evictions, our neighborhoods being turned into boring playgrounds for the rich and the politicians who bend over backwards for an industry while ignoring the plight of those who will be displaced. If Mayor Lee had held Tenant Tuesdays, you probably wouldn’t be hearing about tech. Blame him, not the critics.
The guy that wrote Answer Me is a total Republican and lives in the south now.
I feel sure that Vienna would welcome you, since we are clearly not good or smart enough for you.
You’ve never lost in tax court?
The rest of us have never been summoned to tax court.
But in the end, both fail, albeit for different reasons.
Sam/guest: that is your tactic: demonizing anyone, everyone who does not hold your same dear values of wealth and exclusivity; to silence me you attempted to shame me – it din’t work –
It’s absolutely social democratic. My model is Rotes Wien, when the Socialists took over Vienna, controlled rents, taxed luxury apartments, bought land, and themselves built or partnered to build 60,000 units in less than ten years.
If a buncha Austrians could do it, so can we.
My critique of Campos et al is similar. Rather than have the ambition to do something to solve the problem, they pass well-intentioned laws that, at best, make things slightly worse.
Dos Passos wrote USA in 1930, 1932 and 1936. Since I have read it, I am.. scribble scribble.. 104 years old.
I am puzzled that my income interests you. Do you work for the IRS? My accounting, like my father’s, while aggressive is bulletproof. Neither of us has ever lost in tax court. If you have, my sympathies.
C’mon, kids liking the Ramones is okay. I have a friend who was an actual first-wave punkling; during the early ’90s she wanted to tell the Gilman throng to stop reliving her youth, but she got over it.
ANSWER ME! was fun. I’m not sure if I still have them, but my roommates and I got them when they came out. Fine bathroom reading for guests.
> over-fifties arguing over who is cooler
No, no: I am over a hundred, remember? I haven’t been cool since Debs was in jail. But I know how to add two and two, and I know that Gerald Ford was a better Republican President than Ronald Reagan.
The ones who speak softly as they practice the politics of subtraction, division and cooptation are more dangerous than the screamers.
Ooh, over-fifties arguing over who is cooler.
autocorrect made contention into intention…should be contention.
If my intention is true, that the professional progressives have been coopted to the extent that they’ve abandoned any progressive initiative and cut deals with the neoliberals on behalf of the poverty charities, then it makes sense that they’d continue their work to circle the wagons and narrow the circle by alienating any newcomers as they’ve alienated noncombatant San Franciscans who used to volunteer on winning campaigns back in the day. Narcissistic solipsistic politics of the individual, activist group and their ideology imposed on behalf of nonconsenting others as non-negotiables under pain of excommunication while all failing miserably to deliver on ostensible promise (while successfully keeping the money flowing in paychecks) is what we’ve got here.
Actually, kids these days DO GAF about punk rock heroes. Not only were we smart enough to see the best of the punk rock era in real time back in the day, we were smart enough to establish ourselves here before the deluge of prospectors, newcomers to San Francisco who, as it appears, fancy wearing Ramones t-shirts even though many of them were born after half of the band had expired.
So they are indeed following in our footsteps more than not. As far as Boyd Rice goes, contemporary literature gets no better than ANSWER ME! Got all four originals in the archives.
And that makes you over 50+ and seriously out of touch, Whiner. Welcome to the new world. No one GAF about your punk rock heroes. You’re the age of a grandfather now. I really hope you bought a home or condo because if you didn’t, you really should be looking into the East Bay. I don’t think you make enough to afford SF these days and I’m being congenial about it.
The content and character of progressives here show rudeness, name calling, and they’re a turn-off for many in the progressive community. Having anger issues is turning off a lot of people in the middle who want to distance themselves from psychopaths who scream.
Speak for yourself, Guest. No large group of people can control the outbursts and anger of a few people who supposedly identify with the group. When you read posts of these angry and unfriendly individuals, consider it’s just as likely people opposed to the group ideals and are trying to make the group look bad.
Until there’s a effective muting option, the internet means we have to listen to people who have all sorts of psychological disorders. But a few dozen delusional and angry wackos out of a group representing tens of thousands of voters is hardly indicative of the entire group.
