Become a sustaining member of the
Commonwealth Club for just $10 a month. And we ready for this? Oh yeah. Not really. I know you get nervous talking in front of crowds. Hello and welcome to the Commonwealth
Club here in San Francisco. My name is Roger Mithi,
anchor at NBC Bay Area News. It is great to see so many familiar
faces and new faces and this place is so special. I think you can all agree with us in terms of just making our community
better and learning from each other. We've got a great night. Had obviously a few reminders
before we get started here. Tonight's program is being recorded,
so we kindly ask you right now to silence your cell phones
if you haven't done so already for the duration of this program. Also,
if you have any questions for Mayor Brown and I know
all of you are going to have questions, you should see some a note card
there on your seat. Please feel free to fill that out and
send it to one of the runners in the room. If you're joining us online. There's a note, question and answer box
there on the YouTube chat function. So welcome to everyone online as well. It is now my pleasure to introduce
tonight's guest here at the Commonwealth Club,
the Honorable Willie Brown. Mayor Brown is dedicated. His life really has to civil rights and public service
at the local, state and national levels. He served as the 41st mayor
of the great city here in San Francisco and was a multi term member
of the California State Assembly, where he was also the speaker. Today
he is the chairman and CEO of the Willie Brown Jr Institute on Politics
and Public Service, an independent nonprofit organization
providing a forum for nonpartizan education, debate
and discussion of public policy issues to expand the expertize available
to stakeholders from the political, academic, business
and scientific communities. That's a lot what you're doing there. His institute is also one of the first in the country
to focus on local government. Mr. Mayor, nice to have you. Nice to see you here
in the Commonwealth Club. Nice to see you, too. And as a matter of fact,
you left one thing out. What did I leave out? You and I hooked up together almost, what, 15 years. Ago, 2000 and. Eight, 2008. And we were runners. That's when San Francisco was
one of the stops for the Olympic torch. And the two of us were part of that group of people doing the run. And the interesting part of that
is that when the race for the U.S. Senate that just occurred in Georgia November of last year, the person that was with us in that torch
carrying activity year was none other than the guy that lost
that Senate race. All of you remember that great
football player, Herschel Walker. We could have told everybody that he could win the race
because he couldn't win the run again. And if you recall, that was 2008. There were a few protesters here
because the games, the Olympics were in Beijing
and there were some civil rights and some human rights
activist and protestor. So running that torch was challenging the mayor and I and Herschel Walker,
Natalie Coughlin, Evander Holyfield. A bunch of people were being driven
around the city to find a place
to run in between all the protesters. So good to see you again. That's all that for you, too, Mr. Mayor. This has been almost I'm looking over
just my own memory here. And it's been almost 20 years since you've
been the active mayor of San Francisco. Yet you still remain
as one of the most powerful and influential voices in politics
here in the Bay Area and beyond. Why is that? And why do you want to stay so current
relevant here? Well, you talked about my institute
and the institute so that you taxpayers know not one nickel. The institute operation comes from anybody
but me. No public money? No, no, no. No public dollars. None of the above. I chose to stay active. And because local government has, in my opinion,
always been shortchanged not only by a appropriations
for local government, but also by authorizations on the policy side of local government. For an example. You know, occasionally now we hear about people
shooting at each other, shooting at each other,
in cars, on the streets, and etc. Almost nothing at the local level
can be done about that. That's a state and a federal issue. That's just one example of how handicapped
local government really is. And so when I served as mayor, I tried my best to bridge the gap by interpreting the rules. And to that end, I am doing my best for the mayor of Oakland
for the mayor of San Francisco, for all the previous mayors that have been in and around the Bay Area
since I became the mayor. I share with them how I did it. You have a great gift
now of perspective and help us understand here,
because we hear and live and see the doom and gloom of San Francisco
in this great city. Let's go back in 50 years. Is this the worst it's been
or is this just another down point that we can recover from? I think it's just a down point. I'm sure that it's not the worst,
but I don't remember anything negative about this city that would cause me to be in the group
of people discussing doom and gloom. There's just no such thing. I am around the city, probably as much as anybody,
if not more, every day. And I will tell you
that it is still as interesting, as complicated, as challenging
as it has always been. And I am constantly dedicated to the idea that those complications are going to be unraveled
