Jim Reid for Mayor of San Francisco in 2003

2003-05-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesday May 27th- 161 days until the election.
Noon Polk Street steps of City Hall. Signature gathering Rally.

HUNTERS POINT SHIPYARD HOMELESS REHABILITATION CENTER; DECLARATION OF POLICY

The Jim Reid for Mayor Committee will unveil our plan to house all of our
homeless people at Hunters Point Shipyard until the opening of the 2007
Worlds Fair.

The Committee has five weeks to collect the 10,000 + voter signatures to put
this measure on the November 2003 ballot. Unlike Care Not Cash, the Home at
Hunters Point Campaign is about a concrete solution to our homeless problem
that will build real housing as we did in the months following the 1906
earthquake and fire.

In 1906, we housed 16,448 of the poorest of the 200,000 people made homeless
by the fire. These people had similar problems to our homeless population
of today: drunk, drug addicted, mentally ill, and desperately poor. In
three months, we built 5,610 tiny house AND we did this just after a time of
political corruption when the city had NO money AND the city had just burned
to the ground. If we did it in 1906 with no money, we can surely do this in
2004 with a $350 million budget deficit.

A 13-minute video of our plan to house all of our Homeless people will be
released to members of the press at the rally.

Text of Declaration of Policy:

The City of San Francisco shall hold all of the land at Hunter?s Point
shipyard as a community land trust. The City shall use 200 acres to build a
temporary homeless rehabilitation center to house most of our homeless
people and most of our homeless services until they can return to society.
The City shall use all federal pollution mitigation moneys associated with
the shipyard transfer to clean up the pollution immediately and to create
jobs for the local community. The City shall teach former homeless veterans
to build ultra-affordable housing for themselves and others on this
community land.

Jim Reid

2003-05-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Thursday May 15th - 173 days until the election.

I spent much of the day in the new campaign office setting up the computer system and a printer and designing the petition form that I will submit to the Department of Elections some time tomorrow. The petition is a lot of work to format using Word. I got into the office about eleven and put on a pot of hot dogs for the volunteers that I expected as a result of Tuesdays newspaper story. I thought it funny that the future mayor was cooking hotdogs for the volunteers and what would people think. I remembered seeing former Mayor Agnos washing dishes in the kitchen of a house where there was a fundraiser. Mayor or not we are still down to earth human beings. I do not expect that I will ever lose this.

This well located hole in the wall on Market Street is a virtual volunteer generating machine. A dozen people came by and knocked on the door to ask to talk with me and volunteer to help get us elected.

Today was bicycle to work day and I did. I bicycled to CostCo with a bike with large back baskets and bought enough food and office supplies to lift the front tire off the sidewalk until I sat down. I believe that then next mayor needs to walk ride the talk, not just talk. I walk the talk. Since I often choose to rely on MUNI to experience firsthand what this is like, I walk a lot. I no longer wait for buses. If I do not see a bus, I walk.

I ride a bike about 25% of the time when I need to get somewhere in a hurry. It is not as good as driving but very reliable and predictable time wise. When I am mayor we will put the current bike plan on the fast track so riding a bike will be a safe alternative to driving or taking a bus. At the last Critical mass ride I passed out a filer that was a fictitious news story from 2004 when San Francisco elects a mayor who rides a bike. One thing a good leader should do for those who follow him is to develop and speak about a compelling future that we must take responsibility to create.

I got an e-mail from a man who is an MBA in business who almost became homeless and is now in recovery from drug addiction and unemployed. He has very good organizational experience and some political experience. He read much of our web site and said that he is very interested in helping with the campaign. We are meeting at the office at 11:00 tomorrow. I love meeting and listening to people who have skills that I lack. I cannot wait for the day when I can get back on the bus and leave the campaign, the office, and ShelterOne in the hands of others.

I just got an e-mail from my bother that the company who is hosting our web site and who we paid one year in advance for unlimited bandwidth is going out of business in a week. If this site disappears for a few days, you will know why; but we shall return.

2003-05-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday May 14th - 174 days until the election.

We were on the front page of the Examiner today with a big story on page 7. I met with Alan our treasures today at noon and there were dozens of people who came by to talk with us and get hotdogs and soda. Starting next week we will have a volunteer coordinator in the office several days a week, several hours a day. We will post this information on the door as I am sure that we disappointed many people who came by and did not get in.