If your name is Spam, then you know that’s one of his favorite tactics: demean individual posters to demean the entire group of voters he hates (tenants and activists). If that’s your idea too – to disparage an entire group (“the left”) by citing posts by a few of the commenters – consider that most readers of this blog are smarter than that and will see right through your transparency.
This is an actual progressive, even socialist, suggestion. One I completely agree with. Yet somehow I’m a tech neoliberal scarcely indistinguishable from a garden variety Republican.
I find it extraordinary that SF leftists have been taken over by dimwits, like Campos, who’s proposing a market rate housing moratorium in SOMA, as though that will somehow ‘force’ developers to build BMR units and as though SF hasn’t already tried 2+ decades of that approach. Nothing liberal, leftist or socialist about it, just natavist NIMBY-sm. Maddening…
The left should also try and do a better job of not being angry al the time. A lighter touch, and less demonization of any group deemed the enemy would go a long way towards being taken more seriously and credibly. Lose the hate, the anger and the identity politics.
Ballard absolutely was right wing. And (as if anyone cares about his politics) Mr. Pop aren’t the half of it. Boyd Rice always was an unreconstructed fascist, to say nothing of William Bennett aka Whitehouse, author of such fine works as Buchenwald (1981ish), whose record label put out Maurizio Bianchi records when he was going by ‘Leibstandarte SS MB’.
Now, John Dos Passos conversion late in life into an antiunion conservative, that’s a little surprising. That fascism could inspire an artist? Please. You have heard of Futurism, I think.
Ballard’s early piece on Reagan was spot on.
The left always conjures up an excuse when it loses. voter fraud, misinformation, funding, poor campaign.
They can never admit that their candidate or proposal was inferior and unpopular.
Whiner, I’m not a fan of JG Ballard & this is not Sam, but before you go and quote people like Ballard, you need to understand that Ballard was rightwing, not leftwing.
“Rod Liddle says that the great writer, who died this week, always espoused the pessimism about the human condition that is the mark of a true conservative. He even wanted American missiles stationed in his garden”
“‘I believe in the mysterious beauty of Margaret Thatcher, in the arch of her nostrils and the sheen on her lower lip; in the melancholy of wounded Argentine conscripts; in the haunted smiles of filling station personnel, in my dream of Margaret Thatcher caressed by that young Argentine soldier in a forgotten motel, watched by a tubercular filling station attendant.’”
Interestingly in the article it says that Iggy Pop states that he too is a conservative.
Has to be hard for you Whiner, the punk rock heroes & heroines are mostly all conservative now.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/3557201/jg-ballard-was-a-man-of-the-right-not-that-the-right-really-wanted-him/
Aw, yeah. Did you ever see the ‘Randy, where’s the _rest_ of me?’ poster? High quality.
The only thing anyone ever needs to read about Ronald Wilson Reagan is J.G. Ballard:
http://sensitiveskinmagazine.com/ronald-reagan/
Progressivism has done a bit of an overreach. Time to move on. Campos will get work somehow, I’m sure he’ll be on some non-profit board making his $200k. The non-profit will still get tons of money from the city. A win-win for him.
It’s always the campaign’s fault and never the candidate.
Reagan gave an electrifying speech for Barry Goldwater during the ’64 campaign that launched him politically and he was soon Governor of California.
How about The Olympic and Lake Merced Courses? Their membership certainly qualifies
Campos lost because of a badly managed campaign.
With Clinton, it was mostly luck. His reign coincided with the dot.com boom and he had the good fortune to get out shortly before that all went pear-shaped.
Then by your own definition, I cannot be triumphalist because (so far) progressives haven’t lost. They are just not doing very well.
Remember, this article is forward-looking, and we’re just making predictions here, not opining on actual results.
To be triumphalist, you need to have triumphed first.
Please leave off the crass ad hominems. It’s going to ruin that pretty smile of yours. Play nice, kids.
Sam, the answer for which you are looking is, they don’t. By far the strongest economy of the last two decades was the Clinton ’90s, which rational progressives saw as a signature success.
WC, asking progressives for the rationale behind their “war on success” is futile.
