Story Archives 2006

by Tiny/PoorNewsNetwork

"I wouldn’t have made through College without them", When I told my good friend Martina that I was writing a story on the Betty Shabazz Family Resource Center at City College of San Francisco she revealed a little known fact to me about her educational background, " I was barely making it financially with my two kids and then trying to go school on top of that, there would have been no way without their great program" My friend is now a graduate student at Howard University and there is no stopping her. I was thrilled to hear her experience but the disturbing part of it is how close low-income single parents teeter on the edge of survival and how important places like the Family Resource Center really are….

"Do you have Calworks?"

"I already told you I can’t qualify for Calworks….but I am very low-income, I am working poor and I am trying to go school to improve my situation isn’t there some support you can give me?.."

"Well , then there’s nothing we can do for you…"

Martina’s revelation brought me back to a horrible conversation I had in December of Last year. I had been told that " nothing we can do for you" line far too many times in my homeless, poverty stricken life but somehow this time it cut even deeper. The bearer of that disaffected news was an Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) "advocate" at City College of San Francisco who seemed to have a case of job burnout. The "help" I was asking for was a referral for a child care subsidy, a center or something to help pay for the exhorbitant costs of child care if I wanted to go to school. But in the end the lack of help and flagrant disinterest I got from (EOPS) was just one of many "no’s" that I and countless other low-income mothers and fathers receive daily when we try to get any kind of support and in particular when we seek affordable child care

Currently the rate of most child care providers is running at approximately $10-12 per hour. If you are only earning $12-15.00 per hour that is over 90% of your salary, and for middle income folks its hovering at %75. The other sad fact is single mothers and fathers are not rewarded by this society to care for their own children, i.e., parenting, even in the supposed modern, conscious and aware 21st century is still not viewed as a valid form of "work" even though those of us doing that parenting know its one of the hardest jobs you will ever do. Welfare dictates that single parents get a job, any job as soon as their baby reaches 8 months old

And to further that inane logic, if you are on Calworks, the system (i.e. welfare) values child care "work" at below minimum wage, i.e, the going rate they pay for child care is $4.50 per hour under two which drops to $4.00 once children reach the grand old age of two. And of course this whole situation is so shameful when you compare it to countries like Canada, France, Germany and many parts of Europe which provides free, yes I said free, child care for all parents.

So with my head hanging very low and barely able to muster up a goodbye me and my stroller bound son stumbled out of the EOPS bungalow onto the CCSF campus. With tired feet I pushed the stroller outside into the bright, cool January sun. We climbed slowly up a hill to a hidden elevator in the back of the building and began the ascendance up to the Student Union plaza. As the creaking metal doors of the elevator opened, the corner of my eyes caught the faster than light movement of several baby legs through a floor to ceiling glass wall in front of me.

I shook my head thinking my mind was playing tricks on me, but then when I looked back someone was waving at us through the glass. "Tiny, how are ya doin?"
It was the singsong voice of my companera, Tracy Faulkner, former welfare mom, fellow activist and tireless advocate for the rights of poor single parents

Within seconds I had poured my dilemma out to her. "Well, Tiny it looks like you came to the right place do you know about the PEP project?"

"NO!?"

"The Parent Education Project (PEP) is a project of The Betty Shabazz Family Resource Center that provides parents with 9 hours of free child care per week and in exchange we only ask the parents to volunteer 2 hours of their time per week." Tracy who is the executive director of the Center went on to tell me that although there was a waiting list I had a chance of getting in for the upcoming semester.

"Oh my god, that would make school possible….Thank-you wonderful people"

That was over five months ago and since then, thanks to the innovative service provision of the Family Resource Center I have been able to pursue a formal education. The center includes a family friendly computer lab, and the amazing PEP project that allows working poor parents like myself to get free child care while we are in school.

"I wouldn’t have made it through school without this place" I spoke to Liz, another one of the staff about her experience. Liz, who like most of the multi-cultural women and men who work at the center began as a low-income mother on Calworks trying to pursue an education when she enrolled in the program.

"Dr. Betty Shabazz was herself a low-income single mother who with help from the community was able to raise her children and pursue an education and now has a Ph.d
We are trying to be ‘the community’ for the parents who come to our center" In a recent conversation I had with Tracy about the Center’s current financial needs she described the reason for the Centers’ namesake.

"Due to current budget cuts we are barely surviving and we need to raise funds just to provide our kids with snacks and pay for printer cartridges so the students can print out their papers for school in our computer lab" Tracy went on to explain that there is a huge demand for the Center to be open in the summer because otherwise parents can’t attend summer school at City College. I heartily agreed knowing that my now-frolicking 19 month old son in the next room will not only miss this great place but I won’t be able to afford to send him anywhere else which means I won’t be able to go to school.

As I left the Center that day the words of all the mothers and fathers I spoke to floated through my mind with one line being a constant, "I wouldn’t have made it through school without their support" which is why its up to the community to make sure that support is always there….

The Family Resource Center is having a fundraiser on Wednesday, april 20th at 6:00 pm at Sadies’ Flying Elephant at 491 Potrero Av ( at Mariposa) in SF ($10 donation at the door or whatever you can pay- 21 and over) For more information you can call the Betty Shabazz Family Resource Center at (415) 239-3109 or if you miss the fundraiser you can send them a donation in the form of a check or money order made payable to Student Parents United and send it to The Family Resource Center 50 Phelan Avenue Box # SU205 San Francisco Ca 94112.

by Ace Tafoya/PoorNewsNetwork

An 86-year old Bayview Hunters Point resident, was baffled when she received a letter from the City of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works Bureau of Street-Use and Mapping describing a construction project for underground wiring on her street. She was concerned because she didn’t have the money to pay for the project that the letter was describing. After putting $1500 on her credit card, she became so entrenched with worry about the fate of her home and the debt that she had just incurred on a fixed income that she, quite literally, worried herself to death.

