Story Archives 2002

by Mari, PNN Youth in the Media Intern

I walked into The San Francisco City Hall like I have done
for the last two years, but as I gave my bag to the security
guard so they could check and make sure there wasn't
something like anthrax in it, today felt different.
The dome that topped City Hall seemed repulsive, it actually
made me sick. I was thinking about the young
womyn and men sitting inside the Youth Guidance
Center (YGC), San Francisco's Juvenile Hall. So while I looked at the
golden, marble floors inside City Hall, I was thinking
about the dirty, yellowish earwax looking floor of
the cafeteria at YGC, all the gold that
surrounds city hall, and all the dirty grimy concrete
that surrounds YGC.

Today was the day that the Youth Justice Hearing
between the San Francisco Youth Commission's Youth Justice Committee and
the San Francisco's Board of Supervisors Rules
Committee was going to be held on the San Francisco's juvenile justice intake process for youth and alternatives to detention for them.

Right now there is not a central intake process for youth; there is two ways they can enter the system, one is through YGC or Community Assessment Referral Center (CARC). I have talked to my friends who have gone through YGC, and the ones who gone through CARC. All I hear from my friends who have gone through YGC, is that you don't even get treated like a human being, and what I hear from my friends who have gone through CARC is that the staff there listens to you, and that the staff actually wants to help you out.

I myself have never been through YGC. But, when I was 17, I lived in Texas, and over there when you turn 17 if you get in trouble with the law, you go straight to the adult criminal justice system. I was arrested for shoplifting clothes. I was lucky, I shoplifted clothes worth under $50.00, because if I stole more I would have committed a class B misdemeanor, because I would have gone to county jail instead of city jail. I remember signing a paper that if I admitted to stealing , I would most likely be able to go. So of course, I signed it. Well, the store still called the police on me. I was handcuffed, and put in a cop car. Then I was processed and put in a jail cell. I remember how scared I was, how humiliated I felt, and how I wanted to get the hell out of there. It would have nice if someone in that system sat me down and asked me "Why did I shoplift?" Then they would have found out I was dirt poor, and I was living in abusive household, and I was not given money to buy new clothes, for the clothes that my body rapidly growing out of, which usually happens at 17. This event lead me to my major, which is Criminal Justice, and also lead me to work on this issue, so that not another youth ever has to go what I went through.

I am a San Francisco Youth Commissioner, and I have been working on getting
this hearing to happen since March. This hearing is
the first of many hearings talking about the Juvenile
Justice system intake process, and alternatives to
detention for youth. This hearing would also be the
only hearing that the San Francisco Youth Commission's Youth Justice Committee and the San Francisco's Board of Supervisors
Rules Committee would co-sponsor together. This
hearing would be the only hearing where youth would be
sitting on the panel, and facilitate the hearing. Today
is the day where youth get to question the
stakeholders who make decisions of youth's lives, for
example, Chief Probation officer Jesse Willams. Today
would be a historic day in the San Francisco Youth
Justice Movement.

So, walked into the Legislative Chambers inside City
Hall, and I was so nervous. So many questions were
running through my head. What if not enough youth
speak at public comment? What if one of the speakers
doesn't show up? What if there is a piece of food in
my teeth? I then said a silent prayer. This hearing
was in the Creator's hands now. Then, Supervisor Matt
Gonzales called the meeting to order. The Rules
Committee had a few items to deal with before the
Youth Justice Hearing was officially called to order.

Then the hearing was called to order by Youth
Commissioner Millicent Olawale. The first speaker was
up and it was Chief Probation officer Jesse Willams.
He was asked a series of questions. One thing he said
stuck out to me is that today there is 96 youth who
are in YGC. I was thinking 96 youth who have to
sleep, eat, and live in YGC today. The next speaker
was Gary Beiringer, who is the director of CARC.
He and his staff talked about the intake process for a youth who goes
through CARC, and what crimes youth commit who get
sent to CARC. Then there was James Bell, who is from
the Youth Law Center, and he talked about the
evaluation report that was done on the San Francisco
Juvenile Justice System.

