A group of Guardian reporters and editors met with Mayor Ed Lee June 2, and while the mayor and I don't agree on everything, I have to say: It was refreshing.
Refreshing because the mayor has a sense of humor and doesn't act like an infallible monarch. Refreshing because his office looks like, well, a working office. Refreshing because he smiled, was polite and never said "I dispute the premise of your question."
What a difference.
Under Willie Brown, the mayor's office was an imperial sanctum. If His Royal Williness deigned to favor one of his servants or subjects with the boon of a royal visit, you were expected to crawl on your hands and knees and kiss the floor.
When Gavin Newsom was the occupant, the place was a cross between a museum and an Architectural Digest showplace -- not a scrap of paper on the desk, every hair perfectly in place, the Robert Kennedy pictures and books lined up perfectly for the visitor to admire.
Both mayors treated the press with hostility. Both expected to be treated as potentates. The mayor was better than you and I -- and you needed to understand that right away, or risk disdain and dimissal.
Ed Lee isn't doing what I want with the budget. He's not talking about raising taxes on the rich. He's probably going to go along with ParkMerced and maybe even Treasure Island. He signed the Twitter tax break. I worry (a lot) about his ties to past corrupt regimes.
But he's happy to have reporters in his office. He's got stacks of reports on his desk and a notepad that suggests he's actually reading them. He showed us his private "man cave" in the back, and offered us walnuts. He's not always right on policy, and I don't think he should run in the fall ... but he's not a jerk. And given the recent history of San Francisco mayors, that's pretty radical.