San Francisco Bay Guardian

Inside the Occupy Oakland protest

tim — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:12:43 +0000

Anarchism and peace try to coexist at Occupy Oakland

An Occupy Oakland march that turned violent Jan. 28 led to the arrest of 400 people, including me.

The march, which peaked at about 2,000 protesters, was organized with the intention of entering a vacant building -- the Kaiser Convention Center -- and turning it into a new “Social Center” that participants in Occupy Oakland hoped to use to gather, teach, and organize.

The move was more than symbolic. Occupy activists have engaged in constant debate about tactics and goals, particularly when it comes to violence and property destruction, and it’s hard to argue at this point that Occupy Oakland is a nonviolent movement.

But many thought that the goal of occupying a vacant building made sense. When Occupy Oakland had a camp in Frank Ogawa Plaza, also known as Oscar Grant Plaza, commonly described as OGP, it created a strong community. It’s a community that bridged divides between the homeless and the housed, between students and labor organizers, and between Oakland residents of different races, genders and levels of ability in an unprecedented fashion.

Besides that, the camp had a kitchen that fed hundreds of people everyday. The camp had a network of shared tents and blankets that welcomed in hundreds who would have slept freezing on the streets, often feeling isolated from other residents of their city and made to feel inferior. Now, they had a place to stay that was warmer, more safe and secure, and was embedded in a community bound together by ties of solidarity.

That community was able to thrive in it’s centralized camp location

That was the practical reason for wanting to occupy a vacant building: to have a social center for Occupy Oakland.

Of course, there are other reasons. There’s the question that many squatters and homeless advocacy groups have been making for decades: why let buildings lie vacant while people freeze on the street?

The march set off from OGP at 1 p.m. Jan. 28. There was no ambiguity about group’s goal: Many pushed carts stacked with furniture, hoping to furnish the new center; others held a large banner reading “Vacant? Take it!”

Many other Occupy groups around the world, including protesters in Washington DC, New York, London, England, and Belfast, Ireland, have taken over vacant buildings in an attempt to create social centers, house homeless community members and protest injustice symbolized by buildings lying vacant while people live on the street.

In Oakland, the attempts were staved off when riot police lined up in front of the march and declared unlawful assemblies.

In front of the Convention Center, police threw smoke bombs into the crowd and warned that those who refused to disperse would be arrested. The march continued around the corner to 12th St and Oak, where protesters and police were involved in another confrontation. Police shot smoke bombs and “pepper bombs,” canisters of pepper spray that explode on impact, into the crowd. Some in the march responded by throwing canisters, along with plastic bottles, back at police. Masked protesters in the front of the group brandished makeshift shields. Protesters say the shields were there to protect them from rubber bullets and bean bag rounds.

The cops had a different perspective. “It became clear that the objective of this crowd was not to peacefully assemble and march, but to seek opportunity to further criminal acts, confront police, and repeatedly attempt to illegally occupy buildings,” said Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan in a press release.

In a tense moment, hundreds knelt to hide behind the frontline shields while police fired rubber bullets into the crowd.
When police began to advance at both the front and back end of the group, protesters retreated, marching on 12th St back to Ogawa/Grant Plaza.

As they marched on 12th street, Occupy Oakland-affiliated street medics treated injuries from tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets. Police followed in the rear of the march, continuing to project exploding flash-bang grenades at the crowd.

At about 5:30, another march left from the plaza, again with the stated attention of occupying a building. Police marched behind protesters. When the march cut through Fox Square in Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood, police filled in all surrounding sides of the march. Protesters have used the term “kettling” to describe a situation in which police line up on all sides of a group, blocking anyone in the group from leaving.
After “kettling” hundreds of protesters at this location, police began to deploy tear gas. Some protesters with makeshift plastic and metal shields, many marked with the “circle-A” anarchy symbol, advanced towards police. Several police beat the shield back with batons and struck some protesters.

One 19-year-old woman who was struck with a baton to the kidneys was brought to the hospital and treated for internal bleeding.
Police announced that the gathering was an unlawful assembly. Minutes later, some protesters knocked over a line of chain-link fencing, allowing the march to exit the “kettle.” The march continued on Telegraph.

When the march arrived at Broadway between 22nd and 23rd streets, a handful of protesters climbed a fence to enter a vacant building. The march crossed the street away from that building, towards the downtown Oakland YMCA. There, a small group of protesters forced their way into the YMCA, while others, many distraught and confused, huddled on the sidewalk. Police closed in on both sides until they had formed a line preventing the approximately 400 protesters from exiting.

About 6:30 p.m., police announced that all of the blocked-in group was under arrest.

It was more than six hours before the sidewalk was cleared of all detainees. Most are charged with failure to disperse. ome, such as those who entered the YMCA, have been charged with burglary.

Dozens of protesters who had avoided arrest marched back to City Hall. There, they illegally entered the building and committed several acts of vandalism. According to a press release, these included “breaking an interior window to a Hearing Room, tipping over and seriously damaging the historic model of City Hall, destroying a case containing a model of Frank Ogawa Plaza, and breaking into the fire sprinkler and elevator automation closet.” Protesters also report setting off fireworks in the counsel chambers.

Some protesters took an American flag from City Hall and burned it in front of the government building.