Next, was public comment. Youth from different organizations, such as Youth Making A Change (YMAC) and Experiment in Diversity, got up and spoke on
how they feel about the intake process and about
alternatives to detention. One youth pointed out there is more money spent on prisons than education. Then Kathy Weinstien, from
Mayor's Criminal Justice Council (MCJC), talked about
their evaluation report about CARC. Then, there was
public comment again. Parents, youth, and adults spoke
on the intake process and about alternatives to
detention.

Public comment was over. Then, my mind wandered off for a few seconds, I gazed around at the brown stained walls, the nice comfy leather feeling seat I was sitting on. Then the Chair asked for closing comments from the Youth Commissioners, and Supervisors. I said that one of the things the Youth Commission will be doing is taking information from this hearing and make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors, and department heads that deal with the Youth Justice system. Then I as I heard the gavel hit, I thought of the statement I had said earlier in the hearing, "We need to make sure our Youth Justice system is not a system of Juvenile Injustice!"

To get involved in San Francisco's youth justice movement contact the San Francisco Youth Commission's Youth Justice Committee at 415-554-6446 or email youth_com@ci.sf.ca.us, also for just more general info can go to www.sfgov.org/youth_commission

by Phil Goldvarg

streets are made for walking,

not living,

not beds for children and elders

wrapped in cold night,

hunger forced sleep,

empty lots fill with corporate greed,

warm kitchens disappear

in high rent floods,

bedrooms are replaced by bushes,

cardboard caves,

abandon garages,

beware of the land hunters,

home hunters,

bulldozers at the ready,

cheered on by city councils,

state committees

in research mode for the homeless,

there is this false sense of beauty,

where stone and marble

are clothed before skin and bone,

dark night streets

have no door,

shadows have easy entry,

mothers shiver over young children,

body heat dwindling

into an ice wind,

the streets are made for walking,

not living.

(After the Affordable Housing Rally~Sacramento, CA

Hgold42734@aol.com

by Willie Warren

To all of those who are reading this message,

Instead of doing what one normally would do:

Bend me your ear and I'll tell a short story,

About housing that relates to all of you.

The Homelessness World has many ups and downs,

Leaving people sometimes lost and ignorant:

Like you, my number came up to live here,

And I'm now being a Senator tenant.

I too, went through the interview process,

While visiting twice a week, a good friend.

I'd have lots of fun with most of his guests,

And many things to each other we'd give or lend.

Finally after two years my number got me in,

I felt like a ball team winning the pennant.

I could leave that over-priced Sixth Street dive,

And would live being a Senator tenant.

The day I moved in was physically exhausting,

I hand carried everything that I had;

Although something came up missing on day one,

I knew that life here wouldn't be bad.

Weathering the loss one has to push on,

Little sacrifices produce rewarding times;

Starting over is a pain, you know where;

It sabotages our patience in our primes.

But this was a move higher than square one,

Meeting neighbors that later became friends;

Having a kitchen to cook hot meals at home,

Is a situation we all hope never ends.

As a former homeless person and advocate of rights,

I've graduated from being a street dependent.

All the former war heroes sleeping under the stars,

Would very much enjoy being a Senator tenant.

Ten months have passed, life has gotten good,

With my social and personal life on the rise;

Support Services and I are family and friends,

To all the misled complainers surprise.

Yes, Low Income Housing has it's repair problems,

But no complaint is overkill or redundant.

I work for C.H.P., and I share your concerns,

And I'm enjoying being a Senator tenant.

Willie Warren

Room #715

by Willie Warren

Homeless, exiled, out in the street,

Nowhere to go for cover;

No income to function for survival,

And no one to have for a lover.

Wondering where is help for down trodden,

While survival needs are real strong;

Not knowing where your next meal exists,

"Til a stranger lets you tag along.

He teaches you about San Francisco,

And how the survival system works;

Introduces the G.A. and Disability game,

With all of it's cliques and jerks.

He tells you of a place to hangout,

To keep yourself clean and well;

He walks you through the door of,

McMillan's, 39 Fell

So onward you follow stiff regulations,

Keeping all your appointments on deck;

You sail the winds of need and effort,

'Cause your cash flow wants that check.