and really unravel by us collectively. You didn't deal with the homelessness
and drug use to this level when you were mayor. Nobody anywhere has dealt
with homelessness and and mental illness and poverty as mayors having to do throughout America. It doesn't matter what city or in. And when I served as mayor trying to learn how to be a mayor
because I really didn't know how to be a mayor, and I'm not sure
I still know how to be a mayor. But I can tell you, I had spent more than 30 years
at the legislative level, and I was really contemptuous
of local government. I always thought they should be abolished and we ought to run everything
from the state level. And then suddenly I found myself
hanging local government, and that meant that I had to adjust
to accordingly. And I did adjust accordingly. I did so by holding what's called Summit. I hope I can learn from the public and from experts
from all across the country and from other mayors
from all across the country. And one of the homeless, one of the deals that I wanted to do was to address homelessness. In preparation for every summit,
I always spoke to the best experts I could get my hands on before
I would do the summit and before I would select other people to participate in preparation through that process. I came to the conclusion
that homelessness was an impossible problem to be solved by one unit of local government. It's just not absolutely possible. So I canceled the summit. The homeless advocates went crazy because they really thought
that I should have gone ahead with this. And no. When I do events,
I do events with the idea that at the end
we're going to have an agenda that we're going to adhere
to and try to get done. Homelessness is a combination of poverty. Big time poverty can't be solved by local government,
by one county or local government. It probably can't be solved
by multiple counties of local government unless they have an unusual amount
of cooperation. And that unusual amount of corporatization
includes somewhat of a working relationship
with the state that has greater resources
and greater options to do things. And then secondly, at the whole business of the federal government and all of its mighty wealth being made available for certain programs
and policies, all those are things you need to start right out of the box
addressing homelessness. And then you suddenly discover,
Wait a minute, homelessness is made up of certain
components in the population. One of those components in the population,
of course, those persons
who suffer from certain mental issues. It was, I don't know, 40 years ago
when a guy named Reagan as a governor of say that California closed
all the state institutions. He did so
because many of our well-meaning, talented, bright, able people in the social service
world was convinced that they could do a better job
of being helpful to people who were challenged on the mental side
if they had them locally, if they had them near where they lived,
if they had them when they had their relatives,
if they had them, where there were people that they knew,
if they had them, where they go to church, if they ever did go to church,
where they go to movie houses and what have you, because they said
go in other places and relocate in. You're not going to be able
to get it right. And that's
why we've have these institutions statewide that people
that weren't like the Napa State Hospital, let's do it at the local level. Reagan bought into it
three members of the legislature who might have been Petrus and Sean Short from Stockton, Petraeus from Alameda
County, and Linderman from Lucky in Otto came up with this great proposal
never funded one, not one nickel came from
the state of the feds to do something about replacing Napa State Hospital
and all the other facilities. Yeah. And then even worse, the veterans administer Nation failed to understand what was a real challenge for people
coming back from wars with them killing other people
and doing horrible things in the name of all of what
you do in the military. Yet they were not doing what they needed
to do to offer assistance to these people,
especially through local government. And then finally, we were in the process
suddenly of being exposed to drugs, drugs, and we had never heard of
in some cases before. And there were things being overprescribed
and people were developing addiction problems. I did not proceed with my summit on homelessness because I that stage of the game knew that the components
that made up what we call homelessness was so complicated
and so ultimately dependent upon things that were beyond the control of one city,
beyond the control of one mayor, that I would be misleading the public if I did what we currently do
about homelessness. So here we are now, and I know you consult
and are still very close to Mayor Breed, as you were saying as well. I'm having dinner with it tonight. So when you see her in 90 minutes
from now, I mean,
and the multiple conversations you've had, how does she get out of this,
whether it's a public relations tsunami? Because when you were mayor,
there wasn't Twitter and Instagram to say, all this is happening. San Francisco is a horrid city. How does she get out of this
and how does she change it? Because something's not been working
for the last year for her. Well, first and foremost, I've got
