Deconstructing SAN FRANCISCO'S ZONING /Gentrifying/Development PLANS
by Marlon Crump/PoorNewsNetwork
"I've been working on the Eastern Neighborhood's plans for 7 1/2 years. I'm also a resident of SOMA. (South of Market Area), they've really butchered the community input and translated it into the developer's language" , testified Jazzie Collins, staff member and resident advocate for South of Market Community Action Network, (SOMCAN) during the People's Rally on July 10th, 2008 at San Francisco City Hall.
Brief testimony by Residents, community organizers, activists, and POOR Magazine rallied against the zoning proposals, and plans for numerous neighborhoods by outside developers, the San Francisco Planning Department, and the San Francisco Planning Commission.
These words from Jazzie also presented a haunting picture of what this "plan" may really mean for those who are of low-income working class and poor families living in affordable housing, (including yours truly) within certain neighborhoods of San Francisco, CA targeted for zoning/owning!
I attended the June 12th hearing of the zoning proposals presented by the Eastern Neighborhoods Program, to the San Francisco Planning Commission. Many San Franciscans from the Mission District, South of Market, Potrero Hill, and Chinatown were rallying on July 10th with verbal resistance against these "plans" by land developers to the San Francisco Planning Commission.
I took my place alongside my mentor and POOR Magazine co-founder Lisa Gray-Garcia (AKA Tiny), and fellow POOR comrades Bruce Allison, and Jennifer Fogg. Carrying my black leather satchel briefcase on one arm, and the POOR banner on the other, we resisted the growing wind and the grey clouds that met us, as we approached S.F City Hall to represent our resistance of gentrification for the People's Rally.
We were all here in our total opposition against the City of San Francisco's zoning plans for the Mission District, South of Market, Potrero Hill, and Chinatown Districts from outside developers hell-bent into systematically condominium- colonizing affordable housing.
"The Mission has a lot going on. What's been happening over the past 10-20 years is that people and offices are moving in. We proposed two kinds of zoning: P.D.R (Production Distribution Repair) and U.M.U (Urban Mixed Use)."
Eastern Neighborhoods Program Senior Planner, of the San Francisco Planning Department, Ken Rich briefly stated this to me, during a brief interview on a June 12th zoning proposal hearing, before the San Francisco Planning Commission, at San Francisco City Hall.
The department had submitted a highly anticipated area plan of zoning proposals to the Planning Commission for approvals of this project.
History was somewhat repeating its course. About eight years ago on Thursday July 13, 2000, in the Dot.Com Boom era, an estimated 500 people, many who were Mission District residents, activists, and POOR Magazine staff, stormed the steps of S.F City Hall to lash out at the entire Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission. At the time, the City of San Francisco was held strictly accountable by the residents, for their role in giving approvals to develop in the Mission District, knowing the devastating displacement effect it would have on an entire community of small businesses, artists and residents. Old habits still die hard.
Among those present for the protest, were numerous residents, and community organizations from various San Francisco neighborhoods, the Council of Community Housing Organizations, St. Peter's Housing Committee, Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC) South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN) Healthcare Action Team, Youth Making a Change (YMAC) and POOR Magazine.
"First off, I think that its dis-empowering that they are not including the community's ideas. I feel that the city really needs to listen and include the community's ideas to make sure that they won't get displaced!" exclaimed Angelica Cabande of South of Market Community Action Network.
Eric Quezada, a longtime community and housing activist in the Mission and Bernal Heights, District 9 Supervisor Candidate for the upcoming election, and Co-Founder of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition; was also on hand to support those that objected the city's plans for the targeted neighborhoods in its zoning proposals influenced by outside developers.
"We won't let them make our neighborhoods into a Corporate America!" yelled a speaker on S.F City Hall Steps, as I continued to re-port for my comrades of POOR, and su-pport those fighting for the cause by the residents, community members, and activists of San Francisco, at the July 10th People's Rally.
