In an interview Thursday, Quan said she is is shutting down her Facebook fan page - a move that comes in response to "misogynist and racist" posts that have flooded the site over the last few weeks.

Quan said she will still maintain her regular Facebook page, but the fan page had to be disabled after the the volume of hate posts started overwhelming the site.

"There was a lot of racists and misogynist language from people outside of the Bay Area and the state that was showing up on the site," she said.

The mayor's spokeswoman, Sue Piper, said staff couldn't keep up with all of the overtly prejudiced posts that were critical of Quan.

"As you know, we are very thin on staff - and the volume of messages on the Facebook page significantly exceeded our ability to respond," Piper wrote in an email.

A quick check of the soon-to-be-defunct Facebook fan page shows posts from some supporters, a lot comments from critics of Quan and a healthy sprinkling of explicit racist and misogynist language. The Quan Facebook fan page has more than 2,700 "likes."

Quan said she doesn't believe that by disabling the fan page she's taking a step back from engaging with residents via the internet.

"No, not at all," she said. "I have my regular Facebook page that people can reach me through, and they can also contact me through the city's website."

Quan also has a Twitter account at @jeanquan that is active.