disco dance

As you can see, the pouring rain was wreaking havoc on Gavin Newsom's carefully-styled coif this morning at the Second Fake Question Time townhall meeting in District 10's Bayview district.

We arrived at the Whitney Young Child Development Center at the tail end of an angry pre-game protest about how the mayor's office has neglected the Bayview, and we were also too late to get any of the complimentary lanyards that the MUNI information desk was handing out. Curse you, Greg Dewar, for beating us to the punch!

Today's event, while chicken-free, was certainly less scripted than the first Fake QT, with Gavin's introductory remarks interrupted by housing advocates shouting, "We will not be moved!" who then walked out of the room (wait, we thought they couldn't be moved!). Gavin tried to wrest control of the meeting back, but then was faced with an angry group of activists from ACORN, protesting his surprise plan to demolish the Alice Griffith housing project for the Niners.

Gavin then made his fatal error -- instead of sticking with the prescreened question cards, he relinquished the microphone to the community activists instead. Now we're talking! In short order, Gavin got chastised for (in no particular order): 1) holding the meeting in a place difficult for community members to get to, 2) referring to the meeting place as the Whitney Young Child Care center when it's a community center, 3) making it difficult to turn left off Third Street, 4) not caring about fathers, 5) having his staff take up all the seats while children and the elderly were forced to stand in the back, 6) being a slumlord, 7) not having translators and sign language interpreters present and 8) not ever coming out to the Bayview except once right at the beginning of his mayoral term. You could totally see Gavin thinking, You know, maybe I should have just done Question Time instead.

Jennifer Siebel in a weird houndstooth coat, meet the new Appointments Secretary, "Come on, YOU'RE the mayor!!!", and our unintentionally-hilarious picture of Gavin Newsom with red-eye -- after the jump.

Some other random observations:

--Peter Ragone was not there. Maybe he and John Nelson had previous plans for the morning.

--Who brings their girlfriend to a two-hour policy discussion on 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning? And what was up with her coat? The picture we got is of Jennifer giving up her seat for the kids and elderly people standing in the back, by audience demand.

--Is Gavin Newsom now a rapper? What was up with the "Imo get to that!" phrasing?

--Maybe not the best move in the world to have the near-universally-reviled (in the community, anyways) Gregg Fortner from the SF Housing Authority tell the people complaining that his office never returns their calls that "I don't know why you can't reach me, I have voice mail."

--Oh, we feel really bad for Miguel Bustos, who was introduced as the mayor's new appointments secretary. That guy probably had no idea what he was walking into when he took that job.

--Obviously the trick for getting the microphone is, when Gavin says, "Now, you promise that you'll keep your question on the topic of ____," before handing it to you is to nod sincerely, take the mike, and then talk about whatever you want, as Gavin fumes.

--The audience was having none of Gavin's blame-the-Board-of-Supes tactic for why progress wasn't being made on Bayview-related issues. When he said, "Well, I make my suggestions to the Board and you know they do whatever they want," people actually started to boo -- and one person shouted out, "Oh, COME ON, you're the mayor!!!!"

--And hey, KWillets, take note! Gavin announced that he'll be doing the District 5 crime town hall meeting in two months.

And here's our pictures:

Who decided on KC and the Sunshine Band for the pregame music? (Check out the lyrics on the close-captioned screen.)

The sweet community activist sitting next to us at the event, and....

okay, we know this is totally an unfair picture to take, particularly since it's really not Gavin Newsom's fault at all our flash had problems with the lighting in the room, but --- ha ha ha ha ha!! Brains.... Brains.... Zombie needs brains....