by Tanya Brannan/Purple Berets for Courtwatch

On April 15, 1996 in the tiny Northern California town of Sonoma, María Teresa Macias, a 36-year old Mexican immigrant woman and mother of three small children, was shot to death by her husband Avelino.  Avelino then shot Teresa‚s mother, Sara Hernandez, before turning the gun on himself. 

In the two years prior to her death, Teresa had contacted the Sonoma County Sheriff‚s Department more than 25 times asking for protection from Avelino‚s stalking, threats to kill and physical and sexual abuse of >Teresa and her three young children.  Despite their own department policy and California law requiring arrest on domestic violelnce and on restraining order violations, Avelino was never arrested or cited.  Only two police reports were written.

On June 18th, two days into the trial, the federal civil rights lawsuit, María Teresa Macias v. Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Ihde, ended with a historic $1 million settlement.  This is the first time in history a police agency has paid for their failure to provide equal protection to a domestic violence homicide victim.

But the Sheriff‚s Department was not the only Sonoma County agency that bears responsibility for Teresa‚s death.  In fact, perhaps the ugliest piece of the Teresa Macias story is the family‚s interaction with Child Protective Services (CPS).

The Criminal Investigation of Child Abuse

In 1995, as Teresa was making her initial escape from Avelino, a contact with a Sonoma health center told her of services available to protect herself and her children.  On March 31, 1995, Georgina Warmouth with the YWCA battered women‚s shelter filed a child abuse report with Child Protective Services.  The report outlined Avelino‚s physical and sexual abuse of all three children, as well as Teresa‚s fear of what Avelino would do to her family if he learned she had reported the abuse.

As is standard policy, when the report of child abuse was filed, a copy was also forwarded to the Sheriff‚s Department for criminal investigation. In his final investigative report, Sheriff‚s Detective Lorenzo DueZas outlined significant evidence that the abuse had occurred, complete with three corroborating witnesses for every charge. Clearly there was enough there for the sheriff to arrest Avelino Macias and file multiple charges of felony child abuse against him. No such arrest ever occurred.

By the time the investigation was completed, Teresa had left the women‚s shelter and returned home after learning that Avelino had gone back to Mexico. Free at last of the violence and abuse, Teresa was preparing to flee with her children and start a new life. Instead she was to be literally held in place with the agonizing separation from her children and continual forced contact with Avelino until the day he tracked her down and shot her to death.

When Det. DueZas called Teresa to discuss the results of his investigation, there was no mention of arresting Avelino; only the threat that if Teresa allowed Avelino back into the home the children would be removed from her custody for her failure to protect them. Not long after that warning, Avelino returned >from Mexico and immediately broke into Teresa‚s house. Knowing of the CPS investigation, he threatened Teresa that if she reported his presence to the sheriff she would lose her kids. Thus extorted, Teresa remained silent.

Within weeks, a CPS worker called DueZas  to report Avelino was back and in June, 1995, the Macias children just didn‚t come home from school one day.  Only after a number of frantic phone calls did Teresa learn that her three children, ages 5, 11 and 12, had been picked up by the sheriff‚s department and taken to the Valley of the Moon Children‚s Center. They were later put into foster care.  The reason: because Teresa could not protect her kids from Avelino‚s violence.

The Insanity of Family Reunification

Thus began Teresa‚s torturous odyssey through the CPS system to which she had turned for help. Over the next nine months she would be driven to distraction by CPS‚s conflicting demands. On the one hand they had taken her kids because she hadn‚t protected them from Avelino. On the other, she was forced into joint counseling sessions with her batterer with the state-mandated goal of re-unifying the family. As she struggled to comply with CPS‚s ever-growing and contradictory demands, Teresa began to despair.

In addition to thwarting Teresa‚s escape from Avelino (as she surely wouldn‚t leave without her kids), the conduct of the plethora of social workers and counselors who then held ultimate power over her family may well have contributed to Teresa‚s murder.

For anyone who‚s ever had the illusion that a counselor‚s pledge of confidentiality is unbreakable, the Macias case provides a rude awakening.  Again and again information Teresa gave to CPS was passed on to Avelino, including the fact that she was filing for divorce. To Avelino, already enraged at losing his stranglehold of control over Teresa, this was like waving a red flag before a charging bull.

But it was Teresa‚s mother, Sara Hernandez, who tells of the deadliest of CPS‚s many interventions in the Macias family‚s lives. Sara and Teresa were driving together to a counseling session in Santa Rosa ˆ one of >those sessions Child Protective Services forced Teresa to attend with Avelino.

„Teresa noticed Avelino following us in his car,‰ Sara relates. Shaking in terror, Teresa drove straight to the Santa Rosa Police station. There she handed police the restraining order she had obtained some months before and asked that they arrest Avelino, who had boldly followed her into the station in direct violation of that order.  As police handcuffed Avelino, Teresa called her CPS worker, Suni Levi to tell her what happened and to ask her to help translate with the police. Levi told Teresa to put the officer on the phone.

According to the SRPD officer, Levi then told him to release Avelino because the couple‚s counseling session was more important than arresting Avelino. Police removed the handcuffs and Avelino left, a free man. Three weeks later, Teresa Macias was dead.

But there was still one more blow that certainly contributed to Avelino‚s complete disintegration not long before the murder. According to family friend Marty Cabello, Avelino received a bill from the County of Sonoma requiring him to pay the children‚s foster care expenses.  With no hope of ever paying the bill, amounting to „thousands of >dollars,‰ according to Cabello, Avelino went even deeper into the dark place he inhabited until that final bloody moment when he ended Teresa‚s life and his own.

(While Avelino‚s bill is not accessible, we do have a copy of a similar bill sent to Teresa two months after her death.  Citing past due and current charges for her share of the foster care expenses for just one of the three children, the bill totals $1,053.50.)

Using Children As Pawns

But even after the double-homicide, CPS maintained a powerful hold over the Macias family. Teresa‚s mother Sara and her sister, Ana Rosa Rubio, logically thought that with the violent death of both parents, Teresa‚s children would be immediately released into the consoling arms of their loving extended family.

Instead, CPS held on to the children for five full months after the murder, and in fact still had no plans to release them at the September 1996 hearing until they saw the family was accompanied by Purple Berets advocate, Tanya Brannan. [Purple Berets is a kick-ass, California-based women‚s rights group.] In a sudden shifting of gears, Judge Arnie Rosenfield signed the order releasing the children to the custody of their grandmother, Sara Hernandez.

Why would CPS not release the children, you might ask? While there is no written documentation of their reasoning, two effects of the embargo are clear. 

First, as long as the children were in CPS custody, Teresa‚s family was extremely hesitant to talk to the press about the daily revelations of the county‚s misconduct in the domestic violence case, fearing the county would retaliate by holding on to the children.

And secondly, whoever controlled the children controlled any possibility of a lawsuit, as technically the County of Sonoma was the children‚s legal guardian.  With a statutory limitation of six months on filing tort claims in California, had the kids not been liberated at that final CPS review, the next scheduled review date would have been at the end of the year ˆ well after the deadline for filing a claim.

The Bad News: It Happens All the Time

Unfortunately, Teresa Macias‚ experience both with the Sheriff‚s Department and Child Protective Services is not an uncommon experience for domestic violence victims.  The very existence of CPS gives law enforcement a place to shuffle off the many crimes against children that arise out of domestic violence in the home.  Since for the most part police everywhere detest doing domestic violence investigations, CPS gives them a convenient way to leave the case to be „social-worked‰ rather than prosecuted.  This has a devastating, sometimes deadly effect on the families involved.

Had CPS been really doing their job, they would have advocated for Teresa with the sheriff, pointing out that filing criminal charges against the abuser is a far more effective way of protecting the children than putting them in foster care.  And if they were too afraid of losing their jobs for doing the right thing, they knew well the few independent advocacy organizations that could have done it for them.  But as usual, CPS went along to get along; they did nothing and said nothing to those who could have helped Teresa Macias and her children, and the result was a dead woman, three motherless children and a wounded, heartbroken grandmother.

CPS also serves another convenient function for police.  I have interviewed scores of women who had called police for protection from their batterer, only to be threatened with being arrested themselves and losing their children to CPS if the women kept on calling police.  When you think about it, it‚s a great way for police to cut down on the number of domestic violence calls, as I can assure you, the women who talked with me about the threats from police will never call them for protection again.  Domestic violence rates go down ˆ no muss, no fuss.

by Ashley Adams/PNN media intern

I don't remember where I was headed, but I do remember how my heart raced
when the Berkeley police officer began tailing me. I turned off my tape
player and said to myself, Please don't read my tags please! My out of
state tags had been expired for a year. I could not afford to renew them,
nor could I afford to pay a ticket. I put on my right blinker before
turning, which was my attempt to not be noticed. The cop didn't follow me.
I took a breath of relief and turned my music back up while I questioned why I got
away with no problems, again.

**************

The sun had just set when I was driving home to Berkeley from my mom's
house. I passed the El Cerrito shopping center and that's when the cop got
behind me. I wasnít trippin because I knew I was clean. I have a valid
license, current registration, and no outstanding tickets. Red and blue
lights began to flicker and flash. I tried to tame my racing heart because
I knew I did nothing wrong. I pulled over to the right side of the road a
few feet from a stop sign. The officer came up to my window, asking for my
license. He told me that there was a purse snatching at the shopping center
and that I fit the description of the thief, a black female. Knowing that I wasn't the
thief, I went along with Mr. Officer the best I could. I thought to myself,
Someone's purse got snatched, that sucks! While I sat in my car the cop ran my plates and my license number. I have no criminal history. With no reason to ticket me, the cop let me go.

At this time I just wanted to go home. Getting away from the officer as
soon as possible was the only thing on my mind. Upon my departure, I failed
to come to a complete stop at the stop sign a few feet in front of where I
pulled over. As I turned right, the cop followed. He put his lights on and
pulled me over, again! This time he got me. He gave me a ticket priced at
150 dollars for failing to stop at the stop sign. I figured I was in the
wrong, as usual, considering I have been pulled over seven times in one year
for what I though were valid reasons.

The "valid" reason is dark skin, and this story belongs to my friend, Lache Baily, a 21 year old UC Berkeley student. When I heard of her Driving While Black(DWB) experiences, I was stunned. I am a 22 year old white female that has been pulled over less than five times in the duration of six years. I even drove around with expired tags for over a year. I asked Lache if all the cops
she dealt with were white males, I had a feeling that they were. "Yes, I have never dealt with cops of any other ethnicity." Lache's brown eyes and honey-toned face remain bright with a smile as she confronts the subject of systematic racism.

"I feel like I kind of know its hella shady and racist, " Lache continued in a quick tense voice, "at the same time, every time I've been pulled over, it seems valid so I don't feel I'm in a place to argue. But after I talked to you, I'm asking myself how oblivious am I to this shit?" I think to myself as she is speaking, welcome to the unjust world of racial profiling.

I watch frustration flood her face as she continues, "I was like, you guys suck. I don't like cops, but I never really have stressed on it, or thought about it. It's not until I tell my stories to people that it seems weird to me. When I tell my stories it forces me to think about it."

I personally did not realize how bad the DWB phenomonom was until Lache and I swapped stories of police encounters. We are similar in age, we've been driving the same amount of time, and we live on the same street. Yet when it comes to being pulled over and dealing with the police, Lache has dealt with the biased judgment of law enforcement in ways that seem so casual that they can be easily overlooked.

When I reflect on driving with expired tags for a year and having no problems with law enforcement, I question, "Does white skin have anything to do with it?" I wish the answer was no.

******************************

Should "Driving while black" be a crime?

reprinted from thechronicle.demon.co.uk

Scores of Black Britons – including prominent athletes, Home Office officials and government workers, artists, lawyers, and business leaders -- have experienced the humiliation of being stopped on the streets of London and other British cities for no other apparent reason than being Black and driving a car.

This new "crime" mirrors the common complaint, highlighted in testimony to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, that police officers on the streets systematically target innocent young blacks for "stop and frisk" searches.

No social class among blacks is exempt from a "Driving while black" incident. Carl Josephs, a meat factory worker in Birmingham, was stopped 34 times in 2 years - without a specific charge or even a speeding ticket. He says he was singled out because he was black and drove a car.

When Tim McDonald was pulled over, his father, Trinidadian -born Trevor McDonald and Britain's best known news reader, called on police to end their habit of stopping black youths in cars.

Being pulled over for "Driving while Black" is a traumatic event. Few white motorists have the same story to tell. But, almost every Black Briton can tell you that they or someone they know have been stopped by the police without being found guilty of any violation of the law.

Black motorists more likely to be stopped than whites DWB is a heart-stopping common occurrence for Black motorists, and only a minor nuisance to whites. According to a report in The Guardian 13 March. "Last year in the area policed by the Metropolitan Police, the rate for stop-and-searches was 37 per 1,000 among whites, 66 per
1,000 among Asians, and 180 per 1,000 among blacks". In the London area more than 36% of those stopped were from ethnic minorities, who make up about 20% of the population.

Turner art prize winner Chris Ofili's brush with the law is one example of a continuing trend, says The Guardian. Ofili, who drives a lime-green Ford Capri, and has been stopped
many times, says "It's a very common occurrence...They had absolutely no reason to
stop me...I always carry my license with me so they can't issue me with a "producer" (a
summons to report to a police station and produce a driver's license and car documents)."

"Racial profiling" British examples of DWB take on a more invidious character when compared to a common practice on the State highways of America called "racial profiling". This literally means that police officers are always on the lookout for black males driving cars. The ACLU, an American civil liberties group, has won racial profiling cases in Indiana and Maryland with damages.

In California, San Diego Chargers football player Shawn Lee was pulled over, and he and his girlfriend were handcuffed and detained by the police for half an hour on the side of Interstate 15. The officer said that Lee was stopped because he was driving a vehicle that fit the description of one stolen earlier that evening. However, Lee was driving a Jeep Cherokee, a sports utility vehicle, and the reportedly stolen vehicle was a Honda sedan.

