Art Agnos

When Nancy talked to you, you felt like you were the center of the world.

That's Art Agnos, a former mayor of San Francisco, and also, by the way, my ex-boss.

I worked on his staff from 1986 to 1992.

That was before I became a reporter for KQED in 1998.

For sure, Pelosi had solid allies, like California Congress members Barbara Boxer and Henry Waxman from Los Angeles.

But they faced opposition because of the stigma of AIDS, and then activists had an idea.

Cleve Jones came to my house with Art Agnos when I'm a newly elected member of Congress, and says he has this idea that people will make a quilt for their loved ones.

Cleve Jones was a young activist who had worked for Harvey Milk.

Back in San Francisco, Candlestick Park, gorgeous late afternoon, temperature in the 60s, and I'm joined by two men who have been rather busy of late.

Art Agnos is with me, the mayor of San Francisco, and across the bay in his office in Oakland is Mayor Lionel Wilson.

And Mayor Agnos, I'll begin with you.

How is the recovery process going for your city, the city of San Francisco?

At the Pan-American Summit in Costa Rica today, President Bush chatted with Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega, but for the most part, the two virtually ignored each other.

Police put down an uprising at the Camp Hill State Prison in Pennsylvania in which 60 people were injured.

San Francisco's Mayor Art Agnos says the city is now 98% back to normal.

And later on Nightline, the fans at tonight's World Series game, how did the earthquake affect them?

Back in San Francisco, Candlestick Park, gorgeous late afternoon, temperature in the sixties, and I'm joined by two men who have been rather busy of late.

Art Agnos is with me, the mayor of San Francisco, and across the bay in his office in Oakland is Mayor Lionel Wilson.

And Mayor Agnos, I'll begin with you.

How is the recovery process going for your city, the city of San Francisco?

... and we're serving vegan meals to the home- So, um, we end up, uh, it turned out there was no permit, so we were being arrested for not having a permit, but they didn't have a permit.

So me and, uh, Art Agnos, the mayor, and, uh, people and, and others, uh, we d- designed a permit and, uh, so we got that, uh, that permit.

But one of the stumbling blocks is you, you need to have environmental health permit, so the way they planned on stopping us was by never giving us a environmental health permit.

And I f- I sued them in federal court, and Judge Peckham, um, ordered the city to give us one last list of equipment that we need to have, and then when we got it, we'd get the permit.

Well, then I started getting hints that the f- the fear was that I would use the...

I would mobilize voters to vote for a progressive candidate for mayor and, and supervisor in S- San Francisco, and that that was...

And, and Art Agnos even is quoted in my, uh, um, second book, Hungry for Peace, um, you know, saying that we're trying to cr- you know, create a new social order and so on.

So behind the scenes, that I think it played a role, but also, um, Bank of America's headquarters was there in, in San Francisco.

Back in San Francisco, Candlestick Park, gorgeous late afternoon, temperature in the 60s, and I'm joined by two men who have been rather busy of late.

Art Agnos is with me, the mayor of San Francisco, and across the bay in his office in Oakland is Mayor Lionel Wilson.

And Mayor Agnos, I'll begin with you.

How is the recovery process going for your city,

But for the most part, the two virtually ignored each other.

Police put down an uprising at the Camp Hill State Prison in Pennsylvania in which 60 people were injured.

San Francisco's Mayor Art Agnos says the city is now 98% back to normal.

And later on Nightline, the fans at tonight's World Series game.

And I think, you know, for me, what's really significant and unique, her special sauce, if you will, is her relationships, her personal relationships with people.

And Art Agnos tells a story about, you know, before he was even elected, how she treated his kids, you know, back in the 70s.

And those personal ties, Norm Ornstein, for example, a congressional scholar, told this story.

His son had died and Pelosi was, you know, already speaker then.

When Nancy talked to you, you felt like you were the center of the world.

That's Art Agnos, a former mayor of San Francisco and also, by the way, my ex-boss.

I worked on his staff from 1986 to 1992.

That was before I became a reporter for KQED in 1998.

But they faced opposition because of the stigma of AIDS.

And then activists had an idea.

Cleve Jones came to my house with Art Agnos, who I'm a newly elected member of Congress, and says he has this idea that people will make a quilt for their loved ones.

Cleve Jones was a young activist who had worked for Harvey Milk.

When Nancy talked to you, you felt like you were the center of the world.

That's Art Agnos, a former mayor of San Francisco, and also, by the way, my ex-boss.

I worked on his staff from 1986 to 1992.

That was before I became a reporter for KQED in 1998.

But they faced opposition because of the stigma of AIDS.

And then activists had an idea.

Cleve Jones came to my house with Art Agnos when I'm a newly elected member of Congress, and says he has this idea that people will make a quilt for their loved ones.

Cleve Jones was a young activist who had worked for Harvey Milk.

There were some more moderate folks in the gay community, maybe a little more business oriented, who supported Nancy Pelosi.

And she had key support from the Burton machine, from Art Agnos and Willie Brown and Phil Burton, John Burton.

And she had a very savvy campaign operation.

But, you know, the gay community wanted their own representative, especially during the AIDS epidemic.