Gabriel Metcalf interviews City Controller Ed Harrington. Harrington, who served from 1990-2008, describes his role as not just financially managing city departments, but assisting them with staff and resources to be more effective.

In the city’s first round of district elections since 1979, San Francisco voters elected what one victor boasted was a “progressive super-majority” to the Board of Supervisors and decisively thumped Mayor Willie Brown’s anointed candidates in one district after another, wrecking his vaunted machine. As establishment leaders lament their defeat and business elites despair, there is joy among progressives in our left coast city this…

This article describes the way San Francisco pays for infrastructure, how we underfund maintenance and makes several proposals, including a set-aside for deferred maintenance.

Beryl Magilavy calls for greater transparency and more in-depth scrutiny of certain civil service positions. By demanding more accountability from these positions Beryl argues that the city will save money.

Metcalf considers various reforms to make San Francisco City government run more efficiently.

Includes SPUR's analysis of 18city measures on the November 7, 2000 ballot.