Back on the Road
by Samson Wong

A LATE START: Seven months after 1997’s Proposition H was repealed by a plan to expand Octavia Boulevard, the Committee to Save the Central Freeway is back in the fast lane, trying to gather more than 10,000 signatures in less than a month to try to repeal the repeal.

Freeway proponents, including Julie Lee and Rose Tsai, say that ending the freeway south of Market Street and replacing it with a boulevard is far less efficient than their plan to retrofit and rebuild the freeway and its two east-west ramps at Oak and Fell Streets -- even though the former is what voters chose in passing Proposition E last November. Yet freeway proponents stress that their new initiative isn’t just a rewarmed Prop. H -- this time around, their proposal would make city officials develop an annual transit plan that would incorporate bicycle use in accordance with the city’s “transit first” policy, and it calls for quarterly discussions on improving transportation.

To give voters a third whack at the issue, the committee needs to gather at least 10,588 valid signatures from city voters by July 5. Having started last week, they will have only three weekends to go before the deadline for this November’s election, and it has hired professional signature-getters to go get the names. Still, the committee finds itself hard-pressed, given that most initiative campaigns started signing voters up in May.

If the committee doesn’t meet the deadline, it may shoot for the December runoff if there is one for mayor or district attorney, or it may wait until the March 2000 presidential primary election.

OTHER HURDLES: Even if the initiative qualifies, it needs a two-thirds supermajority to win. And though only 53 percent of voters endorsed Prop. E in 1998, that same percentage backed Prop. H the year before.

Low turnout could help freeway proponents, as it did in 1997. Prop. H that year won despite an underfunded and volunteer-run campaign, one that likely captured the support among many of the progressive forces who last year gave Supervisor Tom Ammiano the board presidency.

What that means is that if Ammiano decides to run against Mayor Willie Brown this fall, that could hurt the freeway redux’s chances, given that Brown did not endorse Prop. H and that Ammiano backed Prop. E.

A 2000 election would not work in the proponents’ favor, given a predicted high turnout among gay and lesbian voters, who make up Ammiano’s base. They’re expected to rally against the Knight Initiative, which would define marriage as only between a man and a woman, and against Republican-led efforts to kill the nomination of San Francisco philanthropist James Hormel as the ambassador of Luxembourg. Hence, such factors may determine once and for all the fate of the Central Freeway, which is in the Castro’s backyard and right next to a proposed gay and lesbian cultural center.

DID LELAND DO IT?: Chinese American Democratic Club President Hayden Lee was seen sporting a “Leland, Do It” button, which is either an old 1996 Yee for Supervisor button or a recreated Yee for mayor one. Its slogan, a spinoff of Nike’s well-known “just do it” motto, was sported by none other than the man who garnered headlines this year for railing against the Democratic Machine, even as Brown listened as part of the audience at CADC’s Chinese New Year banquet.

In kicking off his campaign last weekend at Yerba Buena Gardens, the mayor last weekend promised that his speech would “not one of those (Fidel) Castro like presentations on the budget.”

Everyone sighed in relief -- a different reaction than might have come from Finance Chairman Yee, Ammiano and Sue Bierman, architects of last year’s failed People’s Budget. The only supervisor mentioned by name, in a press release, was the absent Gavin Newsom -- thus ending some speculation that he would try to challenge the guy who appointed him this time around.

SEMPER FIDELIS: Bedposts will quiver with the circulation of a state initiative that would “impose civil and criminal liability for infidelity.” If the initiative manages to qualify with 419,260 valid voter signatures by Nov. 1 and passes after that, Californians convicted of infidelity may be slapped with jail time, damages for lost wages and therapy. They might have to publicly apologize, too.

NOT ON THE BACK BURNER: E-mail me at samson@sfindependent.com or call 415-826-1100, Ext. 23.