By Cecilia Vega, Heather Knight, Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle

Mayor Gavin Newsom was sworn in for a second term Tuesday, promising to make San Francisco a greener city and a national leader in health care reform while praising "San Francisco values" like support for same-sex marriage and protections for undocumented immigrants. Newsom's father, retired Judge William Newsom, administered the oath of office using a family Bible under City Hall's palatial dome in a ceremony that organizers billed as low-key. The mayor was sworn in alongside his sister Hillary Newsom Callan, her two young daughters and his new fiancee, Jennifer Siebel, to whom Newsom referred in his inaugural speech as "the love of my life."

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Election Day is tomorrow. And we need you to vote so that we can continue to make San Francisco a model of innovation, a city that the rest of the country looks to for new ideas. If you have an absentee ballot at home, please return it in person to the Dept. of Election's City Hall office (1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 48) or you can drop it off at your polling place on Election Day by 8PM. Tomorrow, we are going to be working all day long as we walk every district, talk to voters and ask them to vote. If you can join us at our campaign headquarters tomorrow at any time we could use your support. We'll be there from 5AM until 8PM. Also, if you need a ride to the polls tomorrow please give Aaron Goldsmith a call at 351-0359. We will be available throughout the day to drive you to the polls.  
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By Heather Knight
San Francisco Chronicle

Fewer than seven months since its inception, San Francisco's 311 call center, where live operators answer city-related, nonemergency calls 24 hours a day, marked its 1 millionth phone call on Tuesday. Mayor Gavin Newsom answered that call from a man reporting upturned newspaper racks at Geary and Kearny streets. Newsom told the man that he would make sure the problem was promptly fixed. The call center, located at Market and South Van Ness and modeled on similar centers in New York, Chicago and Baltimore, receives 6,000 to 7,000 calls every day. Most calls are related to Muni, but other popular subjects for callers are potholes, graffiti and garbage.

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By Gavin Newsom
San Francisco Examiner

San Francisco is the first city in the United States with a universal health care program. Our 311 customer service system has already answered more than 800,000 calls — it is bringing better customer service to our residents and greater accountability to city government. Care Not Cash and other homeless programs have shown solid results, and new initiatives such as the Community Justice Center will help us continue making progress addressing homelessness and panhandling. We have accomplished a great deal. But there is more to be done. “Good enough” never is. Where something is working, I say, let’s make it better. Where something isn’t working, I say, let’s change it.

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By Chris Colin
San Francisco Chronicle

Forget the Golden Gate Bridge and House of Nanking and Zeitgeist on a summer night -- the heart of San Francisco beats loudest on the carpeted second floor of that South Van Ness building you thought was Bank of America.

"Thank you for calling San Francisco 311, this is Kyle speaking, how may I help you?"

"Yes, there's a skunk with his head stuck ..."

Kyle Sutton is one of 50 or so customer service representatives, or CSRs, asking this question 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The free service launched in March not just to funnel 2,300 government phone numbers into a single line, but to give the city more of a service orientation. About 6,000 calls come in every day, and program director Ed Reiskin says 311 is on track to answer 2 million a year.

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By Bonnie Eslinger
San Francisco Examiner

New statistics obtained from San Francisco’s 311 hotline are starting to home in on residents’ everyday concerns, with graffiti, illegal dumping and questions about “when’s the next Muni bus coming?” high on the list. In mid-February, city officials started to route calls for the Department of Public Works and Muni through San Francisco’s new multimillion-dollar call center. Nonemergency calls for other city departments will be integrated into the system during the next two years. Read more »

In the face of overwhelming support for Mayor Newsom's budget, Supervisor Chris Daly cancelled his rally and took the extraordinary step of cancelling the Budget and Finance Committee hearing.  But that didn't stop hundreds of people from descending on City Hall on Wednesday afternoon to fight for the city of San Francisco.  We won the first battle for a smart budget that addresses the needs of all San Franciscans and against the politics of self-interest. But the fight is far from over. Read more »

San Francisco Chronicle
Originally Published June 8, 2007

THIRTY-SEVEN million dollars is not much in the context of a $6.06 billion budget, but it can go a long way, if targeted wisely and effectively. But there is nothing wise or efficient about Supervisor Chris Daly's bald political ploy to strip $37 million from Mayor Gavin Newsom's budget priorities and shift most of it into affordable housing. Now let's be clear: We know that San Francisco does need housing. Newsom's budget also acknowledges the shortage, pumping $217 million into housing programs.

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That's one of John F. Kennedy's most famous lines and it is applicable to Gavin Newsom's new budget proposal.  This year, Mayor Newsom has taken another step towards making government work better for you. 311 is now in effect and working well (remember some politicians fought this remarkable tool), so it is fitting that the Mayor unveiled his budget at the 311 call center.  The proposed budget makes real investments in our streets. This investment, more than $36 million, allows the city ­ for the first time ­to meet our repaving needs and includes $5.4 million more for street repaving over last year. Read more »