"I'm just a concerned citizen that here will be more displacement." said Peter Neils Sherburnzimmer, a resident of San Francisco. "I went down there to Hunter's Point and talked with the people. They were concerned that they would get more promises, and not housing!"
South of Market has been a San Francisco neighborhood, for the low-income, and immigrant families, since the 1840's. In an effort to compromise and combat possible gentrification techniques of the city, a "People's Plan" has been drafted from the people, themselves. One of these proposals that stood out to me, (after viewing the map myself of the People's Plan) was a people's proposal to raise the inclusionary housing bar to provide 30% moderate-income units, in every market-rate development, throughout all re-zoned areas of the Mission District. In addition, S.R.O (Single Room Occupancy) Units would be allowed only for 100% affordable developments.
The Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC) disagrees with the Planning Department's affordable housing incentives in UMU zones. (Urban Mixed Use) MAC also viewed the Planning Department's own map of "affordable housing tiers" has very few plans of including affordable housing in the Mission District.
" This should benefit the people that are already living in our neighborhood." said Nick Pagoulatos, Director of Community Planning and Development, coordinator of Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition. "What we see instead is that the plan is geared toward creating new housing that serves people with money!"
"I feel really strong about this, they have no right to kick people out from their own communities", said Salah Alnaif, a youth from Youth Making a Change (YMAC).
"They need to prioritize families, seniors, and people with disabilities. There is a long history of working class resistance in SOMA. The San Francisco Planning Commission needs to recognize that!" James Chiosini, a fellow comrade of mine during our years as volunteers for the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness.
The only prioritization that seems to be zoning towards owning people's lands and livelihoods. The right to not be deprived of life and liberty, no longer exists. As far as the interest of the community is concerned, none of it seems to matter.......except in the eyes of "corporate interest" by the City of San Francisco.
The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign launches its March on the Republican National Convention
by RAM and Theodora Mays/NPRRR
"I was a formerly homeless mother who once lived in an abandoned building". This was my introduction to Cheri Honkala, Executive Director of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), a coalition of organizations from across the country united in the mission to "Abolish poverty everywhere and forever".
As Cheri's words came through the phone I felt an instant connection to her. Having grown up with a Mother battling addiction -- evictions, hunger and instability were my constant companions.
Cheri and the PPEHRC foster that same connection in poor people across color lines and across the country. She has been organizing with other poor folks for the last twenty-five years, and on September 2nd, the second day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul Minnesota, over a year of Cheri's full time efforts will come to fruition as the PPEHRC embarks on "The March For Our Lives", one of the largest poor people's marches to ever take place.
PPEHRC describes the march as, " A powerful, peaceful demonstration for the right to healthcare, housing, and all economic human rights. We will march because as poverty, hunger, unemployment, and homelessness grow throughout this country, political leaders from both major parties have abandoned us. We cannot afford to be silent. We cannot afford to be disappeared from the public eye and the political debate as our families suffer".
And our families do suffer - I can attest to that - with each member of my family effected by the insidious ramifications of poverty, barely surviving the daily fight for a bed, a meal, a little peace; and my Father not surviving at all - sent to an all too early grave before he had the chance to learn what I've learned", that like Cheri says "We cannot afford to be silent". I found my voice at POOR Magazine, sharing my experiences, my story--making it heard, finding the power that comes when voices combine together and fight as one.
But that fight doesn't come easy. Having lived through many police raids on my home as a child, it is no surprise to me that according to Cheri, "There are expected to be as many police officers as protesters at the march". Where ever there are poor people gathered there will undoubtedly be police. Cheri and the PPEHRC have already had to face the "cow-boy mentality" of the St. Paul police department. On July 3rd Cheri was even contacted by the Federal Justice Department regarding their concern for violence towards Cheri and other marchers. They claim to want to offer protection to the marchers. The PPEHRC declined the offer.
