The REAL Prop N Story

by Carol Harvey

What can you say about Jim Gabbert? crows the Broadcast Legends website. He is not ONLY a legend, but a TRUE pioneer and innovator! Hes a King Midas whose every radio or television property turns to gold!

His properties included KOFY 1050AM and KDIA 1310AM. In July 1998, this diplomats son sold his last lucrative media acquisition, WB20 television. Currently, when he is not jetting around the world, Gabbert hosts a KGO radio talk show.

I contacted you, I explained at the outset of a recent interview, because a friend reported this summer you announced on air that one of Gavin Newsoms political consultants confessed that they were sitting around one day and cooked up Care Not Cash as a simple idea the public could quickly grasp and voters would buy. It was an easy sell without real sincerity or intention to help the homeless.

Thats kind of an oversimplification, he said. But, you are almost there.

Gabbert said he was approached in March 2003 by a fair amount of people in San Francisco wanting him to run for Mayor. He said, they put his name in some polls they ran, and I beat Gavin every time. The consensus was that Gavin was a nice guy, but he really is very weak. He does not have fire in his belly to be Mayor.

Gabbert devoted a two-hour segment to this issue, airing it on his KGO talk show in the summer of 2003, around the time that the Courts ruled that the Board of Supervisors had to handle it, meaning Care Not Cash.

The public gave Newsom a chance with a 30% vote for Care Not Cash, a proposition that would reduce the General Assistance check given to homeless San Franciscans to only $59 a month, converting the seized money to shelter vouchers. But there was no guarantee that there would be a shelter bed for these GA recipients because there arent nearly enough shelter beds or hotel rooms in existence now.

Gabbert said if Newsom had been an effective leader, successfully selling his idea to a very screwed up Board of Supervisors which does not work harmoniously, Care Not Cash would have easily gone through.

How should Newsom have shown leadership? I asked.

Its called Politics, Gabbert said. Okay, what is it THIS guy wants? What is it THAT guy wants? You kind of work a compromise to keep everybody happy. But, he chose to fight.

So, he created obstacles? I asked.

Yes. In other words, Its my way or the highway.

Gabbert continued, They approached me, and I thought and I thought. At first I was kind of hot for it because politics has always been my second passion.

As longtime President of the California Broadcasters, Gabbert did all the groups lobbying. Ive gotten so many bills through both the Assembly and the Senate. Politically, I know my way around really well, he said. I had lunch with Willie Brown. Ive known Willie for years.

Well, then came reality, he explained. Im having a wonderful time.

According to the Broadcast Legends website, when the 67-year-old Gabbert is not at home in Sausalito with his Alaskan malamute, Jake, he tours the world, sails his 50-meter Italian yacht, and pilots his own Boeing 727, Citation jet and DC3.

In fact, Im in Palm Springs right now, he told me.

ANTI-HOMELESS RHETORIC

Gabbert warned, Those people out on the street begging are hurting the American Dream." Youve got two problems in San Francisco. Youve got Homeless, and youve got Homeless.

He separated homeless people into two distinct groups. The first consists of immigrants starting on their way up the ladder, as busboys, waiters, or hotel maids. This group, a paycheck away, suddenly lose their jobs because the tourist industry in San Francisco is falling way off.

The second group, according to Gabbert, is the hardcore homeless. They have chosen this as a lifestyle --- be it mental illness, be it drug addiction, he asserted. They drive away tourists, causing loss of jobs and more homelessness for the first group.

Gabberts analysis does not show how a person physically or mentally disabled or a Viet Nam Veteran, drug-addicted and traumatized during battle, unable to function in a job, have a choice in the matter. Also, Gabbert omitted many other homeless subgroups: The low-income elderly, the physically disabled, families, and children. Additionally, It is highly questionable logic to claim that one group of poor and homeless people is creating another group of poor and homeless people.

His analysis doesnt even deal with the fact that San Francisco has the highest housing costs in the nation and a severe shortage of affordable housing and shelter beds. Billions of dollars in tax breaks are given to middle-class and upper-middle-class people to buy homes, but there is virtually no commitment to build housing for homeless and extremely low-income people. And new national poverty statistics show larger numbers of the poor are driven to the streets while the rich get richer.

In Mayoral debates, other candidates did not scapegoat the hard-core homeless but analyzed why homelessness is really increasing. Angela Alioto identified 9/11 as a key cause of flagging tourism and a resultant economic downturn. Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez pointed to the business tax lawsuit by San Franciscos wealthiest companies that cost the City $80 million --- money that could have paid for the social services to get poor people off the street.

Gabbert said he opened up a two-hour KGO program to a listener discussion about the fact that people no longer want to come to San Francisco for dinner or to shop because they are so hassled by this second category of homeless.

His proposed solution was simple. Youve got to clean up the streets. No matter how you do it, youve GOT to do it, he told me; Otherwise you wont have people coming to San Francisco anymore. The amount of tourism we are losing is pretty amazing. We are considered one of the trashiest cities, almost, in America now in terms of beggars.

Down at Powell and Market, they get belligerent if you dont give them something. I mean, they start chasing you, or they throw things at you.

I asked whether he had experienced this. Oh, Yeah! Oh, yeah! he answered.

However, instead of providing examples of this alleged homeless violence, he described people taking dumps right on the steps of Angelo Aliotos Building down at Columbus and Montgomery, when it used to be the K101 Building when I owned K101.

Yet, without homes or bathrooms, where do the unhoused perform activities of daily life that housed people take for granted? When hotels and gas stations wont let them use their facilities, what do they have left but the street?

Gabbert insisted you cant have that happen and provide jobs for people who are just starting. This exacerbates the real homeless problem.

THE GETTY GROUPS INFLUENCE

Gabbert reminded me that the Getty family has been grooming Newsom to run for Mayor since he was first appointed to the Board of Supervisors. And getting back to what you did say, he continued, a political consultant who was going to become my political consultant approached me about running for Mayor. As we were looking at Jim Gabberts Campaign, if you will, I was talking to this consultant, who shall remain unknown.

His consultant mentioned that the Getty group felt that for Newsom to become mayor, he needed an issue. The consultant related that a year before Care Not Cash first came out, Getty-paid consultants conducted polls. They did a focus study, Gabbert said, showing most people were disgusted with the Streets of San Francisco, and that they had to do something with (the people on the street) not just let them stay there.

Their surveys and polls indicated this was the biggest hot button issue, Gabbert said. Every political candidate needs an issue, something to champion for. That became Gavins issue. They concocted that. They felt that would ignite voters enthusiasm and show that hes trying to do something for the City.

As he concluded the call, Gabbert said with conviction: This sounds to me like it was true. In fact, I know it was.

Key questions remain: Are the Gettys trading on Newsoms youth, looks and his image as one of our own to get him elected? If Newsom becomes Mayor, do the super-rich plan to use a person Gabbert described as an ineffectual politician to be their figurehead yes-man to push through their moneyed agenda?

Whether the Getty types promote Newsom or Gabbert, how could two wealthy people, isolated in the heady stratosphere of the rich, ever write social programs for a group they cannot possibly understand --- the earthbound homeless poor?