a number of friends in the media world who really sometimes get upset when I talk about the need for journalists to be totally
and completely candid and honest. And if they're not, they ought to say,
we're running our game like Fox News. Fox News doesn't anybody. Fox News says
we are doing what we want to do for Fox News
and how we want to do it. And, you know, you have to be out of your mind
to think they're telling the truth. So if they own any of what they do. And so I have always been really forceful in interacting with the news media
and with media generally, because the First Amendment,
which gives the ultimate protection to the world of journalism until the world of information and the way it's done, that all
to carry with it the highest standard, a requirement for accuracy
and in fact, o for honesty. And for there are organizations
I'd like to say it might as well that we do follow those rules. Well, let me tell you
what's being said about San Francisco. There's a lot of good and there's
a lot of issues and we stand by them. But what is means. Yeah, I will not specify which of the news organizations deserve to be put out, but. But nonetheless,
the reality is of the shared reality that there is news organizations or media
or the public or people or other cities
that say something about San Francisco. But how does the current mayor deal
with this? We can talk about the she. Is dealing with it
really, in my opinion, extremely well. She is pointing out the inadequacy is in the information flow that is coming other than from her. Understand that you now no longer
have just the world of journalism publishing,
but the so-called social media publishers. Yeah, full time. And there is nobody that holds them
accountable for anything they say. And sometimes what they say becomes what is needed to be addressed more than anything else, even though
there's may not be any accuracy at all, and they may not be the end product
of any research or any testing, etc. So may read like every other mayor
in this country, it's got to deal with this
and they've got to deal directly with it. And they cannot bite their tongue and they cannot think about electability. They've got to say
to the public where there is things that they can do or should do and where they're things
they can't do, period, you. Know. And I think they should not do. And she is now doing that as eloquently as any other mayor in this country. Was there a change recently that she said,
okay, now I've got to shift my focus, shift
my strategy. Let them breeze a nice person. She's not like I am. You know, she I wouldn't tolerate 1/10 of what she tolerates and have tolerated. Plus, when I served as mayor, we were not burdened
with a board of supervisors that constantly and with regularity, tries
their best in many cases to usurp the mayor and the rules contained here. In the minute I left the job of mayor, they immediately change the rules and we, the public,
allowed them to get away with it. For an example, this nonsense that they came up with
about ranked choice voting. That is part of how they have orchestrated the business of allowing them to get elected
because they can't get elected if you get down to just two people, they find themselves at odds with the result that they deserve. Secondly,
they came up with the terrible idea of having the taxpayers
pay for their campaigns. We know pay for the campaigns you raise. You get me to give you 500 bucks
because we don't want anybody dominating and we pick up the tab for all that money
you spend. And we don't really regulate
how you spend that money as closely as donors regulate it, how you spend donated money. And so you suddenly have these same people
that change the method of how you get elected through
what's called ranked choice voting. And they did so because we really believe
that was what they said. We really believe that run off elections are just expensive
and they don't need runoff elections. Well,
I beat Frank Jordan in a runoff election. I beat and you know, the second guy on my own in a runoff election, nobody has been an awful
since then practically. And believe me and we never
should have allowed ourselves to fall for the idea that there should not be
an opportunity for us. They have the last two people stand them,
you know, and we evaluate each one in their debates
and all those kinds of things. They change all the rules. Then they went even further. They said, the mayor appoints
commissioners some I don't know, a couple hundred
commissioners are appointed. Some of those commissioners
really help make public policy. Some of those commissioners
run really good businesses like the Port in the airport
and the PUC and others. They now have changed the rules there. And you and me,
the public have allowed them to do so because they said, okay,
if there are five members on that body to be appointed,
the mayor can appoint three. We're going to appoint the other two. But we also are going to have the right to tell the mayor
we don't like the three he appointed. We don't have to approve them. Nobody improves their two. But then the 11 members of the board
they get a chance to take away. So the mayor ends up in a position today where she has to shop the candidate before she exposes the candidate
for pre-clearance purposes. Most people don't want to go through that. So I'm telling you,
the way the city is now organized, all because of the business
