Anti-growth Measure L still too close to call in SF

The proposition, which would halt dot-com and other office developments in certain rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, persevered despite a competing measure and a $2.3 million soft-money oppostion campaign by developers and business interests that paid for a blizzard of mailers and television ads.

Proposition L was trailing with 130,059 in favor to 130,066 opposed at last count, according to the Department of Elections.

With all the precincts reporting Wednesday, the department posted numbers on its Web site showing Proposition L passing by a narrow margin. But those numbers didn't take into account the absentee ballots and provisional ballots, which are still being counted.

By Thursday night, the department had counted 62,232 of these ballots, and had about 20,000 absentee ballots and 10,000 provisional ballots left to verify and count in a laborious, 24-hour operation involving more than 100 people, Hayashi said.

"We're in a big hurry to get this done," she said.

The remaining uncounted ballots also could affect the outcome of supervisorial races. At last count, Hayashi said, only Tom Ammiano, who easily won a majority, and Gavin Newsom, who ran unopposed, were elected outright on Tuesday. Eighteen other candidates for the nine remaining supervisorial seats appear headed for a Dec. 14 runoff.

Measure K, a competing measure placed on the ballot by Mayor Willie Brown, was soundly defeated at the polls, receiving only 39 percent of the vote.

"If you want to have a vibrant, cultural mixed-use type of city, you just don't give in to the people who pay the most," Doug Engmann, co-sponsor of Measure L said election night.

Frank Gallagher, spokesman for the No on L campaign, defended the spending.

"Well, of course there is a lot of money," Gallagher said. "This is a very serious issue. Nothing less than the future of San Francisco is at stake here. It is worth $2.3 million and I think a heck of a lot more."