Your body is craving a place to rest,

Your sanity is looking for residence;

Your reputation tries obtaining payroll,

With the wallet seeking dead presidents.

Grabbing newspapers and Free Shelter Charts,

You're searching for a way off the street;

Asphalt Jungles can be intimidating,

When fatigued energy rules your feet.

Job Markets, sometimes, really do suck,

With salary offers not so swell;

It leaves you returning nightly to,

McMillan's, 39 Fell.

Each and every time you arrive,

Your tired, and patience is thin;

You can get either a 6 hour chair,

Or a shower when you sign in.

Once inside you see a different life,

Almost like a hidden civilization;

Seing the war wounds and all the scars,

Of former soldiers of our nation.

Binges, addictions, and other depressions,

With sickness have taken it's toll;

Caused by alienation and rejection,

Makes victims of all elements and cold.

All are wanting one lucky break,

To sail their ship away from hell;

'Till they're lucky they'll remain at,

McMillan's, 39 Fell.

Willie Warren

C.O.H. Volunteer

by Joe B.

Ok, on ABC's"Good Morining America" this morning I see Mr.Russel Simmons and other people strolling around on an odd two wheeled vehicled called "IT" or what inventor Dean Kamen calls an [the Segway Human Transporter.]

G.M.A. Hosts Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer took a spin on the two wheeled contraption. A new kind of people mover. [Shades of "The Roads Must Roll."

To me it looks odd with no seat or clear plexiglass to protect people from the elements of wind, rain, or floating dirt.

As for me after looking how it moves I liked and I do belive if it could hover too - what a 21st century fun vehicle it could be!

However as with most new inventions it has to be thoroughly tested by our top experts: children from 8 to 12 years old and their older highschool and colledge siblings.

I'd buy the Segway Human Transorter or in Mr. (Kamen's words) the world's first self- balancing human transporter.

I'm still miffed at not having a personal jetpack or antigravity belt.

The old fog brains in their political correctness decided to delay the process because they themselves weren't ready - That's my opinion.

"IT" has no brakes which should be fixed soon before a happless adult runs into a parked car or bus.

Hey, you budding engineer's, inventors, time to give Mr. Kamen some competition adding brakes and hover/float modes to your own inventions.

I wish Mr. Dean Kamen and other inventors present and future the best in their endeavors to improved our standard of living and healthier, longer lives.

One thing for shore if it can move up San Francisco's steep hills it has already proved its worth.

I wish I knew what other folks were working on just so I will not suffer too much future shock.

"Ginger"? a 65-pound device. [Nice short and sweet named].

Mr. Kamen said the Segway can take its rider up to 15 miles on a six-hour charge from a regular wall socket.

Environmentally Friendly alternative to cars, and expects that in the future the devices will replace the car in urban center. [Kamen's words].

"The price, inexpensive or cheap is $3000."
Not bad, he says hoping the price drops lower.

I must thank ABC's Good Morning America and Mr. Dean Kamen working hard for the "IT" machine.

For me until it flies 'n floats that 15 year old with his blood type changed from O to B by donated umbilical cord blood!

That is a huge change to me.

And although young Mr. Keone Penn will need more surgeries he will not die from Sickle Cell Anemia
disease which there is no trace in his bloodstream!

"IT", the oddball scooter may not change the world.

Its ideas of Mr.Kamen and others present or following in our near future that may repave the way.

Though that funny looking little scooter is indeed pointing the way, laugh while you can folks.

An inexpensive, non polluting, electric, solar, hydrogen, or background energy collecting vehicles could replace the old combustible engine model is on the horizon.

Just because its not here now does not mean it will never appear – it may take longer for the public to be weaned off the old reliable gas-mobile but someday it too will become another of our beloved though obsolete motorized dinosaurs.

That's it for Curious Joe. Bye.

PS Ok, so I added a few extra lines... don't read 'em.

Please send donations to
Poor Magazine or in C/0

Ask Joe at 255 9th St. Street,

San Francisco, CA. 94103 USA

For Joe only my snail mail:

PO Box 1230 #645 Market St.

