New Mayor Must Govern a City of Conflicting Ideals

As he prepares to take office as San Francisco’s new mayor, millionaire entrepreneur and Supervisor Gavin Newsom faces a sharply divided city and a Board of Supervisors majority that backed his opponent.

A restaurateur and wine shop owner who favors pinstriped suits, Newsom has vowed to end what critics call the patronage politics that earned his mentor -- outgoing Mayor Willie Brown -- so much enmity in recent years. He is already sketching out plans to improve city schools and bolster small business. And between handshakes with supporters in Chinatown’s bustling fish and vegetable markets Wednesday, Newsom ticked off one of his early goals: “reaching across the ideological divide to bring this city together.”

But behind Tuesday night’s close contest is a San Francisco with starkly conflicting visions of itself. And signs are that conciliation won’t come easy.

The city of homeowners eager to clean the streets of panhandlers, boost flagging tourism and staunch the exodus of big business won a slim victory when the 36-year-old Newsom prevailed.

But the 47% of voters -- many of them young renters -- who threw their support to Board of Supervisors president and Green Party member Matt Gonzalez see a different city: one that prides itself on a commitment to boosting the rights of the have-nots.

Whether Newsom can bridge those visions while working with a board majority already hostile to him was an open question pondered by many here Wednesday.

“All of this ‘I’m going to reach out,’ and ‘We’re going to dance in tandem’ is said in good faith, but when it comes to the day-to-day grind there has to be more than just lip service,” said longtime Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who lost his bid for the mayor’s office last month when Gonzalez snagged the runoff slot.

“Everybody’s been put on alert that there has to be more of a negotiated dialogue,” Ammiano said. “I think it would be a great idea if Newsom spoke to Greens or appointed some Greens.”

Newsom, who campaigned for more than a year with Brown’s backing, had hoped for a clear mandate to carry out his vision of a cleaner, safer city. Now he must work his way through a city that many feel belongs to them -- not the more privileged interests they feel Newsom represents.

And he must do it at a time when the city is still reeling from the dot-com bust and battling the worst budget crisis in its history.

Newsom’s supporters are “all the people who live in North San Francisco, have money and drive their own cars. I’m a renter, not a property owner,” said Haight-Ashbury resident Oran Scott as he sold clothes in a secondhand store Wednesday on Haight Street.

“Most of the people who supported Gonzalez have ‘Not My President’ on their cars,” said Scott, 23. “Now it’s going to be the same thing, only local: ‘Not My Mayor.’ ”

Across town, at the exclusive Bohemian Club near Union Square, 70-year-old Lowell Sucherman offered a contrasting view. Gonzalez’s strong showing was jarring.

“It’s shocking and troubling. There are deep divisions in the city now,” said Sucherman, a family law attorney who arrived at the club’s dark wood lobby for a luncheon. “I think Newsom and the city are headed for a lot of trouble.”

Gavin Christopher Newsom grew up with a single mother who juggled several jobs -- as a waitress, secretary and paralegal. A fifth-generation San Franciscan, he is the son of an appellate court judge who divorced his mother when Newsom was young. Widely cast as the candidate of the elite, Newsom grew up without much privilege. He attended Santa Clara University, meeting tuition through loans and a partial baseball scholarship.

He got a taste for public service at an early age, directing a graffiti paint-out initiative in the city’s Excelsior neighborhood. While campaigning there before the general election last month, Newsom pointed affectionately to the walls of bakeries and corner stores touched by his own paintbrush years ago.

The stamp of privilege came more recently, as Newsom forged a close relationship with billionaire socialite Gordon Getty. It was Getty who enabled Newsom’s success as an entrepreneur. The close family friend -- who describes himself as Newsom’s godfather, invested in a series of Newsom’s business enterprises beginning a dozen years ago. Among them are his PlumpJack wine, restaurant and resorts.

Getty and his wife also financed Newsom’s posh wedding to Kimberly Guilfoyle, a San Francisco prosecutor and former lingerie model who now provides legal commentary for CNN. The Newsoms’ $3-million Pacific Heights home was purchased in part with a loan from Getty.

Newsom opponents viciously criticized those connections during the campaign. “He Gettys It,” read fliers plastered throughout the city’s Haight-Ashbury district with Newsom’s picture on them.

Newsom is unapologetic about his ties to Getty.

While Getty launched Newsom’s entrepreneurial career, another powerful San Franciscan launched his political career. In 1996, Brown appointed Newsom to the Parking and Traffic Commission. He named him to an open seat on the Board of Supervisors the following year.

But at the height of the dot-com boom, in 2000, an anti-Brown backlash swept the city. Enraged over unchecked development and empowered by a new system of districtwide, rather than citywide, supervisorial elections, an anti-Brown slate of liberal supervisors was swept into office. Among them was Gonzalez.

Brown found himself isolated. And so did Newsom.

Newsom soon ran into problems with his board colleagues, with whom he must now forge a new relationship. Rather than risk rejection from the more liberal board, in 2002 Newsom took his homeless initiative, Care Not Cash, directly to voters. The program would slash general assistance payments to the homeless and provide services instead. Voters approved it overwhelmingly, but a court ordered that only the supervisors could set such policy.

Once back at the board, the plan stalled, as did a compromise version. Last month, Newsom went straight to the voters again, with an anti-panhandling measure that the board probably would not have supported. Again, voters approved it.

But supervisors now bracing for a Newsom administration say they hope he will learn to compromise rather than work around them. Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, also among the slate elected in 2000, said Newsom has not previously attempted much compromise with the more liberal slate on the board, and they have not sought Newsom’s opinions either. That will have to change.

“Most of us are open to working with him but ... none of us want to be spending our lives at City Hall if nothing is going to get done,” Sandoval said. “It’s impossible to achieve much progress without the mayor’s cooperation. On the other hand, it’s not very easy to achieve much without the board’s cooperation. We’re both in a bind.”

Among the 11-member Board of Supervisors, only two endorsed Newsom. The divisions were keenly apparent Tuesday night.

When Gonzalez took the podium to concede defeat, Gonzalez’s board colleague Chris Daly warned Newsom of the strength of the opposition he could face.

“If he wants to give big breaks to downtown business ... if he wants to scapegoat immigrants and the poor ... we’ll take his legs out,” Daly bellowed to hoots of approval.

It was the 38-year-old Gonzalez -- who has been lauded as a respectful board president -- who stepped in to remind his backers that their behavior was untoward.

Mark Mosher, a political consultant who worked on Newsom’s aggressive absentee ballot drive, said Newsom may just have to steer clear of the more ideological board members.

“He may wind up in a situation where he has to gravitate to the supervisors who are ... about preserving historic buildings, land-use issues, trimming trees and parking meters,” he said. “He’s got to take his natural allies on the board and figure out how he’s going to work on the middle.”

At Newsom’s victory party Tuesday, Getty expressed concern that Newsom’s win fell short of a mandate or a landslide. But he said he has no doubt his godson will mend rifts -- particularly with Gonzalez.

“I’m telling you this,” Getty said, “Matt Gonzalez is a good guy. We want his support and we’re trying to win his support.”

Lee Romney and Rone Tempest are Times staff writers. Donna Horowitz is a special correspondent.