Oakland officials have complained about the cost of the protests. The city had reportedly spent $2.4 million policing Occupy Oakland protesters as of November 15, just weeks after announcing the decision to close down five elementary schools to save $2 million.
Occupy activists say the huge -- expensive -- police presence is an overreaction.

“The amount of property damage by protesters has been minimal next to Mayor Quan's destruction of the humanitarian Occupy Oakland community and excessive force against peaceful people, said Wendy Kenin, an Occupy Oakland spokesperson. “The City of Oakland's commitment to militarism far outweighs its investment in schools.

Kenin said she was back at Occupy Oakland outside City Hall, with her four children, the day after the incidents.
There were no arrests made in the City Hall incident, partly because so many police resources were deployed at the YMCA.

Cities and counties that provided police reenforcements to handle the mass arrests include Alameda County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, San Francisco County and Marin County and the cities of Fremont, Hayward, Berkeley, Pleasanton, San Francisco and Union City/Newark; and the University of California-Berkeley, according to an Oakland Police Department press release.

Dozens of those detained were brought to Glenn Dyer jail, which quickly filled up; the rest were brought to Santa Rita jail in Dublin.
Several members of the press, as well as passers-by who were on their way to work in the area, were swept up in the arrests.

In jail, those detained debated tactics involved in the day’s demonstrations and discussed the future of Occupy Oakland.

The number of injured protesters is unknown, but in the 19-person sampling of arrestees with whom I spent 20 hours, two had bruises from baton strikes, one suffered from an injured foot after a pepper-bomb exploded upon impact with her ankle, and most had irritation in their eyes, ears, and throat from exposure to tear gas and pepper spray.

Oakland police report that three officers were injured.

As of the morning of Jan. 30, about 100 remained in Santa Rita.

Live Shots: Decentralized Dance Party

marke — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:41:59 +0000

All photos by Bowerbird Photography

When Sam Love and I finally arrived at Union Square on Fri/27 night, we were surprised by the mass of boomboxes perched on peoples' shoulders, like a thousand John Cusacks in Say Anything, heading down Powell Street. Somehow, we found our friends (Ickles and Eckles) when the party descended at the Powell Street BART station. The music blared and tourists careened their heads over the banisters of the station to see what the heck was going on. It was a Decentralized Dance Party (DDP), where strangers get dressed up, gather with their old boomboxes, and wait for the organizers to hijack a radio frequency, where they send out the jams on long antennas, for some major noise and wild Friday night dancing.

The theme was "Strictly Business," so at times it was hard to tell the downtown suits from the party people, which just added more crazy to the mix. Of course, it got pretty hot on the concrete dance floor and layers were quickly stripped. Eventually, we found ourselves walking down Market, a hoard of twinkle-toed goofballs, getting down to everything from Journey to LMFAO. Almost to the Ferry Building, we stopped in a business park at 1 Bush Plaza and were told -- gleefully? -- that we had amassed 400 noise violations. The cops gave us one more song. Little did they know, DDP would pick a nearly 15 minute-long song – extending the party just long enough to finish off those “water” bottles and find someone's shoulder to dance on.

Shabazz Palaces get Amharic

marke — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:58:11 +0000

Languorous bike-riding, age-old mother-daughter conflicts, technicolor flower-bursts, and a surprising glimpse into the Ethiopian community of (we suppose) Seattle, the hometown of cosmic hip-hop duo Shabazz Palaces make the video for their new single, "Are You ... Can You ... Were You? (Felt)" off last year's awesome Black Up album a nice Monday start. They'll be performing this Thu/2 at Yoshi's SF. (10:30 p.m., $18-$22. 1330 Fillmore, SF. www.yoshis.com)

The college tuition problem

tim — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:33:57 +0000

President Obama wants to solve the horrible problem of college tuition costs and student loans by offering tax breaks and telling schools to keep their costs down. Memo to the prez: Holding the line on tuition increases won't do it. Tuition is already way to high. Student loan requirements are already way too crippling.

It would be nice if governments would just raise the tax money necessary to subsidize costs at public universities again. But until that happens, there's another interesting idea I heard on KPFA the other day: Why not do a federal bailout for students?

The Federal Reserve bought up trillions in toxic bank debt. Why not use the same principle to buy up the debt of a generation of college students, reduce the payments to an affordable level and do what other countries do, which is to waive all payments until the students get a job? What a great investment in the future -- and what a great way to stimulate the economy. Put money in the pockets of young college graduates and guess what? They'll spend it. Trust me on this.

I wonder if anyone in Washington is even thinking about this. If so, it's awfully quiet.

Burning Man ticket requests far exceed supply

steven — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 01:22:39 +0000

This year's Man design by Rod Garrett and Andrew Johnstone.

Courtesy of Black Rock City LLC

Burners' worst fears are about to come true: they'll be denied tickets to Burning Man when the results of the new lottery-based system are announced on Wednesday. But organizers say if everyone stays calm and relies on their community then they'll probably still get tickets.

Substantially more people registered for tickets than organizers expected, so much so that they believe burners and their allies ordered way more tickets than they'll need this year because of concerns about the new ticketing system and the fact that the event sold out early for the first time last year.