of trying to gain influence and policymaking
without voter authorization. A majority vote up? Yeah, they had voter ID,
but not majority voter authorization. And so the results are you find
London breed and every other mayor holding the job and they are serving at the mercy
literally because of the limitations that have been imposed
by this collection of supervisors. We ought to we don't need 11 supervisors. And they're all on TV. Let me assure you one thing. There are 58 counties, only one that has more than five supervisors. So, you know,
San Francisco is really kind of a warped operation
with all of the kind of things. You're saying with such intricacy. You're saying things that that are that are eye
opening to so many of us in this room. And then I get back on, okay,
so what are we going to do about it? So so we talk about the homelessness
and the crime and the drugs. But but now we have big business leaving. As you know, the Westfield is shutting down the movie
theaters, leaving Gap, Banana Republic. All these stores are are leaving downtown. What do we do with that retail? What do we do with that? Retail retailers,
let's. Deal with each one individually. The movie houses, people don't go to movies anymore. Sure, but people stay home. What you watch lots of watch programs
that have been screened by Paramount. This is screened by Netflix so suddenly. But this is not a San Francisco
only problem. But right now
we're just talking about San Francisco. I understand that's what I'm telling you,
the unfairness associated with it. Because when people and believe me,
I can assure you I'm a shopper. Yes. You you don't say there's one place that I stop shopping because of the quality of the products
nostrums. Yeah, there was nothing in Nordstrom's
that I wanted. I didn't even want to get my makeup from Nordstrom. Oh, to show you how so so well, that. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me go on. They were not doing
they were not offering what they needed. When they first came here, I was the mayor. I authorized the modifications of that piece of land. That's,
by the way, owned by the school district. Yeah. So virtually controlled
by the school district. And at one time when it was the emporium with a wonderful yard
on top of the building that allowed you to bring your kids
for all the kinds of things kids do well and at a place similar to a beach. And that's what it was. It people went downtown to shop because they couldn't shop in Walnut
Creek. That wasn't nothing over there. Oh, they couldn't shop. And, you know, some other places. Suddenly all these people started who owned and had the investment
opportunities and start moving and invest and in such a way that they really wanted to get more of the business than they previously had
or they already had. And so the results
when they made the decision to put a mall in downtown San Francisco,
no malls should be in this city. This is not a city for malls. You can't malls have to have to free parking, serving and free parking in San Francisco. And so the the the mall appetite is a ten forum. Yeah. And that's where it should be. It should not be here. You bring up great points
and four for every one of the audience. If you didn't know malls, shopping centers are doing big business,
but not in major cities. If you go to Stanford, Walnut Creek, San
Jose, Santana Row, there are big business. So now with that said,
we have these shells of stores here. What do we do? Well, I can assure you
that people on that property, they're got to find a way to use it and they're going to find a way
to make it productive. That's the way the world works
in a true democracy where the economy is not subject to government total and complete control, but only for safety purposes
and for honesty purposes, etc.. So I you know, I'd like to shed a tear
for, you know, Nordstroms what is hard I do for the people, for the people who work there. And then let me tell you another one. I'll give you another example. Why would anybody that runs something called Whole Foods that charges a fortune for every item, every banana charges a lot more than my corner grocery store. But to put my corner grocery
store out of business and the prices and all the antics that go with it and they put it where it's bound to fail because none of the people on the streets of homelessness
and all those from Hey Don't Shop,
at least they don't shop with money. Yeah. At Whole Foods. And all of those knew that. And so I'm telling you that the the world of commercialization is in San Francisco is limping, but they are, in fact, in many cases, responsible for their own limping
because of the nature of what they did. Now, on the other hand, the pandemic really raised hell with this whole country. But in particularly,
they raised hell with cities. When you start sanctioning this business of so-called stay at home work, I think that's what they call it. Something like that. Work from home? Yeah. Remote. That's the term people have become addicted to remote. People are no longer coming downtown where they used to work and hang out with, you know, what they will do at the end of the day
when they would go a happy hour. They don't do any of that stuff now. They do it in their own neighborhoods
because they're not working. You know,
they claim that they're getting paid like they're working,
but they're not really working. And, you know, you're.
