Title

Nothenberg, Rudy: Moscone's agenda

Abstract

Rudy Nothenberg: I think George’s agenda, as it was, was not a ten point program that he’s gonna accomplish A, B, C, D, E. I think his agenda was an expression of what his belief systems were. Of inclusivity, of openness, of the achievement of civil and equal rights, and a livable – that term is a modern term but – a livable city, and a city in which people could enjoy themselves and have fun. I mean he loved the city, and he loved the openness, and he loved the ability for people to enjoy the city. So he wanted the city to live and breathe and be fun, and he wanted it to be open to any conceivable kind of adventure and belief system and demographic. He wanted the city to be responsive as an administration to be responsive not only to those people, it was always responsive, but responsive to a large broad [ ] of people, to everybody. I think slowly but surely we began to exercise that in the nature of appointments, the issues he took pride in whether it was modernizing the sewer system which had been languishing for decades without anybody getting to it, whether it was keeping the Giants, whether it was finally [dealing] with the convention center, talking about the business community, creating [lanes] with the business community which we started with Dick Blum and myself and which exists to this day . So there were initiatives that were colored both by what he believed in and by his need and reality to prove that he was not a crazy radical who would eviscerate publicly the business community of the city.

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Type

Interview

Date Original

2011-01-24

Relation

The Moscone oral history interviews are part of the George Moscone Collection, MSS 328.

Contributing Institution

Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives, University of the Pacific Library

Rights Information

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