As with the PPEHRC's other marches, their experience with the media, even the so-called progressive media has been that of a complete "white-out" of what is really happening leading up to the march, a setting up of it as a violent event, and then having them get it wrong in the end.
Like POOR Magazine PPEHRC is very clear that we as poor folks must tell our own story. Thanks to the hard work of PPEHRC folks and Cheri – there will be thousands of poor folks truly being heard at Minneapolis this year.
For the Oaxacan strikers and in memory
of those murdered in the struggle
by Jack Hirschman
Double the pesos of the thousands
of teachers of the children of Oaxaca,
and for URO a one-way ticket
out of the State
with his bags stuffed
with corruption, repression and blood.
The Mexico that’s arriving,
that’s knocking
on the door of tomorrow,
whose Viva! Has been appearing
once more on the lips
of peoples the world over---
this Mexico, of Oaxacan defiance
and Chiapas poetry armed
with justice and dignity
worthy of those who seed
the future in the minds and hearts
of Mexico’s kids,
is the lava of molten hope
flowing to all who are
corporately imprisoned,
is the red paint of resistance
flung at the felonious
masters of greed.
Peace you want? Then go to war for the rest of your days. Not to the wars of
the killers of life, those who are bombing and godding, godding and bombing
in interchangeable attacks of mortal lies. Stand for once at the precipice of your-
self and leap into the new class war. They’ve tried killing that child of the poor,
the homeless and oppressed; they’ve tried erasing class war from the blackboard
of the mind. To no avail. It is invincibly alive. Sentence yourself to it, O prisoner
of cybernetic banalities, self-delusional hedonisms of futile ruts, and the surplus
of dead bread they’ve thrown to you in your atomized cell. The only way out of
the prison of their making is the new class war, the struggle for the dignity of all
human and animal natures against their death-rattling fascisms that are poisoning
the earth with desolation’s power. The only way to peace is in the struggle where
feelings and ideas transfigure themselves and organize the tomorrow that belongs
to all good men, women and children as the inextinguishable radiance of the peace
Maria Rosala Mejia Marroquin and Anacleta Tajtaj, Guatemalan immigrants, were arrested in an immigration raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville on May 12. The raid was the largest workplace raid in a single worksite in recent history. Both were released to care for their children, but now have to wear ankle bracelets to monitor their movements. They and 46 other women cannot work or travel, and have been waiting for weeks for a hearing which would result in her deportation. Most have husbands or brothers now in Federal prison, forced to plead guilty to misusing a Social Security number, as a result of the raid. Luz Maria Hernandez works in St. Bridget's Catholic Church, trying to help the families of those arrested. The Agriprocessors meatpacking plant sits on the outskirts of Postville, a tiny town of 2000 inhabitants. New Latino businesses have taken over storefronts in Postville, but as a result of the raid, most stores and restaurants are empty now.
At their whim
whomever
they want to evict
whenever they
want to evict
they can
because they’re
lords of the land
they’re the landlords.
They’ve got Pee Pee
on their side, that’s
Private Property
and they don’t care
that we’re Poor
or Poor Magazine;
if we protest they
call in the other Pee,
the Pee that ends in lice
or lease to make damned
sure no Poor protest is
gonna get in the way of
the biggest Pee, which is
their Profits. And now
that you know why we
all are here and what we
all are and have been up
against these many years
as victims of their whims
and greedy-evil pockets,
let’s resolve to bring the
whole house down, yes,
once and this time for all,
(the house that the Death
that is Private Property
has built), with organized
performances of such Justice,
we poor will wear “our courage,
sorrow and innocence” vividly
as our burning rage, until
Private Property bombs on
the stage where for much too
long it’s been pissing on the
Indigenous peoples from San Jose to New Orleans who have survived and resisted eviction, gentrification and displacement joined POOR Magazine's First Annual TAKING BACK THE LAND CEREMONY
by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia, poverty scholar, welfareQUEEN and Daughter of Dee and co-editor of POOR Magazine/PoorNEwsNetwork
Be bop bebop..bop..bop
A slow mist rose from the ground co-mingling with candlewax, sage, and car exhaust. Bop..bop..be-bop..bop.. Warm breath weaving through the rhythm of a congo drum entwining with words of resistance from African Peoples, Raza Peoples, Celtic peoples, Pilipino peoples, Native peoples, indigenous peoples all.."One.... we are the people..Two....indigenous people...Three .. and we are taking back the land and ONE....We are the Scholars...Two... indigenous scholars and Three... we are taking back OUR land!..."
