Mayors of S.F., Miami at Odds

Mayor Willie Brown, whose colorful shoot-from-the-hip public prognostications sometimes land wide of the mark, has apparently misfired again.

Speaking to reporters during a European trip to drum up foreign visitors for his tourist-ailing city, Brown fired off a quip about crime in Miami that prompted a terse letter of response from that city’s mayor.

Mayor Manuel Diaz on Tuesday sent Brown a letter saying he was “dismayed” by Brown’s comments to French reporters that suggested Miami isn’t safe for tourists.

The brouhaha started when a French reporter told Brown that he had been concerned for his safety during a recent San Francisco trip, to which the mayor replied: “I think you’ve got us confused with Miami.”

Diaz isn’t laughing.

“Let me take a moment to share with you some rather enlightening information about crime in the city of Miami,” the mayor wrote, going on to say crime there has dropped over the last eight years--making it “clear that your comment about Miami is, at best, a mischaracterization of the facts.”

Diaz finished his chilly one-page missive with another scold: “In the future, I hope you will refrain from making comments that unnecessarily impugn the character of another city and its residents.”

Brown, still abroad Friday, could not be reached for comment.

But his aides had this response to Diaz: Lighten up.

“The mayor’s comments were tongue-in-cheek,” said spokesman Ron Vinson. “He didn’t mean any harm in what he was saying.”

Kelly Penton, a spokeswoman for Diaz, said the mayor heard about Brown’s comments from a Miami Herald reporter.

“He was, like, taken aback,” she said. “He didn’t say anything; he didn’t have to. The look on his face said it all.”

Brown’s comments were particularly irresponsible, Penton said, in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, which have major cities across the country trying to woo skittish tourists, especially foreigners.

“So here comes Brown, who’s in Europe to promote foreign tourism for his own city, taking knocks at one of his colleagues,” Penton said. “Not good.”

Brown is scheduled to return today from a weeklong trip to London, Paris and Rome as part of a junket by the city’s Convention and Tourism Bureau. Aides said he has not seen Diaz’s letter, adding that Brown may not even know about the controversy.

Serving his second term as San Francisco mayor, Brown has previously made news with his off-the-cuff comments, once referring to then-backup San Francisco 49ers quarterback Elvis Grbac as “an embarrassment to humankind” after a loss in 1996.

Diaz and Brown have met at least once at a U.S. Conference of Mayors convention, and their relationship was described as cordial.

Brown would like to keep it that way, staffers said.

“The mayor is a person who in certain situations likes to have fun with things,” Vinson said. “He considers Mayor Diaz a colleague and would never do anything to intentionally cause problems for his city.”