Dr. Cheng delivered seven checks totaling over $1,100.00

I went to the Department of Elections to pick up or ballot measure so that we can begin gathering 20,000 voter signatures to put in on the ballot. There is a lot of paperwork to put this on the ballot. I have done this paperwork many times before so I know the routine, but it keeps me off the bus where the voters are. I look forward to the day when the thousands of details are handled and I could just focus on meeting voters and speaking publicly at debates and other events. This may not happen until after the August filing deadline.

We hope to have petitions printed and ready for the Swords to Plowshares debate Monday evening May 20th at 6:00 p.m. at Herbst Theater in the Veterans Building 410 Van Ness Avenue across from City Hall. Our Statement of Policy ballot measure is called: the Hunters Point Shipyard Homeless Rehabilitation.

2003-05-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

Tuesday May 13th - 175 days until the election.

Today was our grand opening and it taught Bart and I many new lessons. We need a volunteer coordinator who will organize, motivate, and deliver our volunteers to attend our events. The candidate and the campaign manager were too busy doing all the other details including getting the press out that we were lacking in supporters. We have a database of sixty volunteers and e-mail list of dozens of supporters but someone has to call them and get them remotivated. The people I called showed up those I e-mailed did not.

Our Chinese supporters came through big time. Rosa Chao, Wunjei Cheng's sister sent four enormous floral arrangements that filled our tiny campaign office. Alan Chu our Treasurer cooked and served hot dogs to the press and our supporters. Dr. Cheng gave us a beautiful red banner that he hand painted with Chinese characters that wished us good luck in winning the campaign. See Photos

The Examiner, the Independent, the SF Call, all the SF Sentinel all came by to see our new office.

2003-05-24T18:49:00.001-07:00

Monday May 12th - 176 days until the election.

A contractor friend of mine who has supported my campaigns for office for years called me this morning angry that the City is again raising parking fines. David gets parking tickets all the time and has considered it just a part of doing business in San Francisco and passes the cost onto his customers. He read in Matier & Ross this morning that the City is raising parking fines and meter maids have been ordered to write 40,000 more tickets. David is angry that the city with it's bloated bureaucracy is balancing the budget by punishing car owner for the failure of City Hall to improve the parking situation in the city. David wants to have a rally on the steps of City Hall to protest this policy and to mobilize motor voters to elect a mayor who will improve the parking situation rather the write more tickets.

This afternoon we are going to Hayward to visit the furniture warehouse Rosa Chao. Rosa is the sister of our patron and supporter Wunjei Cheng. She has contributed $500.00 to our campaign and her company is going to donate furniture to our campaign office. Her company is AGA Warehouse

Mr. Cheng from New Jersey created a blog for our campaign schedule so that supporters can easily access the information.

More later.

2003-05-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 11th - 177 days until the election.

This morning I met with Hank Donat, the journalist who writes the Heart of the City column for the Independent. He also has a great web site with the living history of San Francisco MisterSF Hank is writing a column about each of the leading mayoral candidates. We met at our new campaign office at 10:00 a.m. I walked and took BART from home and walked up the middle set of stairs from the Civic Center MUNI/Bart Station which are thirty feet from our office door at 1155 Market Street. Hank and I talked for a while at the office then walked across the street to look at the endangered fountain. San Francisco thinks it is a great city, but no European city would even discuss taking out a civic fountain because homeless people used it as a toilet or a bathtub. The failure of Mayor Brown and the previous mayors to solve the homeless problem have turned San Francisco into a second class city. Hank told me the history and symbolism of our humble fountain at UN Plaza and we need to preserve this.

We then walked to 8th Street to catch a #19 Polk to go to Hunters Point Shipyard. Luck was with us on this Sunday morning and the bus appeared at we got to the corner. I suggested that Hank get on the bus before me so I could introduce myself to the driver and the dozen passengers. Hank was in the back of the bus and I introduced myself to him as if he were a passenger, gave him my MUNI folding card and sat down across from him. He jokingly said he was planning to vote for Newsom and ask why he should vote for me. As a journalist he is not saying who he is voting for. I asked him why he was going to vote for Newsom. He said because Newsom was handsome, that he was going to solve the homeless problem, and that he was going to build workforce housing. I agreed that Newsom was handsome but that that was not a reason to elect him. I questioned if Newsom would house the homeless or build more shelters. I asked Hank if he earned $70,000.00, he did not, and I said that Newsom's "Workforce Housing" was for white-collar workers like himself who earn more than $70K. Like "Affordable Housing", "Workforce Housing" is NOT affordable to 70% of us who live and work here.

