Mayor, 49ers mend fences

Well, it's a start.

Mayor Ed Leeon Thursday had his first sit-down meeting with San Francisco 49ers President Jed York, who left Lee's City Hall office saying it was "hopefully the start of a much better relationship between the 49ers and the mayor."

Not that Lee, whose humble style and consensus-building mantra have won praise in political circles, persuaded York to reverse course on the team's plan to build a new football stadium in Silicon Valley.

"It was just a friendly getting-to-know each other and addressing each other's concerns" type of meeting, York said. "Whether we're playing here or in Santa Clara - wherever we're playing - San Francisco is our home. The Bay Area is our home. And it's good to have good relationships with folks in your hometown."

York's family had a strained relationship with Lee's predecessor, now-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, that became even more pronounced when team owners announced more than four years ago that they were shelving plans to build a stadium along San Francisco's southeastern waterfront in favor of pursuing one next to their practice facility in Santa Clara.

York declined to elaborate Thursday on the differences in dealing with the two mayors, saying, "It's not even worth going there." Later though, he suggested Lee's status as an interim mayor was a welcome development.

"He's not beholden to anybody," York said. "He's here to do a job, and there's a very tough job that needs to be done, tough decisions that need to be made, and it's nice that he can make those without having to worry about, 'What office am I running for next?' "

Lee invited Board President David Chiuand Supervisor Malia Cohen, whose district includes Candlestick Park, to the gathering.

Lee's spokeswoman Christine Falvey said afterward that the mayor considered the meeting "the start of a very positive relationship."

- John Coté

A sign of progress? There's an updated plan for the Main Post of the Presidio - and all it took was three years, 13 hearings and workshops, 3,100 comments and one failed museum proposal.

That's the subtext to Thursday's announcement that a Record of Decision on the Main Post Update has been adopted by the Presidio Trust's board of directors. The update spells out changes will be allowed within the most developed area of the former army base, now a 1,491-acre national park.

Some are under way, such as the restoration of historic Pershing Hall as a bed and breakfast and the prep work to begin turning part of the central parking lot into a landscaped green. Most controversial of all, the plan allows as many as 12 small buildings alongside the green for lodging, should developers show interest.

The trust's sign-off is an anticlimax of sorts, because the update already won the blessing of such watchdogs as the National Park Service. But when a hotel proposal does surface, count on critics weighing in. After all, it was the ill-fated efforts to erect a museum in the Main Post by Gap founder Donald Fisher that was the impetus for the update in 2008.

- John King

A regular TV drama: Is the Police Commission ready for its close-up?

One of the last people to testify during Wednesday's six-hour hearing on providing Tasers to San Francisco police told commissioners that he hadn't planned to say anything, but when he was watching the televised meeting at a nearby bar ...

That startled commission President Tom Mazzucco, who stopped the speaker in mid-sentence.

"What? There's a bar that has us on TV?" he asked. "Isn't there a ballgame on or anything?"

Nope, the commission meeting was the evening's feature, said the man, giving a shout-out to Buck Tavern, the Market Street dive now owned by former Supervisor Chris Daly.

A seemingly endless commission meeting seems like odd fare for any tavern, although it can be argued that watching San Francisco government is enough to drive people to drink.

But in a city where politics can be blood sport, there apparently are plenty of folks willing to spend their evening watching a dust-up at the Police Commission.

- John Wildermuth