Yes, Elections Are Messy. But ...
Photo by Kodak Views
While everyone is wallowing in and obsessed with the presidential election and the bleakness that surrounds it, I want to turn our attention closer to home. We're voting for: mayor, district attorney, roughly half of the board of supervisors, and a whole host of ballot measures in four months' time, and shit is getting real.
Last week, I joined Ange of Bitch Talk Podcast at The Battery (Bitch Talk are artists-in-residency there and I get in as a guest) for an evening of Q&A with mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin.
Not sure whether I've shared this little anecdote in this space, but here goes: When I moved to San Francisco in 2000, I lived at California and Hyde, and the California Street cable car ran outside my window. I only rode it once or twice for novelty's sake. But I recall one day that fall seeing someone on the cable car campaigning for a seat on the Board of Supervisors. Nevermind that I had no idea who it was or even, at the time, what a board of supervisors was. The City was brand-spankin' new to me, and there was a romantic aspect of seeing someone in a crowded, dense city out there shaking hands, talking to people, asking for votes.
Fast-forward to this spring, when Peskin threw his hat in a very crowded ring and announced his run for mayor. Right away, he became my candidate, for the very simple reason that his vision for San Francisco aligns most closely with my own.
So Ange and I show up last week to a remarkably less-crowded-than-it-was-for-Daniel Lurie room at The Battery just looking to learn more. Moderator Heather Smith (Mission Local) started things off with the candidate rather typically (and I don't mean that disparagingly), with a brief introduction and some "soft" questions. Then she threw it to the audience pretty quickly, and things devolved in no time. People spouted talking-point attacks, most of which made no sense whatsoever, at Peskin. He maintained composure and did his best to parse the nonsense and actually, you know, answer questions ... if indeed there was a question buried somewhere in these rapid-fire screeds.
It became apparent very quickly that these Battery members had shown up on a Tuesday during a holiday week not to listen or even truly engage with a candidate they might not know much about. No, they were there to give this scapegoat a piece of their very, very rich, land- and property-owning minds. There aren't enough gold-laced tissues in the world for these folks.
I am posting this here and including it in my July newsletter because I came away from the event with the feeling that this was somehow all planned. I have no way to prove it (I'm not a journalist, y'all), but with some reflection, it really seems as though a coordinated effort was made. Some well-funded group or another (we have no shortage of them here in SF/the Bay Area) could've easily reached out to its constituency to ask any of them who also happen to be Battery members to attend and attack. I suppose the goal would simply be to dissuade others from voting for the sole progressive in the mayor's race.
Conspiracy or not, the whole thing ended up being the opposite of what I'm looking for: True, honest, respectful engagement in local politics. I can only hope that things get a little more civil as we make our way to the ballots this November. San Francisco deserves better.