The bus passed a new building at 8th and Howard that is only 250 square foot studio apartments. They were built with the Affordable Housing Bond money and are great units but they are rental units, built with union labor and heavily subsidized with taxpayer money. I want to build similar units all over San Francisco which are SRO condos where working people can own a small housing unit and not be trapped in the rental market all their life. I do not support taxpayer subsidized housing. It would be better for the City, tenants, and taxpayers to change the zoning to allow for-profit developers to build simple decent housing that ordinary people could own.

We next passed the Ritz of homeless shelters, the Episcopal Sanctuary. I told Hank that I stayed there once in 1999 and once last November when I was experiencing homelessness and our shelter system first hand. I told Hank, if you were housed, it was a dump, if you were homeless, it was the Ritz.

The bus took us up over Potrero Hill and onto Hunters Point Shipyard. We talked about the myth that there was no land in San Francisco. Hank walk all over town because he does not won a car and never has. He and I see land and vacant lots all the time. I suggested that a single story non-historic building is land. Hank and never been to the Shipyard and only knew that it was a toxic site. It is still owned by the Navy and the MUNI bus usually lets passengers off at the main gate except on weekends.

More later

2003-05-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday May 10th - 178 days until the election.

I get up very early, then sit and think for an hour or so each morning. I get many good ideas doing this. This morning I began visualizing how Habitat for the Homeless would begin to form and how we would set up a system to train and monitor 2,000 volunteers living in ShelterOne houses around the city. When we build this into a working and successful model for transforming homeless people to neighborhood volunteers the nation will copy and fund the model in every city and town in America. This may take 20 years but it will happen if we lead and succeed here.

I had to be at the Plan C endorsement interview by 8:15 this morning and just got there in time after a 45 minute walk to 24th Street, BART to Civic Center, and MUNI Metro N Judah to Cole Valley. They are a group of A Gays and other concerned citizens who want our streets cleaned up, the homeless problem solved, and affordable housing built. I share their goals but we differ on how to get there. They supported Care Not Cash and Prop R the proposal to turn rental housing into ownership housing. I opposed both. I had exactly 15 minutes to answer their questions then the host Michael xxx practically threw me out of his house. I felt that he was rude and felt like asking him if he would cut Gavin off in mid sentence and ask him to leave. The three other committee members has more questions for me but Michael cut them off too. I have a very good memory and never forget how is kind to me and who is rude. I am not vindictive but I never forget. Mr. xx will come to me when I am mayor and I will remind him of his rudeness.

A Gays are the upper class in Gay society and they tend to look down their noses at those of Gay people who are working class or poor; just like many upper class straight people. I intend to be the mayor who looks out for all poor and working people and we are the majority in San Francisco, America, and the World. And the day will come when we rule the world and I hope we treat upper class people better than they treat most of us. I guess I am an idealist and believe the American Myth that all men people are created equal.

I began to walk to the #33 bus to get me home. I walked from Cole valley up the 17th street hill and down to the Castro before a bus passed me. I don't wait for buses any more, I walk and often I get to my destination before a bus passes me. It is tempting to take a cab but this in not an option open to all San Franciscans. When I am mayor cabs will be part of the public transit system and we will be able to get a cab or share a cab and get somewhere faster and cheaper than we can today AND the cab drivers will make more money.

I got on the #33 at Castro and rode it to Bryant Street. There was no #27 in sight so I walked. I got all the way home from 16th Street without a bus passing me. I met many people on the sidewalk and gave them my cards in English and Spanish as I passed them. I asked one older woman if she spoke English or Spanish and she said Italian. I gave her and English card and we smiled. Three #17 buses passed me in the opposite direction as I walked home. I see why people drive or bicycle, it is much faster.

Bart and another volunteer are painting the campaign office today. I will finish it tomorrow afternoon and put up some inspirational signs inside the office tomorrow. It is a great location 1155 Market Street, just walking distance from the Chronicle and the Examiner offices.

I only have one suit and it needs to be cleaned often. There is nothing worse that an smelly candidate riding a MUNI bus. I need to get the Men's Warehouse to donate a second suit to the campaign. It would be good publicity for them to have a working class mayor wearing their suits. Willie Brown would not lower himself to wearing a Men's Warehouse suit but George Zimmer the owner has give money to Brown, Newsom and Care Not Cash many times. George will have egg on his face when I am mayor.

I will be heading south soon to Cupertino with our Chinese fundraising committee of Dr. Cheng and Ms. Lee. My suit is in the cleaners until noon.

I was invited to bring the Sparrow to a street fair/garage sale on Fair Oaks but there are just too many things to do and too little time.

