Taking Back The Streets

I thought to publish a post by Sentinel Editor, Pat Murphey. It’s a bit dated, but still very relevant. Though $500,000 was appropriated to the community courts, there is still no approved plan in place. I know Gavin’s got four more years, but (as Pat would write) “Cum On (!)” the waiting game is killing us:

March 2, 2007

Look for color to return to Gavin Newsom’s face… Finally, his supporters (most San Franciscans) can feel passion again for his re-election as San Francisco mayor… Long time supporters still had their shoulders to the wheel… But the passion was evaporating…

There’s no one else, a spotty yet echoing resignation…It’s the streets, stupid… Paraphrasing Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign synthesis of voter primary concern… Streets are vile and root cause fatigue weights the caring… Even cum-by-yah District Attorney Kamala Harris made noises this week about now(!) sending prosecutors to real courts for quality of life prosecutions…

Comes now The Gav’s insistence on replacing existing no-judge, no-prosecutor community courts with real judges presiding over neighborhood courts. Modeled after New York where impressive number of defendants actually show up for rehabilitation or community services ordered…

That engenders passion…

Today Newsom’s homeless czarina Angela Alioto and The Gav convene a City Hall media roundtable on the passion issue which handed Newsom the mayoralty first time around… The idea of ‘care not cash,’ then despised by entitlement grant of immuners… It worked… It worked politically and it worked in housing the homeless… So well it became world model…

Huge strokes for them… Go away to the naysayers…

Complete Article: An issue returning passion to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom re-election