Citing the articles from the United Nations(UN)Declaration on Indigenous Peoples adopted one year ago by the UN General Assembly, displaced, evicted and removed children, mamaz, daddys, tias and tios, aunties and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, elders, ancestors, and spirits from all across Turtle Island; Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, New Orleans and DQ University gathered to pray, testify and resist on Market street at sunrise in a spiritual, political and revolutionary ceremony of resistance to out of control development, eviction, displacement and criminalization locally and globally.
"My whole family was displaced out of San Francisco," Xicana mama of three girls, welfareQUEEN and POOR Magazine teacher and staff writer Vivien Hain called into the crowd, her powerful voice joining the layers of sounds as she re-told her family's deep poverty scholarship of houselessness, welfare de-form, struggle and displacement. Vivien cited article 10 of the declaration as she described how her uncle, a life-long Mission district resident, was gentrified out of his home with his disabled wife and now is houseless on the streets of San Francisco. Vivien concluded her powerful speech: "Gentricide, that's our new classification for the murderous act of gentrification."
Since 1996, while on welfare and still dealing with the effects of over 15 years of homelessness as a child and mother, eviction and deep poverty in LA, Oakland and San Francisco, my mama, African- Irish- Puerta Rican, and indigenous Taino very poor single mother, and me launched POOR Magazine as an indigenous organizing project that actively practices eldership, ancestor worship and interdependence. We launched it as a direct resistance to the non-profit industrial complex, criminal UNjustice system, welfare systems, and the school to prison pipeline; that all work to separate, divide and destroy our indigenous systems of caring and community. As a poor people/indigenous people led organization the personal and organizational lives, dramas, concerns and struggles of the hundreds of co-leaders; poverty, youth, disability and migrant scholars at POOR Magazine are intertwined with the running, survival and thrival of ourselves, our families, our communities and our organization. Like many other poor people/indigenous people led organizations, there is no intention to untwine that real and honest core of truth, that is the indigenous organizational model.
In July of this year POOR Magazine (as well as many of the non-profits and small businesses in our building who we stand in solidarity with) received a notice that our lease would not be renewed by the new owners of the building. POOR Magazine's tenuous hold on stability was severed. As an organization we weren't planning to move until we had raised enough money to purchase a building so we could launch the revolutionary housing, arts and education project that acts as a long-term solution to homelessness: HOMEFULNESS; a sweat-equity co-housing and sustainable community that would house and give equity, support, arts education and economic development opportunities to homeless and formerly homeless families as well as house the offices and classrooms of the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute and Uncle Al's Justice Cafe.
In San Francisco's Bay-view District there have been over 150 evictions reported in this month alone. In Oakland, 72 elder and disabled tenants face homelessness at the California Hotel due to mismanagement by a housing corporation given millions of dollars to "manage" their resident hotel. In New Orleans over 4, 500 people were evicted from public housing targeted for redevelopment. It was time, we thought, to employ another model for systemic change. It was time, we realized, to implement the very powerful UN Declaration on indigenous peoples.
Bop.. be-bop..bop..bop.. the drum beat wove through the voices, la tierra, our land- speaking for all the people who aren't here - who were already displaced, removed and destroyed, people like Jose Morales, a migrant elder removed from his land, his home of 40 years, by unjust laws put in place to protect property not people....