The Road to Freedom Illegal stop-and-searches like "Driving while Black" and the use of racial profiling can be stopped, says the ACLU http://www.aclu.org. In America Rep. John Conyers, a black congressman, introduced the "Traffic Stops Statistics Act" to encourage police departments to keep detailed records of traffic stops, including the race and ethnicity of the person stopped. Here in Britain, such a law could be backed up by the Home Office and the national collection of data to determine the full scope of this problem.

Practical actions include a hotline that victims can call to report incidents involving DWB. Another is a handy printed pocket card that details the motorists' rights in race-stop encounters. Complaint forms should be readily provided by the police to drivers who feel offended by DWB or race-based traffic stops.

Ending DWB and racial profiling on the nation's streets, roads and highways should also be addressed through public education, and by leaflets in major languages made available at all local government offices, libraries and public buildings.

Finally, whether you agree or not, we invite you to post your thoughts to:

editor@thechronicle.demon.co.uk

by Carol Harvey

An outsider's objective first glance might reveal a class war by wealthy Landlords on low-income tenants,  waged on the battleground of San Francisco's tight rental market.  A June 21, 2000 SFBG article states, "In most cities, falling a week or two behind in your rent is a minor problem; in San Francisco, it's a major catastrophe.  With real estate agents shamelessly enticing landlords to empty their buildings and sell for profit, late rent may be enough to land you and your loved ones out on the street."

Lack of affordable housing has defined the Income Gap between rich and poor in the city.

The following series of skirmishes have been conducted between landlords and tenants, and tenant advocates between 2000 and 2002.

Hordes of rich young people have been moving into the city joining the already ensconced super rich with the money to pay high rent and speculate in the real estate market.

A new Economic Elite wants to drive those with lower incomes out of the city.  Willie Brown is quoted on a Geary sidewalk, "People making less than $50,000 a year have no business living in San Francisco."

Starting before 1994, artistic and creative types have left San Francisco in unprecedented droves because they don't make enough to pay the high rents, a major loss for a City historically unsurpassed for cultural creativity and innovation.

Because of real estate speculation, inflated rents in San Francisco do not match the real incomes people earn.  The old rule was that your rent should never be more than a third of your income, but in San Francisco some people's rent takes up all of their paycheck.

In 1994 I took a Grey Line trip to get to know my new City.  The bus driver/tour guide said most San Franciscans live below the poverty line, and the way the survive is to double and triple up in apartments. 

Middle Income earners, as well, are affected by lower wages and higher rents.  People come to RADCO who make more money than RADCO staff.  Fellow nonprofit workers have come for help with rent during shortfalls.

The new "War on Poverty" is a campaign to harass and banish poor people from the city.  Quality of Life crimes are a form of "economic cleansing," driving the homeless to jail, death, or just "somewhere else," like lemmings into The Pacific, or "Fresno."

Ironically, the system doesn't work without poor people.  Capitalism requires a layer of Poor be "crushed" at the bottom of the pile. They can never be eliminated.  Everybody but the Superrich sink down through the pile, including the middle class.  The Rich can't be rich without the Poor being Poor.  The SuperRich and/or Politicians control the Poverty Monster by constantly threatening it with extinction.  The neverending economic cleansing goes on and on. 

On the Rental Battleground where opportunistic landlords speculate in real estate, the middle class become lower class, a paycheck away from homelessness, and the lower class join the burgeoning ranks of families forced out on the street.

Here are a series of Landlord skirmishes to optimize the financial windfalls from rental properties:

1.The People's Budget set up the Eviction Defense Collaborative to provide free legal help to Poor under eviction threat to help them keep their homes.  In a June 21, 2000 SF Bay Guardian article titled, "Mayor, landlords try to kill eviction-defense funding," Cassi Feldman quotes a barrage of landlord e-mails suggesting The Eviction Defense Collaborative be defunded because free legal advice holds tenants in their apartments longer, slows the eviction process, and costs these opportunistic landlords money. 

2.  Landlords struck again through Ellis Act evictions. Ellis Act is a state law that landlords have an unconditional right to "go out of business."  Landlords reclaim properties by threatening to utilize mass tenant Ellis Act evictions to rid themselves of long-term residents paying affordable rents, or convert rental units into condominiums at a much higher re-sale value using loopholes in the condo law.

3.  The struggle to own a home in a tight rental market has created a situation where groups of people buy a home and create (TICs) or Tenancies in Common. Group landlords then attempt to evict those already in residence by Owner Move-Ins (OMI's) displacing tenants paying affordable rents.

4.  Landlords have created a new way to gouge renters and undermine rent control through Capital Improvement passthroughs.  Prop H was passed in 2001, diverting capital improvement costs from landlord to tenants.  Grandfathered capital improvements have jumped rents astronomically at Lombard Place forcing tenants to their knees financially.  Retired residents in their 60s and 70s are forced back to work for the rest of their lives.

Housing Activists have met Profiteering Landlords with a number of alternative blocking mechanisms or possible solutions to the housing problem.

In 1998, Riva Enteen of the Lawyer's Guild and Rebecca Vilkomerson of Homeless Prenatal noted a surplus in the City Budget. They said,  'Let's use the surplus for unmet needs of poor and working people in the City'.  Stated Enteen, 'They were saying we have to save that money for a rainy day, and we were saying 'For our constituents, it's already raining'."  Enteen and Vilkomerson proposed The People's Budget .

In the year 2000 to 2001, The People's Budget proposed:

Housing $42,242,030

1. Preservation and Creation of Affordable Housing (partially funded 1999-2000)  $36,000,000

Allocate funds to the San Francisco Housing Trust Fund for the new construction, acquisition and rehabilitation, or preservation of affordable housing.

2. Move-in Costs  $2,000,000

Assist homeless and near homeless families and individuals with security deposits and initial rent.

3. Funding for Eviction Representation   $338,000

Provide no-cost legal representation to extremely low-income tenants, and low- or no-cost legal representation to other low-income tenants facing eviction in San Francisco.

4. Back Rent Assistance (partially funded 1999-2000)  $2,000,000

Provide financial assistance to tenants who face short-term financial difficulties that jeopardize their ability to stay in their homes.

5. Emergency Funds for Homeless Seniors and Disabled Persons  $960,000

Assist a minimum of 100 homeless seniors and persons with disabilities to live independently within the community, not "housed" at Laguna Honda or SF General.

6. Affordable Housing Advocacy at the State Level  $15,000

Retain two Sacramento tenant lobbyists to advocate for affordable housing and to push for state measures to address our Cityís housing and homelessness crisis.

7. Low-Income Housing Preservation Fund  $750,000

Replace lost federal subsidy dollars for undocumented families living in affordable housing who face eviction.

8. Supplemental Funding for the Eviction Defense Collaborative for Cantonese Language Services     $25,000

Provide tenant counseling to Cantonese households facing eviction as a first step toward removing the language barrier that impairs their ability to understand and exercise their rights.

9. Move-in Costs for Homeless Families   $100,000

Assist homeless and near homeless individuals and families with security deposits and initial rent.

10. Housing Advocate for Latino Families   $54,030

Hire a Housing Advocate/Social Worker to work with Latino families that have been evicted or are at risk of eviction.

Activists promoting the People's Budget also started the Eviction Defense Collaborative to give legal help to low income renters facing possible illegal evictions.

In 2000, individuals promoting The People's Budget proposed RADCO as a vehicle to help tenants stay in their affordable housing by providing an interest-free loan of one month's back rent.  RADCO'S purpose is to preserve affordable housing by keeping people in their apartments providing back rent during one emergency.  

Originally, RADCO was started as a way to preserve rent control by preventing a unit from flying up to market value if the tenant is forced to leave. 

Now, RADCO has had to expand its program to extend funds to impoverished SRO tenants.  Though RADCo receives requests for rental assistance from every section of the city, the bulk of RADCo recipients are low-income dwellers of The Tenderloin and Bayview Hunter's Point.

Yvonne Cudny of RADCO stated she thinks the housing situation is improving.  A lot of people, especially among nonprofits are excited about Community Land Trusts, a low cost method of affording a house, or a group of people owning a dwelling in common, not the land underneath it which is purchased by a Trust and held in perpetuity.  People in the housing community, nonprofits and artists are purchasing housing on land that will never ever become private property.  Yvone states they can buy affordable dwellings with yards; get mortgages, make repairs, or live collectively with a group.  CLT's may be an fair alternative to Tenancies in Common.

James Tracy of the Coalition on Homelessness' Right To A Roof and others in the housing community have led a promotional campaign for the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund, garnering strong local support. for the Fund which proposes the use of surplus interest from Federal Taxes.

In the wake of 9/11/2001, the People are suffering more severe financial hardship than ever before.  However, the Superrich continue to "Capitalize."  According to Riva Enteen, "The budget is not in as good shape as it was the previous four years, but "in this year's People's Budget we included San Francisco's top ten billionaires living in our midst including The Fischers of the Gap, The Gettys and Levi-Strauss, who are worth $21.5 billion.  There are certainly people in San Francisco for whom the economy is doing quite well.  We advocate for progressive tax reform  to improve the budget situation."  Mayor Brown and the Supervisors are responsible to go after the wealthy for their corporate taxes, but they are not motivated to do so "because the Wealthy pay for their campaigns."

by Joe B.

I won’t be talk of the Kennedyesque guy gunning for mayor and last weeks protest of small business shaking hands.

Because some who is very good at investigation told me what I should’ve known had I been thinking about being in the public eye and perception good or bad can for a few pol’s can be just as calming as nicotine and chocolate for others.

So I’ll speak of other things for a while.

Cool, the word conjures up refreshing drinks, cold ice across warm heads hot summer days and as an adjective a way of feeling, being, or becoming.

There was a program on a few months on PBS’s Front Line called "The Merchants of Cool" about Madison Addison Avenue and other Ad agencies hiring Teens to capture the market on the latest trends, fads, who and what is in or out.

It got me thinking about cool’s meaning through the ages.

The meaning of cool is mercurial and since it is a recent phenomenon I wondered even the word at first didn’t convey what it does now how did folks in the past define the certain Panache, flair, charm, in the past?

Beside the few words above what set these few individuals apart. What is the secret "It" they have had, lost, gained, other men, women, children, and young adults didn’t posses? What I’ve learned is that cool in the past, present, or future cannot be quantified like the soul its essence is felt, known, quantified only by humans or sentient beings we have yet to make first contact with.

Take away fashion, looks, intelligence, and sense of humor, honor, and bravery even if it’s the accidental kind. You know when the high school, college, university bully girl, man, woman, or girl who’s been picked on all during the year; and there’s a personal crisis that the bully(s) didn’t know about. So they do their routine.

This time however something goes wrong as the victim doesn’t act as usual, in fact they just don’t care, the victim want to get the taunting and beating over with once and for all and never go through it ever again.
No longer embarrassed by a crowd say things they never would of said other wise never would and win or lose the bully may not change but the former victims can never set upon again and gains an inner "cool" from that time on.

Cool can be lost if one thinks about being it and yet when not being aware of if makes one cool! We never know when we’re cool and when where not is so arbitrary and subjective. Like the picture of a shirtless brawny guy gently holding an infant or playing with children being natural and completely not unaware of women and girls looking at them and mental swoon. Because he looks to be not only good lover but husband, father and nurturing material for the children and herself.

The same guy in a bar, on the street can be a jerk.
Children and animals can sense reality when people talk or smile at them.
Me I was raised with lizards, fish, cat, dogs, and turtles. There must be some kind of balance I’ve achieved because I keep hearing most people like dogs because they’re loyal than cats with their independent airs.

I don’t know which to chose it could be cats because they chose who they want to be with while dogs love being petted if they sense no fear.
However cats even if they like you may not want to nuzzled or pet and spit or scratch if they’re moody. A last thing is the future of cool.

It might be distilled or not from chemical or genetic means from folks who have so much charisma they become famous.

The next Frontier of "Cool" is many faceted whether it’s an Astronaut, researcher, scientist, or regular J. Q. public participating in life extending science and technologies, what type of personality is willing to be live a century or more?

A failure means illness or death but succeeding will mean a longer life than participants ever dreamed.

The question is how does a person(s) deal with an extended life span with the public looking on?

What will make him/her seem cool to the public after 30 to 50 years with a slowed or age stop so they are a strong in body, quick minded as they were decades past?

Like cats, dogs, and children might help and keeping up with the times also is a way of remaining cool.

Wanting everyone to have what they have, forming ways it could happen make enemies but ultimately is "Hero Cool."

Having a "God" complex is anti-cool, Hiding out, traveling, learning languages or otherwise being out of the public eye then returning on they’re own or because they are needed is or is not cool.

But staying in the public eye as a public immortal is tacky and will not be perceived as cool.

I think of cool as both cultural, sociological, mental construct.

Though it can be nudged cannot be directed or controlled by Ad agencies but up to individuals to define.

Long ago I myself learned that cool happens spontaneously and one cannot depend on friends to clue you in because our own minds have to decide our own way of what is comfortable for us.

To those who were and are always cool.

You know being yourself when everyone is against you is one of many secrets.

When I was growing up being cool meant dressing, having a dangerous, menacing aura about them was way cooler than a non-threatening one.

Later lots of the danger guys and gals died or in jails and it came to me that I’d rather live a quiet longer life, have lots of safe sex, and live longer less stressful life.

In the not to near future there will be a four way split in humanity:
1)

Will be having a traditional burial or being cryo-frozen.
2) learning and self-participation in life extension.
3) Going further to be an active immoralist.

4) Those on the sidelines trying to decide the best path for them to join.

They’re looking at the good and bad of all the three other groups.

For myself my own three pronged strategy of cool is learning about the Life

Extension and Immoralist, revolution while preparing for Cryonics Freezing immediately after death.

I figure, the longer I live a healthier life I might live through the small and medium extension breakthroughs and if not the cold cooling option is waiting.

I didn’t want to place all my eggs in one basket but spread them because if any of these blending and merging sciences begin feeding off each other…

I want to be around, sound, healthy, with regained youth and glad for taking the ultimate gamble.

