Art Agnos
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| Art Agnos | |
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| In office January 8, 1988 – January 7, 1992 |
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| Preceded by | Dianne Feinstein |
| Succeeded by | Frank Jordan |
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| Born | September 1, 1938 Springfield, Massachusetts |
| Political party | Democratic |
Arthur (Art) Christ Agnos (born September 1, 1938) is an American politician. He served as the mayor of San Francisco, California from 1988 to 1992.
Agnos was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bates College and a Master of Arts from Florida State University. He moved to San Francisco in 1966.
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; Agnos became 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 white. He survived despite critical injuries; 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, and was the author of major legislation confronting AIDS. In 1987, he arranged for the a Joint Legislative Session on the AIDS Epidemic, featuring Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and National Academy of Science leader David Baltimore. It was the first such session in the nation.
In 1987 he ran for mayor, to replace Dianne Feinstein, who was term-limited. 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 the Embarcadero Freeway rather than rebuild it. 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.
Agnos also lost favor on account of his inability to tackle San Francisco's notorious homelessness problem. Until 1988, San Francisco Police regularly swept Golden Gate Park and Civic Center, using anti-camping laws to clear out homeless individuals residing in those places. During Agnos's term in office, however, the police adopted a "Rights of Homeless" policy whereby large numbers of homeless individuals were allowed to temporarily reside in Civic Center Plaza, which would later be dubbed "Camp Agnos."
Agnos lost a re-election campaign to Frank Jordan in 1991 by about 3,000 votes (52 to 48 percent).
During the Clinton administration, Agnos served as Regional Head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Agnos now serves as a member of the board of directors of the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco. 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.
Agnos was recently appointed as receiver for the troubled San Francisco Housing Authority.
| Preceded by Dianne Feinstein |
Mayor of San Francisco 1988–1992 |
Succeeded by Frank Jordan |
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