SF Mayor's Race: Chicken v. Wolf

Chicken John and Josh Wolf squared off on Sunday. The Snitch's Benajmin Wachs brings back the blow by blow. Read on for more about pruno, co-ops, police states and murder rates. -d2

By BENJAMIN WACHS
“Alternative” mayoral candidates Josh Wolf (known primarily as “that blogger who went to jail for hella long”) and Chicken John (most famous as “that guy who helped create Burning Man”) held a debate Sunday night at Chicken’s converted warehouse. The musical accompaniment was a little trippy, as was the backdrop of nature scene videos (a frog … a snake … flowers … you know, artsy shit), but most of the questions proved serious and the answers were often refreshingly candid, involving phrases like “I don’t know,” a lot of swearing, and lots of other things you could never get an elected official to say on the record.

By the end, you got a real sense of who these men were, what they would do as mayor, and what the hell they think they’re doing challenging an incumbent with a 78% approval rating and a $1.5 million war chest.

Here’s a sample of what was said. Answers have been edited for brevity.

Question:
What do you know that no one else in this room does?
Chicken: “I am a man who knows how to make his car run on coffee grounds. I will give each of you this knowledge, for free. And maybe get some MUNI vehicles to run on coffee grounds, too."
Wolf: “How to make pruno. I learned this is prison: you take fruit, add a lot of sugar … it’s horrible. I don’t recommend it to anyone.”

Is your mother proud of you and why?
Chicken: “Yes. My mother’s very proud of me. I really should call her. She doesn’t know I’m running for mayor.”
Wolf: “I saw more of my mother in prison that out of it. She came to visit every month.”

How would you regulate street fairs and community events?
Chicken: “It shouldn’t be illegal to have a party or small event on your street. Look, if you live in the City of Art and Innovation, at some point there’s going to be something happening on your block."
Wolf: “When people gather on the street, have an event, they’re forming community. We need to encourage that, not make it impossible with absolutely crazy regulations. We don’t need laws to prevent street fairs, we need laws to prevent NIMBYism.”

How do you feel about increasing home ownership in the city?
Chicken: “I think home ownership is a great thing. I want to encourage it absolutely – the whole problem is that so many people can’t afford to live here, and are getting chased out.”
Wolf: “I’m in complete favor of more home ownership – but I don’t think it should necessarily be private ownership. I think communes, and communal home ownership, are something that need to be increased.”

How do you stop murders on the streets of San Francisco?
Chicken: “I honestly have no idea. That’s really tough. I’m sure there’s somebody, some expert, who has an idea of how you stop people from killing each other. I would do everything in my power to stop it, but I honestly don’t know what you do about that.”
Wolf: “I think you need to change the way the police act with people everyday. How many of you have been helped by a police officer this week? Right now, the police are an occupying force in this city. We need to change that.”

Why are you running?
Chicken: “I’m running because I want us to be the City of Art and Innovation again. I’m running because I know how to make our cars run on coffee grounds. These ideas are important, and they should be out there, in public. I’m running so that the ideas will make it through, even if the Chicken doesn’t.”
Wolf: “You can’t have a democracy without opposition. Someone needs to be an alternative to Gavin Newsom.”

One major campaign promise
Chicken: To empower San Francisco’s artistic community, get out of the way of innovation, and make government meetings more fun, possibly with jugglers.
Wolf: To wear a live webcam during all public business, so that the public can instantly find out what the mayor’s doing.

So what’s next?
Josh Wolf needs to raise $5,000 to get on the ballot by Friday, and he’s got a long way to go. He’ll be holding a fundraisers, and the last one occurred Monday night, at 6:30 p.m, at 111 Minna, featuring music by Fuckwolf, The Greening, and Nick Culp. Visit his campaign site.

Chicken John also needs to raise money, but says he’s confident he’ll come up with what it takes to get on the ballot. Then it’s all about a “campaign filled with whimsy.” On Wednesday, he said he’ll be running a full page ad in the Guardian asking Mayor Newsom to donate to his campaign, and that on Friday he’ll unveil something “major,” which will “offend a lot of people,” and “take time to heal from.” Visit his campaign site at www.voteforchicken.com.