Mayor Ed Lee Legacy Golf Tournament

 Jason of State Apparel on the 18th Tee

Last year I participated in the SF Mayor's Cup Charity Golf Tournament. It was favorite event of Mayor Ed Lee and supported a variety of great charities and causes.

We lost Mayor Ed Lee but, out of respect for his memory and all the good that he did, the tradition continues with the Mayor Ed Lee Legacy Golf Tournament:

"The Mayor Ed Lee Legacy Golf Tournament is a golf and fundraising event to benefit the Asian Law Caucus, the San Francisco Mayor's Women's Golf Council and other nonprofit organizations and causes that were important to the late Mayor Ed Lee. Ed had chosen October 13th at Harding Park as the date and site of what would have been the 2018 SF Mayor’s Cup. While we are still saddened by his passing, it seemed fitting that we hold a tournament in his memory as a chance to gather together and celebrate his legacy of supporting nonprofits that he had demonstrated through the SF Mayor’s Cup charity golf tournaments." 

I was privileged to again participate and represent the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance as a sponsor. I was, of course, showing our colors:

It's a scramble format, our foursome had a clean card with no bogeys and 7 birdies.

 Not enough to medal, but playing with Jason, Rich and Fred was great fun and enough for me to get a sense of what it's like to not be a bad golfer. Highly motivational.

No minimum drive requirement, so our ringers Fred and Jason provided the power

Rich's precision approach shots got us out of jail

Lisa, my playing partner last year, was in the group in front of us with the Sharp Park Women's Golf Club.

Lisa on 17th Tee

Without my dead weight on her team, she coasted to an easy victory.

Women's team winners.

Men's winners. I don't know these guys.

Great event and great fun - Mayor Lee would've loved it. I hope they keep it going. 

San Francisco Mayor's Cup Charity Golf Tournament

   Representing the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance at the Mayor's Tourney 

 I was pleased to participate the San Francisco Mayor's Cup Charity Golf Tournament at TPC Harding Park.

Mayor Ed Lee welcomes sponsors at breakfast

This annual event, created and promoted by Mayor Ed Lee, supports a variety of great charities and causes including The First Tee of San Francisco, The Asian Law Caucus, and San Francisco Mayor's Women's Golf Council.

Lisa Villasenor and I represented the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance as a sponsor of the event.

 

The tournament is 4 person team scramble. Lisa and I were teamed with Mike and Jay of CourseCo and Boundary Oaks.

It was a fun day, helped by shots of Patron provided by an unnamed female member of our foursome. As far as the golf is concerned, our group made judicious use of paid mulligans and "magic putts" to post a a respectable 62. I think we finished 3rd in the "Co-Ed" flight.  Some pics from a fun day:

Lisa  stripes one off the tee

Found a fellow Cubs fan. We shared a celebratory shot for the World Champs

Jay's approach shot while Lisa looks on

I believe Mike's approach was inside Jay's

Mayor Lee presents the trophies:

The winning Co-Ed team. I'm not saying they had a ringer, but that's

  Kay Cockerill of the Golf Channel and LPGA tour.  Just sayin'

Winning teams shot 54. 

A beautiful day ending with a spectacular sunset over a great course

Live blogging the 5th Annual Alister Mackenzie benefit tournament to save Sharp Park

Playing with Roy, Brad, Stuart ...

... the mayor ...

... and a few hundred of my closest friends.

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Time To Vote - Election Day in San Francisco

I think I've already made my position clear on the most important elective office in today's ballot in The City. As it turns out, there are some other elective posts and propositions on the ballot.  Here are the Chron Endorsements:

And the Alice B Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Endorsements:

And the SF Moderates Endorsements:

The interesting bit about these diverse endorsements is that all of the preferred candidates for all of the elected offices by those three organizations are exactly the same. Who am I to disagree?

MW Brigade Election Selections:

Done deal. Still prefer voting in person on the "day of" the election rather than casting an absentee vote by mail.