“It's big enough that we believe that all the demand for tickets is not new folks,” Larry Harvey – chair of SF-based Black Rock City LLC, which stages the event – told the Guardian. He refused to say how many people registered for tickets, but the LLC did say each registrant ordered 1.7 tickets, indicating a higher than usual number ordering the maximum of two tickets.

If it's true that most burners bought more than they needed, that also means there will be lots of tickets circulating through the Burning Man community, so Harvey and fellow board member Marian Goodell are urging everyone to not overreact, don't buy expensive tickets from scalpers, and take advantage of the LLC's new aftermarket ticket exchange program that will go online in a few weeks.

“If someone is looking for a ticket, we don't want them to go to eBay or Craigslist, we want them to turn to their community,” Harvey said. “We think the community is a better distributor than anyone.”

Goodell emphasized that the burner ethos calls for people to only sell tickets for face value – which is $240-390 for the 40,000 tickets going out next week – and she said she believes there will be enough tickets to satisfy demand if people don't panic and feed the scalpers' market. Those who don't follow that advice could also end up with counterfeit tickets, whereas the LLC will verify tickets it swaps.

“The secondary market is the community, and we don't want people to feel they have a commodity in their hand that will help them make the rent,” she told us. “You're really hurting your community if you're treating this like a commodity.”

But the unknown factor is how many ticket buyers are more profit-minded than community-minded, particularly after tickets were selling for almost double-face-value on average after tickets sold out last year, according to a study by SeatGeek. Goodell said only burners can keep the scalpers' market in check.

“We're being optimistic, but we were able to get more than 50,000 people to remove their trash [from Black Rock City every year],” Goodell said. “We know we can train people to behave in ways that are more community-minded.”

Many people criticized Burning Man for replacing the usual Internet ticket sales with the lottery system this year, but Harvey and Goodell both said they think the over-registration problem had more to do with tickets selling out last year than the new system.

Still, Harvey told us the transition could have been handled better: “If we had it to do over, we might do some things differently.”

As for whether the new system will end up being OK, Goodell said, “We won't know how it's working until we get to the event and see if people are happy.” But in short run, she said, “I'm going to have a lot more unhappy people than I was counting on.”

In addition to managing ticket exchanges through its website, BRC does still have one more ticket sales session planned for March 28, when 10,000 tickets will be sold online in a first come, first served system, like first day sales used to be.

As I chronicle in my book, The Tribes of Burning Man: How an Experimental City in the Desert is Shaping the New American Counterculture, Burning Man has grown from a small gathering on Baker Beach in 1986 to a thriving year-round culture that builds a temporary city of more than 50,000 people in Nevada's Black Rock Desert in late summer. Burners build the city and its art from scratch with their own resources, almost everything in this gift economy is offered for free, and everyone is encouraged to participate in its creation, enjoyment, and cleanup.

The event doubled in size since I started covered it in 2004, and it has spawned a network of regional events around the world, as well as offshoot organizations such as Black Rock Arts Foundation (which funds and facilitates public art off the playa), Burners Without Borders (which does disaster relief and other good works), and the Burning Man Project (a newly created nonprofit that will take over operations of the event in coming years).

The LLC is currently negotiating with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for permits that will allow the event to grow up to 70,000 people within five years, but Goodell cautioned against those who might see growth as an answer to this year's problems.

“Honestly, I don't want more people until we do a little tweaking to the departure process,” Goodell said, noting that people waited as much as nine hours this year to get off the playa and onto the two-lane highway that leads to the Black Rock Desert.

I asked whether they were entertaining any big new ideas for managing the growth of the event, such as how the popular Coachella music festival this year created two events with identical lineups to handle demand. Harvey didn't say specifically that was an option, but he did refer to his essay discussing this year's art theme, Fertility 2.0, which just belatedly went online.

“If you read my theme,” he told me, “it's all about the expansion of the culture.” Among other sentiments, Harvey wrote, “We are living in an age of mass production and consumption that is unsustainable. But culture, as a living system, has the power to create and recreate itself.”

Live Shots: Fitz and the Tantrums

emily — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:44:23 +0000

A steady backbeat. The swirling organ. Lots of saxophone. Two singers who double as dancers. One skunk striped haircut. Without a doubt, Fitz and the Tantrums have their act together, and worked it Thursday, the first of two nights at the Regency Ballroom.

The Tantrums, a stylish soul revival band with pop tendencies, are led by singer-songwriter Michael Fitzpatrick, a skinny man with a skinnier blonde streak in his 'do. Fitzpatrick’s voice is somewhere between blue-eyed soul artists Daryl Hall and Michael McDonald (the Doobie Brother, not the guy from MadTV, although there is a striking resemblance to the latter). Fitz is matched vocally by Noelle Scaggs, whose hair no longer matches the band’s banner. It’s the chemistry between the two that drives the band onstage, complementary but also competing to be more bombastic. Neither seems afraid to work up a sweat, but Scaggs for her part apparently picked up an old trick from Tina Turner, which is to hold the tambourine in hand and just shake the whole body.

