San Fran Mayor: Mayors’ Report of Shovel Ready Projects Could be “Easily Mocked”

I spoke to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom today for the ABC News Shuffle Podcast.

Newsom was in Washington D.C. to attend the mayors’ meeting with President Obama. You can listen to it on iTunes or HERE.

On criticism of some of the stimulus-funded projects proposed in the U.S. Conference of Mayors report — such as swimming pools, golf courses or those related to gambling — Newsom admitted that some of them were inappropriate. The stimulus legislation includes language specifically against such projects. Do those projects hurt all mayors, even those looking to make serious requests?

"I see both sides, but candidly, let’s reflect some self-criticism here," Newsom said. "What came out of the U.S. Conference of Mayors was easily mocked, not all of it, but just enough that it actually put the whole stimulus package at peril for a moment at least and made it more difficult, I think, to convince people of the sincerity of a lot of these job-generating programs.

"And so I think there is a sensitivity," Newsom continued, "and an appropriate one because this is going to be the most highly-scrutinized bill arguably in American history and that’s something that is intentionally so because of the desire of this administration to be held more accountable and to allow the proverbial sunshine in."

But, Newsom added, "at the end of the day, they can set the criteria — it’s going to be cities and states that ultimately will spend the money and its incumbent upon us to do it in a thoughtful and judicious way and not make mistakes and not put ourselves to ridicule, so we’ve got to now do our part."

And what does he want to use the stimulus funds for in San Francisco?

"We have one of the most seismically unsafe thoroughfares in the country, in fact, arguably the fifth most unsafe thoroughfare … We are $100 million short on a one billion-plus dollar project, all the environmental work’s done, all the design work’s done. A perfect example of a ‘shovel ready project’ that with the stimulus we can hit the ground running immediately."

Newsom said he also wants to advance medical technology and invest money into the $4 billion Transbay Terminal project to connect high speed rail systems in California, a project he said would create 26,000 jobs.

We also discussed how the mayor uses technology — Twitter and Facebook — and his baby, due in September.

Check out the podcast HERE.  The ABC News Shuffle Podcast is produced by Huma Khan.

- jpt