San Francisco, CA 94102
Email: askjoe@poormagazine.org

by David Gilton Soma

1997 marked the end of an era, and the end to the life of one Rue Morrow—Egyptian immigrant, songwriter, sax player, and crack smoker.

Who shot Morrow down on a Tenderloin street corner on a cool November evening in 1997?.. and why? Was it…mistaken identity, drugs or turf rivalry? (Morrow was a street performer at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Warf)
We may never know the answer.

THE BRIDGE

Rue Morrow died that night…. but his music and his artistry refuse to be silenced, and until his song is published, the melody will continue to haunt the Third Street Bridge.

Rue Morrow was one of the few people I knew who didn’t mind being homeless. To Rue every day was an adventure. He lived at a homeless shelter at 5th and Bryant Streets in San Francisco (M.S.C. South). In the morning, at 5am, a staff member would walk between the rows of mats lined on the floor, yelling for people to wake-up. "Turn your blanket in for a breakfast ticket. Up and Adam gentleman …now!!!" Morrow would skip breakfast; instead he and his trumpet playing-partner George Stockton would head to the Third Street Bridge four blocks away to practice.

In the mid-1990's there were no apartments in the area, no live-work lofts, no dog walking yuppies to disturb the scenic backdrop of city lights, China basin, the bridge, and two homeless people making beautiful music. In fact, the only witnesses to this spectacle were the people who worked at the marine salvage company that was nestled in the spot now occupied by Pac Bell Park, and the bridge operator, himself a sax player. The marine company workers would show up at 4:45am for work as the boys were warming up on the bridge.

"Once they began to play the music was great…it was a kind of a light jazz that seemed like it floated across the water. Man I used to look forward to it. ", remembered Charlie Basset, one of the marine boat crew members.

The boys would rehearse on the bridge four or five days a week before going to Glide Memorial Church for a free breakfast.

THE WHARF

At about 9am each morning Fisherman’s Wharf can be seen teaming with tourists. They come from all over the country, and world, and they are there to see the sea lions, the Bay, Alcatraz, and yes, the street performers. The robot man who moves when you drop a coin in his cup, the spiky haired punks who, for a few bucks will take a picture with you, and of course, the music.

To hear them tell it, Morrow and Stockton, were the best, and made the most money. Each day the two could walk away with 200 dollars in their pockets, sometimes more. George Stockton was an excellent trumpet player, while Rue was only so-so on the sax, but Rue wrote the songs and was a master at working the wharf crowds.

Rue Morrow could have been a superstar. He loved people and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for you. The problem was he also loved crack and even though the boys got professional offers they could not seem to make it to their appointments.

THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House was a nickname for a small, X-rated movie house in the Tenderloin. White was the color of the product that one was to bring, share, and consume once you arrived for the party. The White House was known by so-called deviants worldwide, and they would come from all over the globe for the sex, drugs and partying that took place right out in the open.

After they would finish their performance both George and Rue would buy some crack and head to the theater. They would smoke, party and share stories. When the dope would run out, Rue Morris would make the run to the dope man on Leavenworth Street for more. It was on one of these runs that Morrow met his fate.

Rue Morrow went out to get some drugs for himself and some of his friends. And while on that mission he was shot, gunned to death in the street. Since that time the theater has been closed, and at least for a short time the community felt the impact of the death of Rue Morrow. Four days after Rue’s death, his partner George killed himself in an auto accident in the Tenderloin.

THE MORAL

Six day before he was killed, Rue Morrow handed me a notebook full of stories. It was filled with experiences that he and many of his friends had gone through. Morrow was a great observer of people. He would point to a group of homeless folk and say, "They look like no good, unwashed, beer drinking, drug taking, mentally unstable bums don’t they? Well they are…but each one of them is a human being and each one has their own story to tell." I’m gonna get that story out if it’s the last thing I ever do.

Rue’s war stories are quite a collection and since he didn’t have the chance to tell the story, I have taken up the banner. I am in the process of writing a screen play based on Rue’s notebook, his music and his life on the street. I am calling it "Quicksand".

