Agnos, Art: Legacy

Abstract

Art Agnos: I think that the most consistent everlasting legacy of Mayor Moscone is the fact that he opened City Hall to the neighborhoods; to every part of this city. That had never happened before. He empowered people from neighborhoods that had never been in City Hall much less on commission that affected the future of the city developmentally and socially. He included you whatever your ethnic background, your racial background, your sexual orientation or any part of you that gave you a status that meant you weren’t part of the establishment. George brought you in and gave you a chance to participate in the decisions that affected your life and those of your neighbors in the city. Now, people who succeeded George in the Mayor’s Office may have been more conservative as Dianne Feinstein was in her two administrations, but they never, never could go back to what was in this city; a very conservative sort of single oriented group of people who ran this city. You had to retain the Moscone value which was that everybody has a right to participate in the decisions that affect their lives and this city. Every mayor since him had made sure that happened