The second rally today was the Bike Coalition’s reaction (PDF) to the announcement that the Environmental Review process of the City’s Bike Plan has fallen behind yet again.

There’s a sense that the city’s not pushing the EIR. Even though Gavin Newsom’s trying to build a reputation as a Green Mayor, there’s not been a lot of leadership on this.

There were even some mountain bike pioneers, pretty well turned out.

There are days when the steps of City Hall are scheduled very tightly. The hour before the Supervisors’ Land Use Committee’s meeting today was one of them. A coalition of housing groups has the noon slot to call for the extension of need-based housing subsidies.

I was pleased to see that San Francisco’s Van Jones was tapped to give one of the keynote speeches at Netroots Nation, the liberal bloggers’ conference that took place last week.

I was less pleased to see that Gavin Newsom managed to finagle the privilege of introducing Van. I’ve known Van for a long time, and while we haven’t agreed on everything, when we disagreed, more often than not, he was right. I cannot say the same for Newsom.

YOU’RE INVITED!! Queens, Studs, Femmes, Trannies, Twinks, Soft Butches, And all fighters for social justice and fabulousness! COME TO THE ‘Left OUT Party: A Genderful Gayla!’

At Union Square directly across from the Westin St. Francis (where HRC’s gala is happening simultaneously) San Francisco’s LGBT communities will celebrate inclusiveness and the multitude of gender expression and variation in our LGBT communities!

At the Left OUT Party, we will honor the legal team that won the CA Supreme Court marriage decision, hear from politicians and community leaders, and feature a spectrum of genderfabulous performers and Mistress of Ceremonies, Annie Danger.

Supervisor Peskin with SF Labor Council President Mike Casey

Tonight Sup Daly announced that Supervisor Aaron Peskin has 19 votes to be the Chair of the SF Democratic Party. Game over.

Call Off the Dogs, Scott Wiener

Over the past few weeks there has been a great fuss over who will be the next Chair of the Democratic Party. For a little bit of the behind-the-scenes math, there are 24 elected and 10 superdelegates now on the DCCC. Therefore 18 is the magic number to win the Chair vote and 17 guarantees at least a tie. The progressive choice for Chair, Aaron Peskin, has already received 19 commitments.

Great news! Public Defender Jeff Adachi just came in as another endorser of the Left Out Party/HRC Boycott.

State Board of Equalization Member Betty Yee has signed on to the boycott of HRC. She joins a long list of politicians, including State Senator Carole Migden, Assembly Member Mark Leno, City Attorney Dennis Herrera, SF Supervisors Bevan Dufty and Tom Ammiano, Board President Aaron Peskin, Supervisor Chris Daly, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi,Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, President of the School Board Mark Sanchez and School Board Members Jane Kim and Eric Mar. One of my personal favorites endorsers is Stuart Milk, a gay nephew of Harvey Milk. Some of the organizations include the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, And Castro for All, The Trans March, The Lou Sullivan Society, FTM International, FTM San Buenaventura Chapter, and the SF Labor Council. The SF Pride at Work chapter and And Castro for All are doing the lead organizing. You can still sign the petition by clicking here.

Join us at the… GRAND OPENING OF AVALOS ‘08 HEADQUARTERS

Where: 4802 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94112
When: Saturday, July 19, 10:30AM
Phone: 415-584-8584
John is running for District 11 Supervisor to fight for working families. John is a longtime Excelsior district resident and has been a union organizer and an advocate for children and youth. As Supervisor, John will fight to bring our voices to City Hall and make D11 the best place to raise our families!

JOIN US in celebrating the opening of Avalos ‘08 Campaign Headquarters! Have a coffee and pastry with us then head out to collect signatures to get John on the November ballot!
10:30am - Coffee, Pastries and some words by John

July 12, 2008

To the Board of the Harvey Milk Club LGBT Democratic Club:

Many of you are aware of H Brown’s “swiftboat” campaign of slander aimed at me and my
candidacy for District 3 Supervisor.

Those of you who attended the recent District 3 forum hosted by the Harvey Milk Club know
that H Brown was so out of control that he was asked to leave the forum.

When the rubber hit the road for people, he screeched out of there

By Robert Haaland
Published in the SF Bay Guardian

OPINION This isn’t the first time it’s happened. Most politicians break promises. That’s the nature of politics. But when someone signs a pledge — twice — saying he won’t privatize city services, when he holds himself out as a champion of anti-privatization and then goes directly against that stand —well, it kind of makes you wonder.