THIRD STREET BRIDGE (HAUNTED?)

For some time now people have used the Third Street Bridge and area to practice their horn playing. Most days you will see people standing at the bridge playing a riff…enjoying the resonant sounds of China Basin. What surprised me was hearing one of Rue Morrow’s tunes in the wind. As I walked by the new ballpark and on to the bridge, no one was to be found. I am not the only one who has heard Morrow’s sax. Charlie Basset, one of the marine workers who used to listen to Morrow play in those early morning hours, said the music continued after Morrow’s death. In fact they continued to hear the music up until the marine workers were relocated to make way for the new Pac Bell Park.

The times, well they have changed, and the party it has ended, but now the story has to be told.

by Isabel Estrada/PoorNewsNetwork Youth in the Media intern

I was dodging sheets of rain on Wednesday November 28th as I hurried towards 340 Townsend, the offices of KMEL radio, to attend a rally and protest of the firing of Davy D. Luckily my jacket was warm enough but it wasn’t waterproof so I was glad when another woman going to the rally came up from behind and covered me with her umbrella. I wondered if maybe the rally had been canceled until I came upon a group of people huddled under an awning. Marvin X was speaking, "David "Davey D" Cook was a "victim of corporate terrorism." As an African-American DJ who used his radio show, called Street Knowledge, on KMEL 106.1 as an open forum for the voices of bay area youth, Davy D was getting in the way of the corporate media’s agenda of "dumbing down America."

Davey D was fired on October 1st 2001 after serving KMEL as community affairs coordinator for 11 years. According to the station his firing was due to budget cuts but nobody really believes that. I’m more inclined to believe that it was because he talked about important and controversial issues openly. Only weeks before he was fired he had conducted an interview with Congresswoman Barbara Lee of Oakland, the one dissenting vote on George W. Bush’s War Powers Act.

A sign being held behind me reads "KMEL The People’s Station?????????????" According to Ricky Vincent KMEL is the "enemy of the people," as a station that actually took away what little space Bay Area youth of color had on air. I spot Davey D. in the crowd, facing me with his hands in his pockets looking mad and somewhat fidgety. Oddly enough, especially for him, he was silent the whole night except for the brief acknowledgements he gave when someone complimented him. When Pecoya, Soul Sista Soul, came to the microphone she had us all chant "KMEL is not the people’s station." Pecoya sees Davey D’s firing as "symptomatic of what’s going on in the nation." From making it easier to acquire a warrant for a wire tap to detaining Green Party member Nancy Oden at Bangor Airport in Maine for no apparent reason, our civil liberties are being swallowed up as I write this article.

According to Pecoya, in Davey D’s case, he was one of the few people who provided Bay Area youth of color "access to skills a lot of inner city gangsters wouldn’t get any other way." Pecoya believes that being able to attain and discuss information like that provided on Davey D’s show Street Knowledge, is "paramount to each and every one of our survival." The team working to put Davey D back on air has three demands:

1. That Davey D. be reinstated as KMEL community affairs coordinator and that his show "Street Knowledge" be put back on the air immediately.

2. Increased community access and that issues that closely relate to the listening population (i.e. police brutality, gentrification) be discussed openly on air.

3. That KMEL demonstrate a true commitment to Bay Area Hip Hop and that KMEL support Bay Area Hip Hop artists by playing their music on air.

When JR Valrey stepped up to the microphone he didn’t waste any words. "They ain’t gonna do nothing if we don’t force them," he says of KMEL. His voice rang out over the crowd as he spoke of how KMEL is constantly playing "records that don’t talk about our real situations, our real lives. It’s a hard life. Let’s talk about being hungry."

Next to speak was a tall man dressed all in black with a gold ring on his pinky finger. He had emerged during the rally from a limousine surrounded by other men dressed in suits. He had neatly trimmed facial hair and a red feather in his hat. I heard someone call him a minister but when he took the microphone he didn’t say his name or where he was from. His words glided smoothly off his tongue, speaking of how Davey D had given people "a forum [to discuss issues] that are not always in harmony with what mainstream media wants." He was interested in the bigger picture. "There’s a world coming down around us…they don’t want the people enlightened…they don’t want any voices that threaten the status quo." He said "change your listening habits" and asked people not to shop at stores that support KMEL.