More later.

2003-05-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

Friday May 9th - 179 days until the election.

I woke up early this morning and began imagining setting up a house where we could house 13 volunteers who had been homeless and would be willing to collect signatures and campaign full time to get me elected. Our patron Wunjei Cheng persuaded his sister Rosa to donate all the beds and other furniture the we would need to house 13 people in one house.

At 9:30 this morning I met our treasurer Alan Chu at the campaign office and I got to see Bart's handy work the night before. I stood on the sidewalk in front of 1155 Market Street for ten minutes visualizing how we would use the sidewalk for our campaign office grand opening and campaign kick off next Tuesday. Wunjei has asked his father to arrange for Chinese Lion dancers to entertain us on the street nest week. I've seen, read, and listened to the works of Joseph Campbell about myth, legend and symbolism. I believe that symbolism is very powerful and touches people at a deep subliminal level.

I asked a few Chinese friends to educate me about the symbolism of Chinese Lion dancers. I would like to have a small lion representing the Reid campaign and a bigger lion representing the Newsom campaign to dance together and compete for the golden ball (the election victory). I would like to see the small lion out maneuver the bigger slower lion and take the golden victory. This is similar symbolism that I saw in Don Asmussen political cartoon showing our campaign speeding past the big name candidates with Jim Reid in the green Sparrow.

Our Tuesday Kick off will be the beginning our developing voter critical mass that will put us in third place in the polls by August 15th. Then we will have the opportunity to win the election in November or the December runoff with Newsom. Newsom can beat any of the big-name well-funded politician candidates but he will not be able to beat us if the are the other choice to voters, most of whom are renters, transit riders, and working people struggling to make ends meet. We will mobilize voters and we will win.

2003-05-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Thursday May 8th - 180 days until the election.

Care Not Cash was ruled invalid in the Courts today. I was the official ballot opponent of the measure and spent the seven nights before the last election in a different shelter each night to experience first hand what Care is there. See Seven Nights in Hell If we had a great shelter system (we don't) or we were building truly affordable housing (we are not), then providing basic services and housing to our poorest people rather that cash would be fine.

This morning about 8:30 a.m., a photographer who's work has appeared on the cover to Time Magazine visited ShelterOne and spent six hours doing a photo shoot inside and out. We then visited the our new campaign office at 1155 Market Street. Bart was there and Frederic and he went to lunch at Cafe do Brazil while I got my haircut. Bart was unhappy that my hair was a bit long but the photographer did not care as his hair was also long. Bart won and I now have shorter hair. We will post some of the photo here soon. After lunch the three of us went in search of homeless housing. I was in my suit and Frederic wanted photos of me talking with homeless people about shelterOne while standing in front of the housing that they built. We struck pay dirt near Pac Bell Park along Third Street just past the former location of the Mission Rock Emergency Shelter that Willie Brown tore down to build a parking lot.

About 200 feet off Third Street in what appeared to be a dump there were a series of housing units covered with a big blue tarp. There were two men and a big dog sitting on cans in front of the house. One guy must have been sixty with a long grey beard that came out from his chin it two points. he had all his upper front teeth missing and his face was badly warn. The second guy was young and unshaven. The dog was a puppy worthwhile named xxx.

Frederic was a war correspondent in the middle east a decade ago and was not shy walking up to people. I joined him and we asked the guys if they minded if we talked to them and photographed their house. I introduced myself and told them I build the smallest house in San Francisco and that I wanted to house all of the homeless at Hunters Point Shipyard. The younger guy said that he had his girlfriend read about me and they heard of the house. I as them if they would be willing to live in a very small house and was surprised to hear the old guy say that he would. I presumed that he would one of those outdoors type guys. They both said that they would rather be outside rather than in a shelter, but they would be willing to work to live in a house.

The young guy said that he heard that the shipyard was toxic. I told him that there were three large parcels 100 acres each that were clean enough to build market rate housing and that the mayor planned to do just than. I said that if I was mayor, we would build only affordable and ultra-affordable housing at the shipyard and we would first house all of our homeless who want housing.

I sat down with them and began petting the dog. She was a big puppy and she began to bite my hand as puppies do and most of my hand and palm disappeared into her mouth. The young man asked me if the little houses were big enough for two people. I said no but we will be building bigger ones for couples and families. I said that we would encourage people who lived in our cottages to have a dog or cat as company as they cared for one city block. We next drove to the shipyard and took a few photos of me standing looking over the vastness of the vacant shipyard.

