Outspoken, Irascible and Out of a Job, Chris Daly Improvises

With few employment prospects, termed-out supe plans to buy a bar
By: Elizabeth Lesly Stevens

It is something of a feat to be branded the most impossible, irascible, ultra-liberal politician in San Francisco. It is less of an achievement to be impossible, irascible and perhaps unemployable.

Chris Daly, one of the most outspoken members of the Board of Supervisors for the last decade (among his many claims to fame is having his associate dress as a chicken to taunt Mayor Gavin Newsom), has spent recent months mulling possible second acts.

Because of term limits, the 38-year-old Daly, whose district includes the gritty Tenderloin and the trendy SoMa neighborhoods, is being forced to find another job. He has a wife and two small children to support.

Supervisors are paid nearly $100,000 a year. Daly's last day on the payroll will be Jan. 8.

It is a daunting prospect for someone who dropped out of college and who has a knack for alienating people. An assortment of foes — the major local newspapers, "downtown" business interests, even union groups — offer few prospects of future support or employment, and Daly said, "They have cut me off at the knees in terms of higher office."

"There really is no job for me," he said. "What do you do when you are the most controversial figure in the city?"

"I looked on Craigslist for jobs during Board of Supervisor meetings," he said. "There was nothing — absolutely nothing. Nowhere that would hire me."

Daly's tenure on the board has been marked by his pursuit of various controversial initiatives. His robust support of tenant-friendly housing policies and his opposition to the sit/lie law, for example, have generally vexed the city's bourgeois and business classes.

So with seemingly no other options, Daly has chosen to go into business himself. He and a partner are in the process of buying Buck Tavern on a rough block of Market Street. The plan is to rename it Daly's Dive Bar & Grill and create a gathering place for those who share Daly's progressive politics.

"As a culturally Irish, washed-up politician, thinking about what I can do, it was painfully easy to decide," Daly said as he sat in a dark booth in the tavern. "Everything else is a dead end."

He is not worried about his lack of business experience. His share of the purchase is being financed by a loan from his parents, so having to deal with banks was not an issue.

He is careful to explain that his family is not among the ruling class: "My family does not own any of the means of production." But he is very grateful for their support, saying, "If you have access to capital, you can make money."

Michael Gouddou, the man selling Buck Tavern to Daly, stopped by during the interview to say hello.

Is it hard to do business in San Francisco? "So and so," Gouddou said. "They nickel and dime you" with fees.

Gouddou looked relieved to be moving on. "I'm happy for him," he said, nodding in Daly's direction.

This article also appears in the Bay Area edition of The New York Times.