Sam Spade's San Francisco

By now everybody knows the latest dirt about Mayor Gavin Newsom. He had an affair with the wife of his campaign manager. The woman is going through a substance abuse recovery program and in the process of making amends she told her husband about the affair, which, of course, blew the dome off City Hall.

For San Francisco this is all pretty tame stuff. Folks who are transplants from some other part of the country are now the majority in the City. Not many of us are old enough to remember past scandals and a lot of us have not really studied San Francisco history. These folks are the ones who are aghast and shocked. Long time San Franciscans are pretty ho-hum about the story.

To put things into perspective, consider these words written by the San Francisco Grand Jury in 1909: "The history of municipal wickedness in San Francisco dates back to the days of the discovery of gold and its population by gold seekers and adventurers from all parts of the world. The story of the Vigilance Committee of 1856, with its violent and extra legal efforts to suppress the demoralizing reign of crime then controlling the city, and is well known; and the struggle against corruption by public officials had been continuously active, in one form or another, from that time to this."

Our history is full of bribery, corruption, embezzlement and graft at City Hall. From time to time there were violent eruptions of crime amidst our mayors and board of supervisors. in 1908 the home of Supervisor James Gallagher was blown-up by a stick of dynamite.

Then there was Abe Ruef, a completely crooked San Francisco political boss who ran his underling, Eugene Schmitz for mayor. Schmitz won the election and was so criminal that he was eventually arrested and convicted.

There was Justin Herman who was director of the Redevelopment Agency. In 1963 Justin Herman announced an ambitious new redevelopment plan for the Western Addition called Phase A-2. The plan targeted some 60 square blocks and forced more than 13,000 Fillmore residents out of their homes. The following year the Civil Rights Act is passed and in 1965 the Watts Riots broke out in Los Angeles, but it was too late for the people who had been bulldozed out of the Fillmore.

1n 1966 racial tensions were so high in San Francisco that Mayor Shelley called in the National Guard to restore order.

In 1968 the Chicago Barber Shop, opened by Reggie Pettus' uncle in 1952 at Fillmore and Ellis, was forced to move out of their space by the Redevelopment Agency. The Agency created a "Certificate of Preference" and began to issue them to displaced businesses such as the barber shop. The Certificates, signed by Justin Herman, gave business owners the first chance to return to Western Addition after it is rebuilt. Unfortunately it took the Redevelopment Agency almost 20 years to rebuild the storefronts and as late as 1999, only 4% of the certificates had been used.

Then there was Mayor John Geary (pronounced: Geer-ee) after whom Geary Boulevard is named. He was a Union general during the Civil War, one-time Governor of the Kansas Territory, Governor of Pennsylvania and eventually, Mayor of San Francisco. During Geary's term the city went into massive debt and violent crime became an epidemic in the city. While a new city charter allowed the city to issue bonds to pay off the debt, the crime rate skyrocketed to such a point that the citizens began forming squads called Committees of Vigilance.

Committees of Vigilance were formed in 1851 and again in 1856. These militias lynched 12 people, kidnapped hundreds of citizens and government militia members and forced several elected officials to resign. Each Committee of Vigilance formally relinquished power after it decided the city had been "cleaned up," but the anti-immigrant aspects of its mob activity continued, later focusing on Chinese citizens of San Francisco. There were dozens of race riots in the period that produced the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which excluded Chinese from immigrating to the United States for an entire decade.

Fast-forward to 2007 and a news story that our current mayor had an affair with his campaign manager's wife. So what. Big deal.

Gavin Newsom is one of the best and most effective mayors this City has yet had. He's a good mayor and one good term definitely deserves another.

Anyway, folks, this is San Francisco. Relax.