Bart was eager to get back to the campaign office to wash the windows and put full the window with our campaign signs and a banner announcing that SFMayor.com was coming soon. We plan to paint tomorrow.

Frederic dropped both of us off and I went home to send out press releases about our upcoming Grand Opening of the Campaign Office and Bart went to hang the signs.

2003-05-24T18:44:00.001-07:00

Wednesday May 7th - 181 days until the election.

I am visualizing ShelterOne on the cover of TIME magazine. Today I will send out information about how the Smallest House in America can be a big solution to the national homeless problem. I will send this to every national news magazine and TV news show in America. Tomorrow a photographer who contacted me a few weeks ago is coming to shoot a photo story about shelterOne as a solution to the homeless veteran problem. He has had photographs published in many magazines nationally and worldwide including TIME.

There are 271,000 homeless veterans on any night in America. This is an unspoken national disgrace in light of the Gulf war and the Iraq war. I believe that we in San Francisco can create a national model for using former homeless veterans to build housing for themselves and others on former military properties.

2003-05-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday May 6th - 182 days until the election.

Today we will be meeting Angela Alioto at shelterOne at 2:00 p.m.

After the meeting, we will be signing the papers on the small campaign office.

2003-05-24T18:39:00.000-07:00

Monday May 5th - 183 days until the election.

My roommate Tom called me from work telling me that the Sparrow and I were in the news today. Tom works downtown and goes out the door about 4:30 every morning. He is very good at reading all of the papers in town and keeping me posted on who is writing what about whom. He is an asset to the campaign. Tom as a prime example of a working class person who just gets by with a full time job. The housing shortage in the City is moving people like Tom out of houses and into SRO hotels or into flats with four other roommates. I want Tom to own a 250 square foot home of his own in San Francisco in the next five years. He is a good hardworking guy and he deserves better than a SRO room. Any person who works hard should be able to own not rent.

Bart called to talk about the Matier & Ross article. He thought it was not complementary to any of the candidates. I told him that it was a big improvement as they said nothing negative about me; a big improvement from the past. The political cartoon had powerful symbolism if you look closely. Jim Reid is speeding past the other candidates to be in front of Newsom to get away from those in the back of the line. You would think that I bribed Don Asmussen the artist to drew this. It seems that we speed into first place as the other candidates are standing around and we are taking action on homeless, housing, and transit. I will have to send Don a thank you e-mail.

I went to lunch with Ms. Mai Kai Lee at the new Asian Art Museum. Monday the Museum is closed and this was a lunch for patrons, moneyed citizens. there were about 16 tables of 8 people. I made the rounds to about half the tables introducing myself as a candidate for mayor who wants to solve the homeless problem. May of these people lived outside of San Francisco and come here less often because of the homeless problem. I have not been in the old main library building in almost 15 years. The Asian Art Museum did an extraordinary job restoring the building to it's former glory and improving it.

One Asian woman told me that if I promised to increase City funding to the museum that she would get many people to contribute to my campaign and vote for me. I told her that I would have to look at the budget before I made any promises. This was not what she wanted to hear. I guess people would rather that you make a false promise that you do not intend to deliver on, than to tell them the truth. I abhor politicians who say things that they have no intention doing once elected. Willie Brown did this all the time. I promise not to be such a leader.

After lunch I moved the Sparrow from in front of the Asian to a motorcycle parking space near the entrance of City Hall ready for the Cinco de Mayo party in the evening. Two groups of school children and their teachers came up to me, attracted by the sparrow. they all had disposable cameras as they were on a field trip to photography interesting things in their neighborhood. They were excited to meet a future mayor and they all wanted my business cards. when they discovered that I had cards in English, Spanish, and Chinese, they all wanted them in their own language to give to their parents. The children were equally mixed in the three languages with a few Vietnamese mixed in, who settled for English. Many of the students said that they would tell their parents to vote for me. Touching people makes a difference.

I walked down to the Powell Street cable car to buy a MUNI fast pass, then got onto a #9 San Bruno bus to go home. The bus was not to full and after greeting the drive and passengers sat in a seat to look at our new campaign office as the bus passed. The Smallest Campaign Office in San Francisco will be located at 1155 Market street, just across the street from the symbolic heart of our homeless problem, U.N. Plaza. It has two very large windows and a tall door into what was formerly a florist shop before the downturn in the economy. The bus worked its way toward my stop and I busied myself making a to do list for the remainder of this week. It was a long list. This is ratings month and we have many opportunities for press coverage.