Another 62 year-old Bayview Hunters Point resident, took out a high-interest loan at the rate of 19% to pay for the underground wiring.

Imagine their anger and disbelief when they found out that the City had funds to help residents like them pay for this work.

These stories are becoming all too common as the City and County of San Francisco embarks on a number of new projects to redevelop neighborhoods like the Bayview. On Saturday, April 16 on a typical San Francisco morning, POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) and many residents of Bayview Hunters Point gathered at the Bayview Anna E. Waden Branch Library to voice their concerns and brainstorm solutions over the underground wiring and new construction going on in their neighborhood. POWER, an eight-year old membership organization based in the Tenderloin neighborhood, brought together residents in response to concerns they’d heard about this project.

Beginning late last year, residents in the Bayview began receiving letters from the City detailing an underground wiring process that involved placing the utility poles located in the neighborhood underground. The letters stated that homeowners were expected to pay for this work to be done by a certain date, or face the threat of a lien being placed on their homes.

After receiving a tip from a resident, POWER began to research this project and found that the City had a grant program that would subsidize up to $4000 per property for qualifying low-income homeowners. The vast majority of residents had never even heard of the grant program—some had paid for the work to be done out of their retirement savings, or had gone into debt to avoid having a lien placed on their homes. Many of the homeowners in the community are elderly families living on a fixed income.

"Improving the quality of life in San Francisco - we are committed to teamwork, customer service and continuous improvement in partnership with the community," reads the Department of Public Works Bureau of Street-Use and Mapping stationary. Judging by the presence of more than fifty residents and concerned citizens of Bayview-Hunter's Point at the community meeting, this mission statement is debatable.

"I can't believe City Hall," shouted Regina Douglas, a founding member of POWER and a former resident of the Bayview. "We don't have to look (at) Iraq. We've got terrorism right here at City Hall."

Douglas’ comments echoed many at the neighborhood meeting Saturday morning. Many expressed concerns for their elderly parents and relatives who have been receiving these letters and are taking extraordinary measures to try and make ends meet—and on top of it all, they are attempting to scrape together the money to pay for a project that many residents say they neither asked for nor knew about.

"We are organizing, we're together out here, we are going to make sure everyone entitled to it, gets it," Espanola Jackson, a long-time activist said, referring to the grants available to low-income residents, but hidden from public notice by city lawmakers conveniently.

"(We need) the Mayor's Office on Housing, the Public Utilities Commission and PG&E to explain to this community why nobody knew they had money available," Julie Browne, a lead organizer with POWER called out as she sauntered back and forth across the brick-filled meeting room.

Most of this underground construction will be done by PG&E, unless residents find an independent contractor to do it themselves. The smoke from PG&E’s power plant engulfs a community already crippled by high unemployment, police surveillance, and the highest asthma rate in the country. POWER members and residents of the Bayview are forced to ask: Why do the politicians and local representatives continue to ignore and terrorize this community? Why are we being forced to pay a corporation that has crippled this community, when that same corporation should be paying us reparations?

"They (City Hall) want you to give up...They want your house, they're doing everything they can to take it," cried Leboriae Smoore, a resident of the Bayview since 1974. "So you have to fight back to keep it!"

That's what this neighborhood meeting was called for – to fight back against the City agencies and corporations that promote the racist housing policies which push working class communities of color out of the city. We demand equality. We demand attention. We demand respect.

Residents of the Bayview and members of POWER will get the attention that they deserve—in fact, they will turn out in full force at 6pm Wednesday, April 27 at the Southeast Facilities Commission meeting which is being held at Southeast Community College in the Bayview. It is here at this meeting that representatives from PG&E will try again to explain why residents in the Bayview, a community with a median income of $18,000 per year, is being forced to pay for a project that they never even asked for, either with money, or with their homes.

If you received a letter requiring you to pay for your utility wiring to be placed underground, contact POWER today at (415) 864-8372 to find out more about the City’s CERF grant program. Or contact the city directly at (415) 252-3180.

by By the poverty scholars in Villa El Salvador, Lima Peru; Writer Facilitator Amanda Smiles/PNN

I struggle to smile as the tall gringo shoves the lens of his camera in my face. Focusing on my small, crowded classroom, and the tiny, eager faces of my students, I ignore the expensive clicks and hisses his camera makes as he steals his image of poverty. This gringo, whose name I do not know, because he has only introduced himself once, hurriedly, behind is costly black box, has recently arrived in Villa El Salvador, a shanty town of Lima, Peru. He is a volunteer, come to witness the poverty that is more than a Pulitzer worthy photo- it is our lives.

It is summer here in Peru, sticky, sultry summer, when the children are out of school and the parents still have to work. In Villa, poverty is in our roots, we have all grown up in homes made of no more than plywood, tarps, and tin roofs, so we all know the importance of education. This small, but vital, community run school, ensures that our children continue to learn even without textbooks. At the best, our children are given another chance that our poverty has robbed of them…at the last they are guaranteed one full meal a day, something this does not come easy in these parts.

The gringo’s camera wheezes again, as he captures another moment of our “romantic” lives. In some cultures they believe a photograph steals one’s soul. I believe the gringo’s photographs are stealing our history, because how can you sum up our entire struggle in a single photograph?