You’re the one struggling with comprehension.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/triumphalist
‘b : smug or boastful pride in the success or dominance of one’s nation or ideology over others’
When someone tells you that you sound like a triumphalist Democrat in 1965, a year after his party saw the GOP national vote drop to 27%, that’s the meaning at which you look.
Keep at it, Sam. You’ll learn English yet!
Right, but so is the entire country. The baseline for Walker isn’t zero, it’s the rest of the US, and the rest of the US has improved more than WI.
Why would political conservatives have a monopoly on the desire to foster strong economic growth?
Gary, you will have a heart attack if you carry on being this negative, cynical and angry.
This is just an anonymous blog for amusement and entertainment. Why all the bitterness? Just be more whimsical and enjoy the carefree banter. Relax. Lighten up. It would be better for your health.
@Guest/Sam: Thanks for the warning. It is just like you to attend an event to gloat and possibly subvert a sincere process.
Your pettiness tells me that you have a pathetic existence.
And you have no standing to lecture anyone about being civil. Between your racism, your inability to be empathetic with anyone other than those driven by greed and your overwhelming number of posts that are often nothing more than trolling, civility is something that you first need to learn.
It is the left who are being “triumphalist” in thinking that they can win.
Wisconsin’s economy is actually doing better under Walker
http://www.jsonline.com/business/wisconsin-bankruptcy-filings-fall-8-in-2014-amid-improving-economy-b99440807z1-291162401.html
Only conservatives equate good policy with a successful economy. SF progressives think the exact opposite.
I think Calvin Welch is part of this group too. All famewhores imho.
My point was, political triumphalism is not a guarantee. Sure, if you were a Democrat facing the Whigs in 1852, you were right to be triumphalist. But if you were a Democrat in 1965, you were wrong.
I kinda miss the Whigs, but then I kinda miss Nixon, too. He was awful in so many ways, but at least he had half a brain for domestic policy.
@Gary – you are proving Reductio ad Hitlerum
I guess if I squint I can see that. Wisconsin has been underperforming the rest of the country since Walker took office, so its economy is like a coiled spring now, ready to bounce in a giant ‘sproing!’ of success.
The hope derives from those policies.
I know. If your point was that the GOP was dead in 1965 then how do you explain the Reagan revolution? (Not to mention 12 years of Bushes and the GOP holding both houses of Congress).
Not bad for a has-been party huh?
Right. And that will give people hope.
I said, 1965. The name you wanted was ‘Nixon’.
The word “failure” there is subjective. Most voters appear to regard Walker as a success, policy-wise.
Yes, Fishchum, and in fact isn’t that the point of city golf courses? To enable anyone who wants to to play golf?
One word in response:
Reagan.
Except now it’s those of us on the right side talking to Dems, because the pendulum is swinging back against the Dems in SF. It’s taken a while but it is finally happening.
It makes perfect sense to build up the east because that is where all the jobs are. The west can take some new build but is better suited to 1-4 unit structures.
The east has BART, underground streetcars, three freeways and ferries. The west side is better suit for an auto lifestyle, people with kids, for folks who want yards and gardens.
So there is something for everyone. Hate diversity?
No, my point is that his political success despite policy failure gives hope to those who likewise have experienced failure in life. ‘Dimwitted’ and ‘innumerate’ were a little cruel about such folks, though; I should have been more kind.
While Walker is bad for Wisconsin, it’s good for a popular figure to give people hope.
You sound like a Democrat talking to a Republican in 1965.
So your point is that most voters are too stupid to be allowed to vote?
What would you suggest that we do about that?
What? There is one metro line to the southeast, five to the west. Choosing not to build up the Sunset, the Richmond and their foggy friends is political.
Me, I don’t care where we build, but we need to build a lot more. 30,000 more units is a start, at least.
Yes, that’s my point: his popularity despite manifest policy failures sustains the dimwitted in their dark moments. As I said, he ‘makes lackwit innumerates feel good about themselves.’
I’m looking forward to meeting you there, Gary. I feel sure that you are much civil face-to-face.
You two can hum “Tomorrow belongs to me” to humor yourselves.
Infrastructure on the east side is at capacity and it continues to be overbuilt.
it is time to grant the west side the same overloaded infrastructure as the west side forced on the east side.
