Critics find fault but slick mayor set to keep rivals at bay

Letter from San Francisco: "San Francisco is a strange, weird and wonderful place. People here vote differently than anywhere else for the strangest reasons."

San Francisco Chronicleletter writer Marty Hogan gets his tuppence worth in as the west coast city prepares to vote for a new mayor.

There has been a lot of media coverage given over to the incumbent, Gavin Newsom. Newsom is the poster boy for slick, young politicians.

He is in his early 40s, is well groomed, has improbably coiffed hair, is immensely media savvy, isn't afraid to ruffle feathers and isn't blatantly after the youth vote. He blocked an official thank-you for the charity work of hip-hop star Snoop Dogg, due to the rapper's much publicised dealings with the police.

Newsom's administration has moved to turn over a lengthy list of city services (from the apparently mundane, the operation of the public golf courses, to the rather more significant - housing for the mentally ill) to the private sector.

This is not a good idea, say those in the know: if history is a guide, the implication goes, then San Francisco would end up losing millions, the quality of services would drop, many hundreds of unionised employees would lose their jobs, and - most importantly, say Newsom's staunchest critics - the public would lose control over the institutions that were created and run for its benefit.

Newsom, then - like many politicians and public figures - is caught between a rock and a hard place. Some people will vote for him because his opponents in the electoral race (unkindly referred to certain quarters as "the 11 dwarfs") just aren't up to snuff.

Some people will vote against him because his stance on the city's homicide rate is wobbly.

Yet the feeling one gets from sampling cab-driver rants and more considered offerings from long-term residents is that most are politically disengaged.

One person offered the opinion that so few people have any social investment in San Francisco because they can't afford to settle here - so why bother wasting energy?

The 'ayes' will have it, however. Former mayor Willie Brown has been described as "especially corrupt" and a "do-nothing mayor", yet he was elected into office twice.

Newsom has made some serious errors; his "wi-fi for all" (wireless broadband communication for everyone in the city) promise fell flat on its face and looked distinctly shallow beside the rising figures of San Francisco's homeless (Newsom says there is a 38.9 per cent fall of homeless people on the street. Not so, states the Human Services Agency, whose figures recorded between 2005 and 2007 show an increase from 2,655 to 2,771).

Certainly, Newsom is something of a charismatic figure. At the city's imposing City Hall last week, during the celebrations of the new direct Aer Lingus route between Dublin and San Francisco - a celebration that had most of the high-profile ex-pats out in their finery, sipping on Guinness and Irish coffees while a harpist plucked merrily away in the background - Newsom took centre stage.

He looked good, came across as smart, solicitous, he beamed a high-five smile to all and sundry, his confidence as obvious and compelling as a firework in the night sky.

In fairness, Newsom was knocking on the door of Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion for quite some time, canvassing for San Francisco to be a direct route come the loosening of the Open Skies Agreement knots.

Such diligence and commitment has paid off - from next year there will be daily flights between Dublin and San Francisco (rather than the present four flights per week), which will be a sizeable boost to the city coffers (as well as to Ireland's - and, presumably, those of Aer Lingus).

Here is someone who, say his critics guardedly, might step up to higher office should the time and inclination arrive. He has, they say, quite a number of the right credentials, including an adverse reaction to criticism (which some commentators describe as "extreme").

He refuses to answer questions from some reporters because he doesn't like what they write about him and, according to newspaper columnist CW Nevius, Newsom "just can't resist telling a crowd every single thing he knows.

"Mayor Robo-stat, as he's been called, has an eye-glazing wealth of numbers and a burning desire to share them all."

By the time you read this, San Francisco will have - or be on the cusp of having - a new mayor. Interesting times ahead, then, for the wonderful, hilly and liberal city on the bay.