In the last year, the group has been getting a lot of attention, mainly through festival performances, including Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. The Tantrums won me over at Sasquatch in Washington, with some nice placement before Sharon Jones. The show on Thursday was essentially the same, down to the banter, audience interaction, and requests to “get low.” Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it comes off more natural than mechanical – a level of polish and chops that would sweep X Factor or American Idol. If, however, that reality competition dreck comparison is a little too safe for comfort, rest assured that Fitz, for his part, drops way too many F-bombs for network TV.

Setlist
1. Don’t Gotta Work It Out
2. Winds of Change
3. Breakin’ the Chains of Love
4. Wake Up
5. Pickin’ Up the Pieces
6. Rich Girl ("Rich girls will break your heart, but a poor girls will take all your fucking money.")
7. 6 AM
8. Tighter
9. Lovesick Man
("This is where the motherfucking dance party will begin.")
10. LOV
11. Steady As She Goes (Raconteurs)
12. Dear Mr. President
13. News 4 U
Encore
14. We Don’t Need No Love Songs
15. Sweet Dreams (Eurythmics)
16. Moneygrabber

Meister: So, what about the state of the unions, Mr. President?

bruce — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:30:26 +0000

By Dick Meister

Dick Meister, former labor editor of the SF Chronicle and KQED-TV Newsroom, has covered labor and politics for more than a half-century. Contact him through his website, www.dickmeister.com, which includes more than 350 of his columns.

Unions? Organized labor? The AFL-CIO? Those words were nowhere to be heard in President Obama's State of the Union address, despite labor's vital role in the economy and strong support for Obama. The continued support of the labor movement is essential if the president is to carry out the bold plans he outlined and if he is to be re-elected.

The president's failure to mention one of the country's most important economic and political institutions was unfortunate. It was perhaps understandable, however, given the anti-union climate stirred up by attacks on public employee unions and their allies.

Obama's failure to mention unions and their leaders was ignored in the post-speech pronouncements of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other major unionists. They in fact proclaimed the speech a victory because of its endorsement of policies widely supported by labor.

"It was clear throughout the president's speech that the era of the one percent is over," Trumka declared. "We demanded a strong stand on behalf of working families – and the president delivered."

Trumka cited, in particular, Obama's promise to thoroughly investigate "misconduct in the mortgage industry that wrecked our economy," his promise to invest in jobs and infrastructure, and his proposed tax rules that would help the 99 percent.

President Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers praised Obama for making it clear "that children and our future must be priorities," and for noting "what America's teachers have long understood. We can't test our way to a middle class, we must educate our way to a middle class."

Praise, too, from President Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers Union. He singled out Obama's promise to work "to bring manufacturing back to America." Gerard said, "The president's commitment to discourage job outsourcing and promote insourcing is a ticket to a better economy." It was most welcome news, added Trumka, to the millions of Americans who are unemployed.

President Gerald McEntee of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees described the president's speech as "a comprehensive plan to move our country forward, bolster job creation and find real solutions for the problems confronting our country."

McEntee noted that "in today's political environment, it takes guts to stand strong with working families – even when we make our voices heard, loud and clear, because the toxic influence of money in politics – which the president spoke out against – is powerful."

So, although Obama made no mention of organized labor in his address, he said much that greatly pleased labor, and made promises to carry out measures high on labor's economic and political agendas.

As the AFL-CIO's Trumka declared, Obama showed he "listened to the single mom working two jobs to get by, to the out-of-work construction worker, to the retired factory worker, to the student serving coffee to help pay for college." The president, in short, "voiced the aspirations and concerns of those who are too often ignored."

Trumka cited the similarities between Obama's approach and that of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Like the occupiers, the president is "speaking out forcefully against the staggering increase in inequality" between the one percent and the 99 percent. The president's speech, Trumka added, demonstrated "a focus on job creation Republican House and Senate leaders should follow."

It's clear, certainly, that as long as Obama continues on his current path, he'll have strong labor support. But should he stray, it's clear that labor will forcefully remind him of his promises and of the needs of those who work for a living – or who are attempting to work for a living.

Whatever Obama does is certain to be in startling contrast to his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, one of the most virulently anti-labor presidents in U.S. history. Obama has already rescinded several of Bush's executive orders that limited the union rights of some workers and has replaced openly anti-labor Bush appointees to labor-related federal agencies, boards and commissions with his openly pro-labor appointees, including Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.

Imagine Bush, or any of his GOP allies, actually saying, as Obama did, that "we need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests because we know you cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."

Important words. But they need to be heard – and acted on – by the millions of Americans who know little or nothing of unions and their important position in our economic and political lives.

President Obama failed to take advantage of a great opportunity to explain the true nature of unions and their importance to the country-at-large and make clear the often vicious anti-unionism of his political enemies. He missed a chance to explain the crucial role labor is certain to play in attempts to carry out essential reforms.

Obama needed to speak out forcefully to try to counter the anti-unionism that is limiting the chances of many Americans to find decent jobs at decent pay and a strong voice in workplace and community matters.

Obama missed an important opportunity. But if he stays true to his promises, the president will have plenty of other chances to show the country the true nature of the labor movement and its opponents, to speak out in favor of unions and the importance of their members, leaders and supporters, and to carry out his proposed and much needed reforms designed to help the nation's working people.

