Lee Heidhues 10.11.2022
San Francisco’s hometown newspaper, the Hearst owned Chronicle, is taking a gratuitous victory lap while taking a shot at the latest political scandal roiling La La Land down south.
In short, three Los Angeles City Council members and a labor leader were taped, during a private meeting discussing the City’s redistricting, disparaging Blacks and Asians.
The recording was a conversation among Nury Martinez, the Council president; Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, council members; and Ron Herrera, the leader of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, that took place in October 2021 during intense negotiations over City Council redistricting.
Ms. Martinez is heard comparing the Black child of Councilman Mike Bonin to a “changuito,” Spanish for little monkey, and joking with Mr. de León that Mr. Bonin carries the child around like a designer handbag. Those were only two of the offensive comments in the 80-minute recording, which included ugly remarks describing recent migrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca and disparaging remarks about the trustworthiness of white liberals and a councilwoman who is of South Asian descent. (excerpted from The New York Times 10.11.2022)
While it’s all well and good to splash this scandal across the front page, San Francisco cannot be proud of its own political goings on.
The following paragraph buried in the Chronicle Op Ed succinctly takes down San Francisco.
Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 10.11.2022
By – Justin Ray a Los Angeles-based journalist who has published works for the Los Angeles Times and Columbia Journalism Review.
If you live in San Francisco, you may believe your political scene is the most volatile in the state and there are understandable reasons why. Mayor London Breed is embroiled in a scandal following the revelation that she has requested her appointees to sign undated letters of resignation.
There have been numerous other incidents among city leadership, including the bitter recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
And the revelation that his successor Brooke Jenkins was paid more than $140,000 by a nonprofit organization linked to his recall. And Breed is no stranger to controversies herself, like her attending a party at upscale restaurant French Laundry in the throes of a pandemic and $23,000 in fines related to her ethics violations.
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