Saturday, February 28, 2004
Breakfast: shrimp omelet with avocado, mushrooms, cheddar (but feta for Patrick), side of hash browns. Town Hall meeting with Gavin Newsom, Bevan Dufty, Mark Leno, Carole Midgen, and the city's department heads at James Lick Middle School in Noe Valley. Brian Kusler later described it using the exact same word I was thinking when I was there: lovefest. To my knowledge, this was one of the first opportunities for people to publically thank Gavin Newsom for his decision on February 12 to legally recognize same-sex marriages in San Francisco. Somewhere between 750 and 1000 people showed up with smiles and applause and signs saying "Thank You Mayor Newsom" and when he entered the building he received a 5-minute standing ovation. Newsom accepted our thanks humbly and graciously. During the question and answer session, he reaffirmed his commitment to making changes from the way Willie Brown ran the city to making certain that the department heads work together with the people of the city instead of pointing fingers at each other. Over the course of the next 2 hours, they announced interesting developments such as a single citywide telephone number—311—for all city services and zero-emissions standards for all Muni transit vehicles by the year 2020—a first in the nation for such a plan. Since Newsom has been in office only 2 months, it remains to be seen whether the vitality he brings will turn out the results he's promising, but I am hopeful after hearing him speak. Standing ovations were also given to his newly appointed acting chief of police, Heather Fong, and the newly appointed fire chief, Joanne Hayes-White. Lunch at Fuzio in the Castro. Patrick went to Muddy Waters to study the speech he needs to give on Monday while I went with Brian and Kelly to the San Francisco Herb Company which sells a large variety of herbs at wholesale prices. Brian was picking up a bunch of essential oils for his soapmaking. Fun! After that, we went to the grand opening of the Apple Store downtown in the old building space occupied by Sephora. The place was packed, and Brian chatted with Travis and ?—some Apple employees he knew. Brian had shown up right when the doors opened, and said that Gavin Newsom and Willie Brown had to wait around because Steve Jobs was late. Brian left for the town meeting because the line out the door stretched around the block. Brian and Kelly's pal Deep showed up too. Went to Travis W's birthday party at his place in Campbell. Met a whole lot of nice people—Travis has a great collection of friends. Talked mostly with Dale, Paul, and (I forgot his name—the Asian guy who decided he was a metrosexual).