There were several powerful speakers including, Eve Patterson, Executive Director of Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Keith Carson and Wilson Riles who is running for mayor in Oakland and Van Jones from Bay Area Police Watch.

To close the rally, Soul Sista again stepped to the microphone to say, "we want to hear brothers speaking." She looked around at the 40 or so people surrounding her without dismay saying that next time each person would bring "10, 20, 30" people with them and the movement would only grow. She emphasized, "this is the beginning and not the end." She then led us in chanting, "Ain’t no power like the power of the people, ‘cause the power of the people don’t stop," as we made our way over to the KMEL headquarters. There we met four police officers standing in front of the door, feat apart, hands on hips and with sour faces. We ended the chanting with louds shouts and claps. I could just see the KMEL Board of Directors squirm.

As the rally began to disperse I saw the man with a red feather in his hat walking away and being followed by the men in suits. It was still raining but I figured it was my duty as a writer to go and ask his name. I splashed through the flooded street, feeling the water soak into my socks, and finally made it up to the last man in a black suit and asked what church they were from. He refused to tell me and told me that the man with a red feather was the spokesperson. I asked again with disbelief if he could tell me the name of the church, again he refused. So then I ran up to the man with the red feather and cut into his conversation with some other men. I felt shorter than usual among these tall men but I butted into the conversation and asked the spokesperson what church he was from. He looked down and said as though surprised to see someone there, "Mosque, Nation of Islam." When I asked his name it was clear he was anxious to get back to his conversation but he paused to say "Christopher."

Besides my discomfort at approaching a man who was surrounded by what I now realize were bodyguards I felt especially stupid at having asked what Church he was from. I resolved from now on in my journalistic career to always ask someone’s denomination instead of depending on what I hear from someone else. The whole incident reminded me of the scene in the Spike Lee movie "Malcolm X" in which the white woman runs up frantically to Malcolm X and he looks at her with ridicule.

I walked away feeling angry. For some reason I hadn’t been treated with the respect that I believe I as a young woman of color in solidarity with the cause, deserved. However, the feeling of the night in general soon overshadowed anything else. As one young man named Drew put it, "If you don’t stand for nothing’, you’ll fall for anything."

by Joe B.

If our applied science is so good, why is it I have to rewrite my whole column I finished yesterday?

Its frustrating to come up with an idea, theory, or use someone Else’s. [naming source of course]

If I remember here how it went. Either the late Science fact/fiction writer Issac Azimov or two brother’s by the name of Mc Kenna if its David or Terrence or even if that’s the correct names.

Any-who There is a working theory of a 60 year shift in the first discovery and everyday use of the newly discovered technology in common use.
The theory goes: it takes 60 years to complete a cycle where a new technology or science becomes advanced enough to be tailor made for the population of average people to use when cost is low enough. I sound halfbaked though the theory works.

Take three inventions the Automobile, Electric Light,
and the Telephone all three had their beginnings in the 19th century except for the car which may have arrived by the 1890’s. [correct me if I’m in error] It takes time for new ideas of change plus technology, science and applied science [where T&S are researched until applications can be used for governments, business-commercial-consumers uses.
[I was looking for person(s) coming to that and other conclusions be for writing this, OH, Well.

War makes looks of money for companies selling arms America included but the downside is lost of best and brightest
citizens and tech improving lives is on the wane.
Peace is a time when applied science can soar without budget concerns because the economy is not straining to keep death creating arms flowing to soldier in warzones.
Just because a story about a young teen who no longer suffer from a malaria preventing blood sickling in Africa which in America is no advantage but a painfull deadly or trait carrying one. Mr. Keone Penn’s A type blood, changed by an unknown stranger’s type B umbilical cord blood has left no trace of Sickle Cell disease! Even though he’ll have to go through more operations, has arthritis, he won’t die of sickle cell.
Mr. K. Penn may even beat arthritis before he’s in his early 40’s. Meanwhile the war in Afghanistan is slowly winding down as breakthrough here and abroad continues.
It is hard to disengage from 9/11/01 especially on Dec. 7, 2001 because of 1941 and comparing them but peace is coming, it will be here and applied science or the bitter now cursed word progress will be an ongoing.
A war protects, kills, stimulates or speeds technological progress but ultimately war is massive death on vast scales of the young, best and brightest who futures or cut short, derailed, delayed, and forever changed a few for the better.