Live Shots: Paufve Dance's So I Married Abraham Lincoln

caitlin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:16:19 +0000

This weekend Paufve Dance is winding its way through all the rooms at Dance Mission Theater, making the audience follow, as it performs So I Married Abraham Lincoln. There are only three performances left for the production, so snag those tickets quick before this little gem passes you by.

During a recent performance that the Guardian was privy to, the sparse set filled with the monochromatic tone of the dancers' clothing, gave an air of desperate times, with just the right amount of humor. Music ranged from opera to punk rock, giving the impression that dancers moved between time and space, free of affilation to a specific era.

So I Married Abe Lincoln

Fri/27 and Sat/28, 8 p.m.; Sun/29, 7 p.m., $15-18

Dance Mission Theater

3316 24th St., SF

www.dancemission.com

Headshots for the homeless? Photographer Joe Ramos connects art and social work

caitlin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:23:17 +0000

Images of homelessness are not hard to come by. These scenes are often pathetic, clichéd. In the worst cases, the homeless are portrayed as inhuman heaps of blanket and facial disfigurement, people reduced to their time spent sleeping on the streets or begging for money. But in “Acknowledged,” photographer Joe Ramos’ exhibit at the Main Library that opens Sat/28, unhoused subjects are shown in a way that’s truly radical: as people just like us.

The tradition of using poor peoples' image as exploitative art can be traced back to Jacob Riis’s photos of New York City tenement housing in his 1890 photojournalism book How the Other Half Lives. The project launched a spate of tenement tourism among the upperclass in New York City -- a phenomenon which finds its equivalent today in the slum tours conducted in Mumbai, Rio, Nairobi, and other developing cities.

The stated intention of these enterprises is admirable: to raise awareness of a societal problem that needs to be addressed. But their results can be a dehumanization and objectification of the “other half,” the poor becoming art and entertainment rather than harbingers of a culture gone awry and, most importantly, fellow human beings.

But that is why Ramos’s photography project is so exceptional. Instead of randomly snapping pictures of the homeless on the street, the photographer works for Project Homeless Connect, a non-profit that provides medical and social services to the homeless in San Francisco. For the past six years, Ramos has been photographing program participants -- he told the Guardian, at their own request.

The results are striking, studio-style portraits in both color and black-and-white. For “Acknowledged”''s exhibition, many of the pictures are displayed alongside stories and interviews. Respect, empathy, and a strange glamor suffuse each portrait.

Like John Steinbeck, Ramos was born and raised in Salinas, California. Mentored by Richard Conrat, the former assistant of the famed photographer of Dust Bowl families, Dorothea Lange, Ramos brings a neo-Depression era aesthetic to his work. As the child of farmhands, he understands poverty. Ramos’ subjects are not the other -- they are unmistakably like any of us, after a bout of bad luck or a few missed paychecks.

In a recent phone interview with the Guardain, Ramos was emphatic about his project’s goals. “There are as many reasons for being homeless as there are homeless people,” he said. “Not all of them are out on the street. Many are in the shelter system. There are families with children in the school system who are technically homeless.”

He said because of this invisible class of struggling, unhoused people, most of us don’t associate homelessness with anything other than the panhandler on the corner of Geary and Powell Streets. Through his work, Ramos wants to show the true face of homelessness -- in all its complexity, dignity, and humanity.

“Acknowledged” features portraits of well-dressed, loving families. There is the man in a business suit with haunting eyes who lost his way after accidentally causing a fatal accident. There are transgender adults who faced harsh family rejection, discrimination, and unemployment as a result of their need to express what they felt inside.

Ramos says that after hearing his subjects’ stories, he finds himself befriending them, seeing them again and again. He has photographed some of them up to 10 times. After each photo is developed, he sends a copy to his subject, or their subject’s family upon request. Sometimes his portraits are used to show family back home that estranged members are doing all right.

Ramos subjects pose on a completely voluntary basis. While his project is undoubtedly artistic, it’s hard not to see it through another lens: as a free studio portrait service for those who would never be able to record their lives in any other way. The surprising sense of ease visible in the photos’ faces makes sense. These people are clients, not art objects. They feel at ease because they feel acknowledged.

“Acknowledged”: Joe Ramos photo exhibit

Through March 25

Opening program (including expert panel on SF homelessness):

Sat/28 2 p.m., free

San Francisco Public Library

100 Larkin, SF

(415) 557-4000

www.sfpl.org

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article mistakenly identified Joe Ramos' mentor. He was actually taught by Richard Conrat. The Guardian apologizes for the error.

Mayor Lee's call for more hearings gets wary reception

steven — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:19:02 +0000

Labor and the Left came out strongly against Mayor Ed Lee’s proposed charter amendment to require all city legislation be delayed and subjected to hearings by the Small Business Commission and other commissions if it might cost private sector jobs, putting its prospects of making the ballot in doubt.

“This legislation is one, unnecessary; two, unbalanced; and three, divisive,” Mike Casey, president of the San Francisco Labor Council – whose executive committee voted unanimously to oppose the legislation – said during today’s Rules Committee hearing on the measure.

He and other labor leaders noted that members of the business community have plenty of opportunities to weigh in on legislation it opposes, but Lee’s proposal would elevate employers’ interests far above those concerning the environment, consumers, public health, or workers. “This legislation gives one stakeholder undue power in the democratic process, which is undemocratic,” said Kate Hegé of La Raza Centro Legal, which represents day laborers and other immigrants.

