Letter to The Independent about the “Playing Hardball” articles claims about tenants requests to Mayor Brown. THC condemns Mayor Brown for never passing an OMI measure that was promised.
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TENDERLOIN HOUSING CLINIC
Main Office: 126 Hyde Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 771-9850
FAX (415) 771-1287
RANDALL M. SHAW
STEPHEN L. COLLIER
TIMOTHY J. LEE
RAQUEL Fox
April 22, 1998
Letters to the Editor
The Independent
1201 Evans Avenue
San Francisco, California 94124
Fax 826-5371
Dear Editor:
I do not know how to say this more subtly, so here goes: Calvin Welch either has a faulty memory or is lying when he claims that tenants asked nothing specific from Mayor Brown in exchange for agreeing to bond passthrough legislation (“Playing Hardball,” The Independent, April 21, 1998).
Calvin knows perfectly well that the Mayor promised to enact the then-pending owner move-in eviction protection legislation prior to the November election in exchange for the bond agreement. Brown’s agreement to pass this specific legislation was confirmed in The New Yorker “pantywaist politicians” article of October 21, 1996. On pages 213-14 of the article, which covered a September meeting with the Mayor, I am quoted telling Brown that he had broken his promise to pass the OMI measure prior to the November election. Brown did not dispute my account of the agreement. Instead, he claimed that he personally made the decision to break the agreement and would pass the OMI measure after the election. (A permanent, comprehensive measure has never passed.)
Welch’s claim that Ted Gullicksen and I made a “fundamental strategic error” in assuming Brown controlled the Board of Supervisors is even more laughable. Welch must be the only person in San Francisco who does not believe Brown controls this Board. Brown told The New Yorker that he “can produce six votes on that board any day of the week. For anything.”
San Francisco housing costs are the highest in the nation. That any affordable housing advocate would support increasing these costs for the benefit of millionaire landlords like Russ Flynn is a testament to the astonishing co-optive powers of our Mayor.
Very truly yours,
Randy Shaw