And for the not as gifted it can be a career during and after surviving killing grounds where these conflicts are fought.

Warriors and Soldiers are the ultimate peacekeepers because they know first what war does human bodies and spirit.

All this means is this war will end, our recession could deepen but don’t forget we humans are an adaptive, creative, inventive species.

We must destroy war, it is backward, devolutionary and not worth our precious mortality.

If I’ve have failed to connect and disconnect war and technology and that peace will always reap more rewards than conflict… It proves teaching is not my future to observe scribble is.

May all of us come out this conflict better, smarter stronger, more sensitive to global and local concerns. Bye.

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CA 94102

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by Joe B.

I have wondered, how did a successful stand-up comic with equal success with a sitcom show 'about nothing?

Nothing unsual about that except he actually pitched it to prospective tv execs who bought the concept, it was even in one of the episodes.

I also wonder how "nothing" has saved many lives just think of 9-11-01 and people who survived because at the time they were out of work, on vacation, or decided that particular day to do nothing.

Think about the adverse affect to if medical, law, or armed forces to a man said "We're doing absolutely nothing for the next year or more."

There would be uproar and hoopla and loose talk of mass dishonorable discharges or court-martials.

The ultimate nothing is Quantum Mechanics or theory where at atomic and subatomic levels strange stuff happens like nutrino's race through earth and our bodies making the speed light look old and slow.

Molecules in both places simultaneouly and we as observers with our thoughts are changing reality on a quantum level changing it in ways we don't understand yet.

I usually stop thinking now because the nerves impulses making up graymatter in my brain begins throbbing causing brain freeze.
[simular to eating icecream too fast] I'm still thinking of housesitting but being bonded means if something breaks or the place is robbed I'm responsible.

That's why there are $10, 20, 50, to 100,000 bonds - starting at $300 to 500 dollars would be a start until former customers can vouch for my sterling trustworthy self.

Its over, this experiment in zero, abyss, nothingness, empty,
nebulous void. How's your "nothing" life doing folks"? Bye.

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by Gretchen Hildebran/PoorNewsNetwork

I was relieved to see the sky and breathe the soft
afternoon air. As I left the imposing gray building a
man from the Mayor's Office on Homelessness caught up
with me. He looked puzzled. "So you think homeless
people should be allowed to own the sidewalk they live
on?" I tried to disengage from the conversation
quickly, as I wanted to get on with my Saturday and
felt I had done what I could to advocate respect for
all residents in the path of the Redevelopment's (SFRA)
"revitalizing" reach. And I had hoped that the
mayor's bureaucrat for the homeless would understand
the concept on his own.

Unfortunately, most mayoral appointees tend to
disappoint. Most recently, the commissioners of the
SFRA , in charge of reviewing and approving development
in their Project Areas, have been stuck in a political
deadlock that has effectively stopped crucial SRO
construction in its tracks. At a SFRA hearing on
October 30, 2001 plans to rebuild the Plaza Hotel, which
would create a desperately needed 115 units of
low-income housing at 6th and Mission, were crashed by
the swing vote of recently appointed commissioner
Michael Settles. Despite the outraged reaction of 300
area residents who showed up to support the project,
the commissioner rejected the plans, claiming that
they didn't follow the proper "systems model."

Teresa Yanga, Housing Development Coordinator at
Tenant and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO),
expressed that group’s disappointment that the project
has been indefinitely stalled, and called the issue a
political football. The Plaza Hotel property was
purchased early this year by the Redevelopment Agency
and TODCO was the only housing developer to place a
bid on the rebuilding contract. After a thorough
review process, TODCO was recommended to develop the
property by the staff of the SFRA.