Teacher Ken Tray of United Educators of San Francisco said, “Often times ‘jobs’ is used as a red herring to divert the city from doing what it needs to do.” It was a common theme, as opponents of the proposal noted that paid sick leave, the local minimum wage, and requiring employee health benefits were all fiercely opposed by the business community. “Anything that raises workers up, we’re told it’s a job killer,” said Larry Bradshaw of SEIU Local 1021.

Small business representatives – a bit sheepishly, given the tenor of the hearing, and without support from their downtown brethren – said they were simply looking for the ability to express their concerns. “We’ve tried to let small business have a voice at the Board of Supervisors,” said longtime small business advocate Scott Hauge, a regular at City Hall.
Keith Goldstein of Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association said, “We feel we don’t have a say in this process.”

Mayor’s Office board liaison Jason Elliott emphasized that Lee’s charter amendment would create a delay and an extra hearing or two, but that supervisors would still be free to approve the legislation anyway. “This is about public participation and feedback,” Elliott said.

But Sup. David Campos, who led the questioning of Elliott, wasn’t buying it. “What’s the reason behind this? Is there a specific reason the Mayor’s Office has decided to do this now and through a charter amendment?” Campos said, probing for instances in which the Mayor’s Office thought the business community hadn’t been heard.

Elliott continued to say it was about emphasizing jobs and taking more public input, but he couldn’t explain what’s lacking currently or what’s muting employers. Campos thanked the Mayor’s Office for being willing to work with supervisors and accept amendments – including many introduced today, which delayed the vote on the measure until next week.
But Campos questioned the need for the legislation, comparing it to the hollow jobs rhetoric from the current field of Republican presidential candidates. “It’s not just the number of jobs you have, it’s the quality of those jobs,” Campos said.

(Side note: the Mayor’s Office issued a press release today celebrating the first two businesses to take advantage of last year’s controversial mid-Market payroll tax exemption, Zendesk and Pearl’s Deluxe Burgers, which created 56 jobs between them. And to help create those great burger joint jobs, Pearl’s got Redevelopment Agency assistance, a low-interest city loan, and an exemption from the payroll tax. For hiring burger flippers that probably make minimum wage. But I digress…)

Campos said that everyone in City Hall wants to see more good jobs in the city, “but I don’t believe this is a constructive approach.” Sup. Jane Kim echoed the sentiment, saying private sector job creation isn’t the only imperative. “Lowering our minimum wage to $3 or $1 an hour would create plenty of jobs in San Francisco,” she said.

Even the more conservative third committee member, Sup. Mark Farrell, said he tends to agree with his committee colleagues and made the motion to continue the item until next week, when its prospects for passage look weak unless Lee can convince them that there’s more to this measure than just political grandstanding.

“So this will really be a doggie disco.”

emily — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:03:02 +0000

Dog party in the U.S.A.

Let’s just get this out of the way immediately: there’s going to be a doggie dance this Sunday at the Stud. I could say no more about it and there would still be a segment of people, myself very much included, that would need to go, no questions asked. I mean, it’s a dance for dogs.

Well for the rest of you, I asked the questions. The official title is “Dance Doggy Dance A Fundraiser for WonderDog Rescue” and it's the first of its kind for Wonderdog. The Stud is dog-friendly, and there will be DJs spinning lower decibel levels so as not to hurt those velvety pup ear flaps.

“So the first DJ David Sternesky will be spinning disco during that time. ,” says Wonderdog volunteer “So this will really be a doggie disco.”

Here’s hoping we see a Chihuahua mix doing the non-sexual hustle with a Lab, or perhaps a Bullmastiff howling Chic's "Le Freak."

After Sternesky (Rocket Collective, Solid), Taco Tuesday (OH! & I Cochina Tonga's) sidles into the DJ booth and real live humans can get in on the dancefloor as well. Either way, it's a spot to bring your dog and have a cocktail.

Wonderdog is a volunteer group that rescues dogs from all over Northern and Central California. According to its site, it has “saved blind and deaf dogs, puppies as young as two weeks and seniors as old as 15.” It also offers hospice to special needs and elderly dogs.

The fundraising will go towards Wonderdog’s ability to pay vet bills, rent out its Western Addition space, transport dogs, and of course, feed the things.

Dance Doggy Dance
Sun/29, 9 p.m., $10-$20 donation
The Stud Bar
399 Ninth St., SF
www.wonderdogrescue.org

Can SF follow Berkeley in dumping the big banks?

tim — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:47:03 +0000

The City of Berkeley is considering dropping its contract with Wells Fargo and moving the city's money to a credit union or a smaller community bank. That makes perfect sense -- the Move Your Money Project has been urging individuals to do that, and there's no reason why cities (which are huge customers of banking services) can't do the same.

In fact, San Francisco ought to be next on the list.

This city puts all of its short-term money in Bank of America. It's a lot of cash -- if the city spends more than $6 billion a year, much of that at some point goes into a city account and most of the checks the city issues are paid on that account. We're talking a plum deal for a big bank -- particularly since the city's checks aren't going to bounce and the money comes in steadily.