Besides, the boosters point out that the west side has all of this underutilized transit infrastructure. They need the same crawling, snarled transit and congested gridlock as we have on the east side.
The west side deserves this, it is their turn.
You’ve clearly never played a round at GG Park , Lincoln or Glen Eagles. I play quite often and the regulars I meet and play with are anything but the “1%”.
A better title than “How can Progressives win in 2015?” would be “How can Progressives survive in 2015?”
If they are zoned as parks then you cannot build homes on them. You might as well demand that we build over GGPark.
No, marcos, the east side was upzoned because it has the capacity and the infrastructure.
We cannot build high density on the west side of town because of the lack of transport. There is also far more under-utilized sites and soft sites on the east side.
If you want diversity then a high density east and a low-density west gives you a good choice within the same city. Whichever you want, you can have, just be moving a few miles.
Wisconsin obvious loves him because the voters rejected a recall and then re-elected him. What you think about him doesnt matter.
MUNI and BART are a pain, but on the whole they do what they were intended to do, which is get workers to and from Downtown.
We have universal public education, no matter how hard the NEA tries to run it in the ground, it’s still possible for a kid with a single Mom to become President.
Before the ACA was rolled out, we had Healthy SF. It may not be the best health care, but it is free and universal.
The City is trying it’s best to build as much housing as possible, but is being fought by hypocritical NIMBYs tooth and nail.
There is a lot in the pipeline for the southeast, but it’s not going to put a dent in what the whole city needs. The city should be much more aggressive.
Unequal treatment of neighborhoods is nothing new, but mostly strikes me as a separate issue. And when it comes to increased density, it seems foolish. If western neighborhoods want to turn themselves into expensive suburbs of the real city, that’s fine by me.
It’s foggy and cold out there, anyway.
First, the entirety of the Eastern Neighborhoods has been upzoned for market rate luxury condos and those condos are speeding through the streamlined approvals process. I doubt that anyone on the east side would have batted an eyelash if the upzonings were for affordable housing only.
Contrast that to absolutely nothing upzoned west of Divis or Castro. The east side has been upzoned existing residents notwithstanding because it is poorer and less white. The west side has escaped that fate for the opposite reasons. What passes for “the left” has signed onto this fully.
Making housing abundant and hence affordable is a progressive position. There is no law that says developers must build housing; the city of Vienna built both itself and in partnerships to great success.
You are right that NIMBYism is popular, but so is finding an apartment that doesn’t cost $4,000 a month. Put enough people on the list for reasonably priced places in new buildings and you’d create a groundswell of support in a hurry.
I would prefer the city build as much as possible itself, but partnering with developers makes sense, too. That doesn’t mean the city needs to give away money. The policy I like is to buy property by eminent domain, change the zoning, then bid out development rights, the city to have the right to match high bid.
The public sector will never undermine private sector profits by building housing in any serious numbers. That is what the Mayor’s Office of Housing is all about, taking in-lieu fees and playing heroin dealer sugar daddy to the CCHO to prevent them from organizing for a different outcome by conditioning their ongoing fixes on playing ball with luxury condo developers.
These people are ethically conflicted from representing the interests of San Francisco residents at risk of displacement because they depend for their funding on the same interests that are driving displacement. They also will not consider any housing solutions that expand up past the moderate income line which automatically crimps their coalition potential below a plurality before they even start.
I do not see how people who have either lost elections or not been able to organize to move a progressive agenda as heads of nonprofit agencies, nonprofit cartels or elected officials are going to be the ones to chart a different course.
Progressives cannot win in San Francisco with their poverty charity agenda. The last proven method of winning against big money took place not in Mar’s The Richmond, but in Richmond, California:
http://richmondprogressivealliance.net/
The activists and elected on the dais would never tolerate an organization of residents as worked in Richmond, CA because underlaying it all is a generalized contempt for anyone who is not considered “their base,” a base that has yet to materialized because it is being displaced faster than the poverty charities can organize them.
It is time for these individuals to fish or cut bait, to shit or get off the pot and to quit pissing on our collective legs and telling us that the end of the drought is right around the corner. They are political climate change deniers.
Here is what Scott Walker has done for his state:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=10HR
You’ll forgive me for restraining my jealousy.