You see, I don’t gamble a lot or bet but this last one is for a lifetime.

I cannot afford to make any errors in judgments as I’ve done in my still too short life. At least they weren’t fatal but now near infinity is on the line so slow, steady, for now as a turtle then fast and furious as a hare when the best of science and technology is able to save me.

It may not be cool to plan for death, yet hope for eternal life. But I see it this way; if I lose no big deal but if I live or get revived from a frozen coffin I’ll will be smiling with tears in my eyes shivering and shaking from cold and excitement.

I may be seen as an anachronism, barbarian, or one of the lucky few with enough vision to go for one last adventure.

If I’m revived, the cool mentality construct will be the last thing on my mind.

How about you readers out there, if it happens to you how would you then define
"COOL? Bye…

by Barbara Lee

In the last fifty years, we have seen many of society*s barriers come down.
The color line and the glass ceiling haven*t disappeared, but they are
diminished. We have enacted important laws that helped stretch the social
safety net, such as Medicare and Medicaid. The Americans with Disabilities
Act marked a landmark victory in the struggle for access and equal
opportunity.

But there are still too many obstacles blocking full inclusion in American life
for those with developmental disabilities and their families.

Inclusion embraces both independence and integration. The work you all do
to advance inclusion is so important because it is so fundamental: it*s about
making people*s lives better.

It*s about improving schools and opening classrooms. It*s about jobs. It*s
about family support. It*s about the recreation and socialization
opportunities that enrich life. It*s about access to comprehensive healthcare
and the elimination of artificial boundaries that say that illnesses of the mind
are uninsurable.

Life can throw you curves. But everybody has a right to stand at the plate
and take their swings. Everybody deserves to get in the game.

Too many people, though, are still shut out. Access and integration are
justly considered civil rights issues.

Furthermore, access and integration for everyone is in all our interests. We
all benefit when people enter our workforce and join our economy, and we
all lose when they are shut out. Isolation carries heavy economic, social, and
psychological costs.

We can do more at the federal level to help. We should pass Medicaid
reform so that those facing long-term disabilities have a greater element of
choice in their treatment and so they can utilize community resources and
maintain their independence and dignity at home. I am a cosponsor of this
bill, and I believe we need to maximize choice rather than bureaucracy.

We*ve made some progress. Two years ago, Congress passed the
Developmental Disabilities Act to provide grant money to state and
nonprofit community programs.

But Congress hasn*t provided full funding for the Act, and in this year*s
budget, the President didn*t request any money at all for family support
services. I hope this is not an example of compassionate conservatism.

Family support, as all of you are all too aware, is crucial. It needs to be part
of a network of services that promise inclusion rather than isolation.

The federal government should also fulfill its promises to fund special
education, which currently represents a crushing financial burden for many
school districts. We must fully fund I.D.E.A.

Integration and inclusion should be hallmarks of that educational effort. We
cannot let special education remain a bastion of legal segregation.

Healthcare is also a critical component of our federal effort. Healthcare is
not a luxury. It should be a matter of human rights, not corporate profits.

Forty-four million Americans have no health insurance. That*s a national
tragedy. Medicare does not cover prescription drugs; neither do a growing
number of health plans in California and nationwide.

Improving healthcare also demands increasing our investment in research.

We need to understand why autism rates are climbing, for example, and
what we can do about it.

We need to understand the relationship between toxins in our environment
and the impact on our bodies and our brains.

Tackling this problem requires real enforcement of the Clean Air Act and
other federal environmental laws and demands a renewed investment in
scientific research. Children are especially vulnerable, and these problems
cannot wait.

These issues are not negotiable, they are fundamental to our personal and
national well being.

Developmental disabilities have to be part of this agenda, and inclusion must
be our ultimate goal.

These issues represent national challenges, but they are also local realities. It
is at the community level where many of the daily struggles for inclusion will
be won.

Here in the East Bay, we are still wrestling with these questions, but also
making advances.

The Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley will be one such advance as a center
of learning but also a center of economic and social vitality and accessibility.
In Washington, I will continue to work to secure funding for the Center*s
construction because I understand how big a difference it will make in
people*s lives.

It will stand as a fine tribute to a great man who refused to let barriers get in
his way. It wasn*t enough for Ed himself to make it; he then proceeded to
spend much of his life tearing those barriers down so they wouldn*t impede
the progress of others.

And your work at the Councils is in this spirit. Your coordination of
resources among the regional service providers, your advocacy, and your
education efforts are vital to this community.

We have come a long way in our quest for accessibility, independence, and
inclusion, but we still have a ways to go. I have enormous respect for all of
you who are leading this effort.

Let me leave you with the words of Supreme Court Justice William
Brennan, who wrote "that society*s accumulated myths and fears about
disability and disease are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that
flow from actual impairment."

I would extend his analysis to developmental disabilities as well. With each
and every victory you achieve, with every barrier that you tear down, you
also tear down another myth, another misunderstanding about disabilities.

Thank you for your good work and thank you for inviting me here tonight.

by Joe B.

Just when I think we human’s are stepping out of the collective mud of sloth and misery I see an email on bum-fighting on the internet.

Checking it out there men, women with most of their teeth gone looking like walking wounded physical wreckage.

Looking up its website I saw some of its questions like:


Can I order by phone?

What is the delivery time on orders?

Is it safe to order over the Internet?

How long is the video?

The Answer is 57 minutes.

As you can see the website is popular and people enjoy watching
Other people beat each other to bloody pulps.

I want to know if these folks are getting paid with more than food.

Are these people getting residual checks or cash if they become favorites of web or video hits probably not.

What about contracts and their full knowlege of what can happen to them?

There is something wrong, a rot from a gangrene wound when people either volunteer, film, and make profit off the least of us mentally, physically for financial gain.

For some of the people who watch and buy this misery served up for a cheap thrill think:
It could be your friends, relatives, or you on that PC, CD, or video tape but for fortune, luck, and providence.

Remember Rome with its bread and circus gladiator, beasts against citizen’s?

Well this is another crack in this so called great nation and it is up to citizen’s to give this sad, tawdry, show the boot.

BIRD VIEW

Second Mutation

Invisible radiation change their tiny brains to higher intelligence, also gained immortality too.

Today their natural mutation allows them to use telepathy, telekinesis, and powers of suggestion.

Human’s think they’re in control.

First you talk, then, make fun, make laws, now televised on video, CD’s and DVD’s what do you think is the next step… Death Matches?

I don’t know about any of you readers but this does not look or sound like a harmless sport or good clean fun but further proof of people making money off of human suffering.

Don't give me that"Since The Dawn Of Time Crap"

The meaning of evolution is to change our ways and better or situations both physically and mentally rising above the slime and muck.

Even if we are related to tapeworks and fruit flies its no excuse for this crud.

If I’m wrong I apologize if former fight bums or their friends got out of this situation tell your stories it is time for your input.

Please don’t stay mute until death occurs or it already has that must be revealed too.

That’s it That’s all from me… Bye.


HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works me.

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Leroy Moore/DAMO and PoorNewsNetwork

I can’t rest

My disabled brothers and sisters

Are shot, dragged and beaten to death……….

My poem, Can’t Rest, is more than words on paper, unfortunately it’s reality. In the last four years, Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization (DAMO) and I had many sleepless nights because of the continuous brutality and senseless crimes against our disabled bothers and sisters of color. What really keeps us up at night is the lack of awareness, media attention and no local community forums to educate and heal on this issue. Last July DAMO organized and implemented the first ever Senseless Crimes Open Forum dealing with people with disabilities of color in the community. However, since last July, DAMO and I still can’t rest

It’s been a year since our open forum and the physical attacks and police brutalities continue to happen to disabled people of color all over California. The following is a brief picture of this year's senseless crimes and police brutality against people of color with disabilities;
-

On Sunday evening, March 16th, Richard Tims, a frail, Black, mentally-ill young man, felt threatened when a teen stepped on his foot on a San Francisco Muni Bus and therefore tried to protect himself with a knife. He stabbed the teen, but when he got off the bus and hid in a bus shelter, the police arrived and talked to the wounded teen. After locating Mr. Tims the SFPD shot up the bus shelter killing Mr. Tims and seriously injuring an elderly woman coming out of a nearby fast food restaurant.
-

During Malcolm X’s birthday on May 19th, a disabled immigrant man of color was walking out of VALMAR SUPER LIQUOR & DELI on 16th & Valencia St. in the Mission District of San Francisco. A White male in his forties on a big skateboard was screaming about how this country was his country and how he hated fags and foreigners. He approached this elderly, disabled man and asked, "Are you an immigrant?" But the elderly man kept on walking. That’s when this White man picked up his big skateboard and hit the elderly man on the back of his head. On top of that, the three men of color inside the deli watched the whole thing and did nothing.
-

David Smith, a Black developmentally disabled youth of West Oakland was frisked and taken into police custody in the week of May 27th for no reason. After hours of questioning the officer realized they had the wrong person. David was let go with no apologies. David is still traumatized by the whole incident.

All of the above cases of police brutality and senseless crimes have been against poor people of color with disabilities who have very little resources to fight back. None of the cases had a witness video taping the incident so they were invisible to the public. Another example of this invisibility was the shooting and killing of Margaret L. Mitchell of L.A. You’d think the LAPD, and police in general, would stop, think and learn? However the recent L.A. police brutality against a Black, developmentally disabled and hard of hearing teen, Donovan Jackson of Inglewood, CA. is an on-going example that the LAPD doesn’t seem to have the intellectual capacity to learn from their history.

The LAPD & SFPD share a common reason why their victims end up wounded or dead: because "the victim had lunged towards the officer and the officer felt his life was in danger." From the above cases this reason doesn’t add up to me. Both Margaret L Mitchell and Richard Tims were frail and weighed only a hundred pounds. Both were accused of lunging toward the police officer with a very small weapon, but in both incidents the victims were outnumbered by police officers at the scene. Now why can’t police officers use reasonable thinking and come up with a less lethal tactic to deescalate the situation in which the police outnumber and outweigh its victim?

Donovan Jackson, a skinny teenager with developmental disabilities, only had a bag of chips. But once again an LA police officer, Jeremy Morse, said the Black disabled teen lunged at him and squeezed his testicles. So this forty-something year old grown man, who outweighed Jackson, punched him with all his weight. Although Jackson was punched, slammed on the roof of the police car, and dragged by his necklace, Jackson was booked for investigation of battery on a police office. As a Black, disabled advocate who worked with youth and young adults with developmental disabilities (for example, mental retardation) for almost twenty years, I have learned a lot about common traits they share. One common trait in most of the youth and young adults with mental retardation is the strong sense of loyalty and protectiveness some have towards family members and friends. So when Jackson returned to the car and saw the police still there, like any son he wanted to know what was going on and protect his father.

If you add that Jackson was hard of hearing, you get a very confused and hostile environment this teen had never been in before. If Morse took his time and realized that Jackson had developmental disabilities and was hard of hearing, he would have realized that Jackson needed accommodation. Morse could have let Jackson’s father do all the explaining on what was going on, or Morse could have turned face-to-face with Jackson to see if Jackson could read lips, or to see which ear had better hearing. Instead Morse escalated the situation, from which there was no turning back from that point on.

Another common factor found in some youth and young adults I’ve worked with who have developmental disabilities, is that if he or she has a good or bad experience with something or someone, it’s very difficult to change his or her mind of that person. Jackson is only a teenager, and from this horrible brutality it might be very hard to change his views about police. I don’t blame him! The most shocking but common finding in police brutality cases is that the officers, nine times out of ten, have a closet full of brutality cases against individuals (or a whole class of people) that haven’t been let out of their closet. Well Jeremy Morse’s closet is wide open and the media has been doing some Spring-cleaning. One of his brutality cases hit many news services, including the Saturday, July 13th LA Times. One case almost resembled what happen on Martin Luther Kings’ Birthday this year, in the Bayview Hunters Point District in San Francisco, where Black teens were physically and sexually assaulted and forced to lie on the ground at gunpoint. According to the July 13th LA Times, Morse had other legal and disciplinary problems including an off-duty incident in which he forced three teenagers at gunpoint to lie on the ground because he incorrectly believed they were stalking the sister of his then-girlfriend, court records showed. Morse was suspended for 13 days in connection with the incident, and the city settled a lawsuit with the teenagers for $37,000. Before Jackson’s tragic incident, Morse had continued to work for the Inglewood Police Department.

I’m glad that the Mayor of Inglewood, Roosevelt Dorn, took action and was vocal about the behavior of Morse. But I wonder, if there was no videotape, would he still react like he did? For example, the shooting of Idriss Stelley, a young Black man with mental illness in the San Francisco Sony Metreon Theater, didn’t have a video of the shooting that could have played nationwide. Although the grassroots campaign for Justice for Idriss is strong, still Mayor Willie Brown and the Chief of Police have been very slow to the demands of Idriss’ family and supporters. What are we saying? If it’s not on TV, then its not real and elected officials don’t need to react?

I agree with the Mayor that these cops should be fired and brought up on charges! As the Justice system does its job, we, the people, must do ours. I think it’s time for a grassroots movement on police brutality and senseless crimes against people with disabilities, especially people of color with disabilities including mental illness, locally and on a state level. Right here in San Francisco, Idriss’ mother, Mesha Irizarry, started a support group, Victory Over Violence, for families and loved ones who lost their disabled or non-disabled loved ones by the hands of the police. They meet the first Sunday of every month. There also has to be more community open forums on this issue with the financial and community support; more training of police officers on how to deescalate a tense situation involving people with mental illness and others with disabilities. Local groups and activists like:

Najee Ali of Project Islamic HOPE of LA,
Mesha Irizarry of Victory Over Violence of San Francisco and
Myself of Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization of San Francisco Bay Area
need more support, resources and media attention throughout the year for our work on this issue, not national leaders and not only during crisis!

