Welcome to Daly City

From the north wall of the Cow Palace jutted a $250,000 broadcast booth, newly completed for three TV networks. In the south wing, office cubicles for radio, newspaper and magazine reporters took shape. Telephone men installed 36,000 miles of wire, 3,000 phones. Overhead, a 40-ft.-by-100-ft. banner swung into place, bearing a likeness of Lincoln and the legend "Of the people, by the people, and for the people."

"This convention will be a record breaker--no doubt about it," said John Laxalt, a Nevada lawyer, who is a member of the convention's housing committee.

Laxalt was not glowing; as a matter of fact, he sounded pretty apprehensive. For, as usual, the convention promises plenty of headaches. Until the 1,200-room San Francisco Hilton was completed this year, only two major hotels had risen in San Francisco since the Sir Francis Drake went up in 1928. Moreover, many of the facilities are inadequate. The famed Mark Hopkins, for instance, has only three elevators to service its 23 floors; at the 1956 Republican Convention, patrons had to wait for as long as 1 1/2 hours to catch a ride. There are still only three elevators, and with a bigger crowd expected, the wait could be even longer.

Despite (or perhaps because of) its "sophistication," San Francisco can be a gouge town--a fact to which many a World War II serviceman can attest.

Thus many homeowners are moving out for convention week, asking $100 a day and more for three-bedroom digs. Under the best of circumstances, parking places are virtually nonexistent.

Fleets of rental cars are streaming into the city. A brigade of some 500 chartered buses will be shuttling constantly between downtown San Francisco and the Cow Palace, 61 miles away.

Still, San Francisco is popular, if only because of its peculiarities. The old cable cars still rattle up 45-degree hills. There is Chinatown, which these days sells Japanese-made trinkets. There is Fisherman's Wharf, for abalone and prawns. There are some of the best restaurants in the U.S. There are the swinging nightspots of North Beach, where the most popular dance is that variation of the twist called "the Swim," which, until last week at least, was taught at The Condor by an instructress in a topless swimming suit atop the piano.

San Francisco is happy to be host, and well it might be. By conservative estimate, the conventioners will generate $5,000,000 in new business. One who is nonetheless disgruntled is Micheal DeBernardi, 38, the publicity-conscious mayor of Daly City (pop. 57,200) outside San Francisco. Daly City recently annexed the unincorporated area on which the Cow Palace stands. And whatever the handouts say, insists DeBernardi, the Republican Convention is not really being held in San Francisco at all. Welcome to Daly City.

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