Talking to the wrong guy. I got to go to work every day. So, so do I. I've got to go to work. And I want to by the way,
I want to go to work as part of who I am. I really love going to work
and I do it every day. Yeah. And I walk to work and insist
that the people work for me. And, you know, they sit the federal government
came up with this brilliant idea. Why don't we provide some incentive loans
to all these businesses? Wait a minute. Why are you kidding me? I'm only on as business guys. Do you think are out there? You know, and you can give money to now
when you got about, what, 80 years of fraud we're trying to unravel because of all those loans that we gave them. Oh, that we lent them. And we told them
we would do some forgiveness, but they had to keep paying
their employees. Many of them stopped paying them. They remodel their buildings. They changed all kinds of things
that they were doing because suddenly they had financing
without paying for it, period. I am telling you,
it is not the fault of cities that their office buildings are vacant. It is a combination of all those things
that resulted in that, including the people that own those office
buildings, the offices that were there, and the workers that previously went
to work and are no longer going to work. Yeah. So when you say London Breed did that,
no way. Linden. We did that. Are you kidding me? London Breed
did what she was supposed to do. She said, Let's stop
standing next to each other so we don't spread germs,
we don't spread viruses, we don't do any of those things
because that's what they all department said we ought to do. Nobody question the health department. I didn't even question
my whole department. I tried to get the vaccination
as quick as I could, but I didn't question the health department. Nobody did. Suddenly,
mayors are suffering from decisions that they had nothing to do
with the federal government and the health world made the decisions
you had to shut down. All of your buildings are now closed. Those buildings no close unless leases
nobody is paying any rent. So suddenly those buildings are empty. But nobody is going to work. Nobody is going to work. The number of Starbucks are no longer
needed. It used to be a Starbucks needed on
every corner because we all bought coffee. We don't do that anymore because,
you know, so Starbucks are reduced. Even my favorite subway is gone, you know. So now all because there's
no multiplicity of people. But I have to go look for somebody and the clip my nails, it used to be
there was a nail clipper everywhere. Now all that is altered itself. And so we are in a situation now where the creativity of the people who earns millions of dollars
being clever at selling, supplying and doing all those things,
they just got their back on their jobs and do it again. Yeah. You were so instrumental
you along with Mayor Lee, who came after
you and just bringing and revitalizing so many areas of San Francisco
in that process with all the tech buildings
and the companies in the ballpark, did did the city lose some of its soul
that we've grown grown to love? No, no, no. City did not lose any of us. So for one example, the biggest project that we did on the development
side of the city is Mission Bay. Yeah. So what's in Mission Bay now? 6900 units of housing for people
who work primarily in Mission Bay. 1700 of those units were on the affordable side
and they had to be built first. And then the remainder of the field area was to have as much open
space as Golden Gate Park, but not shaped in any fashion
like Golden Gate Park. So that every cluster of places
where people live would have open space. That part of the town all knew it had all of the things
that you would want. And an ideal place. Because we build when we build it,
we build the things that you love before we build anything else. And we made it so that the design there
no drive through. You can't drive through Mission Bay. We made sure we wanted you
to walk through Mission Bay, and we did not want you to treat it like you treat all of Third
Street, like you treat all of Gary Streets. You're an example. And we did that and we did it. And the only commercial facility
that we put out there, I was gone by the time they got this one Chase Center, that's the commercial facility
in Mission Bay. Gas has a market there,
but he's got a great market there. But it's a market
that is friendly, the mission bay. And so the Giants are trying
to repeat that process at Pier 70. So there are and we did Mission Bay and a way in which San Francisco's
unaccustomed to doing things somewhere. We came up with the idea years ago,
apparently, that you ought to just not complete
anything in your lifetime or mine. We in Mission Bay, we ignored all the rules. We blew planners
back to where they came from. We literally did Mission Bay the way Mission Bay
should have been done and it is and we were going to do
the rest of the city that way. Ed Lee had the same vision. Newsome and part had that vision. You know,
we could have held on to the 40 Niners. Newsome lost the Niners,