Villa El Salvador was founded in the 1970’s, after a mass migration of peasants from the highlands left many families homeless in Lima. A group of families squatted on private land, during a key weekend when an important international meeting was held in Lima, preoccupying the police. This lended several days for more families to assemble on the land, and by the time the government had time to react, it was impossible to evict them. Eventually, after several armed conflicts in which the peasants didn’t budge, the government compromised and moved them to the sand dunes, now Villa, and legally gave them the land.

I watch as the gringo moves on into the toddler’s room, where instead of helping to hold and feed the little ones, he will continue on with his camera.

Once the land was given to the families, it was divided evenly amongst the squatters and everyone was given the same size plot to build on. Land was also set asides for school, hospitals, parks, and, eventually, a university. Groups of homes were divided into sectors and each sector elected a Sectary of Education, Health, Economy, and Security, who would take up and solve community issues. Also, these Sectaries met with the general sectaries of the entire community of Villa, to plan and organize the future of Villa. These Sectaries included the Sectary of Women, Youth, and Human Rights.

During the 1980’s, when the terrorist group the Shining Path massacred and committed genocide throughout Peru, a second wave of migration to Lima occurred. Again, poor peasant families from the highlands journeyed to Lima, leaving their homes and farms in order to flea the reign of terror the Shining Path held over the Andes.

These families, poor and with only what they could carry, came to Villa for support. In response, the community organized soup kitchen, in which everyone took turn participating in. Mother’s clubs, run by women, organized the Vaso de Leche program, which delivered milk to poor families throughout Lima, ensuring that every child drank one glass of milk a day.

The children gather around the gringo in the playground, begging to have their picture taken. I wish, instead of photos, which the gringo has graciously offered to post online, a luxury far from our reality here, he could offer them a glass of milk. Clean food and water are what our children need, not their photos on the Internet.

When the Shining Path finally burned its way into Lima, it was Villa El Salvado that was terrorized the most. By its very existence, Villa was the antithesis to the Shining Path, whose mission was to destroy everything in the wake of poverty and corruption. Villa, on the other hand, chose to build and create solutions to help its people. The Shining Path pinned Villa as its enemy, planting bombs in important buildings, like the Vaso de Leche storage warehouse, and assassinating some of Villas most influential community leaders.

Still, the community of Villa resisted the Shining Path and took an active role in speaking out against terrorism. Community leaders continued to organize, despite death threats, protests were staged, and programs like Vaso de Leche remained running, even through the Shining Path deemed them “treacherous”:

Due to its resistance to the Shining Path, Villa won international recognition and awards for human rights and in 1986 was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. More importantly, though, during Peru’s darkest hour of the 20th century, Villa burned as an inextinguishable candle, illuminating the lives of Peru’s poor with hope.

Today, we are still taking an active role in planning for our future. Last year, the community finalized plans for the next 15 year, where we want Villa to be in 2021. Any person elected in Villa must follow these guidelines set forth by the community, ensuring that the needs of the residents are met and that we will continue to strive.

The gringo heads toward the courtyard, making his way out of the school. For a man who has everything, wealth, education, fair skin, he has, surprisingly, left our community with nothing. Yet, our community, which began with nothing, not even land, and still sustains on barely any resources, has given everything we can to create a ladder, or at least a safety net, out of poverty. While the gringo is now a ghost here, we have our history, of hope and resistance, etched in the scars of our streets, left behind for our children, when their turn comes.

by Michael Woodard/PNN poverty Scholar

"Hey joe… joe… JOOOOOOE!" But he didn't answer back, as I screamed at my friend to wake up, rivers and oceans of sweat crawled down my back. Every stitch of my tattered clothing clung to my overheated body, adhesed by days of Phoenix's inhuman 110 and above summer heat.

Old Black Joe, as he called himself ever since he landed on Arizona's homeless streets several years ago, was an African Descendent elder with a bad story, a sad story and left-behind life, just like all of us have, but in Joe's case, somehow it was sadder, at least to me. Joe was decidedly un-political, and if you tried to talk to him about the plight of the Black man in Amerikka, he would tell you once very politely in his well-enunciated, Southern hotel bell-man trained English, to hush, if that didn't stop you he would tell you again but this time it wouldn’t be so polite.

Of course I learned fast cause I wanted to be Joes' friend, he was full of some of the best Lousiana-Cajun-African folk-tales and it made Summer on the streets of Arizona a little less painful.

But this Summer was different. Instead of a few days each week above 100 degrees, 110, 112, 115, and even the whopping 116 degree weather has rolled on and on for over three weeks. That kind of weather is hard for everyone but the little known story, is the houseless victims who are literally stuck outside, on the sidewalk with little or no access to water, air conditioning or even the much sought after, shade, die. So far this summer the homeless death count is over 14 people

Now, the story is complicated; first it begins with the root causes of homelessness and poverty in Amerikka, leading to the break down of the psyche, the power and the humanity of black people, brown people and poor white people, which leads to mental illness, and substance abuse, but the other equally important issue is the fact that there is a serious shortage of shelter beds in Arizona and in the heat, which in some ways is more dangerous than cold weather for folks living outside, is actually deadly.

According to Bill Manson, development coordinator for Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS), an estimated 8,000 homeless people live in Maricopa County, where Phoenix and its suburbs sit, but only 1,600 shelter beds are available citywide. Add to that, there are a lot of houseless folks, like Joe and up until last week, me, so oppressed, so tortured by their many past lives and spirits, that they refuse the help that is available, i.e., in the depth of some of the worst heat there were government workers, social service agencies and volunteers driving across the city giving out fluids and medical care out and some of the folks they reached refused the help.

