one-way ticket to Palookaville

pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/469/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Dee Gray/p pb p3rd Letter To Mid-Market PAC From Dee Gray at POOR Magazine/p pRe: Update on Joseph Bolden's possible return to the Mid Market PAC/p/b/p pDear Ms. Diamond and Mid Market PAC Members, September 11, 2001 /p pDee Gray, Joseph Bolden and the staff at Poor Magazine are currently discussing Joseph Bolden's possible return to the Mid Market PAC. There are certain conditions, however that must be arranged. Because Joseph Bolden is poor and living in an SRO in the Mid Market area, his life is sometimes too overwhelming. Therefore, he cannot always attend the Mid Market PAC meetings, and should not be terminated as a result./p pA possibility would be for a participant in our bMedia Studies Program/b to attend occasionally in his stead. We are in the process of developing this and then proposing it to the Mid- Market PAC group./p pI wonder if they have the kind of empathy needed to understand this situation regarding Joe Bolden. If not, I wonder why they are attempting to change the conditions of the lives of those living in the Mid Market area./p pThank-you,br / br /Dee Graybr / br /Co-editor, `POOR Magazine andbr / The New Journalism/Media Studies Program/p pb2nd Letter to the Mid- Market PAC for the Mid-Market Redevelopment Project/b/p pRe: A response letter from Dee Gray/p pDear Carolyn Diamond, br /August 28, 2001/p pIt is interesting to note that although Joseph Bolden missed the time stated in your letter you did not feel it necessary to terminate his position in Mid-Market PAC until the day he brought some of his colleagues from Poor Magazine to your meeting./p pOne of his colleagues questioned a developer at the meeting to attempt to find out if that developer had ever bothered to ask the people that now sleep and hang out on 6th Street, close to the space he wants to develop into a parking lot and office space for Nordstrom's, what kinds of development they would like to see. The developer answered that his company had not done surveys but others had. At this time police sweeps are done routinely in that area to get rid of the so called "bad people" who hang out there./p pAffordable housing was mentioned at the meeting, but this term is utterly meaningless. For example, HUD defines affordable housing as housing costing up to $200,000. Low-income housing is the kind of development most needed in that area./p pHowever, in many cases people that hang out, rant and rave, use shopping carts for their possessions, loiter, yell at people or don't yell at people, sit quietly, sleep, and eat in this area don't necessarily want to live in any housing. So where will they go when the businessmen, parking lots, and affordable housing take over? Why can't San Francisco, like other cities, have a place for them? Why does SF have to clean up and cutesify every area in town?/p pThese were the issues voiced and implied at the last meeting Joseph Bolden attended. What an odd coincidence it was that within a day or two you sent Joseph Bolden his termination letter, which was of course read aloud to all of his colleagues at Poor Magazine./p pWe, the colleagues of Joseph Bolden, do not accept this termination.We believe it is your way of halting our influence, through Joseph, on your committee decisions about what development is allowed in the area under discussion. Incidentally, Joseph is the only person on your committee who is currently experiencing living in a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel./p pRather than being terminated, Joseph Bolden should become chairman of your committee. Joseph was one of the those folks on Market Street that you want to be rid of. Now, through many struggles, he is housed on Market Street in a room and works full time at Poor Magazine. He is a POVERTY HERO and yet you demean him as though he was one of those people in "The Mess on Market Street" to whom you are trying to give a one-way ticket to Palookaville./p pRespectfully, /p p br /Dee Graybr / br /Co-Editor of POOR Magazine/p p br /Joseph Boldenbr / br /and Staff at Poor Magazine/p pb1st Letter- A letter of termination from the Mid-Market PAC for Joseph Bolden, PNN "inside the mess" beat reporter/b /p pFrom: Mid-Market PACbr / br /870 Market Streetbr / br /San Francisco, CA 94102/p pAugust 21, 2001/p pDear Joe:/p pThe by-laws of the Project Area Committee for the Mid-Market Redevelopment Project, as amended on May 10, 2001, state that any member of the PAC absent from (4) meetings within one calendar year shall result in the termination from the Mid Market PAC./p pOur records show that you have not attended 6 PAC meetings this calendar year. Therefore, you are considered terminated from the Project Area Committee for the Mid-Market Redevelopment Project./p pWe thank you for your participation and hope that you will continue to have an interest in the PAC's work./p pIf you have questions please do not hesitate to contact me./p pSincerely,/p pCarolyn Diamondbr / br /Mid Market PAC Staff/p p/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p