On behalf of the City’s small businesses, I am pleading with the Board of Supervisors to declare a moratorium on headline-grabbing legislation. We simply can’t afford it. Small businesses are still fighting through the economic downturn. At the same time, the City is struggling to close a $500 million budget deficit, laying off thousands of workers and fighting to keep vital services available. In this climate, there’s just no room for politics-as-usual. But they’re at it again. This time, the Small Business Commission on Monday will decide whether to support Mayor Gavin Newsom’s idea that small business owners who sell mobile phones need to post San Francisco-specific product labels for customers. In the words of one public health official, if the government starts requiring warnings on everything with undefined risks, everything “from apples to xylophones” would have to be labeled. The last thing we need is the City getting into the business of mandating product labels in convenience stores, dry cleaners, and restaurants for all kinds of different products. What’s next? Will I need to get my labels approved by the government with information on what ingredients are in the hair product I sell? As many as 15,000 city workers are facing lay-offs. Nine hundred school workers, including 10 percent of the City’s teachers, are facing lay-offs. Metered parking may be extended to Sundays. The City’s police force faces $30 million in cuts. We just don’t have the luxury of spending money on silly nannny-state ordinances. San Francisco politics is a circus. We all know that. We all know that won’t change. But on behalf of small businesses, we’re asking that our political leaders stop the merry-go-round at least until we’ve weathered the economic storm.
Tag Archives: Carmen Chu
Carmen Chu: Gavin’s New Proxy
For a fleeting time at the beginning of Supervisor Carmen Chu’s accidental term as San Francisco Supervisor, it looked as though she might be more independent minded than many had feared, but since then, she contnues to disappoint.
No no no no. At every measure introduced by a progressive supervisor, Chu, along with Sean Elsbernd and Michela Alioto-Pier, she votes “no”. And yesterday, according to Fog City Journal she did so even though it meant turning her back on the people of District 4.
When Chris Daly, someone I often disagree with, introduced a resolution in protest of the Chinese Government’s crackdown on Tibet, the Three Reactionaries voted in league with Mayor Newsom.
A symbolic but controversial resolution addressing human rights concerns when the Beijing Olympic torch is welcomed to San Francisco next week passed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday, but could meet with resistance from a mayor who has called for the event not to be politicized.
By an 8-3 vote, the board today approved Supervisor Chris Daly’s resolution to loud cheers, and some tears, from an audience of Bay Area Tibetans, Chinese and others who have protested outside City Hall for the past few weeks, opposing the torch’s arrival and calling for international support for human rights in Tibet, Burma and Darfur, and for Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Sean Elsbernd and Carmen Chu – all Mayor Gavin Newsom appointees – voted against Daly’s resolution.
I realize that Chinese-American politics are more complex underneath the surface. I also know that Chinese American Chamber President Rose Pak is closely allied with the Mainland government. But considering that San FRancisco, especially the Chinese neighborhoods, is full of people who arrived here to escape opression, and considering Chu reresents a portion of the city that was represented by human rights champion Tom Lantos, her vote a is a slap in the face of those who suffered, fled and worked so hard to build a better life here. I hope people think about this in November when she aeeks their votes for the first time.
SF: Carmen Chu To Run for D4 Supervisor
It looks like Carmen Chu has decided to take on the punishment that involves running for Supervisor in the 4th District, often called the “Sunset seat”.
San Francisco Supervisor Carmen Chu completed on Tuesday her transformation from a behind-the-scenes city employee to out-front politician, announcing that she would run for election in November.
Chu, who at 29 is the youngest member of the Board of Supervisors, was appointed to the board’s District Four seat on a temporary basis by Mayor Gavin Newsom in September and reappointed late Friday afternoon. She is filling the seat held by former Supervisor Ed Jew, whom Newsom suspended for alleged official misconduct and who last week resigned.
But during several hours Friday – after the point when Jew’s resignation took effect and Chu’s temporary appointment expired at noon and five hours and 38 minutes later when she was finally sworn back into office – it appeared the newest supervisor wasn’t ready to become the mayor’s standard-bearer in District Four.
I will admit that I gave her a hard time when she was first appointed. She had just moved to the district and I felt that she was just another Newsom hack who would warm the seat and follow his directions. However, she has proven to be honest, competent and by all accounts a genuinely down-to-earth person. Now, what remains to be seen, is whether she can navigate the shark tank that is the Fourth District, which is full of shadowy, ambitious characters. She has never before run for office and I don’t think she has much campaign experience. However, she is well liked and, after going through the Ed Jew experience, she may be a fresh face that everyone is looking for.
SF: Carmen Chu and Gavin Newsom Square Off
It looks like hack-turned-supervisor Carmen Chu has decided she wants to try and keep her seat in the next election. She has decided to deal with the homeless issue in her district and blames the sweeps at Golden Gate Park, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
In her most aggressive political move since being appointed in September, interim Supervisor Carmen Chu publicly demanded that several city departments come up with a specific plan to address her west side district’s homeless problem.
The District 4 supervisor is holding a community meeting Monday to address increasing complaints from her constituents that The City’s recent efforts to clear Golden Gate Park of homeless people has increased their numbers in the adjacent Sunset neighborhood.
Last week, Chu requested city departments, including the police and the Human Services Agency, to come up with a Sunset-specific plan to combat the homeless problem in time for the meeting.
But her patron, Gavin Newsom, is not buying it.
Newsom responded to Chu’s concerns last week, saying, “There was a homeless problem in the Sunset before we stepped up enforcement in the park,” and adding that it was “naïve” to think that increased efforts in the park would not prompt some homeless to move to other locations.
It’s a small disagreement and I cannot speak to the validity of either side, but it looks like she’s been cut loose from the Mayor’s office. It also looks like she’ll do what it takes to hold the seat. She better be ready, because there are plenty of sharks that swim around in District 4.
SF: Ed Jew “suspended”
Ed Jew, SF District 4 Supervisor, has been “suspended” by the Mayor and City Attorney Dennis Herrera today, putting him one step closer to irrelevance. Interestingly, the Mayor stuck close to home when picking a successor, and plucked Carmen Chu from his budget office. Many were expecting Newsom to appoint Doug Chan, his pick in the District 4 elections last year. But, well, “Many”, you were wrong! Hah! Rubes! (The fact that I thought it was going to be Chan myself as late as yesterday are merely coincidental. I, of course, am no rube. There, it’s on the internet, so it’s Permanent!)
Anyway, I’m trying to get some more information on Ms. Chu. Local women’s groups had been applying pressure to the mayor to appoint a woman, and they seem to have been successful, at least on that score.
One more interesting quote from the article:
Chu has an address on Ulloa Street in the Sunset, the mayor’s office said.
Local Blog-gadfly “marc” at leftinsf reports that Ms. Chu has voted exactly once in San Francisco. Interesting pick so far. If you have more info on her, leave it in the comments or shoot me an email.
UPDATE: Here’s this the press conference announcement (w/video).