I guess for me the wake-up call was the death of Joe, who after I kept yelling at for almost an hour that 115 degree afternoon in July, until I realized he wasn't waking up. Ever again.

by Laurence Ashton/PNN Youth in Media

"In god we trust.. trust in.. we want more for you - we don't want prisons for our youth - in god we trust in… In.." The lilting voice of poet and singer Sierra sailed across the sun drenched Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. Sierra's beautiful wordz and knowledge joined the powerful line-up of youth and adults of all colors, cultures and spirits who came together as a community to speak out against the California Youth Authority (CYA) and the prison industrial complex at a rally sponsored by Books Not Bars and Lets Get Free

The Books Not Bars "Alternatives for Youth" Campaign is a statewide effort to close the notorious prisons of the California Youth Authority (CYA), the state's prison system for youth.

More than 90 percent of the youth locked up in CYA are rearrested within three years. To quote the BooksNotBars website "CYA is supposed to lower the crime rate. But all it does is lower the chances that kids are going to go on to get a good education or have a good career. When youth get out of CYA, they just go back into the juvenile or adult criminal justice system. The only thing CYA prepares youth for is a cell in an adult prison."

Their website goes on to list some of the shocking abuses reported in a series of official reports on CYA;

*Youth locked in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement without cause for months on end;

*Youth locked in four-by-four cages during class time;

Epidemic violence, often instigated by guards (further confirmed by the recent video showing guards beating two young wards);

rampant sexual assault;

abuse of chemical weapons on wards;

virtually non-existent care for wards with mental health or substance abuse problems (8- to 19-month waiting periods for service); and

Shocking negligence in medical care, especially emergency care.

Research into the practices of other states' policies in regards to youth justice have shown that there are alternative ways with to deal with youth offenders, rather than the arcane and abusive practices of the California criminal Unjustice System

"We see prisons but we aint having it" The rally was emceed by brother in struggle Jakati Omani, who peppered each pause with his own brand of hip Hop activism and be-down scholarship

The day of inspiration progressed with conscious rappers like the young African Descendent warriors known as "Reparation Records" and Big Dan from Youth Uprising in Oakland filling our minds with knowledge to free us up from the state sponsored oppressors known as CYA.

Then, like Moses parting the red sea, in this case it was the black brown, yellow and white seas of change present at the rally; United Playas; the powerful cru of youth, adult and family warriors on issues of education, anti-gang violence and hope, flooded the plaza, bringing their own spirits who will not be oppressed or discouraged. Their multi-generational, multi-cultural cru brought yet another hit of togetherness and solidarity. On the backs of their solid Black T-shirts was the solid message of the day; CLOSE CYA-

Laurence is a youth in media writer for POOR/PNN Toread more about the Books not bars campaign go on-line to www.booksnotbars.org

by Leroy Moore/Illin N' Chillin

Hip-hop hear this!

introduced Crip-hip-hop

Now the industry is "Thumpin" on L.y.f.e’s., debut album, "Southern Comfort"

the first Deaf Rapper & Producer

Teamed up with another Deaf emcee

Watch out for "Sho Me Who Rocs Betta: Chapter 1" by Sho Roc

Face on the turntables

Scratching with his chin

DJ Ectic has no use of his arms & legs

Getting the crowd up on their feet

His music swimming on sound waves across the ocean and sea

From the UK to the US

"Hop Up On Your Good Foot"

C.R.I.S.I.S spits on Officer in Charge from Zambia

The rap celebrates people with disabilities

With upbeat West African hip-hop lyrics

Blues to hip-hop

Digging deep down to the roots

From 1887 to today

"Strut That Thing" sang Cripple Clarence Lofton back in the day

"Wheelchair Blues" by late Celeste White

Me, The Black Cripple, rhyming about "Identity"

Dancing to our own drum

Peg Leg Joshua Howell did the Peg Leg Stomp

and the Beaver Slide Rag in 1926

Peg Leg Sam Jackson did the Peg Leg dance in 1972

Ludacris brought back wheelchair square dancing

With a hip-hop flavor in 2005"when I move, you move just like that..

House it with Paul Johnson

"In Motion"

as the record spins

Lost his legs from diabetes

But his hands made him the funkiest

house dj in the business

Fezo Da Madone uses his feet

To drop nasty beats in the studio

"Here I AM", his latest CD

Radical MC with Cerebral Palsy

Jive Records made history in the early eighties

Signing the first disabled musician

Brooklyn’s own Rob Da Noize Temple

35 years in the music industry

Now he is stepping out in front with "Peace Thang"

Hip-Hop hear this!

Cripple Connection Production

Slapping on a label

"Warning this purchase will shatter images"

messages wrapped in a plastic cd Jewell case

Hey Blackalicious, your Rhymes, are they a gift or a sin?

You say you have Rhymes for the deaf, dumb and blind

but all we hear is gab, gab, gab, gab your name fits Gift of Gab

Give us the mic welcome to crip-hip-hop rehab

Hip-hop in recovery taking speech therapy opening up a new positive vocabulary

ripping a page from KRSOne Edutainment

Changing people’s backwards attitudes

Targeting the untapped disabled market

Distributors, agents, record companies, MTV & BET

Will pimp us as new kids on the block

But Cripple Connection Production is independent

Funding coming from our SSI benefits

Hip-Hop hear this!

