Endorsement interviews: John Avalos

09.19.11 - 4:13 pm | Tim Redmond |

(17)

Sup. John Avalos is running a grassroots progressive campaign for mayor. He is, he says, the only candidate talking about working-class people, and he wans to "create an administration that puts neighborhoods and people first." He wants to create a municipal bank to use money the city now dumps into Wells Fargo and Bank of America for loans to small businesses and economic development. He told us that by the end of his eight years in office, he'd like to see the city bringing in $500 million a year in new revenue -- for education, child care, Muni, parks, public health and other services. Check out the interview (audio and video) after the jump.

Avalos by endorsements2011

Comments

He complains about newcomers

coming here and screwing things up... working in tech jobs etc...

The odd thing is that the poverty industrial complex people I meet at Mission bars are all from outside of the city.

Posted by meatlock on Sep. 19, 2011 @ 8:26 pm

Just saying...

You're right Meatlock.

That is what makes this city wonderful is that they have a wide variety of people from all over, and some how we make it work, including the Mission district. I like to hear another solution to welcome the people if they choose to be part of the growing SF. That they, just like anyone else, anywhere else in America, can come and go no matter what industry…

The fact is, together, what other solutions in community and job growth in SF are out there? At this tactic I believe it will be only supporting most the wealth, and with that technology is not a neutral business... This city is a city because they had all types of people and no one is really the "original" SF. We are a multicultural based city, and would like to hear other options. I hear him talk about race being an issue. Most of us have seen or experienced this at all ends of the spectrum , yet really we are finally coming to a point where, guess what?! Race is not an issue anymore! The times are changing from every angle, and we are coming to a point where it's just as Martin Luther King Jr. has always talked about.... "Where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character".... My point is no matter what race, Black, White, Mexican, Asian, or whatever there should be solutions, jobs, resources, and community for all people, and the wealth can enjoy that or not, or give back to the people. However, not just one race should be looked into more than the other. We are all on the same "bs" together; let's get out of it together! Trying to discriminate of any source, even keeping the “newcomers” simply out of the city, in which could they possibly could bring ideas and solutions, isn’t necessarily the best option at hand.

Posted by Guest on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 10:35 am

It seems what you are saying is

That trying to keep people out just because they don't fit the idealized mold is bad?

I've heard that someplace before.

There is no saving light industry or maritime or whatever else that can be dreamed up from the good old days, which were always better, at this point it isn't going to happen.

but...

As baby boomers grow old they are going to need health care, that might be something to work on in the city. But lots of those jobs are low paying, so the progressives of course will bemoan the state of things around that. Everyone should have a job with the city it seems. But we also have a lot of low skilled people to possibly fill those jobs that will be living off the state otherwise, so we need to raise taxes we are told.

It's the endless spiral of progressive progressive "ideas."

Posted by matlock on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 3:22 pm

Redelopement

Personally I like his views
There really does need to be some redevelopment of things already here, before bringing more in... I guess I could understand that aspect.

Posted by Just saying on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 1:58 pm

Redelopement

Personally I like his views
There really does need to be some redevelopment of things already here, before bringing more in... I guess I could understand that aspect.

Posted by Just saying on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 2:01 pm

Meat, the great thing about having no chance of winning is

that you can say whatever you truly feel without worrying about it losing you an election.

Obviously anyone serious about being elected wouldn't say he wants to raise half a billion in taxes from the voters.

Posted by PaulT on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 8:22 am

actually I think it's being out of touch

In the narrow world view of progressives this rhetoric is high logic and common sense. So it never strikes them ironic that we are a vortex of middle class Mission dwellers from all over the USA who have come here to save us, like Avalos himself. We can't find locally grown people to hold these jobs that people like Avalos hold?

Do we have to get tech and social workers from elsewhere? We need a commission and exploratory panel to explore why we don't have enough right here. Maybe a local hire law for non profits.

Posted by matlock on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 8:56 am

I've heard some argue that instead of changing the

people here to fit the jobs that are available, they want to change the jobs here to fit whatever ragbag of people just happen to live here at any given point in time.

Social engineering writ large. Didnt work in the communist bloc, and it certainly won't work here.

Avalos is an irrelevancy, albeit a cute, cuddly irrelevancy.

Posted by PaulT on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 9:39 am

Yes, that is a puzzling system of belief

Did you read the Bay Guardians "new" plan for the city worked out in its public meeting by fellow travelers in the SEIU and past organizational members of CPUSA? It complains that all these deserted areas of light industry are being gobbled up by different industries, yuppie Chris Daly housing and being rezoned. After ten years of claiming the success of progressives on the board it's Newsom's fault that jobs beat it out of the city.

So to make up for the incorrect job opportunities for city residents we need to raise taxes and fees, then wish real hard that light industry and maritime jobs come back to the city.

