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Pot club gives back
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Moscone on 'Ghost Light'
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Vol. 42 • No. 01 • January 5-11, 2012
Officials Lee readies for full term to discuss A fate of TL Health by Matthew S. Bajko
by Seth Hemmelgarn
S
an Francisco Public Health Director Barbara Garcia said she’ll meet with the board of Tenderloin Health today (Thursday, January 5) to discuss the nonprofit’s fate. The agency, which provides housing, medical, and other services to some of the city’s poorest residents, including people with HIV and Jane Philomen Cleland AIDS, has struggled for years and appears David Fernandez to be near collapse. But officials refuse to say much about what exactly is happening. In an exchange of text messages with the Bay Area Reporter on Tuesday, January 3, Garcia responded to an interview request by mentioning the meeting and saying, “You will get [the] press release first.” Asked what the statement would say, and whether it would be accurate to report that Tenderloin Health is closing, Garcia responded that she’s meeting with the board “to find this out.” In late December, Pamela Fitzgerald, Tenderloin Health’s development director, said in a Facebook post that the board voted December 20 to shut down the organization. Fitzgerald has declined to comment, and officials have refused to confirm her statement. Executive Director David Fernandez said in a recent email to the B.A.R. that the agency experienced “severe funding cuts” this fall and “We have not been doing very well.” Tenderloin Health relies on large chunks of public support, including hundreds of thousands of dollars from the health department, but Fernandez has refused to provide more information on the state of his agency. It’s unclear what would happen to the agency’s thousands of clients if it were to close. Asked about a transition plan during a brief interview Tuesday, Fernandez, said, “We haven’t figured all that out yet.” Responding to a question about which contracts have been cut, he said, “I’m not talking to you anymore until I have more concrete information to share with you. Thanks.” He then hung up the phone. In an interview last week, Fernandez said, “There’s a lot of options we’re considering,” but he wouldn’t say what the alternatives are. The agency’s budget is about $7.1 million.▼
fter being sworn in to a full fouryear term Sunday, January 8, San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee plans to focus on job creation and making the city even more of a draw internationally for businesses and tourists in his inaugural speech. The two goals are key parts of Lee’s strategy to deal with another looming budget deficit, last estimated to be $263 million for the 20122013 fiscal year, and ensure the city’s unemployment rate continues to drop. It fell by 1.7 percent in 2011 to stand at 7.8 percent as of Mayor Ed Lee will hold a low-key inauguration this Sunday. November. During an interview with the Bay Area Reporter last forward looking on what we want to do in the month just before the Christmas holiday, Lee city,” said Lee, who defeated more than a dozen predicted there would be few surprises in his opponents in the November election. speech. He is considering ideas on how to build “I think, clearly, I will have a message to more affordable housing, particularly for share with people a little bit about what this middle-income people, and said seeking year has been like. Then I will spend more time a bond measure this year is on the table.
Reforming the city’s payroll tax is another top agenda item, as is launching a program to help property owners seismically upgrade their buildings. “We are thinking through those things as we speak,” said Lee, adding he wants to create a $5 million small business loan program aimed at the city’s neighborhood business corridors. Due to his having been appointed last January to the position, following Gavin Newsom’s resignation to become the state’s lieutenant governor, Rick Gerharter Lee won’t have the usual honeymoon period most new mayors are granted when they assume office. Having broken his word that he wouldn’t seek City Hall’s Room 200 permanently, Lee enters 2012 facing a potentially more acrimonious relationship with the Board of Supervisors. A majority either tried to oust him from office in the See page 8 >>
Independents seen as key in NH by Michael K. Lavers
T
he Breezeway, a gay bar on the corner of Pearl and Elm streets in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, was largely quiet on the Monday night after Christmas. A series of Janet Jackson and En Vogue songs played as a handful of patrons sipped their beers or drinks and talked amongst themselves. Peterborough resident Bill St. John discussed the upcoming January 10 Republican presidential primary as he sat at the nearly empty bar. “We get to have a voice – we get to have a strong voice,” said St. John, who is originally from Long Island, New York. “People can come out no matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter what you do, you can come out and voice your opinion and make a difference and that’s huge for the people anywhere.” With less than a week until New Hampshire voters cast their votes in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, candidates and their staffers and volunteers are busy courting those all-important independent voters. A staffer at former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s downtown Manchester headquarters told the Bay Area Reporter on December 26 that the campaign remains confident going into the primary. Volunteers with former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman were seen carrying supplies into his campaign’s Elm Street office earlier on the same day; while Texas Governor Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum signs were
Michael K. Lavers
Sidewalk politics played out on Elm Street in downtown Manchester last month. New Hampshire Republican voters go to the polls next week.
posted on neighboring buildings’ lawns. A large poster for Texas Congressman Ron Paul greeted motorists at the intersection of Queen City Avenue and South Willow Street, but post-holiday shoppers at the bustling Mall of New Hampshire seemed somewhat oblivious to the upcoming vote. A volunteer at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Elm Street office on December 26 also exuded confidence, but recent polls indicate that he continues to trail both Romney
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and Paul by a double-digit margin.
Marriage equality As candidates continue to present their closing arguments to New Hampshire voters, a possible legislative vote on a bill that would repeal the state’s marriage equality law could potentially coincide with the January 10 primary. A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll conducted between September 26 and See page 2 >>