Jay Z, sign our Ticket to Work

Puff Daddy and Flavor Flav, its time for a new Reality show

Called BADAS, Black And Disabled Artists Sharing

reporting inaccessible concert venues to the ADA police

The verdict please! Hip-hop hear this!

You’re out of compliance!

by Leroy Moore/Illin n Chillin

I grew up in this Hip-Hop era, and I still don’t know if I should be proud of it or hold my head down and cry about what it has become. I grew up in New York and around the East Coast watching the OGs of spoken word, the Last Poets, slam their words in Harlem, Grandmaster Flash in New Jersey partying up with their lyrics and the ladies of Hip-Hop, Salt-n-Pepper, sprinkling their feminist seasoning on the crowd.

Now you hear gangsta lyrics that most of the time lead to beef with other artists that leads to senseless death like Tupac Shakur and Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace. I wonder if they, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G., had lived, would they have changed their styles, lyrics and messages?

I mean, you don’t have to became a born again preacher like MC Hammer, but would they have seen the divide and conquer game the media, political arena and record companies play in our communities? I know Tupac, as a child of the Black Panther, did see America’s whole capitalist game.

I also wonder if Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. had survived as Hip-Hop artists with gunshot disabilities, what would they write and rap about? Would they be more like one of the old timers of Hip-Hop, Percey Carey, aka MF Grimm of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was shot 10 times in 1994, almost two years earlier than the Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. incidents, leaving him disabled – blind in one eye, partially deaf in one ear and a wheelchair user?

Thank God MF Grimm today is living in New York and has regained his sight and hearing. He still uses a wheelchair, is now a successful producer and is still rapping.

However, to look at and hear 50 Cent rapping about how he got shot like it is an Olympic gold medal or something makes me wonder about the Hip-Hop arena’s capacity to learn! I just don’t get it!

Well, we can’t bring Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. back, but we must learn from them and MF Grimm. However, the question is, are we learning?

Take the latest casualty of gangsta hip-hop, Darnell Lyndsey aka Blade Icewood of Detroit. The latest Hip-Hop casualty was working his way up, but his wheels got stuck in the deadly game of the hood and Hip-Hop turf wars.

Both Icewood and MF Grimm are talented brothers in the Hip-Hop world. Both were deep in the underground of inner city turf wars, drugs and hanging with a rough crowd, and both were shot and become disabled but went on to record an album after becoming disabled.

Unfortunately, the comparison between the two ended, because Blade Icewood was shot dead in his wheelchair on April 19 on the Eastside of Detroit. For Blade, 2005 had to be a mixture of good and bad in his short life.

Although many accounts said that Blade was a rising star in the Hip-Hop industry, in September 2005, according to local news articles in Detroit newspapers, Blade became disabled, paralyzed from his chest down, by gunshots over some kind of beef with another rap group or artist who was pronounced dead after the confrontation.

However, Blade wasn’t so lucky on April 19, 2005. Sadly, his case sounds like the Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. case, where the police were and still are clueless on who did the shooting. The same pattern has followed Blade to his grave so far.

Blade Icewood’s new album, entitled "Blood, Sweat & Tears," has hit the stores. It was independently produced and distributed by Blade himself. There are no sides to stand on or in Blade’s case sit on! The only thing that is clear now is two rising Detroit Hip-Hop stars are shining bright – not in the Hip-Hop arena but in heaven.

You can hear about Blade on Juan’s new single, "RIP Blade," at www.themitten.net/media/JuanRIPBlade.mp3. Juan is a member of the Streetlords, Blade Icewood’s rap group.

I wonder what was going through Blade’s mind, sitting in his wheelchair recording his new debut solo album that is now his last. Was he glad to be alive and moving onward, or was he stuck in the seaweed and quicksand of the inner city cycle of violence looking for revenge?

On the internet there are many different versions of what happened that night and why Blade was shot. Bottom line is Hip-Hop is becoming "disabled" because of violence, and that is bad enough, but we must learn from MF Grimm. It is up to us to lick our wounds, pray to God that we are still here and wheel off into the sunset to continue to drive Hip-Hop beyond the dark side and into the empowering rebirth of self holistically!

How come Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. didn’t see and learn what MF Grimm went through? From MF Grimm’s website, www.mfgrimm.com, you can see and read that he has regained his hearing and sight. He is still producing, rapping and signing new talent to his own label, Day By Day Entertainment Inc.

In one interview, he says he is a new man and has a second chance in life. On his CD, "Scares & Memories," he has an interview talking about how in Hip-Hop today there is this strange glory in being shot that makes you a hard artist and gives you higher rank. As a survivor of not only being shot at 10 times but serving time behind bars, he says on this CD that he doesn’t understand the concept. He also is worried about the Hip-Hop industry today and where it’s going.

Being amongst the fathers of Hip-Hop, like Grandmaster and KRSOne etc. it must be hard for MF Grimm to watch what Hip-Hop has grown into. Also, on "Scares & Memories," MF Grimm has a song about AIDS and his view on the term, "Comrade." On the CD he says most of his comrades are not living now.

MF Grimm’s new CD, entitled "American Hunger," will be hitting the stores in September of 2005. I wonder will he talk about his life today as a disabled Hip-Hop artist and not only the violence but the starving leeches of America’s culture that helped put him there? But on the other hand, it did change his life. Do we always have to learn things the hard way? Some are lucky and can survive well; others take their lesson to the grave.