A political philosophy based on good intentions and wishful thinking.

Posted by matlock on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 10:59 am

Why the he*l does Avalos support Prop C??

He is a faux progressive - happy to take the path of least resistance/go along to get along...

Prop C asks the same contributions of 100k workers as 50k workers and he supports this- what in gawd's name is progressive about this? AND Prop C flips the HSB to strip health care from employees and retirees ----and he supports this (Adachi doesn't even do this)?

Did you bother to ask him about this??

Posted by Guest on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 11:34 am

Commies?

What Avalos is talking about -- and what the Bay Guardian is talking about -- can hardly be considered radical left thinking. More like what the mainstream of the Democratic Party used to talk about. During the period of greatest economic growth and prosperity in this country, there was a stable middle class, created in part by strong labor unions, high taxes on the very rich and well-funded public eductation.

The idea that communities matter, that we ought to build a city based on what best serves its residents, not what best serves the needs of investors, is a good American value.

Posted by tim on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 12:58 pm

From the "new"

From the "new" agenda...

"...and the Center for Political Education."

http://www.politicaleducation.org/about/

Political History of 522 Valencia

522 Valencia became a movement resource in the early 1970s, commonly associated with the Communist Party USA. The CPUSA published the national newspaper People’s World out of 522 Valencia. In 1994, a broad spectrum of left activists, most of whom were no longer in the CPUSA, took on the responsibility of the building and the associated assets. They formed the Kendra Alexander Foundation, in honor of Kendra Alexander, long-time organizer and agitator who passed away in May, 1993, to oversee this invaluable movement resource.

=====

Like I said "...and past organizational members of CPUSA?"

None of your agenda addresses fixing any of that other than the ever high taxes.

The mono culture of the "progressive" left is actually digging the hole deeper by not living in 2011.

It's shitty that democrats cheer on things like NAFTA, but that is the world we live in. Trying to deny the real world in your little corner of reality isn't working. You cheer the last ten years of progressobot rule and then bitch about Newsom when it works for you.

I fully agree that the cost of higher education is out of control, but the state's democrats have other priorities. Thats why I have given up on them as their priorities are serving a different base. Yes I know Arnold Schwarzenegger republicans blah blah blah. Still democrats who are the majority are too busy slobbering over SEIU campaign dollars.

Posted by matlock on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 1:59 pm

Uh: I had no idea Avalos was

Uh: I had no idea Avalos was a Native Golden son of San Francisco. You see, it would incredibly embarrassing for him to be complaining about newcomers ruining SF, if he was not born here.

"Avalos was born in Wilmington, California. His mother, an office manager, and his dad, a member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, raised seven children.[2] His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother cared for them on her own. Avalos moved to Andover, Massachusetts as a teenager and graduated from Andover High School in 1982.[3]
After graduation, he moved back to his home state of California"

Yup, thats what I thought.

Posted by Guest on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 12:59 pm

Just saying

Personally I like him.
There are things already here that need to be redeveloped.

Posted by Guest on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 1:53 pm

Randy Shaw does a neat demolition job on Avalos today

in Beyond Chron. He speculates why Avalos isn't even polling in the top five, and why he has failed to galvanize even the very "progressives" who might normally be expected to rally around him.

Shaw blames Avalos's failure on focusing on "boutique issues" - cute but ultimately unimportant issues. And on course his lack of focus on the number one issue for voters - jobs - further condemns his campaign.

For all practical purposes, I agree with Steven Jones's assessment of last week - the only question is whether one of Yee, Adachi and Herrera can gain critical mass and catch up with Lee's strong lead. Right now, nobody seems to think that can happen.

Posted by PaulT on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 4:12 pm

out of touch true believer

Just popped over and gave it a read.

Putting the garbage contract out to bid is a good idea.

Getting rid of care not cash, thats something that progressive like to lecture on while getting all righteous, and then the bug eating peasant voters don't care.

The Sharps Park thing is also a laugher. The people who use the park, that being many Bay Area and city old timers who paid the taxes their entire lives in the city, so that progressives like Avalos and Mirkirimi can come along and say "fuck you" too them with the true believer agenda.

Posted by matlock on Sep. 20, 2011 @ 4:43 pm

In the Examiner Avalos

Says that all those bikes locked up around town create an "access" issue so we need a new law.

Never mind the comical unintended consequences issue and catchall buzz word usage.

I have this picture of John Avalos walking throigh city hall while talking to someone and then falling down some stairs in mid sentence. Or him cutting onions and having a real hard time of it, then Ron Popeel walks in and says "but wait there's more" and showing Mr Avalos his new slicer and dicer that will take the chore out accessing onions.

John Avalos is taking on the hard issues of there not being enough micromanagement in people's lives, while complaining about other levels of government at every turn.

Posted by Guest on Sep. 21, 2011 @ 9:25 am