YOU'D THINK THERE is no news in this town. Phil Matier and Andy Ross, the San Francisco Chronicle's political (and, apparently, personal gossip) columnists devoted 33 paragraphs of prime top-of-the-local-section real estate to the burning question of whether Mayor Gavin Newsom and Kimberly Guilfoyle are still together.

I'm not usually on the side of the politicians and the celebrities in these press-and-personal-lives issues, but I have to say, about Gavin and Kimberly:

I just don't care.

I'm done. Over it. No more. Stop. It's none of my business, none of your business, none of Matier and Ross's business. Let it go.

For the permanent record: I don't care who the mayor dates or sleeps with, as long as said person is over 21 (OK, I'm a little conservative here) and has no connections to condo developers. Give the guy a break.

• • •

OK, that's enough break.

Newsom really shouldn't be as popular as he is. The guy hasn't exactly solved all SF's problems (although he did legalize same-sex marriage, which was a great moment in all our lives, and fire Gerald Green, which was a great moment in mine). The city's still a horrible mess, broke and crumbling, hard on the fast track toward becoming a metropolis of just the rich and the poor.

And yet, as we report on page 13, Newsom has brilliant advisors, and has managed to create the image that he has no "ideological" agenda – as if ideology is somehow evil – and is intent on running the city as a good-government pragmatist. The story is selling well. And I hate it.

See, I have an ideology. I think too much money and power in too few hands poisons any democratic system. I think the proper functions of government include the strict regulation of markets and the redistribution of obscene wealth to level the playing field for all. I think cities are the hope of the world, and I'm willing to fight for mine.

Why, exactly, is that wrong? Why is it OK to say that as long as the system keeps rolling along, and the gears of private industry keep grinding, and everyone smiles at the camera, everything is just fine?

Ideology stopped slavery, and drove the civil rights movement, and ended the Vietnam War. Ideology is good, Mr. Mayor. Which side are you on?

Tim Redmond

tredmond@sfbg.com