Getlin, Josh: Political climate during Moscone\u27s mayoral race

Getlin: I think there were two things. I think I remember very much that George was leading a coalition of people who were clamoring, if that\u27s the best word, for a seat at the table, in terms of the power in San Francisco and how the city was going to be governed. And by that I meant the gay community, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, certainly lots of people in the neighborhoods who felt that in the planning process of San Francisco, they\u27d been utterly excluded by the people who\u27ve been running City Hall. Before, under the previous mayor Joseph Alioto, strong, you know, alliance backing him of the labor and the downtown business interests. And on one sense, George\u27s whole campaign was predicated on the idea that that insiders group was no longer going to continue running the city. The whole process was going to be opened up. A whole bunch of new people we\u27re gonna be given truly important positions of responsibility and that\u27s one of his more enduring campaign themes wherever he went and it applied to many different groups and neighborhoods. It\u27s quite effective. So I remember that as being a real strong imperative in his campaign, but at the same time political events were buffeting the city. And if you remember what was going on at that time in the year leading up to the mayoral race there was this unbelievable police and fire strike in San Francisco. An unheard of thing, great labor unrest. And beyond that, the experience of New York City flirting with bankruptcy and the idea of the nation\u27s largest city spending and living well beyond its means and corruption on urban level, this had an unusually strong repercussion in San Francisco. And a lot of people who might not have been normally energized to get involved in politics from a concern over that were involved, and they became involved and on behalf of candidates like John Barbagelata and others in the race. There were a great many conflicting concerns and suddenly what might have just seemed like a campaign to you know fill the shoes of Joseph Alioto had become something far, far different much more complicated, There was a lot riding on that election for a number of people and they have become increasingly polarized as the election wore on