Why B of A? Because the contract is put out to bid, and B of A was able to offer the best deal. But the bidding process didn't consider the issues that Occupy has brought up -- nor did it consider the number of local jobs that could be generated if the city put its money in a local bank that actually makes local loans to small businesses and homeowners instead of foreclosing on people and shipping the profits back to North Carolina every night.

I don't know if there's a local credit union or community bank big enough to handle the business of a client the size of San Francisco -- but there's no reason the entire contract has to go to one bank.

Besides, we could always create our own.

America’s Cup moves forward, but economic concerns remain

yael — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:08:54 +0000

View from Aquatic Park, site of the rejected jumbotron proposal

PHOTO BY SMALLCAMERAJOURNAL

In past weeks, several environmental and community organizations filed two appeals of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared for the America's Cup yacht race in 2013.

Jan. 24, the Board of Supervisors rejected the appeal, allowing for construction on the several major projects contained in the America's Cup proposal to move forward.

But some supervisors say that the many groups with environmental concerns about the America's Cup brought up important issues, including economic issues that will still need to be addressed.

Organizations involved in the appeals include San Francisco Tomorrow, Telegraph Hill Dwellers, and the Golden Gate Audubon Society.

The biggest concession regards the jumbotron, a giant TV screen that was planned to project the race’s events. The America's Cup event authority planned to float the jumbotron’s 44-foot wide screen on a 140-foot barge, and anchor it with large concrete blocks, dropped in Aquatic Park. Opponents said that the blocks would stir up potentially toxic sediments and that the whole plan put Aquatic Park, a preferred beach of bay swimmers, at risk of a diesel spill that would have long-term implications for the safety of its swimmers.

After a heated back-and-forth, attorney for the The America's Cup event authority Mary G. Murphy stated that the Authority would ditch plans for the water-born jumbotron and look into landside options.

President of the Dolphin Club Reuben Hechanova said that the decision on the jumbotron was a clear victory. The club, whose members have been swimming in the cold waters of Aquatic Park since 1877, was vocal in its opposition for plans for the floating TV. Members of the Dolphin Club and their allies had been meeting with city officials for over a year, campaigning against the jumbotron.

Hechanova denied that Dolphin Club members had planned to disrupt the America's Cup in a swim-in called “Occupy the Bay” if plans for the floating jumbotron proceeded.

“We were always going to continue to work with the governing agencies…we were not going to occupy the bay. The only official spokespersons of the club are the board members,” Hechanova told the Guardian.

Appellants were also concerned about effects on air quality from cruise ship emissions.

The EIR claimed that these air quality issues would be mitigated with a shore-side power source on Pier 70, but appellants questioned the feasibility of these mitigating measures. Michael Martin of the Mayor’s Office on Economic and Workforce Development commented on the issue, stating that since issuing the report the port, along with its shipyard partner, BAE San Francisco Ship Repair, had in fact secured the 5.7 million necessary for the shore-side power project.

Still, several supervisors remained skeptical about the feasibility of paying for all of the mitigating measures crucial to the adequacy and accuracy of the EIR. Supervisors will vote on these and other financial matters associated with the Cup at a Feb. 14 hearing.

“I have questions remaining about finances, about union jobs that will be created for San Franciscans in this project…as well as assuring that there would be no hit to the general fund,” said Supervisor John Avalos at the meeting's end.

Other environmental concerns, such as impact on sea and shore birds and on neighborhoods adjacent the America’s Cup area, went largely unresolved.

However, in an amendment proposed by Supervisor David Chiu, the Board made clear that they would require additional environmental reviews, including, potentially, more EIRs, for subsequent projects.

Aaron Peskin, former President of the Board of Supervisors and longtime water rights advocate, has been a vocal opponent of many aspects of the America's Cup. He said these agreements are a step in the right direction.

“I wouldn’t call it a victory, I’d call it a step. It’s a good step,” said Peskin.

After the appeals had been rejected, Campos thanks all parties involved, including the appellants.

“I do believe that the two appeals that have been filed have clearly made this project better, and not only on the environmental piece. I think the appeals have also raised some very important issues about financial terms of this deal,” said Campos.

Why the public thinks government is fat

tim — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:54:06 +0000

Polls from the PPIC are typically pretty accurate, so I have no reason to doubt the results of a recent one showing that a majority of Californnians still think government can be cut substantially without a reduction in services. It's hard to fathom; as Brian at Calitics notes,

Cuts to government expenditures mean direct cuts to services. There is simply no way to provide the same level of services for an ever decreasing amount of money. Go take a look at your local government offices and then compare it to the offices of your local bank corporate office. There are no fancy waterfalls and lavish breakrooms offering wide selections of Odwalla and Rice Krispies, there are just a dwindling level of state employees working ever harder to keep up.

So, while most voters strongly support raising taxes on the rich, 59 percent also think that government can easily be cut just by eliminating waste. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, who took office pledging the same thing, left saying there wasn't much waste left to cut. And while I fully believe that any organization that spends $80 billion a year is going to have some things in the budget that don't belong -- it's simply humanly impossible to run anything, public or private, that big without some employee sleeping in the supply room or somebody sneaking cookies on the company dime -- it's also the case that what's missing in the California budget is more important than what's being mis-spent.