As the bus stopped near my stop, a #33 Stanyan bus passed us and I saw my roommate Tom in that bus. When my bus stopped, I ran to catch up with him and we walked the ten blocks from where the buses dropped us off to the house. The final three blocks are up a steep hill. Taking public transit is much better exercise than driving a car. Tom and I talked about the Matier and Ross story and politics in general.

I spent a few hours completing items on my latest to do list waiting to hear from Bart Kylstra, my campaign manager. He called and we talked about the new campaign office. He was eager to see it, so he went to the Realtor to pick up a key then to pick up the candidate.

We drove to Mission at 8th and parked and walked to Market Street to go inside the office. Bart went in first as I surveyed the street scene. As I walked thought the solid door and saw the brightly decorated florist shop I though, "party time" not political campaign. There was a huge double glass doored refrigerator where we could put a truck load of beverages and food. I measured the windows and the doors so we could make big campaign signage to draw attention to the location. After we spend twenty minutes imagining how we would use the odd shaped space as a campaign office we closed it up and headed our separate ways. Bart went home as I headed to City Hall for the May 4th Party.

As I walked into City Hall, I ran into Jeff Adachi our Public Defender, I believe that he is supporting Tom Ammiano. Jeff told me that he just recognized me from the stage because he saw the green Sparrow outside but that I was not in the room. I told him we were looking at a campaign office. He told me that he thought we were getting very good and positive press coverage. I thanked him and told he I had a few things up my sleeve that would increase the coverage later this month.

I went into the North light court, had some Mexican food, talked to a few people, watched the ethnic dance then left the room. I walked into central room with the grand staircase and the dome. I had talked to a catholic priest, who just walked past me back to the festivities and I was alone in this extraordinary room. It reminded me of a great cathedral but a Civic Cathedral, meant to inspire one to lofty ideals, equality, Justice, a government of, by, and for the people. I imagined being mayor in this great space and inspiring large numbers of people as we move forward into the 21st Century. I believe that San Francisco and California will lead the nation and the world and it well begin here. The world is in great need of leadership

2003-05-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 4th - 184 days until the election.

We are going to win this election with creativity and luck.

"Luck is where opportunity meets preparedness."

I spent the morning reading and sending e-mails

Cinco de Mayo Celebration Civic Center

2003-05-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday May 3rd - 185 days until the election.

Bart Kylstra, our campaign manager, and I went to Hunters Point Shipyard today for the Spring Artists Open Studios. There are about 150 artist who open their work spaces and offer their work for sale twice a year. Many of the 250+ artist who work at the shipyard fear that thy will be displaced when the shipyard is developed in the coming years. Bart and I talked to many artists who told us of friends who have moved out of San Francisco because of the cost of housing.

I wrote an open letter to San Francisco Artists in February and mailed it and e-mailed it to many artists and artist organizations that I found on the web. I printed 50 copies of this letter and handed it to artists that we met today. I told them of my vision for a thriving community of 1,000 artists who live and work at the shipyard. I said that I would like to meet with a large group of Artists to draw up a vision that we would present to the voters in October to help pass the ballot measure that would preserve the shipyard for only affordable and ultra-affordable housing. The statement of Policy called Hunters Point Homeless Rehabilitation Center would temporally move all of the homeless who want housing and most homeless services to the shipyard.

There are several challenges that Bart and I discussed.

1) Organizing a different interests: Artists, homeless people, renters, low wage workers, etc. into a powerful force to claim the shipyard from moneyed interests who want to profit from the sale of the shipyard into private hands.

2) The pollution myth. This is a tricky issue that is harming the poor and being used to steal the land from the poor. The shipyard has toxic materials on the site, in the soil, and underground. There are five parcels; one very polluted, one somewhat polluted and three clean enough to build upon. As Mayor, I will preserve the three clean sites for any San Franciscan who cannot afford to own housing in the City.

Every time I talk about building housing at Hunters Point hear about the pollution myth. If all of Hunters Point is so polluted why is Willie Brown working so hard to finish his deal to transfer the Shipyard to his developer/contributors at Lennar/BVHP. If all of the land is so polluted why are we planning to build market rate housing and sell all of the land to private owners. Don't people with money hire lawyers and file lawsuits when they are screwed?

Bart and I talked about how we would organize artists to realize that If they supported the Idea of moving the homeless to the shipyard that they would preserve a big piece of the vast shipyard for themselves. If they don't get this they all San Franciscans who need this land will loose. We will see if any of the artists contact us to discuss this issue.

