A Paper In Crisis

Last Saturday, we were riding the 14-Mission toward the waterfront and the Giants ballpark, and we passed the white edifice that houses the Chronicle, to which I am currently still subscribed, if more tenuously so than I used to be.

It was fitting, I thought, that a long crack runs down the face of the building, right through the middle of the fancy lettering identifying the tenants.

At least the Chronicle doesn't have as blatant a conservative leaning and as poor an editorial staff as the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa. I bought a copy of that paper on my last trip up the coast, and it was awful. Some major typos, and an icky religious/conservative slant.

So I have not got around to canceling the Chronicle yet, but please, Chronicle, fire the hell out of Willie Brown. I glanced at his column briefly this morning to see if there was any improvement, and what I saw in his response to Gavin Newsom's gubernatorial candidacy was the following: "The current knock on our mayor is that he's not at home enough. Let me just say that home cookin' in my opinion has always been overrated."

That's not a relevant answer to the criticism of Newsom's absence from key budget meetings and other points of contention. It means nothing, all style, no substance. He's just trying to be clever, and it is really old. Don't name Third Street after him; find some cul de sac or dead end street.

Am I partly jealous that he gets to write his self-indulgences in a newspaper and I don't? Sure, but that doesn't mean he has anything useful to say.