My disabled brothers and sisters are put to rest

On the streets, in psychiatric wards & in prison

But I feel your sprit & anger in my chest

I won’t rest

Your sprit & anger won’t

We won’t let you rest

By Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Executive Director of DAMO

(510) 569-8438 sfdamo@Yahoo.com

by Carol Harvey

Helped by her friend, Scott Bravmann, Carolin Jack has escaped the fluorescent glare of the Disney Store on Union Square moving three blocks away to a clean, well-lighted room South of Market in downtown San Francisco. 

I visited for a May 7 housewarming.  A lovely afternoon sun beamed onto the soft rug.  A tiny tiger bounced over my feet into the kitchenette crying for food in a nearly human voice.  Then Carolin's "little girl," ran to her place below the sunlit window and sat regarding her, Scott and myself in bemused surveillance.  Carolin said, "She's phasing herself in here very cautiously, not quite sure how she feels about it."

This was the home Carolin hoped, worked, and saved for the last five years.

Carolin sat on her bedroll in the corner, her colorful blankets and comforter neatly folded.  Her sleeping/living room and kitchen, with TV set and chair, are clean and tidy.  A dentist who gave her a raincoat may get her a real bed.

Carolin said she washed with alcohol wipes for a year without the luxury of a bath.   Scott smiled, "She finished a bottle of bubble bath in two days."  Though she was always clean, her skin had kept that  "grimy" look a homeless person can't quite wash off.  "Water felt odd to my skin," she said, looking well-scrubbed and comfortable.

I never saw her without headgear, her tasseled wool hat and earmuffs warding off the wind.  Her face looked thinner, more relaxed, her eyes brighter, her color high.

Out of her wheelchair, Carolin scooted on hands and knees across the rug moaning with osteoarthritis.  This week she fell down a flight of stairs lifting her wheelchair to the elevator, the reasons Scott chose this apartment.  He looked askance describing the realtor's discouraging words, "The front elevator is broken a lot."

Scott talks animatedly of jumping a series of rental agent's barriers which made Carolin's move-in hard.

When I met Scott on Union Square, he played with the cats quietly, boyish and reserved, wary of me.  Today he was animated, outgoing, and informative.  He seemed pleased with this accomplishment.

Looking at Scott's happy face, I flashed to another day in the past at Griffith Park in L.A. I recalled the impassive mug of a large man who grabbed at my bike as I plummeted downhill past his broken VW Bug.  He needed wheels.  I was an object.  His was the face of cruelty: Flat, expressionless, inhuman.

Scott's kind face was warm and communicative, open and trusting.  I told him he was my hero.  He said, "It's what a normal person would do." 

Scott's alarm grew in February during the hard rains. Harassed by police, hauled to Court on Quality of Life crimes for sidewalk sleeping, cats impounded by Animal Care and Control, Carolin was living in a group of five.  Her "protectors" stole $800.00 panhandled dollars she saved for rent.

Scott found three apartments on Craig's list.  This one offered a two weeks' free rent special.  Move-in costs included $725.00 first month's rent and a month's rent deposit plus $225.00.  Animals were allowed.  There was a ground floor elevator.  The tub and protective buzzer system were bonuses.  "Carolin said 'Yes" without hesitation."

In the open rental market, the building had 5 or 6 vacancies.  "The elevator's cramped, and the neighborhood's not the greatest," said Carolin.

Scott presented himself and his credentials, dropping off the application with excellent credit report attached.  He has a PhD and a good job.  ("I only flaunt my PhD when I need to impress somebody.")   They said, "If your friend's homeless, you can co-sign."  His income plus Carolin's $800 a month Social Security was enough.  He never concealed she was homeless, and that her disability mandated an wheelchair accessible elevator. 

They claimed 24 hours to process the application.  The agent didn't call back.  "During the first week they several times changed their story about why I didn't have the apartment."   The agent confessed if it wasn't for Scott, there would be no problem.  They said they couldn't verify Carolin's income. 

Scott was relentless.  He was going to research Disability rights.    Finally, they said, "The problem is we haven't met Carolin."  Scott said, "Why does the big corporate entity have to meet her?  But, okay, we'll play by their rules."

The agent kept him and Carolin waiting an hour in her wheelchair outside the building.  He phoned on his cell complaining Market was full of marchers protesting the anti-Israel West Bank occupation.  He couldn't drive six blocks from 3th to 9th street.  "The underground would have taken 7 minutes," said Scott.  "He could have somersaulted here faster."

On arrival, the agent warned, "You can't have all your friends live here." and, "Will you be storing things?"  Homeless people provide crash pads for their friends and, of course, collect junk. 

He turned to leave.  Scott said, "Aren't you going to let her look at the apartment?" 

When a friend wheeled a shopping cart with Carolin's belongings, the manager, disturbed by the man's appearance, complained the cart was scuffing up his lobby.  Scott said, "I informed him the ceramic floor was harder than rubber wheels and could not be damaged."  The manager also suggested Carolin's friend banged her wheelchair against the narrow passageway wall and knocked plaster loose.

"When I put something on the windowsill, the manager bangs on my door, peeking in to see if there are people in here," said Carolin, "or whether I'm tossing my keys to a friend outside."

The buzzer system only opens one of the two locked front doors, so, if the elevator isn't working, Carolin can't get down to let people in.  She betrays concern that she is not safe from her thieving "friends," comforted that the double buzzer system means, "You can't get into this building easily."

Carolin knows she can't pay rent and live on $800 a month.  An agency provided $600 from emergency funds.  They are applying to other agencies.  Scott has got her food stamps . 

Without an ambulatory "respectable" benefactor fronting the money and running  "interference," a disabled homeless person would not stand a chance of charging the gauntlet to get themselves housed. Carolin has that person in a hero named Scott Bravman. 

by Joe B.

Ok, It’s the fourth of July Independence Day, not to be confused with a movie of the same name.

So far I think we have most of our rights intact, there is one more I personally would like to have and its beyond the pursuit of happiness.

The choice of living longer or death in our control.

Its one thing to praise the lord, seek heaven when all of us had little choice when our ticket is punched. But when it becomes blindly clear that human science, technology plus the Eternal’s command that we have free will then everything about life and death changes drastically.

Human’s should live and die as they chose especially if living now means as long as possible and in better health than ever.

For everyone sooner or later will make this ultimate choice.

I’ll make this short; Almighty God was never the problem its how God is interpreted by individuals that’s the problem.

I don’t know about you folks out there bur for me I want a second better shot in life and if that means plunking down a few thousand dollars for whole body freezing or head only

I’m going for it because I’m betting on both God and Humanity to break our death cycle and return to life everlasting.

So folks have a great Fourth of July and may you test your freedom to the limits of possibility. Bye…


HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works me.

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by CLive Whistle/PNN

As I walk toward City Hall I ponder on the notion of the Homeless audit done by the San Francisco Controllers office which will be presented today in front of the Health and Human Services Committee of The SF Board of Supervisors. I tried to understand the idea of being audited as a community. I knew the homeless audit wasn’t supposed to be a bad thing but somehow it still made me feel strange, and I wondered if someday just to be fair, the SF controller could do a Homeowners Audit…..

"You know it’s a shame that we’re living in one of the richest cities in the country, and we have to stoop to making criminals out of poor and homeless people," L.S. Wilson from The Coalition on Homelessness was speaking to the crowd of activists, poor folks and press gathered in front of City Hall to protest anti-homeless legislations proposed by Gavin Newsom and Tony Hall as well as support the positive legislations proposed by Chris Daly as well as the most interesting thing of all, "the Homeless audit" – an audit that was done to assess the most efficient way to provide services for houseless San Franciscans

"In a few minutes members of the health and human services of the board of supervisors will hear items from the community proposal... these items were endorsed by over 40 community organizations working with poor and homeless people on a daily basis. These ideas were birthed from years of bi-weekly or monthly work groups, counseling, or community meetings, as well as critical examinations of practices in other communities. It builds upon improving the system we have in place, it also strengthens the inclusion of input from those who are impacted mostly and therefore are most knowledgeable, staff who will implement them, homeless people who will live under the decisions that are made. These proposals focus their recommendations on improving the effectiveness of accountability of existing service delivery systems and decision-making processes. We call on the city to address homelessness in a comprehensive manner by implementing the continuum of care plan so many of us worked on."

There were several more advocates and community folks that spoke, The last speaker was public defender, Jeff Adachi who referred to some of the statistics gleaned from the audit, "Its ironic that we’re here on such a beautiful day to protest some of the ugliest legislation that has come before the board in recent times. As somebody who has practiced in our court system as a public defender for the last 15 years, I will tell you that locking up homeless people is no solution. According to the report that was issued yesterday by the controller’s office, out of City Hall, the city spends $30 million dollars of your money every year to lock up homeless folks. If today’s anti-homeless legislations are passed you are going to see that number triple."

After Jeff spoke we marched into City Hall, all of us "homeless folks" who were the proud owners of our own audit. Notwithstanding my pondering I realized that considering homeless folks were already considered a thing instead of a people, that maybe this audit wasn't so bad cause– we might as well have statistics to back up our oppression, then maybe we can fight this fight for civil and human rights with a little more power.

The Homeless Audit...

CONTROLLER’S AUDITS DIVISION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Results in Brief

In the six months from
September 2001 through
February 2002, members of
the Board of Supervisors
introduced 31 pieces of
legislation, made 17 requests
of the City Attorney for
legislation, and made 41
additional requests of city
departments related to
homelessness.

Although the City and County of San Francisco (City)
makes available a wide spectrum of well-delivered services
for its diverse homeless population, the City has not yet
developed an effective, unified strategy for dealing with
the issues related to homelessness in San Francisco.
Homelessness is a major problem in San Francisco: The
homeless population is large, many citizens feel that the
problems connected to homelessness have gotten worse,
and political strife about the best ways to deal with
homelessness hinder the ability of the City to manage these
issues effectively.

Over the years, the City has spent
millions of dollars to address homelessness; however, the
City has not been able to ensure that this money has gone
where most needed. Additionally, the City’s methods for
working with the homeless population have been
inconsistent because different elected officials have
favored different approaches to assisting the homeless. As
administrations have changed, the City has not maintained
policies or planning information related to homelessness.

Moreover, unlike some other major United States cities,
the City has not worked with nearby jurisdictions to
approach homeless-related issues regionally.
If the City is to establish an effective system of services for
homeless individuals, the City will need to ensure that the
system contains three elements that inform and reinforce
one another: policies that include overarching, shared goals
and a strategic plan for accomplishing these goals, services
tailored to different types of clients and their varying
needs, and data that describes the clients who use
particular services, the resources used to provide those
services, how well the services work, and the needs that
remain unmet.

Ideally, to serve clients well and to avoid
wasting resources, the City should supply the right
amounts of the right services. In a good system, these
elements strengthen each other and provide the means to
assess the system’s effectiveness. Specifically, the City’s
policies for the system should determine the services
provided and the types of data collected. Data gathered
about the system and its clients should allow the City to
evaluate its services and to determine or reevaluate its
policies.

The Mayor’s Office on
Homelessness estimates that
15 to 20 percent of San
Francisco’s shelter clients
are seniors, and, according
to the City’s Continuum of
Care Plan, 25 to 30 percent
of homeless people in San
Francisco are families.

However, the City’s current policies provoke much
disagreement among decision makers, and its Continuum
of Care Plan for the homeless is not useful as a strategic
plan. This plan cannot guide the City’s delivery of
homeless services because it lacks the support of key
stakeholders as well as specific, measurable steps and
outcomes. Because stakeholders do not have common
goals for the City’s homeless services, nor do they agree
on a useful plan to implement the services, the City cannot
measure its effectiveness in assisting homeless individuals.

The current structure for delivering services has
fragmented among city departments and various parts of
the Mayor’s Office the authority, responsibility, and
information for the system. No department or agency is
accountable for the system as a whole.

The City also lacks an effective means to collect data
related to homelessness. Currently, the City does not
collect and track data in a manner that provides
comprehensive statistics about services, assessments of
service quality, or data on service funding.

Some of the
reasons that data collection and analysis is difficult in San
Francisco are that the City has a decentralized system for
accepting and tracking individuals who request services
and that no coordination exists among the various service
providers, which must collect and report data to the City.

This absence of coordination creates an administrative
burden for provider organizations, makes extremely
difficult any citywide analysis of service delivery and
provider performance, and does not serve clients well.

Thus, the City’s homeless services lack support from good
policies—which specify goals—and good data—which
shows needs. In addition, according to the information we
gathered, the City’s homeless have more unmet needs for
some services than for others. More specifically, the City
currently funds enough overnight shelter beds to
accommodate all single adults who seek them, but the City
lacks sufficient shelters or shelter beds for homeless
families. Families typically wait three to six months for
space in a full-service shelter. Further, the City does not
fund enough mental health or substance abuse services to
meet the demand, which comes both from San Franciscans
who are homeless and those who have permanent housing.
Finally, a shortage of transitional and long-term housing
exists for all segments of the homeless population, and few
of the homeless can afford "affordable" housing.

For those

whose incomes are sufficient for affordable housing, there
is not much to be found. For the past three years, San
Francisco has created an average of 1,333 fewer units of
affordable housing per year than its population needs.
To determine the needs of different types of homeless
people, we looked at the services available for families,
seniors, veterans, youth, and undocumented immigrants.

We found that the City funds a wide range of services that
appear to be delivered well by highly dedicated city
employees and staffs of non-profit provider organizations.
These services form a continuum of care, from emergency
or front-end services that help those in crisis or immediate
need to transitional services that stabilize homeless people
to long-term services, which include permanent housing.
Services vary in duration and intensity, allowing the City
to make available services with different outcome
expectations that are appropriate for different populations
of homeless people. However, there are people who may
choose never to participate in the City’s range of services.
Policymakers should realize that it will remain an ongoing
challenge to decide how best to respond to these
individuals.

The key policy body in the City’s response to
homelessness should be the Local Homeless Coordinating
Board. However, to be more effective and efficient, the
Local Homeless Coordinating Board needs to have fewer
members, and needs to be empowered and staffed to play a
central role. The City’s key implementation agency for
homeless services should be the Department of Human
Services.

