Mayor Gavan Newsom is viewed out side the Bay Area as a far left radical on the other hand inside the boarders of San Francisco values he can’t quite seem to sooth the love/hate relationship he has with his constituents and as for the Board of Supervisors well they really can’t stand him as far as they can throw him. Having worked for a firm that dealt directly with city government I got to hear a lot of personal opinion about San Francisco’s beloved Mayor and came away with two consistencies he’s a self absorbed self serving arrogant @ss but damn he’s cute…LOL. What a lovely impression to leave upon so many.

Some of the major complaints about Mr. Newsom;

“refused to heed the voter directive to meet regularly with the Board of Supervisors”, “His spokespeople regularly belittle and deride progressive supervisors and organizations”, “He has vetoed consensus legislation on tenant protections, police foot patrols, new revenue measures, and new parking policies.”, “He proudly takes campaign credit for other people’s initiatives he once opposed.”, “He has been absent from some of the most important policy debates in the city”, “He has demanded the resignations of all appointees and top officials, even those protected by contracts and fixed terms.”, “He is utterly unwilling to engage people who disagree with him”

“Healthy San Francisco (S.F.’s universal health care) wouldn’t exist if then Sup. Tom Ammiano (now a member of the Ca. Assembly) hadn’t spent years fighting for a universal health care plan paid for by employers. And while Ammiano was being savagely attacked over the idea by the business community, a key constituency of the mayor, Newsom sat on the sidelines until Ammiano lined up enough votes to approve the plan. At that point, Newsom introduced his own health plan, worked with Ammiano to merge the two, and has been taking credit for it around the country ever since.” Ammiano told us.” There’s no doubt he came along for the ride.”

“Biotech businesses have located in the city, as Newsom has often touted, but they aren’t paying any city taxes because of a measure he sponsored exempting them.”

“Working largely w/existing resources, Mayor Nwsom has applied a little common sense and a lot of innovation to help turn S.F. public schools into a statewide model for educational achievement,” writes the campaign. But despite regularly claiming credit for schools in his stump speeches, Newsom has had little to do with S.F. USD, which has avoided layoffs mostly because of support from city funds (thanks to a voter-approved measure authored by Ammiano) and a parcel tax spearheded by downtown financier Warren Hellman and others.”

“It’s like a Wizard of Oz creation. You pull back the curtain and there’s nothing there, “ said Aaron Peskin, who was regularly vilified by Team Newsom when he served as president of the Board of Supervisors (now Peskin although his criticism of Newsom may be warranted, he’s got a bag of issues all his own so it’s kinda like the pot calling the kettle black. These two really hate each other.) “Peskin used these adjectives to describe Newsom: narcissistic, defensive, insecure, petulant, thin-skinned, and paranoid. (WooWee them’s fightin words. If one sugar said that to another sugar man it wld be on baby! LOL) “Like a lot of people who come from privilege, he’s a do-gooder. And that, a lot of times, doesn’t allow him to see the forest for the trees,” Ammiano said.

“A close examination of Newsom’s record and statements shows a history of contradictions.” “You’d think this would be a formula for a political failure that eventually California voters would figure out the fraud. But that’s not necessarily true. The reality, political professionals told us, is that the general public just doesn’t care about the details of his mayoral tenure. Such nuances don’t translate well into a statewide campaign.” “Newsom’s platform and persona are what voters want to hear right now-and they’re just believable enough to be an easy sell for modern media manipulators”

“The polls show that Newsome’s popular, but he has never been able to translate that into political success.” “Two months into his first term, on March 3, 04 his signature Workforce Housing Initiative went down hard, as have most of the ballot measures he has supported.” “When it comes to the Board of Sup. Newsom’s candidates lose almost every time there’s a closely contested race.

IMO in all fairness Newsome has done some good for S.F. but as we see in most cases it appears he is a master at riding coat tails as he is at loving the camera. I agree that he is a do gooder but a do gooder for the sake of looking good to advance his self worship not for the sake of doing good.

The 8-page article linked here goes on and on what I pulled is just the tip of the ice berg.
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=8682&volume_id=398&issue_id=435&v...