In This Issue

THE WAY THE San Francisco Chronicle headline read on Sunday, it was almost as if the other candidate had been elected mayor. "Newsom keeps word," it said, "with policy shifts, bold appointments."

Well, OK, sure: Appointing a female fire chief was pretty damn bold, especially since there were practically no women at all in the San Francisco Fire Department two decades ago, and the ones who got in had to fight like hell to overcome outright hostility and discrimination in one of the city's oldest and toughest boys' clubs. Heather Fong may turn out to be a good choice for police chief, but I still think the San Francisco Police Department needed (and needs) someone from outside the city. Michela Alioto-Pier, the new District Two supervisor, seems like a reasonable person for the job (especially considering that it's one of the city's most conservative districts); at least she has some marginal qualifications, unlike a lot of the people Willie Brown liked to appoint to important posts.

I think what's really going on, though, is less bold thinking than basic political calculus. Newsom knows he can't possibly run the city for just the constituency that elected him. He won, after all, with only 53 percent of the vote. So he's trying to show signs that he's interested in reaching out to the more liberal parts of the city.

Good for him (although, of course, he had very little choice). But on the policy front, I haven't seen a whole lot of "bold" initiatives.

In fact, over all, I'm with Carole Migden, an astute observer of the local political scene who chairs the state Board of Equalization. "I'll put a note on my computer and in 90 days see where he is," Migden told the Chron.

Same goes for Kamala Harris, the new district attorney. She seems to be conducting herself in a professional manner; she isn't, for example, ruthlessly cleaning house and firing all the Hallinan loyalists (although she may eventually do that). And she, to her credit, has opened an investigation into the alleged voter fraud involving Brown allies at the Department of Public Works and the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners.

Very nice. Glad to hear it. Now let's see if she or the mayor can go beyond scrutinizing one incident of what everyone knows was widespread sleaze that tainted a string of city elections, including Newsom's. I can't wait.