Finally, city departments generally have procedures in
place to ensure that the programs they fund are functioning
adequately and in accordance with their contracts. The City
includes in its contracts with providers many contract
monitoring tools, such as performance measures and
extensive requirements for progress reports, but the extent
to which city departments actually use the data they
receive is unclear. Moreover, the City could more widely
use tools that ensure the efficiency of homeless services,
such as performance measures focused on efficiency as
well as contract provisions to pay providers based on a cost
per unit of service delivered. The City also cannot ensure
that it is purchasing the most efficient services because a
lack of competition among providers for many services to
the homeless causes city departments to award many
contracts without receiving competitive bids.

Key Recommendations

This audit was not intended to determine how to solve
homelessness in San Francisco. Rather, this report
recommends how the City can improve its system for
planning, delivering, and evaluating homeless services in
San Francisco. The City should act on all of the
recommendations presented in this report, including the
key recommendations outlined below. A complete list of
recommendations may be found in Appendix A.
To improve delivery of services to homeless people, the
Board of Supervisors and the Mayor’s Office should:
·

* Reduce the size of, empower, adequately staff, and
comply with the advice of the Local Homeless
Coordinating Board.

*Increase the staff of the Local
Homeless Coordinating Board from the current one
position to three full-time positions: a policy and data
analyst, a grant writer, and an administrative assistant.
·

* Designate the Local Homeless Coordinating Board as
the lead body for policy advice and oversight of
homeless issues in San Francisco, and designate the
Department of Human Services—which is represented
on the Local Homeless Coordinating Board and has a
Division of Housing & Homeless Programs—as the
lead agency for implementation of that policy in the
delivery of homeless services.
·

*Submit all proposed legislation, budget actions, and
ballot initiatives related to homelessness to the Local
Homeless Coordinating Board for review and comment
before adoption of any new measures. Except in
extraordinary circumstances, policymakers should
abide by any measures they approve for at least the
next budget year.
·

* Decide how best to allocate the increasingly limited
funds the City uses for homeless services, based on
prioritized and realistic goals developed by the Local
Homeless Coordinating Board. San Francisco has not
had, and likely will not have soon, enough money to
provide sufficient shelter and housing to meet the needs
of San Francisco’s homeless.

·

*Formalize and sustain a relationship with policymakers
in other Bay Area governments to see how San
Francisco can participate more actively in a regional
approach to homelessness.

*To improve its effectiveness as a policy advisory body, the
Local Homeless Coordinating Board should:
·

* Advise the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor’s
Office about whether to redirect or further restrict the
City’s cash aid to homeless people, and whether the
City should strive to fund more services to provide
homeless people with money management and
representative payee services, where clients have their
rent and other bills paid for them.
·

* Investigate if there are means, including grants, to get
more non-City funds that the City could use to add
capacity in family shelters, full-service residential
treatment programs for families, and mental health and
substance abuse treatment programs.
·

* In collaboration with the Mayor’s Office of Housing,
set realistic numerical goals for the creation of housing
units affordable to low- and very-low income people in
San Francisco, and specify which city departments are
responsible for seeing that specified numbers of units
are created by specified dates.
·

*Compile and analyze the data collected from service
providers by city departments.
Finally, the city departments that contract with homeless
service providers should:
·

* Coordinate with one another to ensure that contracts for
the same or similar services include standardized
service statistics, units of service, and performance
measures, including measures of service outcomes.
·

*Work to implement promptly the federally required
Homeless Management Information System that will
link all service providers and track client data.
We conducted this audit according to generally accepted
government auditing standards.

by Connie Lu/PNN Media Intern

My ears guide me towards the bass echoing from the
music at the Holistic Health Festival, as I walk up
the street towards Precita Park on a beautiful and
relaxing Saturday afternoon. The park itself is
encompassed by a mosaic of colorful houses that fit
tightly against each other and an elementary school
with an amazing mural filled with life and a sense of
community. As I step onto the field, I see tables
along the edges of the park with vendors, art, crafts,
food, and various community organizations to promote
the importance of having a healthy body. I am sitting
on the grass now and soaking in the rich warmth of the
sun. The wind is blowing its cool breeze in keeping
the perfect temperature and there are children are
running freely with everyone gathered to enjoy a
peaceful, healthy day at the Holistic Health Festival.

The stage is set up at the front of Precita Park for
various musical and poetic performances. I arrive to hear the performances already in progress with JenRo, a 19-year-old songwriter, takes the stage and begins her
song called, "Hold Us Down". She dedicates this song
to the government and the police who are holding the
community down and preventing it from succeeding. Her
voice is strong and powerful, as she clearly
annunciates her rhyme to the rhythm of the break beat.
After her performance, I talked to JenRo briefly. I
asked her when she started to write songs and she
said, "I started writing songs at a young age, but my
first performance was when I was 10-years-old."
Initially, I was uncertain about asking her questions,
but after talking to her I was glad to have met her
because she is very friendly and approachable.

After JenRo's performance, the "Secluded Journalists",
a Hip-Hop crew from Pittsburg and Berkeley, begin
their song called "Faceless". This song is dedicated
to the greed of corporations for money and portrays
the worker as being "faceless" because there is no
recognition given for a job well done. The only thing
that matters to the boss is making money, not the
names of the hard-working employees, who are barely
surviving off each paycheck. The beat of the song is
quick with an underlying melody of a jazzy flute.
Their voices are filled with great strength, as they
roar into the microphones with passion for the words
that flow from their mouths.

The last performance is by "II Sense-Kaotic Souls", an
experimental Hip-Hop crew, whose style is very
different from the "Secluded Journalists" because the
beats that they work with are much slower and more
mellow. The deep, penetrating bass along with the
vast integration of various live instruments emitting
from speakers reflect the creative and talented skills
of the artists that make up this group. One of the
songs they perform is called, "Appreciate", which
relays the message of being thankful because the
number of days in the future are uncertain.

I leave the Health Festival feeling encouraged by the
artists who performed that day. Their desire to
express themselves through spoken words were so strong
and genuine. Each word comes from their hearts that
are deeply rooted in believing what is said through
their poems and songs. I am also reminded of the
essence of health because once my health depletes,
then I am unable to do even the most simple everyday
tasks. My health is the source of my strength.

by Joe B.

After washing, rinsing cups and coffee machine this lively Monday,July,8,2002.

[Yeah, that’s one of my early chores to make coffee, set it on the conference room table, sometimes vacuum both PC or nerve center of POOR Magazine before composing my column].

In a past life as a woman did I mistreat a few men or as a man brake a few female hearts; which it spiritual terms is a serious if not the worst crime psychically committed?

If my work is only vacuuming and making coffee it may mean my Karma has gone full circle and I'm even.

I dread what happens to child molesters, rapists, and killers if the wheel of Karma really is a fact of life after death cycle.

Laugh, giggle, joke, and chuckle boys, girls, men, and women yuck it up.

Is it completely out of your systems?

Now I understand why women get "Punch, slap, stomp, beat down, guys angryat doing it while other person(s) not handicapped, mentally unable, or otherwise impaired to make there own hyper nerve stimulus jump-start brew.

I don’t like coffee; tea, hot chocolate or white mocha is my speed.

I will drink it once or twice if no one else does because the stuff should not be wasted even if I have an aversion to it.

Once in a while color pictures are taken then scanned in but what really sends shivers of my spine is… T-R-A-N-S-C-R-I-P-T-I-O-N.

I use to fall for the "Its only half an hour Joe."

Three to five hours later at night at 7 or 8 pm I’m still at it in a quiet controlled fume.

I’ve since learned not to ask how much time because most reporters have little or no concept of time especially when they are not doing the transcribing but when they do it’s a shock to them at how long it takes typing out their own interviews – instant Karma is what I call when that happens.
BIRDS VIEW

Human destructive capacities are traits not uncommon to birds or cats.

"Let the H’s think they’re in charge, stumble on discoveries placed in their minds.

The hidden control continues.

Speaking of Karma current Supervisor Gavin Newsom looks to have not done to bad in family, friends, and business dealings all well and good however his "Cash Not Care" sound bites to ‘Help working poor and Houseless folk by taking away what little money from General Assistance or G.A.

Is Social Security Income or S.S.I. Next?

I wonder if Newsom’s hypothetical last life was less lush, did he do something noble, self sacrificing in a long ago war, give up school, his dearest dream for younger siblings or simply be an infant, toddler, young child, or adult that lost her or his life and in this life was rewarded for not having a chance in that last life?

I’m just wondering it there is a bit of self loathing carried over for that short life?

Its conjecture sure but why would a guy given so much not have learned during childhood school days, elementary, high school, college, university, or just life in general the universal "But for the grace, providence, fortune, luck, fate, it could be me, on the street; stoned, drunk in an alley, birth defected in brain body or both, HIV-AIDS ridden and given a shortened span of life."

Although science and the human body have found ways to live with HIV many people still had problems with people who remain health with the desease frozen in its tracks.

If he doesn’t even think "There for the grace of God"

I worry why he wants so bad to be mayor, is he thinking that post as a stepping to a more powerful position?

We already have a non voted-in Selected President causing havoc domestically because within him and a few others church and state have commingled setting a bad precedent not for being religious but using official power to rubberstamp their beliefs into dangerous dogmatic laws.

These mandates or laws slow, retard, or stop ongoing research and development of technology and science slowing many quality-of-life improvement kinds of applied technologies.

It seems strange that both men of power and position instead of being leaders trying to pierce gray fog bringing light and knowledge they create more smoke and shadow leading people in to heavier over cast curtains of heavy clouds and fogging up many lives wanting to live in bright sun near cloudless blue skies.

Tell me if I’m wrong folks, if right-how to escape from this new "Dark Age"
leadership… Bye.

HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works me.

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

I don’t know what to say.[Like that’s new Joe]

I’ve got an economic windfall, breathing room besides my regular monthly check which is still worrisome, because of D.H.S. Department of Human Services non breach but stinging.

"Just making sure we’re on the same page" hold up of money already paid to work program participants.

Enough about that it only means one has to find alternative means of funding POOR.

As for myself besides having business cards made up for a one-person business for house sitting, writing science or speculative fiction, radio voice over work, and on-line investing.

I pretty much know my options are not as limited as I once thought.

I might try buying and selling real estate in San Francisco mainly because I still want to live here even though its treated poor folks badly it would be home base for me after traveling the globe and maybe off-world?

The last thing but probably most pleasurable would be first writing screenplay, producing, and directing Pornographic film.

The distribution and on-line process someone else will handle.

Folks these are all things I’d like to do to keep myself sane and healthy for the next few decades that is if 2012 is only another year and not special because the Myan Calendar stopped there thousands of years in the past.

I look forward to 2010, ’20, ’30 and beyond, hopefully my other half bake plans will be evenly cooked by the time those years loom closer.

Here is my business, there will be a number to call as soon as I get a phone or place ads in newspapers in S.F. and across the Bay Area.

I do worry about taxes but if my business becomes viable then I won’t mind paying them isn’t that part of being American, excuse me American of African descent.

Now below the business I’m struggling to get into below and if other House sitters can give me friendly suggestions please do – I need all the help I can get.

HouseCare-Pro Price range:$25 per day or $100 a week for 1 bdrm. apt, small House.

4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,

$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.

$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for

50 to 100 rm Mansions

Prices are negotiable.

Non drinker, smoker,

drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)

Not a party animal, Boredom, works for me.

For Joe only my snail mail:PO Box 1230 #645

Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102

Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

This column was written to inform people – some who laughingly are suppose to be running this yet to be land of milk ‘n’ honey that ‘PO folks have their own agenda’s just as the power full have theirs.

Ours may not be on as grand a scale, there are more of us learning to withhold our money, votes, be disconnected from power grids, sharing or barter for equal goods, wares, and low-mid-or high tech items.

Poor folks do think out-of-boxes – we have to, our continuing survival and evolution depends on it.

If I, a city boy and man born and bred have to move to the country to survive I’ll learn what mountain folk did to live and survive if it comes to that.

I’m betting it won’t, but just in case that’s what "roughing it" in the outdoors without mobile homes, cell-digital phones, palm pilots, but a bowie knife knapsack, and sleeping bags are all about and originally for.

I don’t miss cable or satellite TV or radio all that much.

See ‘ya, survival lesson’s like curing meat, making candles, weapons, churning butter and if I can get a Crane’s Corp’s wind up radio in case batteries no longer made, - most importantly find a few good men and women if worst comes to worst.

I’d like to die happy with grandkids and old friends surrounding me… Bye.

by Joe. B

Did ‘Bro’, Sis, aunts, uncles, cousins and good friends have fun at “Juneteeth.

”OOPS, didn’t mean to forget single and married mother’s and father’s or same sex mates.

I couldn’t be there because my mom’s birthday way out in a quiet flatland.

Flat, quiet, boring, safe, dull, that’s turning into my kind of kink.

I’m gonna try something a friend had told me to try.

Since my ultimate goal is to sit on my tush, write strange, odd imaginary tales with some facts thrown in just to confuse folks who are reading.

From now on along with my columns which is torture enough for readers as it is - now they’ll pieces of my as yet unpublished works.

The difficult part for me is not knowing if my words are read by publisher(s), editor(s) proofreaders, (of course) Literary Agents, On line publisher(s) or the general readers.

I really hope to get feed back.

A excerpt from “Gifts From Earth.”

Humanity has improved itself over time. With better, improved bodies they still like old fashioned procreation since bodies and brains can exchange cloned ones of various heights, sizes, shapes, nationalities, genetic memories is mandatory.

Immortality is in. Though for some people “Limited Option Life Span are for those individuals seeking “Natural Ends” or death.

That’s it folks, words, a few lines, 1 or 2 paragraphs.

Next time another morsel of “GFE” separate yet in the middle of the column.

It can be somewhat crowded when also placing the House Sit ad also but a guy’s got to make some dead ‘Prez’s somehow... Here’s mine.