While completing my ballot, I listened to poll workers patiently explain for the umpteenth time that if you vote for the same candidate on the three Ranked Choice Voting options, your ballot will be invalidated. The simple fact is that Ranked Choice Voting is confusing for voters, subject to "gaming", and will never be as accurate a reflection of voter intent as is a simple "top two" runoff.  I am reminded again of the final word on San Francisco's election process as perfectly articulated in the November, 2011 edition of Walter Hinkle's Argonaut:

"Let us express our complete and unqualified contempt for the city’s system of ranked choice voting and taxpayer financing of campaigns."

Exactly. Nothing to do now but wait for the results and hope for the best. Stay tuned. We'll update this post as the results come in...

UPDATE: 11:00 PM

The results are in. Among the elected offices, six of my seven choices prevailed. The big one was, of course Vicki Hennessy with 60% plurality over Ross Mirkarimi's 30% vote. Our long civic nightmare is over at last. My loser was also a big one. I live in District 3, and Aaron Peskin defeated Julie Christensen by a decisive 53% to 43% margin. It's all about Chinatown in this district, and Rose Pak proved to be a bigger power broker than Lee.  I can only hope that Peskin has mellowed since his last stint on the Board of Supervisors and is not the same flaming asshole he was then.  TBD.  Rank Choice Voting was not a factor in this election, and that is a good thing.

As far as the props are concerned, it was a mixed bag, which I expected. Five of the eleven props went against my voting preference. However the ones I cared the most about - No on D, No on F, No on I, all went down to defeat.  All in all, a good election, except for Rose Pak's new pocket supervisor.

UPDATE II: 04-November-2015

Chron columnist C.W. Nevius has his finger on the pulse of the City. His take of the election gets it mostly right on Lee, Mirkarimi, and the Props,  I just hope he got it right on Peskin:

"Much will be made of Aaron Peskin’s win in District Three, but I fail to see it as the end of the civilized world. Peskin is no Chris Daly — the polarizing F-bomb thrower. Peskin is smart and knows how to figure the angles. You can deal with him — just be sure to count your fingers after you shake hands. 

And one more thing. Peskin campaigned his butt off. Every day there was another story of a Peskin sighting, on a corner in North Beach chatting up voters or attending a neighborhood meeting. I even heard he’d contacted a Republican group about speaking to them. 

The point is, this is no hobby. Peskin is all in for city government. Good. Now let’s see forward-thinking legislation and not just attempts to stymie the mayor. A good sign is he spoke with Lee on Wednesday."

TBD. I do find it interesting how the EssEff Progs were so incensed when "power broker" Rose Pak backed Ed Lee for Mayor, but were much more sanguine about her influence in Chinatown when she supported Aaron Peskin in D3.

Rose Pak backing Ed Lee

Do not mess with Rose

Rose Pak backing Aaron Peskin

x-posted on my other blog

Ed Lee for Glorious Leader of the People's Republic of San Francisco

According to the SF tin foil hat set, puppeteer Willie still runs the City. 
I'm good with that. 

 We'll have a mayoral election in EssEff this year, but it's not clear that we'll have a race. Our incumbent mayor Ed Lee has yet to attract any significant opposition. Quite a change from four years ago when we had a cavalry charge of 16 candidates running for Mayor. The mayor won handily, but with the uncertainties of ranked choice voting, it was not at all clear how the confused electorate would be counted. They had to go eleven layers deep to settle that vote.  I'll just quote the Argonaut again - "... let us express our complete and unqualified contempt for the city’s system of ranked choice voting and taxpayer financing of campaigns."

The mayor is not taking any chances this time. His strategy is to run hard, run early, and amass a campaign war chest that will provide a significant - to borrow tech terminology - "barrier to entry" for any competitors.  It appears to be working.  The 2015 Great Progressive Hope was Mark Leno.  He was definitely going to run. Then he definitely was not.