but we could have held it. Does he know that? Why does he know that? Oh, sure. I can get him on the phone right now. He acknowledges it. Yeah, because you may or may not remember,
but we had a vote there. A lot of people here. I remember we have the stadium plan,
everything all situated. And then my friend the Barlow got popped for messing around
and Louisiana trying to get a dog track going
and the NFL kicked him out on the basis that he was not fit to hang out with people who run the NFL. And and and the results were that his sister who took over she took over the family, kept the team, but
he couldn't have anything to do with it because they were so, you know, pristine
with their integrity and all that. And I'm to tell us something,
was there a dinner, a lunch, a meeting, a conversation where it just
finally kind of broke down that that that you can share with us
with regarding the 40 Niners leaving here? Well, yes, there was an occasion, John York, the father and husband of Eddie's sister,
who became the real owner before his son, was old enough
to take over and run the operation and we were doing one of those deals at the Hyde Regency and Diane Good, mayor and a good senator announce when they were told that their other place is looking at the 49, as she said,
they tried to move the 49 is from San Francisco. We were legislatively bar
you from using the name San Francisco you can call them the forum
and but not San Francisco. And everybody in the place
stood up and applauded her. I am seated next to John York and he, of course, has already disliked San Francisco for whatever reasons,
I don't know. But he didn't move. Well, now I'm stuck. How do you not move next to the guy
that is the husband to the owner? And he is being insulted by Diane
and all these other people. So I decided I just said, do now. And he turned to me
and he said, I'm leaving. And he did. And that was the end of the
for the Niners in San Francisco. And it was the end of my almost 50 of being a season ticket holder because I do not believe football should be played in Santa Claire, even though that's where you know. No. Now, where else can you get stories like but at the Commonwealth Club, we've got some great questions here. Let me read through from from the audience
and from our YouTube listeners as well. Viewers. Mr. Mayor, what is the best piece
of professional advice that you've received and who was it from? Some guy named Phil Burton who was a congressman. Yeah, when he gave me advice. No, he wasn't. He was a state legislator
when he gave me the advice. And the advice was, you are natural for politics. Forget
all that money you're making as a lawyer run for office in 1962, and I promptly lost. But I didn't stop. I believed in what Phil said, and I ran in 64 against the same guy. I lost the first round by 1000 votes. I beat him by 4000 votes. In the way we beat him was we made sure that everybody who was going to vote are eligible
to vote actually met Willie Brown and we became a brand. Yeah,
and that brand is lasting until today. I still remember the mayor,
the hats and the T-shirts. What's the most challenging issue facing the Democratic Party? The most challenging issue facing us is to make sure that Biden wins the presidency and that Trump gets an orange jumpsuit. From the same person. What's the most challenging issue
facing the Republican Party? Same thing. They unfortunately for them, they cannot get rid of Trump. He is stuck to them and they are stuck to him, period. They like to get where they're in,
but they they fear politicians. And that's I fear the same. Anything because his the people that are devoted to him
are similar to the people who started the Civil War. There's no rationality at all. No human kindness, no humanity. They really are. You the people who were on January six, 2021, they were deadly serious about what they did and they did it the way they wanted to do it, and
they are still doing it exactly that way. He has contributed to some of it because he put people on the Supreme Court that still espouse his views in many cases of, you know,
some of those people on the Supreme Court like Thomas and Alito
and a couple of others shouldn't be there. But nevertheless, they are. And and they, too. Or Trump ites. And it's just a horrible idea for them to be burdened where they cannot even logically discuss making a decision. In a democracy where we discuss and talk about and factually address, they are not really permitted to do that,
you know, period. They are stuck with him and that is a problem for them. That could have years of implications. Another question from our audience. We have a historical movement right now
for reparations for black Americans here at the state and local level. What's your view
on the viability of reparations? Do you support it? Well, I had been looking for a long time for my 40 acres and a mule, and I know exactly which 40 acres that are. Do me posts 1865 when finally we got word the Emancipation