Now lets get cracking.

My greatest ambition use to be getting rich showing former highschooler’s circa 1973 what a big wheel I became.

The second thing was rediscovering the fantastic, illusive, and legendary miracle of a natural substance.“The Philosopher’s Stone”

Well I failed at both being bad at math, not knowing enough chemistry, also I never tried to borrow nuclear material to hyper-speed the process of chemical changes if I ever had all the material needed.

You folks know about the stone; after gathering all the materials like triple distilled water, copper.

To literally enable one to be a master of oneself, the cosmos, communicate with other beings on parallel worlds, travel mentally or physically to them.

Maybe see and speak clearly beyond the final curtain of death.

No wonder people, if they discovered it couldn’t stay but had to keep learning with full beam-searchlight illumination upon them.

I missed this century but here’s a new one.

The best I can do now is live, learn, ask questions, take the time if I ever try for that supposedly impossible dream.

I’m a lazy guy but I do see enough ‘tech that might enable many of us to just be more ourselves.

I don’t want much out of life just immortality, space and time travel and illumination all this to for improving myself without killing myself.

At least I don’t have worry about the android/human conflict because we’ll integrate artificial and improved real genes, bio-chip, and nanotechnologies into humanity and we’ll literally marry male and female ‘droids.

So far, aside from this suicidal president, att. General and a few other kooks most of us are sane people trying live through this nuclear madness - and we will.

I hope to be healthy, write my books, invest wisely, maybe rededicate my search for the stone.

But if I succeed how can I help. One way I can see is exploding a silent Knowledge bomb that simultaneously frees minds, repairs bodies and as a reverse disease cure not kill, heal not harm, by touch, breath, sweat, airborne symbiosis, life improving virus would permeate the skin , blood, bone, and brain in a permanent healthy body and mental states.

It seems that is what I would do and in one stroke people would be able to free themselves from their own oppressive governments.

To bad it wasn’t done in the past maybe that’s what I should try something so impossible as that and leave the world until the positive infection as with aids spreads world wide.

Only this and other kinds of radical positives steps can be taken besides dying, killing, being killed...

A call to all the living illuminated, ascended ones.

If you exist and are brothers, sisters, of light this is the time maybe not to reveal yourselves but to free us as many ways as possible...

Now Is The Time To Shine!
If time is given to me the mind/body expansion bomb will be invented, deployed and used to save lives not destroy them... Bye.

HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works me.

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Joe B.

Recently I read in
The Independent, a free newspaper about the Newsom "Care Not Cash" initiative soon be submitted to the Department of Elections.

He has the petition sighed by 20,000 citizen’s seeing houseless folks all over the Castro, Noe Valley, West of Twin Peaks, and West Portal.

All they see is homeless people on the streets. Funny with all the financial upheaval from Enron, World Com, or other business related turmoil they believe houseless folk are the problem.

I guess that stuff is too big but homeless people is something they can deal with.

These people use to live in those same neighborhoods but once evicted, rent hiked skyward.

Those voting for the charming, fair-haired, fresh faced, glittery, glint eyed Gavin will themselves be next as speculation and property value soar.

See how he frames houseless people, notice they are first people of color, its not a new face of homeless folk but a widening chasm of the poor.

Whether we're white, red, brown, black, or yellow its economic disregard for those not making enough bucks to be care for or about.

Like Newsom, the signee’s don’t see working poor with families struggling, elderly being removed from their living spaces, women with families with sub or minimum wage jobs falling behind.

Instead they are blinded by a quick negative photo conveying contempt masking the real problems like better choices in jobs, up graded training, higher education, and most importantly housing.

Its has always been housing and jobs not drugs, housing and careers not sleeping in public, housing not panhandling.

Taking people’s checks because you believe most of the homeless spend it on drugs is the arrogance of ignorance and blindly thinking all poor folks are the same.

If they were you wouldn’t see ‘em reading, carrying books from libraries or because they’re in school, or have work in other professions other than what can be seen.

We’re not monolithic people in thoughts, deeds, ideas, or ideologies.

You know what I use to spend my General Assistance checks on?

Sometimes it was books on fiction, history, biography, movies, and regular feminine companionship (monogamous) safe sex if you want to know.

Besides looking for jobs too and I’m not the only one but does Newsome and others care or know that – No, they want to control what houseless do with their own money.

When you control someone’s personal economics you can dictate whatever terms you want.
"First take their money then place them in SRO’s (Single Room Occupancy) now Newsom doesn’t think SRO’s are appropriate either.

Dangling someone else’s money to do your bidding is.

Is this guys smiling face is only a mask is he really that serious that he’s willing to cause more "accidental" deaths by turning homeless folk into pariah’s so even if they do find ways out of their mess they’ll still have to fight a negative stigma.

This guy is so Oily wet slick that he makes Willie Brown seem fair and honest by comparison.

I think of Dan White, another squeeky clean up standing though working class guy and when he didn’t get his way after quitting his supervisor job; we all know the tragic end to that
Mayor Moscone and Sup. Harvey Milk Assassinated in City Hall.

Just as Tom Ammiano San Francisco Supervisor is American as anyone else with tons more of experience in life and politics knows that the hidden agenda can help or hinder pol’s and its best to lay the cards on the table and be done with games.

Are all of Newsom’s cards on the table or is he hiding more slight of hand tricks with extra cards to play?

I get an ominous feeling that blood will flow again only it won’t be seen in City Hall but all over from working poor and houseless people.

I could be wrong but just in case Mr. G. and his handler’s or backers backgrounds should be check on thoroughly.

Lets find this candidates skeletons, and inform the public if he won’t … Bye.

HouseCare-Pro Price range:
$25 per day or 100 a week for
1 bdrm. Apt, small House.
4 to 3 bedrooms, $50 to $100 a week,
$5,000 a week for 20 to 40 rm. Homes.
$25,000 by the week or $100,000 for
50 to 100 rm Mansions
Prices are negotiable.
Non drinker, smoker, drugs (unless its aspirin & vitamins)
Not a party animal, Boredom, works me.

For Joe only my snail mail:
PO Box 1230 #645
Market St. San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by Lisa Gray-Garcia and Ashley Adams

"This county is taking my mother’s property and evicting us illegally." Scott Sloan’s salt and pepper ‘fro glistened in the 9:00 am glare while he addressed POOR Magazine and DAMO staff – the only attendees of an emergency press conference held outside the Alameda County Courthouse on a bright morning in May. POOR Magazine staff in conjunction with Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization were present to report, support and advocate for the Sloan family – a low-income African-American family who have lost their disabled Grandmama and all their property to the precarious world of the Alameda County Guardianship Program.

"I live in L.A," Miss Moore, Mrs. Sloan’s daughter spoke next, "but I’m up here to lend support because everything they’re doing to my mother is wrong, like the way they evicted my sister out of my mothers house, they told her they were gonna fix the house up then she could move back. Soon as they fixed the house up they told her she was out, she had to go, had to find her own self a place to stay. No compensation, but she just had to go."

Four of Mrs Sloan’s seven adult children, several grandchildren and their extended family stood silently beneath the massive steel and concrete structure of the County building that wielded arbitrary control over the legacy of Mrs. Beatrice Sloan

Beatrice Sloan as the single parent of 7 children worked full-time as a dishwasher for thirty years to come up and out of poverty and buy property for her and her family. After endless sacrifices she bought and maintained four houses, which mostly housed her large extended family. Then she became ill and the county of Alameda seized control of her estate. Now her family faces homelessness and she is held captive in The Excell Nursing Home, a board and care facility in East Oakland.

The Sloan family have been trying to get justice for their grandmother ever since she was placed in Conservatorship. One by one Mrs. Sloan’s properties have been sold out from under the family without their consent to "pay" for the extremely high fees charged to her estate in the nursing home and have faced an endless number of mysterious surrounding the "loss" of her family assets.

"We’re trying to find out what’s going on with her and why the county wants to take the conservatorship of her, Charles Woods, Mrs Sloan’s grandson in law who has lived with his wife Javelyn and father in law Scott Sloan and has just received a 30 day eviction notice from one of Mrs. Sloans’ houses related some of the confusing bits of information they have been told by the county officials, " the county told us; we can get Conservatorship of her person but not her property; and soon as the county got control of the property they started selling the properties.

If they had liens-tax liens on her property there should’ve been liens on the bank account. She had no liens on the bank account that means she had no liens on the property but this is what they were telling us – the tales they were telling us.
Charles Woods continued, " I’m just here to speak for my father-in-law’s behalf .

Since Mrs. Sloan has been in the care of the Alameda conservative she’s been neglected, and abused at the Excell Nursing facility . The county conservator’s care more about her property than her well being .." Charles went on to relate the families recent attempt to visit their grandmother at Excell, who on other visits has been found in her own feces, with burns and bruises on her body and/or so drugged up that she is unable to move or speak, this last time they visited – they had to deal with a new shock, she just wasn’t there at all – and in true form, the family had to file a missing person’s report with the Oakland police department just to find out that Mrs. Sloan had been taken to Alta Bates Hospital.

"We just want to make this situation right.." Charles shook his head after this last statement, as though he was shaking off the impossibility of it all

The court day to-be bustled officiously around our small press conference; $300.00 suits, deep bronze and ruby red designer shoes, glistening leather briefcases dangling off of bejeweled hands. The "law" at their fingertips, judges and lawyers buzzed by, ready to take what little assets and/or dignity folk might have had left or like in the Sloan’s case, remove what small trace of equity and assets remained.

"How many properties did Beatrice Sloan originally own?" POOR staff inquired

"Four."

"Does she any of them now?"

"Only two – sort of."

"How is that set up, does she actually own them, is she on the deed, or is she…?"

"She is the sole owner. She’s on the deed… no one else."

"Then how is Alameda charging you guys $2000 dollars rent and evicting you?"

"Because they can that’s what they’re doing." They’re getting back at us for fighting them for what they’re doing ...They are actually stealing the property." Scott Sloan finished by looking angrily towards the court house

"What is the reason for the thirty day notice that you’ve just been given right now?"

Scott answered emphatically, "No reason, they gave us no reason, Oakland don’t have to give you a reason to evict you – at any given time they can evict you. You don’t have to have a reason, this is the only city that don’t have to have a reason to evict you."

The POOR staff, many of us victims of those no cause evictions ourselves, chimed in together, "There’s no just cause at all."

Before the press conference was over we asked the Sloan’s what they would like to accomplish at today’s hearing

"We would like to take conservator of person so that we can take care of our mother and grandmother in the way she deserves to be taken care of "

9:25 am The Hearing

The Sloan Family and the POOR Magazine and DAMO crew of media advocates, Ashley, Isabel, Jewnbug, Charles, Leroy, and Tiny entered the Alameda County Court building. One by one we were screened and scanned for weapons and unnecessary pieces of metal or paper , including the POOR Magazine poster boards, which they told us were prohibited in government buildings. For a minute, we all thought we were at the airport, as these facilities are not much different from each other, both cause stress.

Once we arrived in the court room The court clerk gave a run down of court procedures had asked to make sure everyone had seen the video on Conservatorships. Scott Sloan said that he had not seen the video, and the man said he would show it to him. We all wondered in shock, Why has Scott Sloan not seen the video when his mother has been under the county’s conservatorship since 1996?

"All rise..The honorable Judge William McKinistry presiding"

The Sloans looked towards the bench in disbelief. This judge was different than what the court papers said. They were expecting to see Judge Harry R. Shepherd, instead the judge was William McKinstry. McKinstry is the judge that the Sloans have been dealing with for a few years regarding the conservatorship of Beatrice Sloan, a man who the Sloans have seen on some of the transfer of deeds and deeds of sale of Mrs. Sloans property, a man who the Sloans believe has his hand "in the cookie jar" so to speak. .

Judge McKinstry, an older white man who entered the room quickly and had a habit of tilting his head to the side like a confused puppy and then emitting a short laugh at his own remarks quickly called the Beatrice Sloan case. Mrs. Sloan’s son, Scott Sloan, grandaughter, Richalda Williams, grandson-in-law, Charles Woods and POOR media advocate, Lisa Gray-Garcia (aka Tiny) all walked silently toward the front of the courtroom. Connie Rutherford from the Alameda County Counsel, also joined them. She was in place of an attorney that has been on the Sloan case through the County Counsel. Mary Lou Griffin, the current conservator did not get up from her seat and Alfred Fisher, another player in this complicated drama, entered the court room and sat down in the audience...

After introductions were made to the judge about who was present. The family stated their case, "We are here to take over the conservator of person"

"Well, I am afraid you can’t do that today- you can state your objection to the county taking over conservator of person which they are filing for, but you would have to file a formal petition to the court with your objections to their conservatorship and as well you would have to file a petition to take over conservator…"

"Your honor this family cannot do these legal documents themselves- they need a lawyer appointed to the case" Lisa Gray-Garcia, brought up the fact that this family desperately needed some legal representation.

The judge replied that it is not required that an attorney be assigned to the case and that the best advice he could offer is the family should contact the Alameda County bar Association

"Well what about the fact that Mrs. Sloan is being abused by the care facility she is in" Lisa implored.

"I am not able to deal with an elder abuse case but the family should contact the County Council’s office about that"

"W have made several calls to them and they never follow through on our complaints" Richalda Williams spoke up

" Well I am afraid that you’ll have to take that up with them – they are in court today maybe Mrs. Rutherford could talk to you today"

After a few more issues were brought up by the family and the advocate from POOR
The judge bounced around impatiently in his seat and switched out of dialogue mode and into judge-speak and set a date with the public defender present who was allegedly there representing Mrs. Sloan for July 13th court hearing and informs the family that they can file objections or petition to become conservator of person by June 20th \

The case ended without dealing with the health of Beatrice Sloan which is in jeopardy, especially if she goes back to the Excell Care Center.

