Pro-car crowd draws first blood; breaks deal with Peskin
Photo of Don Fisher by Luke Thomas, www.fogcityjournal.com, used with permission
Gap founder Don Fisher and other proponents of Prop. H, which seeks to invalidate city parking and land use policies developed over the last few decades, have sent out a misleading mailer attacking Prop. A, the Muni reform measure that would negate approval of Prop. H, among other things. The attack, which arrived in mailboxes on the same day many voters also received their absentee ballots, breaks a deal they had cut with Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin to not campaign on the issue in exchange for Peskin's promise to support a less-heinous parking measure on the February ballot. "I always negotiate in good faith, and if that is true, this is very disturbing," Peskin told the Guardian when informed of the mailer. "If A loses and H wins, it's the worst day of my political life. That would set planning in this city back 30 years."
The mailer features a big blank check with the words, "Pay to the order of the Board of Supervisors," arguing that Prop. A's empowerment of the Municipal Transportation Agency to issue bonds and set fares and fines somehow amounts to a giveaway to the Board of Supervisors. While the tactic is likely motivated by the belief that the board is unpopular with many car-driving voters, it misrepresents who actually appoints members to the "unelected" MTA board: Mayor Gavin Newsom.
But such deceptions are hardly surprising for a group that qualified Prop. H by having signature gatherers (paid primarily by Fisher and condo developer WebCor) get people to sign their "Parking for the Neighborhoods Initiative," even though its biggest impact and clear focus was on allowing developers of downtown condo towers to include more parking with their projects, making them more expensive. The latest mailer also includes this legally required line at the bottom: "Paid for by Parking for Neighborhoods, Yes on H, No on A. Major funding from Don Fisher, who supports voter accountability for Muni."
Fisher is a conservative Republican who has been associated with just about every nasty attack and pro Big Business initiative that has come out of downtown over the last two decades, including the work of SFSOS, whose scorched earth tactics have since been repudiated by two of its founders, Dianne Feinstein and Warren Hellman. But this latest salvo by Fisher could just be his most underfunded and far-reaching. More to come.
P.S. When will Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has done Fisher's bidding in the past but claims to support Prop. A, use some of his long-dormant political capital to help get A passed?
P.P.S. An online discussion group included this biting line about the Gap founder:
Is there a lesson here?
Never trust (or strike a deal with) someone who became
a billionaire off the labor of 14 year-old girls
working in sweatshops in Asia.
Who knew?
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Comments (4)
I saw Wade Crowfoot on Saturday and Mike Farrah last night. Both of them reiterated Gavin Newsom's support for Prop A and opposition to H. Mike tried to explain to us that Gavin is willing to defy his financial base -- and reminded us of the Winter of Love and his willingness to support the striking hotel workers.
I think now is another time that Newsom needs to go out on a limb and take a stand. He needs to come out and actively campaign for A and against H -- and we should campaign for him to do that.
Posted by Sue | October 12, 2007 01:15 PM
is anyone really surprised at this?
it was naive to think they would not go back on the deal, and the pro A campaign needs to treat this as a serious threat. and if the Mayor doesn't spend some of his time defeating H and supporting A then he needs to just admit he is all hat and no cattle when it comes to transit and put away the green label he wears on the magazine covers.
Posted by n judah | October 12, 2007 04:31 PM
Prop A guarentees the unions that they will get the highest pay in the nation without setting any performance benchmarks. What do YOU think is going to happen?
Posted by Helen W | October 16, 2007 04:44 PM
Helen
It is always good to read the legislation before you pontificate. This is simply untrue. As untrue as Fishers argument that the Board of Sups has control over the MTA. We call that doublespeak, otherwise commonly known as a lie.
Posted by Robert Haaland | October 16, 2007 06:16 PM