THE WASHINGTON SUMMIT : Soviets Call Off Golden Gate Gridlock

The Soviet flag was raised at San Francisco City Hall on Friday, and Stanford University students stood in hour-long lines for tickets to Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s speech on campus Monday.

The itinerary for the upcoming visit here by the Soviet leader and his wife continued to be modified with the cancellation of a rush-hour drive Monday across the Golden Gate Bridge and the addition of a Sunday night tea with Gov. George Deukmejian.

In dropping the drive, the Gorbachevs decided to stay on the San Francisco side and look at the picturesque span. Commuters and officials had worried about massive gridlock if the Gorbachevs crossed the bridge at the peak of the afternoon rush hour.

Explaining the decision to cancel, one official involved in security planning for the trip said Soviet officials “didn’t think it would be good publicity.”

So far, pre-visit news coverage of the trip has been highly favorable. San Francisco officials are spending as much attention to detail as they did for the 1987 visit by Pope John Paul II.

As Soviet Consul General Valentin Kamenev and San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos hoisted the Soviet flag at City Hall, Kamenev quipped that it signified a “peaceful transfer of power.”

“Some people think that happened when I was elected mayor,” replied Agnos, a liberal Democrat who was dubbed “Red Art” by one local newspaper columnist.

At Stanford University, excitement about Gorbachev’s visit Monday also was growing. Dormitories planned parties with Soviet motifs and T-shirt vendors were doing big business.

Stanford students, faculty and other staff members selected by a computer lottery to attend Gorbachev’s speech and see him arrive at the campus’ central quad, stood in endless lines to pick up the tickets.

Rick Arney, a 19-year-old sophomore from Oakland, paid $120 for a ticket to see the Soviet leader because he “definitely has already made plenty of marks on history.” Arney also once spent $50 to see President Bush but that included lunch.

Meanwhile, Consul General Kamenev was making himself more available than at any time during his four-year tenure in San Francisco. He spent 20 minutes with a contingent of Jewish leaders who delivered a plea that Gorbachev act to quell anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.

Outside San Francisco’s federal building, about 100 people, many of them carrying the flags of Baltic regions and wearing native costumes, demonstrated in favor of independence for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.