After the hearing the whole family, POOR staff, Connie Rutherford of the County Counsel, Mary Lou Griffin, and Alfred Fisher filed into the hallway "to talk"

The family and their advocates confronted the county officials with facts regarding the negligence of the conservatorship, and the misuse of the funds the County received from selling two of Beatrice’s estates. Mary Lou Griffin had a difficult time with eye contact. She was constantly fidgeting with her hands, shifting her stance, and avoiding the eyes and faces of those addressing her.

Connie Rutherford was there to offer support to Mary Lou but she refused to answer any questions pertaining to the Sloans’ case, She did state that the Sloans have the right to petition for both the conservatorship of person and estate. To petition for conservatorship of estate they have to be bonded which is dependant upon the value of Beatrice’s estate. The odd thing is when asked about the value of Mrs. Sloan’s estate, Mary Lou and Alfred Fisher claimed they had no idea how much her estate is worth….

One of the POOR staff members asked why the baby of Javlyn and Charles Woods had lead poising from 588 55th street when two properties were sold to ‘supposedly’ finance repairs on the others…no one really answered… the subject was quickly changed.

It was about at this point that Connie Rutherford called for a close to the adhoc meeting. … the County Council team seemed slightly "shook" from having to spend 20 minutes telling the truth…

If you are an attorney willing to help the Sloan Family or have any more information for them call POOR Magazine at (415) 863-6306

by Dee Gray, Ace Tafoya,tiny, Joseph Bolden and Ashley Adams/PNN

It was a day like any other –I curved my body into a half circle and twisted sideways between the wobbly steering wheel and the broken drivers seat. I breathed a short-lived sigh of relief, I was in……The car that is , better known to some as …the hooptie, the clunker… the tank- it didn’t matter what you called it – it was ours, we had wheels and being that some family members are disabled – and we had far distances to travel - cars were a necessity– but back to today – today we needed to travel to Marin County – San Rafael to be exact – to do an outreach workshop with The Canal Community Center –The Canal was peopled with mostly mono-lingual day laborers residing in a minute yet beautiful raza ghetto known as The Canal district of San Rafael – one of the few very low-income communities in the whole County of Marin- we should know we were one of the poor folk who used to reside there-

After a successful day of outreach and training we "slid" back into the car and headed South on 101 towards San Francisco. The Sun, sky and hills collaborated to form the impenetrable beauty of Marin County. The shocking unrealness of the sky and water became even more clear as we started up the incline leaving Marin City, mostly because if you exceed 45 miles an hour our entire car and its contents begin to violently shake ….

And then… we were there – facing the red steel, black and blue asphalt framed by a bright green expanse of bay.. The Golden Gate Bridge – we sailed across feeling light and momentarily happy until we got close to the toll – oh my god, fear set in- We didn’t have enough for the Bridge toll. Dee and I looked nervously at each other – emptying the contents of our backpacks and bags in tandem. "Well, " Dee proclaimed, "tell them that you don’t have the toll – they will probably just issue a ticket like the Bay Bridge does.."

"Excuse me – we don’t have the toll- " I said to the lady in the toll booth, she looked at me and an odd look of confusion and anger filled her face.

"What do you mean you don’t have the toll?"

"Just what I said, I don’t have the toll.."

"Well I am very sorry but that is not acceptable, everyone has to pay or you don’t get across" and then she looked at me like now I would produce the $3.00 I really must have

"So what do you want me to do?"

" I already told you miss- you need to pay the toll"

We continued to go back and forth like this for a few more minutes until Dee lost patience in the idiocy of the interchange. "Look, we said we don’t have the toll, what do we do now?"

"Well I don’t know, I will have to call my supervisor and you will have to drive over there and talk to a police officer"

A police officer??!! – would this whole thing end up being one of our worst ‘Driving While Poor’ nightmares yet. I scanned my mind for warrants and/or unpaid citations. Was our registration current? I just paid for my insurance. I think its ok ….

"you gals will need to wait here for awhile while we sort this out", this time some police or sheriff like character was loudly yelling into the car. We became truly scared and angry . Were we to be arrested for three dollars ? What would we or could we do and how could we prove to this man that what we had done nothing wrong other than be poor and drive over the Golden Gate Bridge?

"What the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation Board are doing is trying to force the poor people and working poor out of Marin County," stated John Ortega, the Acting Director of Canal Human and Economic Development Association.

Last month Dee Gray assigned a team of PNN reporters to cover the proposed toll hike of the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as a proposed toll for pedestrians and bicycle riders. The tolls are being rationalized in the mainstream media and by the Bridge board of directors as the way to pay for increased costs of Bridge upkeep and to underwrite public transportation. Due to the fact that we had had first-hand experience with the racist, classist policies of the Golden Gate Bridge we had a feeling the whole story wasn’t being told

We began our media organizing with multiple calls to several agencies that we have worked with in the low-income Canal district and Marin City areas of Marin County to get there feelings on the impact that a bridge toll would have on low-income commuters. The response was clear, in a telephone interview with PNN media intern Ace Tafoya, John Ortega was adamant, "Marin County is one of the most affluent counties in the country. They want to drive out the poor people,". In Marin County, 6.9% of the population are below the poverty level, communities of color make up 16% and persons over 65 years old are 13.5% of the total populace.

Byron Allen, a former resident of Marin City warns, "They (poor people) can’t afford the hike. It’s gonna be an economic impact to them because of their economic disadvantage." Many families of Marin County often share living quarters just to survive month to month. "These people who live in these areas don’t make enough money to handle that increase. This just isn’t right," Bryon Allen says shaking his head in disbelief.

Our next step was to report and "support" at one of the first public information meetings held by The Golden Gate Bridge highway and transportation district which unlike the Bay Bridge and Richmond Bridges is not a public entity supported by sales tax and managed by Caltrans, but rather in the trend of other public spaces and places has become a business with a good ole fashioned profit margin and board of directors.

Armed with a few thought provoking hand-made signs saying things like; Stop Economic Apartheid and Stop making decisions based on rich white folkThe PNN crew of Ace Tafoya, Joseph Bolden, Ashley Adams, Tiny and myself arrived at the San Rafael Community Center on a bright afternoon in June.

The room was large and airy with high redwood beam ceilings and a wall of sliding glass doors. At each corner was an easel with pie charts, graphs and vague statements about "The Cost of Bridge Upkeep" etc. Standing awkwardly in front of each flow chart were a few older men wearing ill-fitting sports jackets.

Dee motioned to start with one of the men in the left-hand corner, " Excuse me, can we ask you a few questions?"

" Sure" he stated pleasantly

" What is your name, what is your position?"

" I am Stanley smith, I am on the Board of Directors for the Bridge"

"So can you just tell us, in the planning of this increase have you thought at all about the impact on poor people?

He smiled again, "We thought of the impact on everyone, Sure of course we have, its how we’re paying to keep the bridge up. We have to keep the bridge there and obviously we haven’t raised any tolls in eleven years, its like when your bread, milk goes up, unfortunately that happens and we just have to raise a toll: because of the security, seismic retrofit, the maintenance of the bridge itself."

"What about the state taking over the bridge; what do you think of that idea?", Dee asked.

Mr. Smith chuckled and shook his head lightly at his own inside joke, "I would recommend anybody who wants the state to take over the bridge - go commute on the Bay Bridge for one week and then come back to Golden Gate Bridge and see if they still want the state to take it over. The Bay Bridge is not a well run bridge. Look every morning on your television the commute is backed up to Portland Oregon maybe. That’s being facetious but ever since we put the Fast Track in we’ve haven’t had a jam-up, look how the Bay Bridge Fast Track went - its just terrible. But we have exceptionally talented people running the bridge so that would be-I say the difference."

"So your saying part of this increase is to cover those exceptional people salaries?"

"Of course part of it is to cover salaries-yes, but the majority of it is gonna go for the maintenance of the bridge"

Mr. Smith went on to relate that he also believed that all those bicycle riders with their $300 hats and $600 bikes could easily afford a toll and that he wishes he could institute a sliding scale toll for poor folks but he wasn’t sure how to do it. We thanked Mr. Smith and moved on to join another very heated conversation.

"All those people, the whole board of directors and no one ever pays to go across the bridge. For the rest of their lives every board director gets a free pass." Dressed in work-pants and loose t-shirt, with the remnants of wood chips still clinging to his boots stood one Bob Dahlgren, public citizen, a new breed of activist which the PNN crew encountered at the Bridge hearings- "contractor as activist" He continued in a clear loud voice, " If that’s not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is…"

Dee interjected "Board of directors of what?"

Bob answered, " The Golden Gate Bridge District"

"That’s not true", The man that Bob was directing his comments to was wearing one of those odd polyester/nylon jackets, giving him the slight impression of a ship captain , he forced a stiff smile towards Bob and continued, " board Members have free passes to cross the Golden Gate Bridge while they are members of the board of directors, not for the rest of their life."

Dee looked towards Bob again, "Why do you have a problem with that?"

"I don’t believe there’s a set policy, we’ve asked Jane Tarrentino, The Secretary of the Bridge District for the written policy about when the bridge (vote) passes or revoked, who they were given out to and we got no response. The fact is it took us approximately two months to get a Freedom Of Information Act results, there were over 1500 names listed of people that get to go across the bridge for free for the rest of their life."

While Bob was talking – The red jacketed man, who we later discovered was the Bridge Manager, backed himself out of our half-circle. We went on to ask Bob what he thought the impact of these bridge tolls would be on the low-income residents of Marin County

"That I believe is the biggest problem. The so-called Fast Track,program is the only thing they say is available for low-income commuters but of course you have to have a credit card and $35 dollars in your bank account, and when that drops to $30 dollars you are out of the system, plus Fast Track is a privately run company – and we have been unable to get any information on them- " He shook his head in disbelief, " I find it a shame this whole thing… You know-it’s a beautiful bridge, it has a lot to offer but if Cal Trans can run business and keep things under budget – I don’t understand why the Golden Gate Bridge District can’t"

Dee told Bob how she had asked Mr. Smith about the lower fare idea for low-income folks

Bob replied emphatically "There will never be a lower fare, it would only happen if they were backed up against the wall. This thing ( the Golden Gate Bridge) is a revenue maker and strictly revenue.

After speaking to Bob we were all collectively upset and discouraged. We sought out the Bridge manager, who seemed to be standing as far away from us as he could without actually leaving the room. He did not deny or confirm that there would be any special program put in place for low-income commuters, nor that the buses would be affected, rather he continued to state that, " The Board is always happy to listen to feedback from the community on any problems with the Bridge or the public transportation system, and.." he said this next comment while pointing us all in the direction of one of the feedback tables in the room, " if you have want to express your opinion, I would suggest you fill out a comment form, bureaucracies like us pay a lot of attention to paperwork"

After a few more strange minutes in that room, The PNN crew gathered up our Stop Economic Apartheid signs and sidled out. We drove out of the community center parking lot leaving the purple-brown mountains of San Rafael behind us, heading towards San Francisco and……The Golden Gate Bridge..!

"Hey Joe, Ace, Ashley…..do you have a dollar I can borrow?"

To find out about the upcoming finance committee and or meeting of the board of directors call the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation Board at (415) 455-2000

by Ed Willard

It was an uncomfortably hot Saturday morning in June as I walked up 7th St in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, towards the offices of People Organized To Win Employment Rights (POWER). About to enter the building, I pulled up short when I heard my name being called,

"Heats ‘goin kick our asses today, Ed". It was my homeless friend, Joey who had set up a sort of flea market of goods for sale at the entrance to the adjacent alley.

"Oh man, you got that right, Joey! How you doin’ today?

"Not too bad but I do hear there’s a chance our GA benefits will be cut. You know anything about that?

"In fact I’m just now meeting with other POWER members to talk about that, so I don’t have much time but just briefly, yeah, there’s a member of the San Francisco board of Supervisors who is trying to push through a proposal that’ll hurt folks on GA. I’ll get back with you later with more news, Joey. Hey, maybe you can even help out, huh?"

"Yeah maybe, Ed, I’ll be here".

Upstairs, 7 other POWER members were already assembled and we spent 40 minutes locking brains to come up with a way to interfere with Gavin Newsome's kickoff campaign to collect the 15,000 signatures needed to get his measures to slash GA benefits onto November's ballot. As an organization that has been fighting to get better conditions for folks receiving assistance here in SF, POWER seemed a natural to fight Supervisor Newsome’s campaign. After our short meeting we descended the stairs back out into the hot street to walk the short distance over to Local 88 on Market St.

We arrived at a scene of hustle and bustle. A channel 5 news van was parked outside and the entrance to the upstairs meeting hall was a mob of people. Showing up dressed as we were, we supplied a sharp contrast to this young republican looking crowd. At least four of us had worn our POWER T-shirts, I had mine on under my leather jacket, and when I arrived, director of POWER, Steve Williams quickly took me aside. "Ed, we need a spy up there in the meeting!" As the only white boy amongst us, I was elected. Quickly I pulled my long scraggly hair back into a pony tail and, despite the heat, zipped up my jacket, hiding the T-shirt with the picture of the angry African-American woman with raised fist. Nervously looking around for any possible security, I entered the building and climbed the long flight of stairs. Suddenly my hair, clothes and everything about me seemed grungy and I had to forcefully dismiss from my mind the sure conviction that I'd be recognized, challenged and ejected any second.

When I arrived at the top of the stairs I spotted a table set up in the lobby for volunteer sign up, but after a moment's scrutiny I saw that people were passing by this freely into the main hall and I did the same. The scene was disheartening. A LOT of people, (I estimated 150), had turned out for this thing! Nervously I began to mingle, walking around the perimeter of the big hall and soon I got the information I was looking for. Posted on the wall roughly in the four corners of the room were big pieces of butcher paper with locations, (Cala Foods at 18th and Castro, Safeway at the Marina, etc.). I jotted these down. Soon a man acting as MC grabbed a microphone and began addressing the crowd, introducing speakers, first a doctor from the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic followed by Newsome himself. It didn't take me long to get the picture. This guy was supplying credibility to Newsome's main justification for cutting the GA cash, ground that former SF politicians and lawmakers have tread, ad nauseam: People on welfare can't be trusted with cash, they'll just use it for drugs. The doctor told his story about how, ".........just when we'd be starting to get somewhere with people, the 1st or the 15th, (checkdays), would roll around and we'd lose them........." Then Newsome was up and he got out his violin to tell the "heartrending" story of the long struggle he had with his conscience before finally................ reluctantly............. coming to the conclusion that the only humane solution was to take the cash out of GA recipients hands. Gagging, I hurried out of the place.