"Indigenous people shall not be forceably removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous people concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and where possible with the option of return," POOR Magazine co-editor, indigenous Pilipino, African, Irish and Native descendent poverty and worker scholar, Tony Robles, read from Article 10-28 of the UN declaration on indigenous peoples throughout the ceremony
"Our land is under attack, we are working under a deadline, the General Services Administration (GSA) is threatening to take back 1/3 of our land but we will not go," Steve Jerome Wyatt, Native Scholar and president of the DQ University coalition testified at the ceremony. The ceremony was opened with a prayer led by indigenous scholars from DQ University and United Native Americans who are currently fighting for their rights to keep the only off-reservation tribal college, DQ University, alive and strong. Steve concluded, "our spirit is with all of you, with the people always! DQ will never die!
"We cannot allow POOR Magazine to leave this land, POOR Magazine represents our collective resistance to exploitation, deportation, incarceration, eviction," Renee Saucedo, Xicana scholar and resistance fighter in the war on migrant peoples, representing one of the events co-sponsors, La Raza Centro Legal, testified, "Who is POOR Magazine?, it is poor people of color, particularly young people, who are fighting criminalizing legislations like the gang injunction, people fighting everyday for justice, for our communities" Renee concluded.
We poor will wear our courage, sorrow and innocence vividly as our burning rage, until Private Property bombs on the stage where for much too long it's been pissing on the people, and then at last human space truly will belong to all. Excerpt from the poem, EVICTION, by San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman.
The Taking Back the Land Ceremony was about resistance to displacement, it was also about cross-organizational, cross generational, and cross-cultural movement building. Over 20 organizations, from San Jose to New Orleans represented, including Delores Street Community Services, SOMCAN, Just Cause Oakland, DQ University, United Native Americans, Coalition on Homelessness, HOMEY, POWER, Justice Matters, League of Revolutionaries for a New America, Faithful Fools Street Ministry, The SF Bayview, P.O.C.C. BLOCK REPORT, First Voice Apprenticeship Program, Lumpia Project, San Francisco Living Wage, CHP, Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, CHAM, Axis of Love, All African Peoples Unification Party, Homeless Action Center and many more. Our lives, our communities, our organizations, our futures, are connected, shared and lived.
Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.(Article 26 of the UN declaration on Indigenous Peoples)
Two SF Board of Supervisors candidates, Eric Quesada and David Campos, were on hand to testify. Each one is vying for district 9
(the Mission) which is ground zero of out of control displacement and gentrification of communities of color. "We have been fighting this fight for 500 years," Eric Quesada galvanized the crowd by calling out the roots of the land theft, the original theft of indigenous peoples land on Turtle Island that happened over 500 years ago when the colonizers "discovered" our land and launched an onslaught of terrorism on indigenous peoples in the name of "ownership" that has continued through today making the connections between historical and current displacement in the Mission, the tenderloin, the Bayview, DQ University, New Orleans and beyond.
Eviction Victim
Eviction Resistance
23 times and counting
"cause without equity we all at-risk"
Born from three generations of poor women of color and countless generations of
colonized others Mama Dee..an act of resistance- by tiny
"My mothers mothers mother was a slave - she worked in tobacco and cotton plantations, my mothers mother cleaned the houses and mansions in San Francisco, our blood is spilled in the name of others peoples profit, we will not be moved - we should own these buildings " all of this is ours," Citing Article 28 of the UN declaration which states, "indigenous people have the right to re-dress", Laure McElroy, POOR Magazine board member, welfareQUEEN and poverty, race and disability scholar in residence at POOR's Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute waved her hands to the land beneath and above our heads as she stated our collective right to reparations.
Bop.. be-bop..bop..bop..