See my vision for a small truly affordable city at Hunters Point

There are just too many events to attend everyday. I learned years ago that opportunities are like buses. If you miss one there will be another along in a short while. With opportunities it is best to wait and be prepared that to jump onto an opportunity ill prepared.

There was a parade scheduled for Chinatown later today where Willie Brown was planning to speak about beautifying the City. Our benefactor Wunjei Cheng is working very hard to help us win this election and located the Chinatown event on the internet. After leaving the Artists open house I drove the Sparrow along Stockton Street from Columbus Ave. through Chinatown and then onto Union Square. We heard that the parade was to be at 6:00 p.m. but did not see it.

The Sparrow is the best campaign machine on earth. It turns just about everyone's head and I hear my name being said from the sidewalks. As I drove through Chinatown I was getting the thumbs up solute from Chinese people of all ages. This amazed me. My objective at this stage of the campaign is just to plant seeds, and get tens of thousands of San Franciscans to hear of or see the name Jim Reid. Later we will give them some commonsense substance to that name. When I park the Sparrow people walk up and talk with me and then say they are going to vote for me. This is good and I hope the little green bird keeps running until election day because she will fly us into the mayors office. See today's Matier & Ross story.

As I drove the Sparrow home through Union Square, a shopper asked me if this was a hydrogen car. I told her no it was electric but when I am mayor, it would be hydrogen and we would build them at Hunters Point shipyard creating jobs for working class San Franciscans.

2003-05-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Friday May 2nd - 186 days until the election.

Today is a down day for taking care of details; press releases, fundraising, planning, web site updates, etc. I am working to get national press coverage of the campaign. ShelterOne needs to be on the cover of TIME or another national magazine as a solution to the homeless problem nationwide. I put together a paste up of ShelterOne on the cover of TIME. If we get the national media to pay attention to our efforts to house the homeless, local media will take our campaign more serious. TIME will lead to national news shows and the Oprah Show. All this coverage will get our name and commonsense ideas out the thousand of San Franciscans.

I tell everyone that if we can raise $100,000.00 that we will beat Gavin Newsom and the $Millions that he can raise. We live in the Age of Creativity and creativity can beat money any day. Our creative campaign will get more media attention than that which a well funded traditional campaign can draw. We have a few things up our sleeve that will draw attention several times this month. I predict that we will be in third place by August 15th, then we will be included in all of the debates.

When the polls show us close to the second place candidate, Jack Davis will begin to sent out tens of thousands of glossy fliers with half truths about Jim Reid. I know all of the skeletons in my closet and am prepared to speak publicly about them. I was disappointed the Gavin's campaign hired Jack Davis. Jack Davis is the poster boy for the political corruption that plagues our political system. He solicited and got $300,000.00 from Home Depot in Atlanta Georgia to get Mayor Brown to allow a Home Depot into San Francisco. Davis got the money and Brown delivered with a veto of a Board of Supervisors resolution to delay the approval process. When Jack Davis and Newsom's campaign begin to attack our campaign we will know that they know that we can win.

I got a call from a woman named Gail P, who has contacted me a dozen times over the past two years saying that she wanted to own one of the ShelterOne houses. Gail called today concerned that this Newsom guy would get elected mayor. I stopped her in mid sentence and asked her if she had registered to vote. She said not yet. I told her that her non-vote was a vote for Newsom. And that if she did not register to vote and get 100 other people like her to register that she would elect Newsom to be the next mayor. She did not like to hear this. I told her that I could not be elected without her help.

It was interesting to see all the Chinese community leaders from the Six Companies treating Gavin Newsom as if he is already the Mayor. It occurred to me that our campaign is not about getting endorsements of important people who will later come to the mayor behind closed doors for special favors. Our campaign is out on the streets and on the buses seeking the support of ordinary people who are too busy struggling to get by in life to support a candidate with any more than their best wishes and perhaps their vote.

We ordered ten thousand Spanish language campaign cards that we will begin to distribute at the Cinco de Mayo celebration on Sunday.

2003-05-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday May 1st - 187 days until the election.

Today we were to meet Dr. Hung Hui Cheng and Ms. Mai Lee for lunch in China town and to look for a small space to rent for a Chinatown satellite office. we met in the lobby of the Holiday Inn but the sound of jackhammers was too loud and we decided to walk up the hill into Chinatown. There were several homeless people sleeping around the park at Portsmouth park. as we went up the hill. Dr. Cheng led us down an alley past a cardboard homeless house. I told Bart and Ms. Lee that if I was every homeless, I would build the finest cardboard house in the city. The restaurant we were looking for was closed for remodeling. So we walked back past the little house and out popped a Chinese woman who spoke to us and her husband, still in her house in Chinese.

