San Francisco is a beautiful city with a comfortable climate, great restaurants, and unrivaled cultural opportunities. It can truly be said to be at the vanguard of many social and economic trends. Hey, if it was good enough for Milton Friedman, it's good enough for Free Will! SF is also, you may have heard, a nest of progressive politics with the most left-wing polity of just about any major city in the US. As the following stories make clear, this makes it devilishly hard to get anything done, even something as simple as registering kids for school or holding an international regatta
First, if you were not aware, local billionaire Larry Ellison won the most recent America's Cup Race, which means he has the right to determine the date and location of the next race. Cool! I thought. The America's Cup in the San Francisco! Apparently, there are those who don't share my enthusiasm, specifically the inevitable environmentalists who have drafted onerous laws that the City and Ellison need to work around, or lose the Cup Race. Oh, and they have six weeks to dispense walking around money, er, "work with environmental lobby and the state legislature"
San Francisco officials are moving quickly to acquire an exemption to state environmental law in time for a deadline to submit a proposal on hosting the next America's Cup, The Chronicle has learned.
"Without this legislative action, it is likely that San Francisco will not be selected and the regatta will be held overseas," said a recent memo from Mayor Gavin Newsom's office that was used to brief environmentalists on the proposal, which would cover shoreside facilities for yachts, gear and support services.
Some environmental groups, while appreciative that city officials sought their input, warn that an exemption would open the floodgates for wealthy interests to circumvent state-required environmental review.
"We're not going to sit by idly and let that happen," said Tina Andolina, legislative director for the Planning and Conservation League, an environmental lobbying group.
The City estimates that the Race will add 9,000 jobs and bring in a billion dollars to the local economy. But, wait! "Tina Andolina" objects and won't sit idly by and let such a thing happen! Good thing we have people like that on the case. But don't call environmentalism a job killer! That's H8!
Ellison and the City are bending over backwards to make this happen, so I'm sure there will be an appropriate compromi$e. Saving the planet really is a racket.
Second we have the annual spectacle of parents trying to get their elementary school age kids into a decent public school. You'd think that it would be a simple matter of taking the little tykes to the school down the street, but we don't do "simple" very well in SF: Parents Struggle For Choice In SF Schools Walt Szalva and his wife, Blaire Hansen, were on a nearly hopeless mission Wednesday morning. They stopped in at Chinese Immersion School at De Avila on Haight Street on the tiny chance that their 5-year-old daughter, Devon, might be able to get into kindergarten there.
After touring 20 schools, following up with principals, putting in more than 100 hours of research, and camping out at the Educational Placement Center for hours at a time, they were 0-7 on the schools they chose for Devon.
They had hoped that with the first week of school under way, a spot would open up at one of the schools on their list.
So they showed up at De Avila, without an appointment, on the hope that they could chat with Principal Rosina Tong, who might give them a hint of encouragement. She couldn't.
"I know parents come in here hoping," Tong said. "But I'm not sure I can give you hope. I can only say that a system is in place and it will work out."
Frankly, if Szalva hears "a system is in place," one more time, he may start speaking in tongues.
This is progressive governance at its absolute worst. All these people want is to put their kid in a safe, competent public school. But, instead they get the run-around such that their 5(!) year old doesn't have a place to go on the first day of school. Oh, sure, the district offered to let the girl go to a school with "some of the lowest test scores, worst academics and poorest parent participation in the district." Wow, how could they resist such a command from their betters! That wasn't a choice. That was an insult.
The reason for all of this is the inevitable "diversity." A kid like Devon can't get into the place she wants because somehow SF was insufficiently diverse in the past (when?!) so that today's kids are punished for the sins that may have happened 40 or 50 years ago. Boy, it sure would be nice if there was a system in place where parents could put their child in private school and receive some sort of compensation - maybe in the form of a voucher? - from a school district that seems absolutely incapable of doing the one thing it's supposed to do: educate their kids. But, we all know what good liberals - is there any other kind? - think of that.
There's a reason why SF famously has more dogs than children. The City simply could care less about kids. If the parents don't like what the school system offers, they are essentially told to get out of town. For the parents who can't afford such an option, their kids end up in mediocre, unsafe schools where the priority seems to be punishing the present for what was done in the past. How compassionate. Also, how hide-bound. City leaders are forever playing at "we are the vanguard" of the future and posing for Social Realist-style photos where they gaze purposefully into the distance. But brute reality is that they want to run everything from the top down, and to hell with anyone who wants to follow their own path. "Progressive" = Repressive.
No doubt, many disappointed parents are hip liberal types who actually believe all that talk about teachers being the noblest of professionals, that children are the future, and that diversity is the highest possible value. But, one by one they learn the truth and open their eyes. Unfortunately, there are always a dozen more coming behind them, happily wearing their blindfolds.
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