I was invited to attend an Ed Lee fund raiser at the Far East Cafe on Grant to help build that barrier before the January cutoff.  I can't say my politics align perfectly with Lee's and I can find much to complain about how his administration is running the City. But this is San Francisco. The choice is between Liberal Democrats,  Radical Progressives, or  Anarcho-Maoists. Ed Lee is the voice of what passes for practical politics and common sense in The City. I went to the event.

It was a sit down dinner. Cash bar. The food was unremarkable. Lee's stump speech was not bad. Good enough. I'll vote for him.

For this particular City voter, there is one wedge issue that separates the reasonable pols from the batshit crazy fringe in the Peoples Republic of San Francisco -  Sharp Park. Mayor Ed Lee has proven to be there when we need him to defend our civic jewel. If my small contribution helps build a barrier that keeps the pitchfork and torches at bay, I'm happy to help.

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

UPDATE: 02-02-2015
 Looks like the plan is working, at least according Matier and Ross:

Ed Lee’s finances booming for November re-election drive
"Having no opponent this fall hasn’t put a damper on San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s fundraising, with reports being filed Monday expected to show he has amassed $625,000 for his November re-election drive.“That’s a pretty good run over the holidays,” said campaign spokesman P.J. Johnston. Lee has been holding almost daily meet and greets, often at $500 a head. The biggest was in Chinatown, where activist Rose Pak delivered $220,000 in donors’ checks... With the first-round money in the bank, the campaign will ramp up in earnest starting this month. The campaign will be run mainly by SCN Strategies, whose clients also include Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris... There may not be anyone for Lee to run against just yet, but “we’re taking this very seriously and preparing for a fight,” Johnston said."

Willie Brown:

"Darius Anderson and the crew at Platinum Advisors turned out about 100 of their clients for a $500-a-head breakfast fundraiser for Mayor Ed Lee’s re-election at Original Joe’s the other morning.  That’s the way to do it. Everybody was in at 8 and out by 9. And trust me, the profit margin on eggs is a lot higher than with wine. Why is Lee bothering to raise money, when he probably won’t have any real opposition? For starters, he’s signed up a slew of consultants and campaign managers who need to be paid.  Plus, he’s sending the message to anyone who might still be considering a run that if they do take him on, he’s armed and ready to fight."

I guess all I can say is that "Ed Lee- He's for me!" 

Excuse me. I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

1906 San Francisco Quake Survivors

 

More pictures from the early morning 1906 Earthquake commemorative event at Lotta's Fountain. The landmark became a meeting place for separated family and friends in the aftermath of the great quake.  I was quite pleased with myself getting down to Kearney and Market by 5:00 AM, despite a late evening the night before.

Lotta's Fountain - Then and Now

Carl Nolte says every San Franciscan has to do this once. I can  now check it off my list.

 Neither of ex-mayors made it to the early morning event, but the current mayor did.

There were quite a few more people than I expected, The highlight of the event was seeing the two survivors present:

Add caption

Hundreds remember 1906 quake, honor survivors
"Firefighters and cops in old-time uniforms milled around while residents in top hats and cutaway coats pretended they lived in the early 20th Century. Bleary-eyed politicians espoused preparedness and admired the grit of those the survived the quake and rebuilt San Francisco.

The main focus of the morning was the two present survivors, George Quilici, eight days from turning 107, and Winne Hook, 106.  Quilici and Hook were both infants when the San Andreas Fault slipped at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, and the 7.9 quake rumbled toward the city. The quake set off fires that tore through the city for three days, leaving the heart of San Francisco in ruins.  Neither Quilici nor Hook remembers the devastation. He was only 11 months old when the fires burned his father's saloon at Columbus Avenue and Bay Street to the ground, and Hook was all of 2 months old when the quake rocked her home in San Jose.  But that didn't stop well-wishers from doting on them like rock stars as the two sat with bemused expressions in the back of the city's 1930 black Lincoln."

Tradition dictates that celebrants convene at Lefty O'Douls for breakfast and Bloody Marys after the ceremony. Who am I to buck tradition?

George Quilci 107

Winnie Hook 106

 Time for a nap.

More on the event and an interesting selection of earthquake aftermath photo's linked here.