WHAT A BLEAK end to a bleak year. A natural disaster of almost unimaginable scope half a world away followed political disasters of barely imaginable scope at home. I went to bed early New Year's Eve; I couldn't wait for the year to be over.

Somehow, because I'm a foolish optimist (and, not entirely coincidentally, because I live in San Francisco), I assume 2005 will be better. I'm honestly not sure how much hope I hold out for the United States of America – but there's always hope for cities.

We're going to be laying out a detailed political agenda for the new year over the next few weeks, and there are all sorts of nice policy ideas to be discussed. But after the defeat of two tax measures and a housing bond in November, I think the supervisors and the activist community need to think about more than just policy in 2005. We need to think about restoring people's faith in City Hall.

Even liberal voters aren't going to give the city government more money if they don't think the folks in charge can be trusted with it. From here forward, the progressive mantra ought to be: Zero tolerance for sleaze.

Zero tolerance for deals like the one that sent Tony Hall to Treasure Island. Zero tolerance for the school board refusing to abide by the Sunshine Ordinance. Zero tolerance for any sort of favors or deals for developers. Zero tolerance for nonprofits that get city money and won't open their books.

At least that might give us a fighting chance to save the public sector.

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Speaking of sleaze, I was fascinated to see the San Francisco Chronicle story on Burning Man Jan. 2, which was awfully similar to the story we ran Dec. 8. In this great new era of improved journalistic ethics, the New York Times has finally started making a point of noting in its stories when some competing publication gets the scoop first. That seems pretty basic; why can't the Chron manage to do that?

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On a final note: we present our annual Off-Guard Awards this week, but they'll never quite be the same. Linda Ehrlich, who cowrote the Offies with me for the past 15 years, died March 13, at 48. She was the creative spirit behind the whole enterprise, and she's sorely missed. I did the best I could without her.

Tim Redmond