In the meantime, both artists, the late Blade Icewood and MF Grimm, have songs that speak about the struggles they’ve been through before and since they became disabled. It is interesting both have similar titles for a song that really aims deep into the violence that caused them to be disabled. Listen to "Blood, Sweat & Tears" by Blade Icewood and "Bloody Love Letter" on "Scares & Memories" by MF Grimm.

As a scholar in race and disability, I don’t want to read about another Hip-Hop artist becoming disabled and getting killed over senseless Black on Black violence. But we all know that this Amerikkkan system breeds competition that leads to crime, so if we have to live in it, please learn from the late Tupac, Notorious B.I.G. and now Darnell Lyndsey aka Blade Icewood.

Or is it time to take a page from a living Hip-Hop artist who has turned his past into a beautiful, powerful and enlightened path toward the future with his work and words: Percy Carey aka MF Grimm.

Website sources: MF Grimm, www.daybydayent.com with interviews on "Scares & Memories" CD; Blade Icewood www.sohh.com and www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story. Leroy F. Moore Jr. is a poet, writer and activist. Email him at sfdamo@yahoo.com and listen to him on Pushing Limits, broadcast Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on KPFA 94.1 FM.

by Tiny/PNN

The room was small , way too small- the chairs were even smaller and the distance between me and my table neighbors was, quite frankly, far too little. Now I don't have anything against rich white business people, ( well, actually I do - but I try to keep an open mind) but when they are all in one room and a large majority of them resemble Dick Chenys' golf buddies I get a little nervous. So there I was, in that little tiny meeting room of the Mid-Market Project Area Committee joined by fellow POOR Magazine staff members; my hella ghetto, outspoken mother and co-director Dee and sometimes too soft-spoken, Mid Market SRO resident Joseph Bolden.

We spent a whole hour and a half in that painfully small and stuffy room listening to the corporate interests of multi-million dollar redevelopers talk about, you guessed it, parking and other important issues to such people, such as, "cleaning-up the streets", "blight" and other hygienic metaphors all meaning the same thing; getting a large majority of poor people out of the Mid-Market area of San Francisco.

POOR staff was first alerted to the exclusive PAC process one month prior when corporate media, (The Fang family owned Examiner) wrote a front page series called: THe Mess on Market Street ( the mess - being the poor housed and un-housed residents of Mid-Market street) to which we responded with our own series on poormagazine.org called The Myth on MArket Street.

Just as the PAC members were about to open the agenda to comment - Dee, couldn't hold herself back any longer, seeing as we came to the meeting, on behalf of the poor residents of the Mid Market area, including ourselves and many of our staff writers and membership who were never genuinely included in the supposedly open PAC meetings she blurted out, "Excuse me, what are the plans for really low-income housing, i.e., not just so-called affordable housing that is really only affordable to a few people"

I don't remember exactly what the response was to her comment but suffice to say, an awkward silence of almost a minute fell on the room, followed up by some kind of empty promise meant to placate us momentarily. That was almost three years ago and we have since seen the lies unfold about the Mid Market Pac and its mother ship the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (RDA).

"There's just two words to describe the redevelopment agency, notorious Liars", long time Tenderloin resident, Prince Bush, was one of over 400 Mid- Market community members that spoke at a hearing last week of the San Francisco planning commission against the proposed plan created by that very same Mid-Market PAC and the RDA

Prince continued, "You may remember what they said they were going to do in the Fillmore - whole communities were moved out permanently - places where there are now businesses used to the homes of families"

As Prince spoke I was reminded of the impenetrable PAC/RDA. To be fair to the rhetoric of the PAC process, the PAC have been holding weekly and bi-weekly meetings for several years to create this plan. All the meetings are in fact, open. But the reality is, hardly any poor and working class people or grassroots non-profit organizations like POOR or POWER who provide services in the Mid-Market area, can afford to attend those endless meetings.

As well, 35% of the PAC (10 seats ) are limited to commercial property owners, social service and community development groups have one seat each. The "community development seat" is held by an employee of a private developer. The only community election for PAC members occurred in 1997 and of the 28 PAC members only four seats were elected by the community, and finally, Union Square merchants and ACT have a seat on the PAC but there is not representation from tenant or homeless advocacy groups, (not that we could fund a staff persons' time to attend) So, in the end our voices, the voices of the real Mid-Market are in fact, not represented in their plan.

" I am wondering where you are getting your idea of low income, i.e., that low-income is someone who earns 20,000 to 60,000 a year…", Prince continued, "The people I know in the area living and working are making minimum wage, or less, so I am wondering where you got that idea, and I am wondering why there are no low-income people on the (redevelopment) board, or even people that work with low-income communities.

Before Prince and all the other speakers that night, there was a presentation by Richard Marquez, with the coalition to save mid-market, who along with several other community groups and low-income residents have been meeting over the last several weeks and months in the places that the residents actually live like the Baldwin Hotel, an SRO in Mid-Market and have created their own- people-friendly, and small business-friendly plan that sustains the areas’ housing and includes a modest level of redevelopment.

"It’s a neighborhood, it’s a place where people live and labor" Richard spoke while presenting pictures of small businesses and residents like Sean Williams, a victim of Fillmore gentrification who now resides in the Mid-Market area, which oddly enough is the situation with many of the Mid-Market residents, including POOR’s own Po’ Poet Laureate. Richard continued by breaking down the real demographics of the area, "almost everyone in mid-market can barely pay $500 dollars of rent, now rents are under $561 and will skyrocket with the proposed plan."

