Whither Baghdad by the Bay?

Los Angeles has surpassed San Francisco as the West’s financial and trading center, putting something of a dent in San Francisco’s haughty pride. Still, her residents refer to her as The City, as if there were no other. On a sparkling sunny day, of which there are many in any given year, San Francisco stands second to none as a jewel of a metropolis in as splendid a setting as one could find anywhere. For all the Manhattanization of recent years, and the upscale gentrification, San Francisco retains its wonderful mixture of ethnic diversity, zany political tolerance and a patina of Victorian-Mediterranean charm.

Today San Francisco stands on the threshold of a new political period. Assemblyman Art Agnos, Massachusetts-born son of an immigrant bootblack, takes office as mayor on Jan. 8 with a mission to retain a place in San Francisco for the blue-collar worker. The outgoing mayor, Dianne Feinstein, barred by law from seeking reelection, also had talked about the need for creating jobs for working-class people, although she referred to them as “new-collar” jobs rather than blue-collar. Both are Democrats, and they share other political similarities. But Agnos will bring a different atmosphere to San Francisco’s ornate city hall.

For more than 20 years San Francisco has had mayors whose style reflected the trend of San Francisco toward wealth and sophistication--Joseph Alioto, George Moscone and Feinstein. All were Democrats and generally supporters of working people in California’s traditional bastion of unionism. Agnos’ own style is more that of the working person, however, and his administration is expected to reflect that.

During his campaign, Agnos talked of helping the average workingman to afford housing in San Francisco through the issuance of municipal bonds and proposed the creation of blue-collar jobs through public-private cooperation and the guidance of development. Middle-class families have fled to Bay Area suburbs because of the increasing cost of living within the city. As a consequence, San Francisco increasingly has become the home of the wealthy and the very poor.

Agnos’ goals will not be achieved easily, but he should be strongly encouraged to pursue them with the creative determination that he displayed during his terms in Sacramento. California gold and Nevada silver helped build San Francisco, but the real foundation and backbone of the city have been its working people.