Is everything Chris Daly's fault?
Is she a good witch, or a bad witch?
By Tim Redmond
To read the Chronicle these days (and some of the comments on sfgate.com) you'd think the District Six supervisor had the power to single-handedly destroy the entire city.
Today's entry: Daly Forces Lovely, Generous Arts Commissioner To Resign.
Actually, as reporter Heather Knight noted in her blog update, all 11 supervisors voted to change the disclosure rules for Arts Commission members. The mayor signed the bill. And there's actually a reason for this: The Arts Commission may sound like a ceremonial body that goes around shining statues, but these folks actually oversee a lot of money. San Francisco requires that all major developments and civic projects contribute two percent of the cost of construction to public art; that's a big pile of cash, and the commission monitors it.
So what's the big hairy deal here? Why can't Dede Wilsey fill out the forms like everyone else? Why is Jeannene Przyblyski, wife of political consultant Eric Jaye, so determined not to disclose information that's mostly public anyway?
Please: This isn't about Chris Daly.
And by the way: Dede Wilsey may have money and give some to the arts, and she wears fine gowns and looks like she ought to be in an old Disney movie, but she also promoted the underground parking lot in Golden Gate Park and the Fisher Museum at the Presidio and fought like hell to prevent Saturday street closures in the park. I suspect the Arts Commission will survive just fine without her.
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Comments (9)
She "promoted the underground parking lot in Golden Gate Park," a $50 million gift to the city? That bitch! She should have followed Warren Heilman's rehabilitation example: give money to the Bicycle Coalition and pose on the cover of the Guardian with the bike people.
Posted by Rob Anderson | August 1, 2009 08:52 AM
LOL, I'm commenting right after Rob Anderson, and for the same purpose. Seriously, though, what exactly was the case against the underground parking lot? It seems to work really well at handling a lot of human traffic to the museums, if you ask me. Was everyone supposed to take the N or the 5 instead?
Posted by hermann is my handle | August 1, 2009 12:38 PM
What's wrong with the garage? Its turned MLK and all of the roads leading to it from the Sunset into a parking lot, especially on weekends. And the promise of a "car-free pedestrian oasis" in the Music Concourse promised in Prop J which authorized the garage was broken. The N and the 5 would move a lot faster without all of that traffic. Also, the alternative proposal, a G line streetcar into the concourse could have ferried museum goers in with a stop at the UCSF parking garage which is empty on weekends.
Posted by jon | August 1, 2009 10:17 PM
When is the Guardian's tiresome "Defend Daly All the Time" campaign going to end? It's pathetic how many megabytes you're wasting in what seems like a never-ending effort to try and rehabilitate our erstwhile, Faifield-bound supervisor.
Piece of advice - one of the first things you learn in law school is when to concede a point. Refusing to do so and defending the indefensible often makes you look like an obstinate fool divorced of reality. Sorta like Chris Daly.
Posted by Lucretia Snapples | August 2, 2009 08:46 PM
I think the Chris Daly haters are San Francisco's version of the birthers.
Posted by SavvyMike | August 3, 2009 12:20 AM
That's strange savvymike, I pretty much know that Daly supporters are San Francisco's version of (pick one) Bush flunkies, creationists, Hofstadter's paranoids, Mormons, Nation of Islam Members, left behinder's, neo-cons, Any Randroid's, Manson family members... The list goes on and on of people who belong to strange mass movements or cults who have the revealed knowledge.
Posted by glen matlock | August 3, 2009 11:53 AM
Follks, this post is not about Chris Daly. That's the point -- Dede Wilsey's resignation is one thing you CAN'T blame on Chris Daly. The vote on that legislation was 11-0, and the mayor signed it. No controversy; everyone agreed it was a good idea.
The parking lot in GG Park has done exactly what jon says above -- it's created more traffic into the park. Parking lots are like freeways are like jails -- they fill up as fast as you build them and do nothing to solve the underlying problems.
Posted by Tim Redmond | August 3, 2009 12:10 PM
And, if you were wondering about the Guardian's integrity, simply compare the title of the link with the content of the article linked to, and wonder no longer. The Guardian simply has no integrity.
Posted by ben | August 3, 2009 04:23 PM
The underlying problem? That there apparently isn't enough parking in the park?
People vote in many ways, if they don't like to pay to ride the laugh riot of the culture bus, ride with the nut cases on the regular bus, ride their granola cycles to the park etc... they drive.
The hilariously "pro family" Guardian wants people and their kids to vision themselves to the park I guess.
Posted by glen matlock | August 4, 2009 09:31 PM