Where to begin without burying the
lede? Mayor Bob Filner’s sensational promises? His surprising disregard
for the city attorney? His over-the-top optimism?
How about with a quote?:
"When
they wrote the strong-mayor form of government, they weren’t thinking
about me," Filner told the San Diego Chapter of Americans for Safe
Access last night.
Filner
was on fire at the La Jolla Brew House, where he met with
medical-marijuana activists for the first time since taking office. He
couldn’t have been more incendiary if he’d come equipped with a
flamethrower and swished to and fro, lighting pipes and bongs while
crying out, "Toke deep, my friends, Ras Bobby is here!"
That’s
a stretched simile, sure, but not wholly hyperbolic. Filner fired out
promises more rapidly than the medical-marijuana patients could process
them.
It had been a long, dramatic afternoon and evening for the new, liberal mayor. Earlier, during the council session, he’d
engaged in a public spat with City Council President Todd Gloria over
SANDAG appointments. Then he appeared at a meeting of the Hillcrest Town
Council, where he discussed Uptowny issues. After that, he booked it
north to La Jolla, where he received a rock-star reception from a packed
house. Or at least that’s how it looked and sounded from the three
streaming cameras.
He
began by giving credit to the advocates for their work in his election;
the medical-marijuana community was among the first to get behind his
candidacy. You’d see his signs in the windows of collectives