Richard continued with a series of demographic charts, " the current plan calls for 12% of affordable housing, our plan, the community plan, calls for 25% percent affordable housing. In terms of medium income, our plan would put the area medium income at 40% allowing people who make less than 20,000 to stay there, The current plan would make it so that people would have to make $40,000 or more medium income …"

Next up was tireless housing advocate and economic justice activist with the SRO Collaborative, Sam Dodge, "Justin Herman was quoted as saying - the land in San Francisco is to valuable for the poor to park on it- he was referring to SOMA and what followed was the demolition of thousands and thousands of units of affordable housing"

Sam continued,"The backbone of this RDA plan was created by a group called spur - and in their own words - spur has stated they have had the aspiration of redevelopment in Mid Market for over 50 years- so the kinds of harmful gentrification that happened in SOMA continues with SPUR's efforts in Mid-Market"

Kathy Looper, a native San Franciscan spoke next, "in the 50's when I was a young child my father took me on a farewell trip to grand central station, a beautiful market that sold everything under the sun and was demolished soon after by redevelopment then -- he also took me to theatres and clubs to visit his Greek expatriate friends - so many places including the Beautiful Fox theatre which is no longer there - so after the history of destructive redevelopment - it has taken years for communities like Fillmore and SOMA to recover from the horror of redevelopment, why are we proposing to do the same thing all over again in Mid-Market? "

"Over half of the residents of Mid-Market are African-American and Asian and the majority of these residents live on less than federal poverty guidelines" One of the other speakers in opposition to the RDA plan was civil rights attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, whose offices are in the Project Area, "The Asian Law caucus is opposing the plan because most of the residents who live there now will not be able to live there once the plan is implemented"

Susan Overa, a slight, soft-spoken woman, with deep brown hair, eyes and skin, who identified as an Eskimo from Alaska spoke next, "I live in the rose hotel - if this mid-market plan goes through I will be forced out of my house and I will have nowhere to go"

She was followed by Marie Gomez who implored the now bored looking planning commission, " I am an IHHS worker, please do not approve this plan as it will be affordable to other people - not poor people like me and my neighbors -

I spoke in favor of truth and the real voices being heard in this debate as well as low and/or no cost office space for grassroots non-profit arts organizations, which is always bandied about by PAC’s and developers and never actually comes to fruition.

Darryl Cornelius, another long-time resident spoke the truth to the commission, " I am a San Francisco resident - I have been here since the 50's - I can remember when mayor cristopher was the pioneer bringing - redevelopment here- he conceded when redevelopment demolished the fillmore - the whole western addition - right out from under me - it was a cultural mecca - Asian and African American landowners were all forced out - I can also remember when redevelopment stepped in and promised people in Potrero Hill, a six block area - from Wisconsin to Rhode Island where they would put affordable housing - instead now there is six square gated community - with astronomical rent with low-income housing surrounding it -that is now called southern heights court - Redevelopment has never been in the best interests of improving the community - only dismantling it - I can always remember the Fox theatres - the paramount theatres- when redevelopment stepped in they all disappeared" Mr Cornelius paused for a breath, "I work as a service provider in the mid market area- - I provide services for people in this area- these people are displaced already and now you want to take the little that they have and return them to homelessness- they all live on fixed income, with mental health issues, - there is no way that redevelopment is going to consider these people - history has shown that.."

There were many PAC members who spoke in favor of, you guessed it again, parking, as well as many anti-parking folks from the Bicycle Coalition, and other organizations concerned about the environment and pedestrian safety, As well as developers and sold out corporate non-profits who spoke in favor of the meager offering of so-called affordable housing, which should be re-named, only affordable to a few housing,

And a eloquent presentation from the brilliant houseless poet and activist, Keith Savage who warned the commission to not approve the RDA plan as it would send a lot of poor folks into the streets who are not "trained in outdoor survival" like he is

For me though the night of truth before the commission was closed out by Stafford Parker, a young African Descendent man with a huge smile, proudly sporting a shiny 49ers shirt, " I have lived in San Francisco all my life - they (redevelopment agency)
Don't know what we, the people want- we want low-income housing, we want schools, small businesses, we want parks, we don't want no towers, we don't want no condo's, I can't afford one, my friends can't , or my co-workers or associates, - listen to us - not with your brain - with your heart and your soul- this is our town - our city - our home.!!"

Notwithstanding all of the voices in opposition, the plan was approved by the commission with one dissenting voice. There is still a chance to get involved and fight this plan as it will hit the board of Supervisors in the Fall., To get involved call Sam Dodge at SRO collaborative at 415-775-7110. To read more journalism and poetry from poverty skolarz from Mid-Market and beyond go-on-line to www.poormagazine.org

by Marc Norton

*** ORGANIZING NEWS ***

We now have a bilingual Spanish/English Muni Fare Strike team tabling and leafleting in the Mission five days a week. The team is out Monday through Friday, starting at 7:30 AM, and continuing through the late afternoon. They are currently rotating between 16th Street & Mission, 24th Street & Mission, and Geneva & Mission. If you see them, say hola, or join them for a while if you can.

We continue to have teams out leafleting throughout the city, during both the morning and afternoon commuter rushes. Contact us is you want to join one of our teams, or want leaflets for your own efforts.

Please let us know if you are part of an organization which would like to hear more about the fare strike.

*** PRESS CONFERENCE/SPEAK OUT ***

We are planning a Press Conference & Speak Out for Monday, August 29, starting at noon, at 24th Street and Mission. Save the date, details to follow...

