Brown's Super Battle Rages On

SAN FRANCISCO-San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown used his state of the city address to push for propositions and chastise the Board of Supervisors over a Planning Commission fiasco before introducing a new commission candidate.

Brown used his speech to rally support for Proposition B, which would raise $250 million for affordable housing. He mentioned a 10% drop in payroll taxes, a 29% drop in revenues from the hotel tax and a 6.7% unemployment figure as reasons to invest in housing, which is the one area to remain strong since the dot-com days.

“The old politics of 2000 are not relevant to today,” he said. “Those numbers were unheard of.”

During his speech, Brown also criticized the entire Board of Supervisors for playing dirty politics over his nominees to the Planning Commission.

The board has approved three members to the commission that were selected by Board President Tom Ammiano but voted down several of Brown’s selections. In retaliation, Brown has withdrawn all of his selections on several occasions as an all-or-nothing strategy. The result is a commission that has been unable to act.

Brown told the supervisors that the commission is responsible for some major decisions and they are holding up the city’s progress by playing politics. He said the board should have faith in his nominees and let the commission get on with its business.

At that point Brown announced that he had sworn in three of the four appointees recently approved by the supervisors and proposed City Administrator Bill Lee as his seventh choice. Brown said Lee, who was also in the room, did not know of his decision until that moment but added that Lee should be a fine choice for the seventh and final position.

Following these critical words, Brown said he is not confident that a new stadium for the 49ers will be secured before his tenure as mayor is up but he plans to do what he can. In closing, he assured his audience to have faith and do what is right to pull the city out of its slump.