Mayor’s standing reflects San Francisco’s conservative side

The Board of Supervisors has flirted with allowing 16-year-olds to vote in some city elections, opposed banning sex-selection abortions and unanimously approved the infamous “Due Process for All” ordinance that directed local law enforcement not to honor federal immigration officials’ detainer requests unless an inmate has a violent felony conviction in the past seven years.

Take a closer look, however, and you see The Special City has a conservative side.

Lee became mayor in January 2011 when Mayor Gavin Newsom, newly elected as lieutenant governor, picked the city administrator to serve as interim mayor.

How did that happen in a City Hall filled with ambitious progressives? “I think he gives the voters a sense of confidence that, even in a turbulent city like ours, he’s a steady hand at the wheel,” campaign spokesman P.J. Johnston replied in an e-mail.

[...] when Lee came to The Chronicle for an editorial board meeting Wednesday, I saw that on the issues that matter most to this nonresident, rare is the City Hall pol with a better understanding.

The Navigation Center promises to do more for service-resistant adults, but it only can help people who want to be helped.

Lee at least recognizes that law enforcement has to play a role here — and he’s willing to tell people they cannot live on the streets.

Lee plans to dedicate 500 housing units solely for the homeless. even as he cautions,“I don’t want to be the attractor for everybody who’s got a housing crisis in their life.”

When I wrote about San Francisco’s public urination and defecation problem in July, City Hall was defensive.

Lee has hired staff to monitor public toilets, so there shouldn’t be excuses for people to defecate in front of others.

Lee denies that the policy shielded an undocumented immigrant with seven felony convictions (none of them violent) who has been charged with the murder of a young San Francisco woman.