Over the weekend I heard someone make the assertion that there is no more liberal city in the world than San Francisco. While I cannot yet verify this claim (after all, there are many cities in the world), I am starting to unearth some amazing data.
Item #1: Departing San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez was known for his radical politics and the art installations he would host in his office by local, often unknown, artists. As a member of the Green Party, Gonzalez has not been a afraid to speak out against a goverment rife with corruption and greed.
Last week, Gonzalez demonstrated just how far apart the Bay Area stands from the rest of the good old U.S. of A. The final installation at his office by local graffiti artist Barry McGee featured the activist catch phrase “smash the state” scrawled across the walls of Gonzalez’s office:
I can’t imagine what kind of rancor this would have elicited in other parts of the country. Yet the only news coverage I saw here was a brief article on www.sfgate.com that was more concerned with the acceptance of Graffiti as art than “smash the state” being an inappropriate message for a Board Supervisor to support. Goodness bless San Francisco and the last remnants of a truly liberal media!
Word on the street is that Gonzalez, after a very close but unsuccessful run for the SF mayorship, will be packing his bags and heading back to his native Texas. I, for one, will miss his refreshing politics in the city by the bay. Presumably he has plans to fight the good fight back home. And, on second thought, maybe Texas needs Matt Gonzalez more than San Francisco.
Filed under: San Francisco