We found another restaurant in a basement a block away. All of the menu signs were in Chinese characters with US dollars. I have been told that this means that the food will be very good and it was. During our lunch Dr. Cheng and Ms. Lee were discussing our Chinese character campaign business card so that we could print our first 10,000 and begin to distribute them in Chinatown and on the 30 Stockton bus. We were discussing blue collar mayor and the our card said straw hat mayor. Sort of the same but funny in translation. It was about 1:30 and most of the lunchtime customers had gone. I turned to another table and looked at an older Chinese woman, giving her a smile, then a bigger smile. She smiled back. I turned to Ms. Lee and told her I would like to go over to the table and give the couple some of my Chinese cards and test market the message. She got up and did it herself and got a good response from the couple. It turned out that they were the parents of the man who owned the restaurant.

Dr. Cheng and I walked up the stairs to the street while Bart and Ms. Lee went to the rest rooms. Is I got onto the sidewalk I saw two people carrying Gavin Newsom signs one in Chinese characters and one in English. The Caucasian volunteer seemed to recognize me. I thought it funny that Gavin too was campaigning in Chinatown.

Ms. Lee came up the stairs with the restaurant owner and his elderly parents and had them pose at the entrance with the future mayor of San Francisco. We said goodbye and walked up to Stockton Street to look for a campaign office. Dr. Cheng took us for a tour of a museum dedicated to Dr. Sun Yet Sen. the man who ended the last Chinese Dynasty. We met the director and posed in front of a fine wood carving done years earlier by Dr. Cheng. We said goodbye to the director and crossed the street to the Chinese Cultural Center. The broad stairs were full of supporters of Gavin Newsom.

We walked in on a private press conference set up by the Newsom committee. There were many members of the press and a Chinese TV station. Ms. Lee and Dr. Cheng started introducing me to Chinese community leaders who they know and I gave them my straw hat mayor cards. Some of Gavin's campaign staff seemed annoyed that we crashed their party, but we decided to stay.   I went back outside as Gavin came into the building. He and I shook hands and we went inside. He said to me: You do not want to be seen with me, it will ruin your reputation."   Gavin Shook hands and greeted everyone by name than went to the front of the room. I was standing at the side of the room near the front in sight of most in the room. The Chinese leader introduced all of the Chinese city commissioners who were assembled then he said I want to introduce the next mayor of San Francisco. With that, Ms. Lee stood up and shook my hand. It was too funny. She is a very quick thinker and her action was seen by most in the room.

Gavin spoke for about five minutes and introduced me an another candidate for mayor. I waved to the crowd and got applause. I have a lot of respect for Gavin Newsom. He always introduces me when I am in the crowd but excluded from the stage. As the speeches ended we went outside. I told Ms. Lee that her quick thinking was great. I said that with people like her on our campaign team that we would beat Gavin, she agreed. Gavin's crowd were going for a tour of Chinatown with their press entourage and Bart and I went our own way looking for vacant store fronts. We took down a few addresses and phone numbers discussing the pros and cons of each location. We got onto a 30 Stockton bus and headed to Market street.

We notices many business that went out of business along the way. There were many empty store fronts. We stopped into Cafe do Brasil to speak with the owner. She was busy but stopped to talk with us. I asked her many questions and listened to her concerns about the homeless problem, the economy, tourism, and the difficulties of running a small business. We gave her a copy of our campaign video and asked her about the owners of the Renoir Hotel next door. We were interested in renting a vacant store front in the building. Bart and I went next door and spoke with Ronald Yee the owner. He told us that he had proposed moving the homeless out of downtown and into an industrial area but got nowhere with City hall and gave up.   I told him that I had a similar plan with Hunter's Point ship yard. He felt that the homeless were bad for tourism and his hotel business. We told him of our video and said that we would come to see him again.

Bart and I continued down Market street toward UN Plaza. There were a hundred homeless people crowded together as we walked toward the fountain. I could see how walking past this rough crowd would be intimidating for tourists. I studied the faces of many of the people as we passed wondering which of these could we lour to Hunters Point with simple decent housing like shelterOne.   Bart and I spotted a small storefront on the south side of Market Street directly across from the fountain. It had been a flower shop and had a very tiny store across from it. The clerk thought that the store would rent for $1,000 a month. This was a very small space but would be perfect for our first campaign office. It was just after 5:30 and the realty office was closed for the day.