Those goals are “mostly achieved” ? Working mass transit? No. Affordable housing? No. Public education? No. Universal healthcare? Maybe.
Most San Franciscans support progressive values such as universal health care, public education, [working] mass transit, a living wage and affordable housing.
However when those goals are mostly achieved for the majority, Progs still want to hold on to power and then force a Marxist economy down our throats. They should take a page from Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert and retire gracefully; while they’re ahead.
There are FIVE 18 hole golf courses within the City limits of San Francisco. We don’t need fairways for the 1%. We need housing.
It would be good for a laugh. BYO wine cooler sit in the back and take a sip for each time someone says “progressive” “evictions” “we’re losing our city” “people have to move” “have to take our city back” “we’ll protest” “we will win the city back from the right wingers” “clap clap clap”.
Just a big feel good session for people that won’t even be living here in 2 years or less.
And hearing from Nate Allbee and Eric Mar shows it’s the same old tired progs, with litmus tests fewer and fewer can pass or even try to pass, trying to revive a corpse.
Who is John?
Asking a market rent is not a conspiracy. It’s reality.
My main criticism of the local left is cluelessness.
If we’re going to list all the people who have more power and influence than you, it’s going to be a long night.
Will? Likely, because SF politicians are cowards.
Must? Hardly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Vienna
My main critique of the local left is cowardice.
This isn’t artificial:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gdjgf3shvrzntsv/HVS%20data.pdf
Justin Bieber likewise has power and influence.
Thank god. 3 clowns. Hard to pick which is worse.
I agree, and take it a step further: I believe that there was collusion to raise rents by the companies that own a lot of rental units.
This is an artificial crisis, created to let developers and moneyed interests to develop every square inch of San Francisco any way they wish.
I remember the last “crisis” they tried to use to do this: “Families are leaving” – because there were very few family-sized units and they were very expensive. That didn’t work because they didn’t build anything affordable and they discovered that there is more profit in building family-unfriendly micro units.
San Francisco will survive. But it is going to get ugly before it gets better.
I’m tempted to attend this meeting just to enjoy the death throes of a doomed ideology.
I love the smell of failed progressives in the evening.
And yet he has power and influence, and all you have to posting here incessantly.
We should not base public policy on whether the people you like can afford to live here.
Most new homes can, will and must be built by the private sector.
Scott Walker of WI? The man makes lackwit innumerates feel good about themselves.
> like.. Moscone center and the Fillmore
‘Urban renewal’ is the worst growth plan since the Allies bombed Germany. Bombing led to growth, but..
> politics doesn’t work that way
Not since around 1970. That’s the problem.
> developer shills
I’m tired of moving, and I am tired of people I like leaving town because of unaffordable rents and prices.
The solution is to build. No law mandates building be private. I much prefer it be public.
And that is why Walker is the #1 Presidential candidate in the current polls in CA. Tech is replacing the old hippies. And they are libertarian.
All the community forums in the world can’t resuscitate this dead movement. More rhetorical masturbation is not the answer.
Building housing for the poor takes $ & land. These sound like pipe dreams to me.
Guest, you do not speak for “current SF residents”. And in fact they voted for a pro-growth, pro-development mayor so clearly you have mis-read the mood of the populace.
We want more homes. a lot more homes. WC is right – this city can take 1.2 million. And the burbs already house 500K of Sf workers – they are doing more than enough.
Who is John?
Avalos is toast, too! 🙂
“Normal” people, as you say, want a good economy and safe streets. They don;t care about street theater google bus protests.
“San Francisco could go to 1.2m population and be around the density of all five boroughs of New York.”
Politics doesn’t work that way. Current SF residents do not want 300,00 new housing units thrust upon them even over the next 20 years. Moreover, it doesn’t have to go that route since the biggest job-housing imbalance and lowest housing densities are in the south and east bay. The other 99 cities in the region can easily accommodate 1.5 million new housing units in the space between highways 280 and 680 and they still won’t come anywhere near the population density of SF.
The City has plenty of developer shills with very deep pockets plying the corridors of city hall every day. I suppose we’d expect those shills would show up here too, if only to keep resident developer shill gas bag Sam/Guest/Anon/John company.
LOL, you think the city should build housing specifically for anyone who gets evicted?