Why don't people get this? Part of the reason is a 30-year concerted campaign by the right wing to convince people that the public sector is a waste of money. But part of the reason is also that the news media, by its very nature, is much more likely to report on waste in government than similar (or worse) waste in the private sector.

For one thing, it's easy: Government records are public. Figuring out how Enron, which kept its records private, stole $40 billion from the state of California is really, really hard. There's also the (correct) notion that the government is spending OUR money, so we ought to watch where it goes.

And of course, corrupt politicians like Willie Brown give everyone in government a bad name, and there are plenty of them.

But remember: The government typically spends a lot of our money on private contracts with companies that don't make their records public. How many employees of the contractors building the Central Subway are sleeping on the job, double-billing, charging fancy lunches and wasting the public's dollars? That takes a lot more digging -- weeks of investigative reporting -- and it's not the sort of stuff that can just pop up in a Matier and Ross column, the way a city worker who pulls in a lot of overtime can (and does).

I think there's also a general lack of interest in exposing corporate wrongdoing. PG&E's records are public, and all the money the company spends is OUR money (we're ratepayers, and we have no choice). But how much do you see about overpaid PG&E executives compared to how much you see about (far less) overpaid city employees? PG&E has hundreds of executives making far more than the most bloated City Hall salaries, and they all have nice pensions -- but you never hear about PG&E needing pension reform, or how the utility needs to tighten its belt to keep rates low in a recession.

When you're bombarded day after day with stories about a deputy sheriff or a nurse who works a huge amount of overtime and takes home $150,000 a year, you can't help but think that the public sector's wasting your money. But the private sector does a lot worse.

And sure, under capitalism, a wasteful private company should pay the price in the marketplace -- but we all know that a lot of the big private companies don't really compete much (see: the financial sector), and when it comes to regulated utilities like PG&E, they don't compete at all. You think ATM fees and checking account fees and all the other shit that banks hit us with isn't in part a result of waste, fraud and bloated payrolls? Isn't that my money, too?

The sex heard ‘round the world: [SSEX BBOX] documentary premieres

caitlin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:41:20 +0000

[SSEX BBOX]: The documentary that shows there is no black and white when it comes to sexy.

PHOTO BY LIBRARY VIXEN

Scenes from [SSEX BBOX], the global sexuality documentary project whose long-awaited first episode will premiere at the Center of Sex and Culture on Mon/30:

One. A protest in Berlin, where a presentation is being made on the 16th century physical punishments that religious institutions imposed on sexually “immoral” people.

Two. A conversation between two transgendered men living in Brazil.

Filmed in the form of interviews and group discussions, [SSEX BBOX] is a social justice film project that takes viewers on tour through the different understandings of gender and sexuality from around the globe. The documentary engages the ongoing conversation regarding the cultural, social, and even linguistic implications that are intertwined within sexuality. It will air 15 10-minute episodes bi-weekly from January to August 2012 -- but the Mon/30 screening will offer the chance to talk face-to-face with the team behind the project.

[SSEX BBOX] sexuality out of the box! from SSEX BBOX on Vimeo.

Priscilla Bertucci, the executive producer and director of [SSEX BBOX], holds that in an environment where something so primary as a noun is categorized as male or female, sexism and strict gendering become strongly embedded in cultural perceptions of sexuality. Looking back at the project, she commented to the Guardian in a recent phone interview:

SF and Berlin are pioneering cities in that there is a lot of sexual education and many years of work have been [put into those places towards] bringing about awareness. [Exploring sexuality] is definitely more difficult in Barcelona and Brazil where there are still a lot judgments. People perceive gender as male or female, straight or gay, and don’t really think of what may be outside of this divided box.

On location with [SSEX BBOX]. Photo by Danila Bustamante

When shooting in Sao Paulo, Bertucci encountered numerous individuals who had never been exposed to the idea of alternative sexual orientations. That lack of experience wasn’t a surprise to her -- she was raised there:

I grew up in Brazil and I experienced a gap in information first hand. In places like Sao Paulo, there is a huge lack of sex education in schools and sex educators in general. When I was very young, I was aware of the gay and lesbian community. But at some point, I started not fitting in the box because I would sometimes be attracted to men and I didn’t really identity as bisexual. But later, I became aware that I could identify as queer or gender queer. But it took me a long time and I had to go out and learn a lot of things on my own. A project like [SSEX BBOX] helps people understand that they don’t have to choose [from] a binary.

Bertucci’s film features interviews with sex activists, educators, psychotherapists, and average citizens from all over the spectrum of sexuality. The documentary was mostly edited here in San Francisco, but its crew was comprised of a globetrotting crew of directors and cinematographers traveling through Sao Paulo, Berlin, and Barcelona.

The international affair was made possible through efficient Skype meetings and Dropbox, and [SSEX BBOX] will continue to embrace the web as a way to distribute their films. The team also launched a pocket-size zine in fall of 2011 that included photography, personal narratives, cartoons, paintings, and writings on gender expression which you can order online in digital or paper form.

[SSEX BBOX] documentary premiere

Mon/30 7:30-11 p.m., free.

Center for Sex and Culture

1349 Mission, SF

(415) 902-2071

www.sexandculture.org