Proclamation had been signed post 1865 till 1994, 1950, 1954. We tolerated in this country noncompliance with all aspects. I was supposed to be a level of equality that had not been and still hasn't been granted to a multiplicity of people, but particularly black people
who had been enslaved. And so the reparation issue
that's being addressed and I think Governor Newsom signed
a measure that created an entity that's doing the work that needs to be done. I'm certain
that they're going to come forward with some form of a program that will translate into a method by which all of us will embrace, as we did when we corrected what we did to the Japanese
in the Second World War, when we provided ultimately no many, many years later. But we did provide some indication of some payment of some sort that would, I guess, in some way temper the disgust with this country that those who were taken out
of their homes and their farms and wear and put in concentration facilities, etc., black folk are entitled to the same kind of attention. And that's what I think the group who's now
looking at at the state level and at the city
level are attempting to do. It's going to be really tough because. Historical records
are hard to come by in terms of lineage. Here. Well, you know, when you think about I started with my 40 acres and a mule, you know what that's worth today? You have any idea what it could be worth? And if all of us were old,
all the black people were old, 48 mule, there'd be a lot of people who've been
passing them that would be coming home. They, I, I used to be white and from. So that issue has got to be addressed
in a far more serious way. And it will be and it should be. And I'm just glad
I don't have the responsibility to do it. It's going to be an intricate process
and complex from our audience to San Francisco today,
if you like, New York of the 1970s, I'm guessing the reference to crime in the city. I you know, I didn't know anything about New York
except what I read. And I
now know that reliability of what I read may not be the best source of information. So for comparative purposes, I am not sure that
I can answer the question whether or not San Francisco is similar to New York. Two of my children. When high school, New York and college, and it was at the end of the seventies
when they transitioned out of San Francisco
because I made the mistake of saying, I will pay your cost wherever you can get it admitted. What a mistake. Because my children, even when they
now they have got to go to law school, it was taking advantage of that same awful but they moved to New York. The two two girls move to New York. And it was at the exact time that the real estate was considered really available because people were allegedly not on to live in New York,
not want to do business in New York. And so the Brown family borrowed some money and
and bought a co-op. I didn't know anything about. Co-ops still don't bend. But I got to tell you
that it was a great investment. And because by the time I sold it,
when they had graduated and all that kind of stuff,
it was five times what I paid for it. I got five times what I paid for it,
which then funded part of my existence
here in San Francisco. So I highly recommend to people that they discuss the possibility
of San Francisco being in the same place as New York
was by some property and wait. I like that. A few more minutes before we wrap up and we're really
getting some great questions here. I like this one. Several Bay Area cities like Oakland
and San Jose have new mayors. What advice would you give them? Each of those two cities are a part of a nine county area. That's what the Bay Area really is. Nine counties. We screwed up badly
when we allowed counties to opt out of the transportation system. That should have linked
everybody together. I should be able to get on a train
and show up in Santa Rosa in 45 minutes. But I can't go that way at all because that part of the county counties
opted out. The counties it will only three counties
said, okay, go ahead, build a transit system that connects us, but only the train connection. We'll have our own bus deal. So Alan Lee,
this deal has its own bus service. San Mateo County
still has its own bus service. And, you know, it's just awful that we did not force ourselves and discipline ourselves and connect
all of these places by a form of public transportation,
similar to what we did in the three counties,
alameda Contra Costa in San Francisco. Now, Santa Clara is trying to come on without paying full freight for participation. And obviously,
since we don't have any land for an airport,
we have our airports out there. And we wanted to make sure that our train
service went to our airport, San Mateo County benefited by by our train system, and they paid nothing for it. So I would tell those two mayors, you better watch your neighbors. That's the advice. They will ride on you if you let them. And I should say for everyone
in the audience and listening online as well,
if you just Google the original BART map before all the counties said don't
come in our neighborhood, it's amazing. It went down to San Jose.