Clue – don’t run for office.
Well said Gary. The fear of eviction runs deep in the city and the politicians aren’t doing much about it. No new housing is being built for them when the evictions finally happen. The big landlords and million-dollar condo developers have taken over the city and it seems no one can stop their carnage to the city fabric.
Tech workers are the pawns, pitted against rent-controlled tenants who will be gone from the city when they’re finally evicted. The tech workers are also being used to justify building extremely expensive housing that even few of them will be able to afford. Mayor Lee, the Board of Supervisors and city Departments are building a city for the rich, many of them transplants from other cities and even foreign countries. If current residents don’t fall into that very narrow rich demographic, there’s no place for them in SF.
I agree we should build much more and increase densities. I disagree that we need “raw land” to do that. We could re-develop areas with low-rise buildings like we did around the Moscone center and the Fillmore.
Yes, we can.
Plenty. Heck, five lots sold a couple years ago right around the corner from us, and for a pretty paltry sum, too.
San Francisco could go to 1.2m population and be around the density of all five boroughs of New York.
We have plenty of room.
Yes, there is a delicious irony in a group of failed lefties holding a meeting to explore how to reach out to and influence other groups, and then specifically exclude those other groups.
I am not aware of any posts of mine that been removed. Please provide evidence.
@Guest/Sam/Sybil: You always need to have the last word. No wonder all of your comments on another thread were deleted.
This is really preaching to the choir. Campos is in his last throes as a politician and so is Mar. They will not be replaced by super leftwing people in either district.
There isn’t much “raw land” in SF.
Evidently you care, because you always respond to them.
Hear, hear. The city should borrow as much money as it feasibly can, buy raw land by eminent domain, change the zoning, and build. 80,000 units as a start, say.
Nobody cares anything about your posts. Stop blathering.
Abandon the NIMBY agenda and support the men & women of the Building Trades!
Nice race card play there. It was only a matter of time, I guess.
I don’t blame tech workers; I blame the industry and the city. But if you could tone down your arrogance and stop pretending that you are an actual victim of anything, that would help.
And I’ll ask a group of Latinos who were evicted to make room for you to apologize for saying bad things about you, if that will make you feel better.
Because being maligned by an almost powerless group is worse than being evicted, uprooted from the only community you have ever know and having few options of continuing to live in the Bay Area. .
No, Tod is right, your idea of persuading people who don’t agree with you is to demonize them. Good luck with that.
The “attack” on tech has actually been defensive. The only way to stand up to the economic onslaught is through people power. This has nothing to do with the sixties, but thanks for trying to change the subject.
OK, so you think the left is winning and these other guys think the left is losing? If you can’t even agree on that I wouldn’t bet on you convincing anyone to change their votes.
Four more years for Ed Lee!
Gee, Spam-John. Fair taxation, freedom from eviction, healthcare. Progressive values that normal people want.
Consistent failures? We still have rent control, baby. Now we have more inclusionary healthcare. Two things the majority of San Franciscans hold dear.
Don’t speak for people you hold in contempt, you contemptuous, anonymous, lonely little troll!
Winning a citywide election entails creating a broad coalition. I think a lot of tech dudes and young voters would join a progressive coalition if you stopped attacking us and blaming us for destroying your your idyllic1968 world.
But Tim says that the key to prevent further progressive losses is to penetrate other and broader demographics. How can that be achieved if you don’t invite them to the party?
Progressives thinking that they know best what others want is the fundamental reason for their consistent failures. Have you learned nothing?
If you know of any progressive west-siders, progressive techies or progressive homeowners, please inform them of this meeting. Because it’s all about fomenting a progressive (not regressive) agenda. Get it, Spam?
Spam changed his name, again, to Guest. See below.
Maybe if you want to understand better how to appeal to west-side voters, tech workers, homeowners and others not inherently sympathetic to your cause, you should start by actually inviting some of those as speakers, rather than the usual lefty suspects.
A circle jerk when you conclude that the only reason you don’t win is because you aren’t left-wing enough isn’t going to cut it.
Looking forward to Sam’s 500 comments
Better police those vote counting systems … OOPS.. you can not due to the corporate owned software- see http://www.cavo-us.org