A Footnote to City Hall’s Scandal Du Jour

On behalf of the Bloggers Union, Local 20-Deep, I want to thank San Francisco City Hall for continuing to invent more fodder for blogs that would normally be dry of new material.
I mean, really. I thought I’d seen it all when we had the Jr. High Drama Production last month, or perhaps when a supposedly smart PR flack for the Mayor spent all his time flinging rude insults on blogs (and lied about it – good job!), but then you get a call late last night and read all about this little news tidbit.
Which, on the face of it is a piece of news, but not necessarily earth-shattering news item. When you consider, however, that we seem to live in a city where you can shoot people and murder people (and get away with it), a MUNI system in crisis, and you’re wondering if the San Francisco of the 2000s is becoming the New York City of the 1970s, then you get worried.
One starts to wonder if our Mayor (whom we are told is supposed to be this moderate, wise counterpart to those Supervisors we’re told are so evil) has his full attention to his job. And given all the problems we’ve got in San Francisco, another bloggable, avoidable distraction is not what Our City needs.That is unfortunate, because overall he seems like he’s a nice guy and means well – but he’s in a lotta trouble.
And now for today’s footnote of footnotes: Early last year (March 1st, I think), I remember getting a call from my friend, Savannah Blackwell (formerly of the Bay Guardian, now a law student at Boalt Hall) who’d called me up and asked me to join her at Finnegan’s Wake in Cole Valley. It being Laundry Day, I was wearing my oldest shirt, jeans, and socks whilst I had the clothes in the washer.
When I walked in, it turned out that she had failed to mention that she was with a number of her pals from her City Hall days who were out celebrating a birthday for some guy named Alex Tourk. And she happily introduced me to Mr. Mayor himself, who was in attendance, as well as her friend Emily Morse and assorted Important People in the administration.
Needless to say, I was a bit surprised (and embarassed, being clad in Laundry Day attire). We hung out for a bit, then I went home to finish laundry. I’m sure no one in attendance would recall my presence (and this being in the Era Before I Got My Camera Phone I couldn’t take any pics) but I remember thinking it was kinda fun to see the Mayor and his crew, 20 deep at Finnegan’s.
Who knew that 13 months later we’d be watching a scandal unfold with all these folks. Weird.
PS: I don’t know why this picture of a Mooninite giving the finger makes me laugh so much – it’s a combination of its absurdity, along with the completely idiotic response by the idiots that run Boston. News flash – it’s not Turner Broadcasting’s fault you’re too stupid to figure out what’s a terror threat and what is not – it’s the fault of idiots like Mayor Thomas Menino and Gov. Deval Patrick.
Our Mayor may have made mistakes, but at least he didn’t make one as big (and loud) as this one, kids.