Ooh I Wanna Be There In My City By The Bay

[Save District Elections! 2]

[I know you don't care, but after my last post, I did a little research:]

[The Census Bureau's most recent estimate gives San Francisco about 750,000 people. (By the way, between 750- and 800,0000 seems to be something like the city's carrying capacity, since it hasn't changed much in decades.) Most American cities with populations between 500,000 and one million elect all or most of their legislative bodies by district or ward. In addition to San Francisco, “strong mayor” cities Albuquerque, Louisville, and Milwaukee elect their legislatures fully by district, and Baltimore does so except for the council chair. All “strong-mayor” cities that elect some of their council members at large and some by district or ward (Washington, Nashville, Boston, Denver, Memphis, Indianapolis, and Jacksonville) elect the vast majority of members by district or ward. Of the “strong mayor” cities, only Seattle, Detroit, and Columbus elect their entire councils at large.]

[In most “council-manager” cities within this range, the “weak” mayor is elected at large but sits as just another member of the city council, but in most of these, the rest of the council is mostly (Charlotte) or entirely (Tucson, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas, El Paso, Fort Worth, and San Jose) elected by district or ward. The only city of this type to elect its entire council at large is Austin.]

[(I actually built a table that shows all this, but you don't want to see it, do you?)]

[Take that, Dede and Michela!]

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[Another note: Max sent me a link to an L.A. Times article about several venerable bars in San Francisco that are shutting down or have shut down. While interesting and well-written in a way that most Chronicle stories are not, I think the article way overblows the actual importance of this. There are just too many corner dive bars in the city to worry about when a particularly iconic one closes.]

[While I love San Francisco, this self-regarding characteristic that labels anything older than a decade a Grand Tradition whose end requires wailing and gnashing of teeth has always bugged me. It's been quite noticeable ever since my family used to gather on my parents' big bed every Sunday morning and read the old combined Chronicle/Examiner. Herb Caen built a career on it, and too many of my fellow Bay Areans indulge in it to excess.]

[I think anyone who spends too much time revering what's old about San Francisco is missing the point. It becomes way too easy then to see the city as basically a museum piece or a sort of urban Disneyland. It's lazy thinking and never has been true, and I'm sorry to say it's what Angelenos have always believed about San Francisco, when we've crossed their minds at all. (What San Franciscans think about Los Angeles is even less well thought out.)]

[There's always new stuff going on here; the funny thing we do is to incorporate, fairly seamlessly, what's new into what's old. That article, for example, mentions the closure of The Hole in the Wall, the South of Market gay dive that only opened in the mid-90s as a purpose-built scuzz pit. Much as I have loved that scuzz pit, its demise (which may not even be permanent) is not the same as if Tadich Grill closed or something. This is a very alcoholic city, and much of its alcoholism is communal. Don't worry and drink up, Jim!]
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