"We are a qualified applicant who followed the
protocol," said Ms. Yanga, "This project had community
support and would have been something positive in the
area." The plans for the hotel also included
street-level space for Bindlestiff Studio and a
Filipino-American cultural arts center.

With the
refusal to grant the contract to TODCO, the slim
majority of SFRA commissioners turned its back on
community support and their own staff’s
recommendation. The commissioners who voted against
the project also ignored the fact that the Plaza Hotel
units would finally replace the SRO units destroyed in
the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, one of the SFRA’s
original goals of the Project Area.

The vote represents an attempt to shift the policies
of the Redevelopment Agency in the city, beginning
with breaking off the Agency’s long-standing
relationship with non-profit housing developers. The
source of this shift can be traced back to Willie
Brown’s most recent "State of the City" address, when
the mayor suggested that the SFRA should not just fund
affordable housing in the city, but should also take
over the development and management of these projects.

Certain commissioners, led by president Benny Yee,
have taken this suggestion as a directive for ending
relationships with organizations like TODCO, who has
historically developed many of the Agency’s low-income
projects. TODCO currently has several other projects
in development, such as the Delta Hotel on 6th and
Mission, which are threatened by the Commissioners’
actions.

Why the mayor and certain SFRA commissioners have
taken this direction is a mystery to activists and
non-profit developers, says Quentin Mecke of the South
of Market Anti-Displacement Coalition (SOMAD). "The
pie is getting smaller," Lee said when I spoke with
him, suggesting that the economy may be a factor.
However, the activist does not think that for-profit
developers will get in on the low-income housing
market, simply because it is impossible to clear a
huge profit margin.

It is a concern, however, that the agency would
attempt to partner with for-profit developers like Joe
O’Donohue in creating more "mixed-income" housing.
This idea is ominously familiar to those of us who
attended the same PAC meetings on the Mid-Market area,
where profit-driven developers were insistent about
the "impossibility" of dedicated low-income housing
(See "Lost Between the Lines" Parts 1&2). "Many
people speak of the ‘unghettoization’ of 6th Street,"
remarked Mecke, "Instead of working on so-called
’mixed-income’ projects, they need to look towards
successful models of SROs, such as the Rose Hotel,
which counter stereotypes about SROs."

Fortunately, there are indications that the new
directive will fail. The SFRA staff is preparing an
assessment of the Agency’s ability to develop and
manage its own properties and should present the
findings as early as December 18th, but the idea is
not popular. Several commissioners have stood up for
the important role of non-profit housing developers,
although this split has meant that the Agency’s work
has ground to a halt.

"No one will trust the commission enough to bring them
a plan now," commented Mecke. "It is profoundly
embarrassing to see them at work, to see how much they
hate each other." The SFRA is the biggest funder of
low-income development in the city and for tenants and
poor folks in need of truly affordable housing, this
is an enormous political glitch that could leave us
all out in the cold.

"The community needs to take a stand," Mecke insisted.
Only public pressure and embarrassment could cause a
behind the scenes shifting of commissioners to bring
projects back online. SOMAD is holding workshops to
inform tenants of the situation and give them the
technical capacity to represent their communities in
front of the commission. "This is a fund of public
money and the commission needs to be accountable,"
said Mecke. "It is a classic example of systemic
power. They don’t want people to be able to speak
up."

Learning of this debacle reminded me of my frustration
at the Mid-Market PAC meetings this fall. The more I
advocated for a plan that would address actual needs
in the neighborhood, the more I was told how
"unrealistic" that idea was. The massive political
forces behind city appointments, funding and
development at the Redevelopment Commission has left
the Agency little room to get anything done. But
these commissioners don’t work for the mayor, they
work for us, and right now they need a giant reminder.

The SF Redevelopment Agency Commissioners meet

Tuesday afternoons at 4pm in City Hall Room 416.

Their agenda is posted on their website at

www.ci.sf.ca.us/sfra and the meetings are broadcast on

KPOO, 89.5 FM.