Information AboutArt Agnos |
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On December 13 , 1973 , Agnos, who was then a member of the California Commission on Aging, was attending a meeting in the largely black neighborhood of Potrero Hill in San Francisco to discuss building a government-funded health clinic in the area. After the meeting broke up, he was shot twice at point blank range by a black man. It turns out that he was one of two victims shot that day in a series of killings called the Zebra Murders , and the only reason why he was shot was because he was Caucasian . Despite many critical injuries, he managed to survive. The other victim, Marietta DiGirolamo, died. Agnos represented San Francisco in the California State Assembly . As a state assemblyman, Agnos authored the state's welfare reform, GAIN, and was the author of major legislation confronting the AIDS/HIV epidemic. He arranged for the a Joint Legislative Session on the AIDS Epidemic, featuring US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and National Academy of Science leader David Baltimore, in 1987. It was the first such session in the nation. In 1987 he ran for mayor, to replace termed-out incumbent Diane Feinstein . Agnos came from behind to defeat Supervisor John Molinari. Agnos is best known for his leadership of San Francisco during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and for the city's recovery. The recovery effort also brought political peril to Agnos when he led the effort to tear down rather than rebuild the Embarcadero Freeway. Agnos won a narrow vote at the city's Board of Supervisors on a 6-5 decision for the tear-down, leading the way to the opening of the San Francisco waterfront into what is widely considered one of the best outcomes from the earthquake. However, the move angered the city's Chinatown merchants and voters, who had been significant supporters of Agnos. Their disaffection led to Agnos defeat in 1991 in a close 52-48 election which he lost by 3,000 votes. While he ran as a liberal and positioned himself against the business and developer establishment represented by Feinstein and Molinari, Agnos' administration was beset by conflict between the various liberal factions and by the end of his first term, he was widely unpopular in some quarters such as Chinatown. Agnos was challenged by two liberals for reelection: former sheriff Richard Hongisto and Supervisor Angela Alioto . While he beat back both of their challenges to win entry into a nonpartisan runoff, he was defeated by conservative police chief Frank Jordan . Jordan was strongly backed by real estate interests opposed to Agnos' support of rent control, as well as by the city's conservatives who opposed Agnos' stance in support of equal rights for domestic partners and ending racial discrimination in the city's fire department. He now serves as a member of the board of directors of the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good. He has frequently been called upon by the US State Department and international bodies to provide leadership development on democracy building, including in the Russian Far East, the Kurdish regions of Turkey, Zaire, Korea, and as the first official to arrive in Bethlehem after the Israeli forces had departed. He also is frequently sought as a speaker on disaster preparedness and recovery. |
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