John Upton
journalist
415 738 0721
john@john-upton.com
San Francisco
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Interviews
by John Upton for the San Francisco Examiner

The Examiner prints a '3-minute interview' every day.
Joslin Van Arsdale Joslin Van Arsdale  original / top
Aug. 29, 2008

the owner of Eco Citizen, an 18-month-old high-end fashion store in San Francisco that uses fair-trade labor and environmental standards, will join a panel discussion on “eco-fashion” today at the Commonwealth Club.

What is eco-fashion?
For me, it’s a practice of business and fashion that takes into account people and the planet. It includes sweatshop-free, fair-trade labor and the second part is the materials used.

What materials are environmentally friendly?
Anything from organic cotton to bamboo, lyocell, recycled cotton and hemp.

What’s unfriendly about traditional cotton?
Traditional cotton uses pesticides, which therefore poison both the earth and the people that pick it up.

What are eco-fashion’s limitations?
The main limitation for designers is the amount of eco-friendly textiles that are available. Nothing’s 100 percent “eco,” so it’s very much a best-you-can-do approach.

Is eco-fashion rising in popularity?
It’s definitely taking off. Since I started, there have been three other boutiques in town that have opened up. The price of organic cotton has gone up because demand is higher than supply.

Is eco-fashion stronger in the Bay Area than other places?
Yes. I moved here to start my business because it’s the center of the green movement.
Staffan Terje Staffan Terje  original / top
Aug. 29, 2008

The owner and chef of the restaurant Perbacco is taking part in this weekend’s Slow Food Nation celebration in San Francisco.

What is slow food?
 It’s the opposite of fast food — not only fast food as in eating, but fast-produced. It’s handcrafted food. It’s from food that’s grown with care and from animals that are raised with care.

What’s wrong with fast food?
 It tears at the social fabric. Fast food makes it convenient so we can run out and do all these fun artificial things that companies have invented for us to do, rather than sit around the table and eat some good food, and drink some good wine and live life the way it should be.

When did you become interested in slow food?
 I’ve been cooking for a little bit over 30 years and I grew up on a farm. I’ve been involved with the food chain for a long time, so when the slow-food movement started, it got me very interested in the big picture of where food production was going.

Where did the slow-food movement start?
 In Italy, in the ’80s. It came to California shortly after it was incepted and it’s been a grass-roots organization that has taken time. It’s fairly strong in the Bay Area.

How can people join the movement?
 Support local farmers and producers — go to the farmers market, cook at home and invite friends. People used to go to markets — it wasn’t only to procure what they needed, but it was also to meet people in the neighborhood, and that still exists.
David Talbot David Talbot  original / top
Aug. 28, 2008

The author of "Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years," Salon.com founder and San Francisco journalist will speak at Grace Cathedral on Sept. 14.

How were you affected by the Kennedy years?
 My own two teenage sons, who are roughly the same age as I was when Bobby Kennedy ran for president in 1968, are very excited about Barack Obama’s candidacy. I was equally excited by Bobby Kennedy’s candidacy. I thought he was America’s last, best hope.

What did the research for your book reveal?
 I think it definitely showed that Bobby Kennedy was the country’s first conspiracy theorist when it comes to the [JFK] assassination. He believed it involved the government itself.

How did researching and writing the book affect you?
 We tend to see [John F.] Kennedy as a charismatic prince, but without any true grit. But his true grit and intelligence is what came through for me, and how he put his life on the line — as did his brother — to lead the country to peace and harmony.

Do you have advice for journalists or would-be journalists?
 You should take risks and whatever you’ve been scheming and dreaming of doing, take the leap. When I started Salon, I had no idea there would be a market for it, but we took the leap and, lo and behold, there was this audience that was just waiting for a new kind of writing.
Gary Gates Gary Gates  original / top
Aug. 6, 2008

The demographer and senior research fellow at the Williams Institute, a think-tank at UCLA School of Law that focuses on sexual orientation, talks about the recent news that the U.S. Census will list same-sex marriages in California and Massachusetts - where they are legal - as "unmarried partners."

How will the U.S. Census count same-sex married couples in 2010?
They’re doing the same thing in 2010 as they did in 2000. Where one person is indicated as the spouse of another person and they're the same sex, they will change that to an unmarried couple.

Is this policy a problem?
In Census 2000, when the bureau changed a same-sex spouse to an unmarried partner they were arguably changing an inaccurate response to a more accurate one, because there were no legally married same-sex couples in 2000. The problem today is that they are potentially changing accurate responses to inaccurate ones.

What are the repercussions of this policy?
The issue of marriage for same-sex couples is one of the most hotly debated public policy issues right now in the country. Getting more information on same-sex couples who get married is important for that debate.

Did the agency provide reasons for its policy?
 The Census Bureau says that the Federal Defense of Marriage Act is what keeps it from counting same-sex couples. We believe that there are ways that the bureau can do that and not violate federal law.
Van Jones Van Jones  original / top
July 22, 2008

The Green For All founder will join incoming California state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg on Thursday evening for a discussion about green-collar jobs at the Commonwealth Club.

What is a green-collar job?
 A traditional blue-collar vocational job that's been upgraded to better respect the environment - it could be anything from installing solar panels to working in organic agriculture to manufacturing wind turbines.

What is Green For All?
 It's a national organization that advocates for green-collar jobs and opportunities for disadvantaged communities.

Who in San Francisco stands to benefit from green-collar jobs?
 All low-income people and people of color who need work — it's the people who've been left out of the pollution-based economy who stand to benefit the most from the transition to a green economy.

What is a pollution-based economy?
 The economic theories that we've been operating on were created in the 1800s when you had a whole lot of nature and very few people. Now you've got a planet with a whole lot of people and very little nature. A lot of stuff used to be off the books — like carbon and the idea of inexhaustible resources.

How realistic is it to think we can move to a green economy?
 Well, how realistic is it to think that we're going to be able to base our economy on drilling and burning oil and baking the planet?
Ben Rosenfield Ben Rosenfield  original / top
May 27, 2008

The 34-year-old city controller, who started the job in April after working for The City for 10 years, will discuss The City’s budget at a forum today at the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association.

What does your new job involve?
The City Controller’s Office is really the chief financial office in The City. We handle The City’s accounting rules and administration, and we’re charged with auditing city departments.

Does that make you unpopular with other departments?
I would hope city departments see our office as a vehicle to help them make difficult choices. We’re not the ones actually making the choices — those are decisions for the mayor and Board of Supervisors — but we’re certainly here to try to help make their jobs a little easier.

How big is your department?
About 200 people, with a budget of $29.6 million.

What was your previous job?
I was working as the deputy city administrator under Ed Lee for the past three years, and before that I was working as the mayor’s budget director from 2001 through 2005.

How is your department helping to balance the budget?
The Mayor’s Office has to submit a balanced budget by June 1 to close the $338 million problem The City’s facing. Our budget shop and myself and my deputy are spending a lot of time chasing budget-savings ideas.

What’s the biggest challenge?
We have a budget problem for the coming year, and we’re likely to have a significant budget problem the year after. The state’s budget is not in a good place, and their habit is to pass along cuts to local governments.

For how many years do you expect budget problems?
Hopefully two, but who knows?
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