It went across this way. It went up north. Yeah, south. It's a it's a full outline of the Bay Area
and then politics got involved. That's right. And when they did, they pulled the plug
and we ended up with only three. And now we're actually going to have
five because San Mateo County living off of us got access to the system
because of the location of our airport. And then obviously a San Jose needed
for its employment purposes and what have you needed access to the service
and it made sense in a way. So we're going down to San Jose
and the mayor who preceded him. But now that we've got at least five,
four or five players who really believe in the transit system,
they really ought to be about telling Newsom use the transit dollars to extract out of the nine, which should have been
a part of the system. And I know we can't do nine,
we can't do rail now in some because it's too costly,
but we can use water if we would do a ferry service that had the same kind of components to it
when we were trying to do the transit system, yeah, you end up
we would have 50, probably 50 places where you could bring in the boat and we would have with some regularity. Yeah. The water taxes would be
what we would be using. For example, if I want to go to Vallejo now, the highway is so crowded
you're better off getting on the ferry boat right here. And you want to go to Benicia? Go in ferryboat? Yeah, you're. Right. And go to Vallejo and take a taxi. And so we really are at the stage where these new mayors join with London Breed and some of the other mayors
who are in this region and the ones who would love that joining together
are the mayors in the wine country. MAN Are they interested in hooking up with transit
because they have been so dedicated to no more than two lanes anywhere in the wine country they want and they have coming up
now with those train trips. You know those. Yeah. Oh, yeah, oh yeah. They're they're getting to be desperate
for that kind of and and these two mayors, the new mayors,
along with the existing mayor, really, it could be a part of a mayor's revolution that gets us back to where we need to be for the nine counties
to be accessible all the way. Now, our city in Alameda County is currently accessible. Two final questions here. You brought up another former
mayor of San Francisco, the political future for former Mayor
Gavin Newsom. Governor Newsom here. He has probably the best potential shot of the presidency from a governor's
standpoint in the country, period. He really does have a great potential. And Biden will,
you know, and Harris will be reelected. Newsom currently serves,
I think, called 26. I think his term ends in 26. He's got to find something else to do. And I don't know what he will. But of course,
you got to stay in the game. You can't build bail out
and then think you can come back at some distant time. He's 55, so you've got plenty that. The 2028 would be right up easily. Yeah. And final question, how often do you shop? How many ties and hats do you have? Because and let me say this, every time
I'm with the mayor, it's a different set of socks, a different tie, a different top
hat, a different everything. And I wear suits.
We're the last two guys in the Bay Area. They still wear suits every day. Well, you know, it's interesting because a I only put on what I put on today because I was seeing you literally. I was seeing you. And I get that my office and wait a minute, I thought I would change my shoes. You know, when a guy gets addicted
to the point where you don't. But if you've but you have on the shoes
that I had on that are orange with this outfit. Yeah, but I changed to the brown suede because I thought
maybe you would be wearing this. I knew you going to wear a tie
and a dress shirt. I knew that because I see you on the air
every day, all decked. And I don't I. I do my best not to make my friends
and relatives. I'm comfortable. And in this town, people don't wear ties
anymore. It's amazing. In this state. It's like they sell ties. We're we're the last two guys. Yeah, we are it. But I love it. I well, I have a wardrobe of everything
and you're asked the question how often do a job. Yeah, as often as I can find the time period. And I will say I thought about my wardrobe
coming in and I said, look at my shoes, let me get one of my fancy shoes. But I knew there was no way I could out
fancy you. So I went the other way. I went down to sneakers. The socks beat my socks mine. Just drive. You also check. I like that. You've got a dinner appointment
with the current mayor, so we're going to let you go. Thank you for all of you
for tuning in and being here in person. And most importantly,
thank you to Mayor Brown. It is such a pleasure to just spend some time with you
and get your insight and your humor and your candid comments about the state
of San Francisco and what's happening with the species. All right.