Outside I received pats on the back for my successful spy mission. We started to plan how best to split up to go out to the different signature locations. By this time our group had been joined by a couple of members from the Coalition on Homelessness and the press had started to notice us. The different news stations interviewed POWER members Larry Latimore, Willie Garner and Jason Negron. The next day Larry's interview was aired on TV supplying an opposite viewpoint to Newsome's lies, chiefly that ...........NOWHERE........... in Newsome's proposal is there any guarantee of the housing or services that the thing is purporting that it will give to people in exchange for the cash they are getting now.

Newsome’s propaganda would have the public seeing it like this: Most everyone getting General Assistance is a totally irresponsible chronic drug user that can't be trusted to make a decision on her/his own. Since the city is giving people a handout, it can do so in any form it sees fit. An essential condition this flawed viewpoint ignores is that everyone receiving the GA stipend has to WORK for the money, sweeping the streets or cleaning city buses. Over the last couple of years, due precisely to the work of POWER and other advocacy/activist groups the situation with workfare has changed but before this, and going back nearly 20 years all the way to the institution of workfare under Mayor Feinstein, the city had, year in and year out, from two to three thousand workfare workers doing identical jobs as city hired workers who were being paid union scale, (14 to 23 dollars per hour). ALL FOR MINIMUM WAGE, saving the city a whopping 30 million a year. All this by a bunch of irresponsible drug addicts who, (if we listen to Newsome), barely know how enough to get their own shoes tied right.

So just who is this guy, Gavin Newsome? Let’s get a little background on him. Earlier in the year this City Supervisor introduced a number of measures to be voted on by the Board. These measures constitute an all-out-attack on San Francisco's poor and homeless. If it became law, one of these would make panhandling on median strips illegal and punishable by a five hundred dollar fine. The same would go for urinating or defecating in public, (this when there are increasingly fewer and fewer public restrooms in the city).

But Newsome's most poisonous attack comes in the form of a slash to City and County of San Francisco welfare benefits. Currently those of us receiving General Assistance get about 320 dollars per month. If Newsome's proposal becomes law this cash will be cut to 59 dollars and the rest will be issued in the form of vouchers for services. The biggest chunk of these would be in the form of a housing voucher. This is a re-visiting of ground that other San Francisco politicians and bureaucrats have stomped over on a number of occasions. In the summer of '99 bureaucrat, Earl Rynerson introduced the infamous Prop E in a bid to get the laws changed so that 85% of the GA checks would be reduced to vouchers. At that time these vouchers would have made it possible for a person to get into one of the downtown flea bag, single room occupancy, (SRO), hotels for a couple of weeks per month. These SRO's were then and still are now, rat infested and the hangout of drug users and criminals. Even back in '99 there was a serious shortage of rooms in them, a situation which has worsened considerably now since 7 of these hotels have been destroyed by fire. When no rooms are available the only use for one of Newsome's vouchers would be at one of the city's shelters which are currently FREE!! No, you didn't read it wrong.................... if Newsome's plan becomes law, the city will be handing GA folks a voucher worth about 200 bucks with the right hand, only to snatch it back with the left, and anyone who's stayed in one of these shelters sure knows they aren't worth 200 dollars a month! Of course, the idea behind this nastiness is to make things extremely difficult for the poor so that folks will go elsewhere and the streets will be "cleaned up" for the attraction of tourists and the mega-bucks profit of downtown, big business interests.

When POWER found out about Newsome's plans we launched a counter attack. Through these efforts we were able to win over to our side the support of the three Supervisors on the committee who would be voting on the measures. In conjunction with the Coalition on Homelessness, Poor Magazine and other advocacy groups we also organized a press conference where we made public Newsome's plans. The effect of all of this was that, a few days before the public meeting, (held at City Hall), where public comment would be heard and the proposal voted on by the Supervisors, chicken-shit-Newsome, smelling defeat, withdrew it.

Newsome, who's been given the handle "pretty boy" because he's a tall, slim, glamour boy who gets written up regularly in the San Francisco society columns, is Willie Brown's hand picked successor for San Francisco's Mayor, (Brown has aspirations for higher office, probably Sacramento where he can move "up" to doing his insidious damage to the people on a statewide level). Newsome was Brown's appointee for Supervisor in 1997, (when a seat was vacated by State Assemblyman Kevin Shelly). He comes from silver spoon kind of old money wealth and has the support of others of the same ilk, (most notably billionaire Gordon Getty who's son Billy, Newsome is known to pal around with). Now, with the support of the Brown democratic machine Newsome is following in Willie Brown's footsteps, launching an offensive against the homeless that has enough of the earmarks of nastiness to put it on par with the mayor's long and vile record of similar crimes against the poor and working class.

Newsome recently took a trip to New York City to study Mayor Guiliani's homeless plan, one facet of which is it's use of homeless people as dirt cheap labor that gets farmed out to corporations such as Toyota and Citibank. If Newsome and like minded individuals, (namely Mayor Brown and George Smith, director of the Mayor's Dept. of Homelessness), have their way, San Francisco's homeless will continue to live in shelters while doing slave labor to benefit downtown interests, while his measures that criminalize normal human behavior, (sleeping and the performance of bodily functions), will give the police force carte blanche to "sweep' the streets often enough to give the impression that something is being done about the homeless problem, (exactly the "solution" that Guiliani's plan has accomplished in NYC).

Finishing writing this, I think back to this morning, the heat and my friend, Joey. Being homeless is no picnic, even on the warm days. A thought rolls through my mind, "Why, oh, why, is it that snakes like Newsome spend so much money on campaigns to take away what little some of us have when these same dollars could be put into affordable housing, living wage job programs and the like?"

For information on how you can get involved to help us fight Newsome’s campaign, contact: Jason Negron at POWER. (415) 864-8372

by Leroy Moore

Michael Manning

Greener Pastures Lie Within

New York, New York, the Big Apple. The City that doesn’t sleep is the home of a story full of worms sluring around day by day trying to escape the feet of man-made oppression. In the middle of city lights, Broadway and the history of Black Harlem is the dark injustice of victims of police brutality, laws that lock up homeless people and a dim beaming light trying to live and find the healthy juices of this big apple; the Manning family. Born in the Bronx on December 2nd 1969. How funny, graduating from an institution named after a man that raped this country, Christopher Columbus High School. Although life in the Bronx is the temptation of inner city ingredients i.e. drugs, alcohol and gangs Michael stayed clean and never had trouble with the law in fact from the age of 15 to 18 he served as a member of his neighborhood civilian patrol with his closest friends. They were responsible for the arrest and capture of a burglar. He also played little league baseball and basketball for the police athletic league, which he has trophies.

Like many older Black families, Michael was surrounded by love from his grandmother, ants, uncles, nices, nephews, cousins and two brothers and two sisters. However growing up in the Bronx of New York is not an easy task for anybody and the Manning family had their share of battles with poverty that led to a search for greener pastures of employment, lower rates of street violence and safety.

In 1992 Michael, his girlfriend of 12 years and her three children packed up and moved to Pennsylvania in hopes of a better life. He landed a job as a line cook at a resort for a while. Michael’s mother told me that Michael’s craft is cooking. "Oh, yes he can cook!" His mother wrote in a letter. But he took a job in an Envelope Corporation. This is where Michael’s life changed forever. One day at work Michael was just stocking the selves when a forklift ran him over leaving him with severe spinal damage, nerve damage, carnal damage and daily chronic pain. In the words of Michael, "My disability has put a sizeable struggle on my life, mostly I feel helpless and ashamed at times when others have to do for me what I once was able to do myself." Recovery was slow but Michael went through physical therapy and graduated with the aid of a cane but he still has chronic pain.

It seemed every time Michael’s life came together, the dark sky would open up and release a bolt of lightning.

Defending My Brother, Michael Manning

Defending himself

In a life or death situation

Blink of an eye

Cane was kicked to the side

His life was on the line

Michael’s heart was racing

Knife slicing the air

Baseball bat cocked

Ready to swing behind him

Two against one

Hands cut up, blocking

His smooth brown face

Revealing tender flesh

One took off the other fell

And Michael stood tall

Defending himself

In the Halls of Justice

The Judge & Juror vs. Michael Manning

Two against one deja vu

Michael, poor, Black and disabled

Judge, upper class, White and disabled

Juror not of his peers

Don’t need hard evidence

When the Juror and prosecution

Is playing pocket pool with the Judge

Read the verdict

No Justice

14 to 30 years on self defense

Juror ruled first degree murder

The only witness, a lying drug dealer

Called lazy & not contributing to society

Limping back and forth with no cane

Accused of faking his disability

Institutionalize isms kidnapped

Hurricane Carter, Earl Washington Jr.

Mumia Abu-Jamal and Michael Manning

But the shackles are slowly unlocking

And the TRUTH is blossoming

Michael Manning’s story is common

Among Black disabled and non disabled men

In the US Justice System

Don’t just sit there

Innocent brothers & sisters

Are locked up in prison

Join the Manning’s family campaign

For justice and freedom

His family is struggling for media attention

Write letters to political, Black and disabled leaders

Organize the Black Panthers, the Black Caucus,

The Black Radical Congress & Black Churches

To lead Michael Manning and our brothers and sisters back home

We have to be the Harriet Tubmans of today

Make our own Underground Railroad

Burn down prison plantations

And start working on the people of color

Reconstruction of US Justice System

We must love and defend each other and ourselves

By all means necessary

I am here today to defend my Black disabled brother, Michael Manning.





To get involved-Go on the internet at www.michaelmanning.homestead.com

by Alexandra Cuff/PNN Media Intern

The somber, porcelain sky seemed appropriate and welcoming on the year anniversary of the death of Idriss Stelley. Last Thursday at 5:30pm, I joined scores of people who gathered at 4th and Mission for the healing and celebratory funeral procession which mourned the loss of the recent victims of police violence and celebrated the small victories being won by raising consciousness around this issue. The brightly lit Metreon with itís artificiality and consume! motif proved a contrast to the theme of truth, pain, and revolution of the people gathering outside. In the half hour before 6pm, people from a wide breadth of backgrounds came together to protest the wrongful murder of Idriss Stelly and several other victims of police brutality.

On June 13th 2001, Idriss Stelley, who had a history of mental illness, was shot 26 times inside a Metreon theater. His girlfriend, Summer, had called in a 5150, the police code for someone in psychiatric distress, and the ìhelpî she received was reactionary and unprofessional. The ìhelpî was the murder of her fiance. Since that day, we have seen other examples of unwarranted police violence. Gregory Hooper, Richard Tims, and Richard Rosenberg are other subjects of the epidemic of racial profiling and brutality against the poor and people sufferring from mental illness.

Although it was real that the friends and families of these men were in mourning, the struggle and solidarity of those who showed up on this raw evening seemed the beginning of a victory to me. Among the procession of strollers, bikes, wheelchairs, and walkers were members of the community present to support the resistance of the criminalization of poverty, race, and mental illness. Some of the marchers were silent and crying, others were unfaltering as they chanted demands of justice. During the march to city hall, I met Latino and African Descendant brothers and sisters as well as people from France and Russia. Children walked along drummers who walked among the beautiful paper-mache puppets that were brought along by Art and Revolution.

In the midst of Idriss's family and friends were several folk from the Senior Action Network, PoorNewsNetwork/POOR Magazine, Coalition on Homelessness, SF Indymedia, the October 22 Coalition, Police Watch, and the Police Watch/ Ella Baker Center, the organizer of the event. Sixty to eighty of us marched down Mission, up 5th and then down Market inspired along the way by the voice of Jakada Imani of the Ella Baker Center, by the drummers, and I believe by the common knowledge that justice comes not from the court but from the noise in the streets. From the Metreon to the steps of city hall, the SFPD stood by close and powerless. When I asked one of the officers why they were there, he responded: To protect you, the marchers. I found this ironic and was embarrassed for him considering that the protest was about the role of the cops as controllers, not protectors.

Once on the steps of city hall, a number of impassioned folk addressed us, the listeners. The most touching to me was listening to Mesha, Idriss' mother, who shared her experience of seeing Idriss after the shooting with ìhis incredible smile frozen in death.î I was amazed at her strength. There was no indignation in her voice when she told us of a dream where Idriss came to her and said, "Ma, you see, we're on a rampage for healing, you and me." She thanked the community for coming together for healing and to advocate for police accountability.

As we stood there together in the cold, some of us hopping from one foot to the other keeping warm and children half listening, half dancing to the occasional song or drum beat, I felt what I didnít expect to feel, with so much injustice in this city. I felt hope. Marie, columnist for the San Francisco Bayview, a friend of Mesha and the godmother of Idriss, told the indifferent-seeming police who were standing at their posts surrounding the ceremony: I will not go quietly into the dark today. She forgave the police. She told us that she was absolving us of the responsibility and forgiving them for us! As Marie was doing this, some of us turned around to see the reaction of the cops - I saw them sink into themselves, into their tough, black armor. They did not acknowledge us.

Mary people carried signs which read: Their deaths were not in vain. Through community support, media organizing and solidarity over the past year, and by acting on what Marie said so gracefully about not going into the dark quietly, the police are going to start receiving mandatory Psychiatric Crisis Intervention (PCI)  training. Over the next 4 years, all 1st responders (of 911 calls) will receive PCI. Each year, 25% of officers will be trained 40-hours over a week which is supposed to enable them to handle any crisis where someone is in mental distress. We are hoping this will end the ìshoot first, ask questions later policy that exists now and continues to cause the senceless crimes against beautiful young men of color in crisis like Idriss Stelly and Joseph Tims