Brown Makes His Move

[C. Petersen]

I know a guy who works on housing in SF, and in his opinionm Jerry Brown
is the anti-christ. he believes in new urbanism, where the city strives to
'repopulate' the city center after years of downward economic spiral,
but... isn't the city center already populated? The idea is to just move a
different set of people in, and ignore the people who used to live in the
building replaced by an upscale condo - perhaps pay them relocation costs
to another city (that's what Seattle does). But on the other hand, just by
virtue of his progressive stands on many social issues, I think Brown
is better than both candidates in most races around the rest of the
country. You would never find a Jerry Brown running in Spokane or Houston
or Huntsville. 

     I guess it's like, I (and many others) know very well that the
republicans = bad cop, and democrats = good cop, in a psychological ploy
where they support almost identical ends. But I still keep voting for
democrats because there's no one else running, and perhaps some very small
percentage of the time the democrat will have some integrity. 

On Sat, 13 Jun 1998, Nathan Newman wrote:


> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hank Sims <sims at mail.cwia.com>
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
> 
> >     Those of us who see Brown as a bush-league demagogue will be
> >gratified to hear that he's now pushing a petition around Oakland
> >that will give him veto power over city council actions and
> >direct control over the city manger's office.  Apparently, Brown's
> >big electoral mandate has emboldened him into making this big power
> >grab.
> 
> 
> As an Oakland resident, I don't particularly like Jerry Brown and
> supported the candidate backed by most local labor leaders (who received
> all of 5% of the vote).  Considering that I thought Brown couldn't win
> originally, the excitement around Brown does show, however, how thirsty
> the city is for someone to bring some positive attention to Oakland.
> 
> It is a bizarre compliment for Brown to go from being Governor to choosing
> Oakland as his political destination.  He says he sees great potential in
> Oakland (which I agree with him on) and coming from an "outsider" makes
> the compliment that much stronger.  In a weird way, Brown's carpet-bagging
> is a positive for a lot of people for this reason.
> 
> As for Brown's "power grab", he is asking for mayoral power much like most
> other larger cities in the country.  And one of the reasons Brown won was
> that the clubby atmosphere of the Oakland City Council and County
> supervisors led to the disasterous deal with the Oakland Raiders that has
> cost the city and county tens of millions of dollars (the reason both
> traditional politicians in the race got creamed in the election).  A
> strong mayor would create greater accountability, which is what a lot of
> folks are looking for.
> 
> I don't necessarily have great hope in Brown but I am impressed by the
> energy unleashed by his campaign and it is that energy that could do some
> good.  Brown has some good folks around his campaign and if even a few of
> them get jobs in the top of city government, those folks will make a big
> difference in the city.
> 
> Oakland has great talent in its community and is a rather nice city that
> could be so much better.  That is the frustration of many residents and
> Brown tapped into that.   I wish him the best, despite his shallowness and
> demagoguery.  Hopefully his administration will be far more than the sum
> of Brown himself.
> 
> --Nathan Newman
> 
> 
>