It's official: Newsom's out

​Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom can no longer play coy about whether he is or is not a resident of San Francisco. According to news reports, the former San Francisco mayor's house has officially sold, which means he is officially no longer a denizen of our fair city.

So does this mean the Marin-bound Newsom will be booted from the local Democratic Party? As you might recall Aaron Peskin, chair of the Democratic Party and Newsom's political nemesis, had questioned whether the lieutenant governor was still living here, because if not, Newsom could no longer be a member of the local Democratic County Central Committee.
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Where's Gavin now?

​The big question for Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom has been: Where does the ex-mayor live? Until today, we couldn't say for sure what his living situation was. While some news reports say the Newsoms have packed up their home and moved to Ross for the summer, his staff was insisting he's still a resident of San Francisco.

To be clear, Newsom does live in Ross and he technically is still a resident of our fair city -- but not for long, it seems. What we can tell you is that his Ashbury Heights home is on the market -- officially, according to Socketsite.com, a real estate blog.
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Russell Lee, WPA photographer, 1939

Now that's a tiny house...

​Former Mayor Gavin Newsom's claim that a four-bedroom, $2.7 million Ashbury Heights home is too petite for a family of four induced bouts of hilarity among San Francisco's real estate professionals.

"Oh, I think we all giggled when we saw the pretense behind it," Realtor Luba Muzichenko says. "This is a little ostentatious. When he was running for mayor he was trying to pretend he was very down-to-earth."

Well, Newsom can still boast that he uses the cheapest hair gel there is.

"I can tell you that I'm raising a family of four -- and my kids are a lot further along than his -- in a 2,600-square-foot condo in NOPA. And it's awesome," Realtor Mollie Poe says. "San Francisco is a wonderful place to raise kids, and there are a lot of kids in that neighborhood he's moving out of. Who can't raise a family of four in a house that size?"

 

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Where's Gavin? Good question.

​It doesn't come as a surprise that Gavin Newsom, who made every effort to get out of San Francisco short of mailing himself to parts unknown, is leaving town. What's unexpected is he couldn't come up with a better excuse. Apparently, the Newsom's $2.7 million abode isn't large enough to accommodate a family of four.

Four what? Rhinoceri?

We suppose $2.7 mil just don't buy what it used to. Either that or the plans to install a squash court for the wee ones was just no longer feasible after the installation of the monorail. And, really, who puts in a squash court without a monorail? It's just not done.

We placed a call to an expert in moving one's family out of town after being elected to represent it. Surprisingly, former Supervisor Chris Daly was sympathetic to his despised rival's plight.

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​Now that Gavin Newsom has finally cut the cord and left San Francisco, one can only wonder how long it will be before we see his face on TV again.

It's been well-stated that for such an ambitious politician, Newsom landed a politically impotent position as California's lieutenant governor. And as a reporter who trailed the mayor for a year, it's hard to imagine how San Francisco's celebrity politician is coping without the one thing that truly makes him thrive: the media.

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​After winning the seat for lieutenant governor in November, Mayor Gavin Newsom told reporters, point blank, that there would be no back room deals or political bargaining when selecting an interim mayor to fill the remainder of his term.

He's also vowed to steer a clean-cut transition as he assumed his role as state lieutenant governor.

But then it seems Newsom was involved in back room shenanigans late last night when city supervisors took a short break from debating who should be the interim mayor.

And his effort for a smooth city transition? Well, that's been about as clean as Mission Street sidewalk.

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Jim Herd

This one's mine. Get your own.

​It seems Mayor Gavin Newsom will soon have something else to distract him from elected office: Another kid on the way!

It's impossible to guess the naming propensities of a couple who saw fit to christen their first child "Montana." But we offered the 25 worst/least likely names for kid No. 1, so we're duty bound to do the same for kid No. 2.

25. Jerry
24. Abel
23. Bear
22.Rambo
21.Ke$ha
20.Baby
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Gavin's doing his pension dance again...

​Moments ago in a live interview on Channel 2, Mayor Gavin Newsom said he's hoping for a "third" pension reform deal to be struck before he leaves office. He reminded TV viewers he was working on pension reform before it was politically expedient to do so.

Yes, Newsom has signed the dotted line on two prior worker benefits reform measures. But for him to claim he's been an advocate of pension reform rings as hollow as Hummer-driving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger being lauded as an environmentalist.

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​Back when Gavin Newsom's failed gubernatorial campaign was in its infancy, they mayor was caught on tape in a Los Angeles strategy session. He was also caught parking his behemoth SUV in the red zone.

Newsom's political weathervane has blown about -- currently, he's doing great -- but his penchant for depositing a massive car in illegal parking spaces has been constant. Yes, that is the mayor's SUV parked across not one but two handicapped ramps in his old Russian Hill digs. Did he park the car legally when it was driven to Montana for his nuptials? Kinda beside the point, no?

And, yes, the snapshot accompanying this story is Newsom's Hybrid Chevy Tahoe parked in front a fire hydrant in a red zone while the mayor smacked the ball around within the San Francisco Tennis Club. 
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​There was a time when Mayor Gavin Newsom used Twitter so often he required an @intervention.

He tweeted out his daughter's birth ("Not sure [Jen] is happy I am on twitter"), sent out a tweet urging support for Barack Obama in the midst of a tense city Budget Committee meeting, and, one time, fired off 68 consecutive messages reading "thanks" or "thank you" in one day alone.

Newsom's addiction to Twitter, it seems, has gone the way of his gubernatorial aspirations. You know it's still there -- but it's not in the forefront anymore.

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