Quotes from Gavin Newsom

The arts can play a vital role in revitalizing neighborhoods, using and improving vacant space, bringing new jobs and new sense of opportunity, and improving public safety by generating more foot traffic and more eyes on the street.

San Francisco lags behind other communities in providing a vital, vibrant and ecologically sustainable urban canopy, as well as open space in the city.

We recognize that the arts are an essential part of San Francisco's cultural vitality.

You'd be hard pressed to find a bigger champion of high-speed rail than me when the bond went to voters. I believed in it.

At the end of the day, there's not a day that goes by without a mass shooting.

Society becomes how we behave.

There's a secret sauce in California, and I hope people pay attention to it.

There's been a gap between perception and reality, the perception being that California is on the cutting edge of gun safety legislation when, in fact, there are a number of areas where we have fallen behind.

California is infamous for passing things and then waking up and saying, 'What the hell did we just pass?'

I just butcher a book. Everything I underline I assume is important to me.

As goes California, so goes the rest of the nation.

When Californians see something we truly believe in, we say so and act accordingly - without evasiveness or equivocation.

I don't learn in a certain way, but I have other skills.

As Mayor, I will lead city government, businesses, and community groups to support innovative projects that will make San Francisco streets and public places vibrant and healthy

San Francisco can no longer afford to be a city divided between downtown and neighborhoods, with a downtown that becomes a ghost town when workers go home for the evening

One of the defining dynamics of 2008 has been the emerging wave of new, young voters getting involved and storming the gates of the traditional political establishment.

San Francisco has long been a leader in the arts, nurturing generations of painters, sculptors, poets, novelists, playwrights, film-makers, and performing artists and innovators of every kind.

California is a bellwether state. California was the first state in the United States to overturn the laws against interracial marriage. It took 19 years for the rest of the country to come around to that point of view.

We can build new housing while preserving the quality and character of adjacent residential districts and ensuring infill development strengthens the surrounding neighborhood.

Prop 8 did something that no other state in the history of this country has done. It took away the rights of people that already were legally affirmed. Imagine someone putting something on the ballot saying your wedding, your marriage is no longer valid.

The people that are serving you gas, the people that are in your restaurants serving you, the firefighters, and police officers are members of the gay and lesbian community. They're members of our broader community.

Livable neighborhoods with a vibrant street life will stimulate our economic life as well.

An arts education helps build academic skills and increase academic performance, while also providing alternative opportunities to reward the skills of children who learn differently.

I act on my principles, whether they're popular or not.