*** LEGAL TEAM ***

We have established a Muni Fare Strike Legal Team, which will be working in conjunction with the National Lawyers Guild, to provide legal support for the fare strike. The team will provide volunteer legal representation for people who might get tickets or have other legal consequences during the course of the strike. Stay tuned for more information on legal matters.

415) 648-1904

munifarestrike@yahoo.com

by Tiny/PNN

"Excuse me Ma’am, you need to board in the front of the bus, Ma’am did you hear me? – you need to get on in the front of the bus……Ma’am….Ma’am…!!"

At the last angry command, the more than a little bent over African descendent elder who wore only one duck-taped shoe and a pair of soiled pink polyester pants, mumbled a frightened response to the ground. In one very weathered hand she clutched a ball of fabric that was her waistband, and in the other a fragment of air where a purse, cane or other acroutremount used to dwell.

After one more attempt the tiny woman, all to familiar to abuse by institutionally racist and classist power, limped away on her one shoe into the thick white-yellow afternoon glare. The "undercover" MUNI police, recognizable by their "uniform" of khaki pants and maroon golf shirt, stationed surreptitiously at several bus stops across the City, continued on, after the lady was scared away, to "insist" that an African descendent youth, Asian youth and white homeless man, trying to access affordable transportation in the richest city in the world, get on the front of the bus

Of course, the reverse racist/classist irony of the 21st century assault on the civil rights of people of color by enforcing these peoples’ location on the bus (i.e., not "letting" these Black folk sit in the back of the bus) wasn’t lost on me, or the irony that most of the enforcers of these "laws" were themselves other poor and/or working class folk of color (MUNI employees) and finally, that in 2005, the crime is poverty, and the abused folks of ALL colors and cultures, share the common trait of being very poor

"They put a lot of people out there to do that ad-hoc "policing" who are on disabled leave, you know, sick or injured" Trying to get the "scoop" on this subversive police-ing I spoke with Bari McGruder one of a group of MUNI drivers who were at a rally in solidarity with a broad coalition of working folks, elders and disabled San Franciscans opposing and resisting proposed MUNI fare hikes which, if implemented, will mean rate increases of 25-50 cents per rider. And in advance of fare hikes, MUNI launches their "secret" fare police-ing program

Bari went on to break down her position on the hikes, "I think these fare hikes are unfair to minority, seniors and students," Bari McGruder and Victor Greyson, both long-time MUNI employees received notices from MUNI executive Michael Burns as well as from the union, sanctioning them for speaking out in the media against the layoffs, fare hike, service cuts, and other attacks on workers.

In December of 2004 the Municipal Transportation Authority (MTA) proposed a rate hike to 1.75 per ride to offset its 24 million dollar budget deficit. Due to an organized effort by Coalition for transit Justice members the MTA agreed to drop the fare hikes down to 1.50 fare per rider and only a .15 cent increase for senior, students and disabled riders and agreed to keep the fast pass for all passengers at the current rates. Although this was a huge victory for riders, the fare increases will still have a serious impact on low-income riders

Even at 1.50 per ride, this fare increase will make it more difficult for very low-income folks like me to ride the bus on a regular basis, and considering that poor folks make up a great majority of bus riders, who was the MTA targeting for these rate hikes. Yes its true that in San Francisco conscious privileged people with homes and high paid jobs ride the bus cause they want to, afterall, its better for the environment, but so do poor immigrants, fixed income elders, youth, poor workers, disabled and houseless folks with no homes. We all have different reasons, but we all ride

"All services are hurting because of California’s budget" was MTA’s statement about the 2003 MUNI rate hikes from 1.00 to 1.25 MUNI. At that time MUNI cited the fact that they needed to offset their then 55 million dollar deficit

Of course all public services in California are facing budget deficits but let’s take a moment to connect the dots, or rather, the corporate welfare recipients, i.e, Enron who stole all of California’s surplus with its fake energy crisis and The govenator who didn’t go after Enron for that stolen revenue cause he owns interests in energy stocks and who decided that Hummer owners and other California cars needed to pay less tax which took a major local revenue source away from desperately needy city budgets.

And isn’t that, "We have no more money" plea what The Golden Gate Transit Authority said when they raised the Golden Gate bridge toll to 5:00 dollars and cut their bus service in Marin in half, resulting in the golden gate bridge becoming uncrossable for most poor Bay Area residents while poor immigrant workers of Marin are forced to risk their life walking home from work on the freeways in the middle of the night

As well, Corporate-esque MTA board members are voting against their own best interests when they make public transportation increasingly costly for poor workers because cheap transportation enables the urban/suburban apartheid they rely on to get through their daily lives, i.e., the travel by bus of poor service workers like maids and dishwashers from the poor areas of the city to the wealthy neighborhoods across town where people like them reside.

So what can we, as conscious citizens do to resist these unjust rate hikes, perhaps we should look to the examples by other big cities such as Chicago and Italy who in the face of similar hikes to their public transportation systems’ fares launched city-wide fare strikes. In the case of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the proposed hikes were the result of a corporate takeover of the CTA and had the most dire impact on the poorest citizens of Chicago.

In San Francisco, the fare hikes are planned for the end of August or early September and a coalition of San Franciscans called Social Strike are organizing a City-Wide fare strike which includes not paying the fare AND working with muni operators to keep the buses rolling

As the corporatization of our Amerikkan cities enables the criminalization of the poor, these kinds of resistance are crucial, or in the case of poor folks, perhaps the only way that we will be able to continue to access basic city services at all.

To get involved in the Social Strike call them at (415) 267-4801 or email them at info@socialstrike.net or check their website at www.social strike.net