Mayor doesn't want a 'dumbing down of quality' in architectural design

From today's Chronicle, "San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has spent much of his first two years dealing with issues such as crime, single-sex marriage and homelessness, is now taking on a more rarefied topic: architecture."

"We've played it safe for too long," Newsom said in an interview this week. "The visual aspects of the city, the exterior realm, need to invite and excite and illuminate and challenge. ... Bring on the criticism. I'm ready for the outrage."

"The bar fell very low. It became all about a return on investment rather than an investment in San Francisco," Newsom said. "Now the idea is to ... hold some of our friends in the development community more accountable for the quality of their product and the architectural merit."

"I love what Chicago has done. ... I go to Millennium Park, and I pull my hair out," Newsom said. "It's frustrating we're not doing anything like that."