"Any magazine named POOR, that's a magazine where Jesus would be".. proclaimed Sandy Perry street minister from event co-sponsor, CHAM in San Jose. Sandy began his solidarity message to the circle with prayer and a welcome from poor folks in San Jose who are struggling with displacement, eviction and poverty: "When Jesus said all of us can be rich, he didn't mean rich like these developers do, he meant rich with community, with love and with caring for one another", Sandy concluded.
Indigenous peoples have the right to establish their own media in their own languages and to have access to all forms of non-indigenous media without discrimination. (Article 16 of the UN declaration on Indigenous Peoples)
"Hoy es un dia historico"(today is a historical day) because as of today we will no longer accept displacement, Gloria Esteva, migrant and poverty scholar and staff writer with Voce De Inmigrantes en Resistencia at POOR Magazine (the revolutionary bi-lingual media access and education project for migrant raza workers in the Bay Area) who along with POOR Magazine reporteras y reporteros Teresa Molina and Guillermo Gonzalez, connected displacement with the exploitation of migrant peoples locally and globally, Gloria concluded, "This is our land, we built it from scratch, we will be exploited no longer!"
Prensa POBRE reportera Teresa Molina added, "The reason we don't own land is because they don't let us own land so they can exploit us for cheap labor! That is why we will continue to fight until our voices are heard!"
Be bop..bop..bop..bebop
"Please stand up and fight..I am from New Orleans, I know about removal and displacement from the government, thousands of people were removed and displaced and much of that displacement came from the government," August Foreman, Katrina survivor here to speak on Katrina for events in the Bay honoring Katrina's tragedy on August 29, spoke to our circle, with his words creating a national lens to the Take Back the Land Ceremony.
Be bop..bop..bop..bop..the spirits of our displaced ancestors rose up with the drum beat.
Midway through the ceremony, I asked for a silence to be called for all the people who aren't here - who have already been displaced and following that powerful moment, on the wings of the very spirits we called out to for strength our allies and fellow poverty scholars from The California Hotel in Oakland whose 72 elder, disabled tenants have faced eviction due to gross mismanagement by private housing developers OCHI, and allies, Just Cause Oakland arrived at the ceremony.
"We didn't want to become homeless, we didn't want to be put on the street," Mickey Martin, poverty scholar, tenant and now co-manager of the California Hotel described their fight to stay housed even in the face of police raids, city and private funding cuts and mis-management of their housing, "So now our attorney is suing the City for 53 million dollars to keep our hotel open for the rest of our lives - we are going to run our hotel til we become old and gray!"
He was followed by the powerful voice of Robbie from Just Cause Oakland,"We are working now to prevent the eviction of over 215 families from public housing and along with the California Hotel evictions are hitting hundreds of tenants of other residential hotels as well as over 600 public housing units"
One"WE ARE THE PEOPLE and Two..INDIGENOUS PEOPLE!Three! And we are taking back OUR LAND!
Chris Durazo, from displacement fighters and allies at SOMCAN, spoke to the crowd " This "Take Back the Land Ceremony" is very meaningful for us at SOMCAN because they are re-zoning the eastern neighborhoods (in San Francisco) where our families and elders live and we are responding by demanding that they ( the SF Board supervisors) stop building unaffordable condominiums and give it back to our families, our diverse families."
Article 14
Indigenous People have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages and in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning
"I work with the children every Tuesday and Thursday in FAMILY project", Youth Scholar and POOR press author Jasmine Hain spoke to our circle about FAMILY, an on-site classroom which is a joint education project of POOR Magazine and ART and faces eviction from their classroom at POOR. FAMILY is cooridinated by co-madre, poverty scholar and welfareQUEEN Jewnbug, who is also a skilled early childhood arts educator. FAMILY provides intergenerational programming, arts, music , dance and social justice to children ages 2-14 and parents in the Tenderloin struggling with poverty. "I work in FAMILY so that the poor families and elders, mamaz and daddys, can learn to write their stories and become media producers and make change for their families and communities" Jasmine concluded.
If people really wanted to "solve" homelessness they would start giving poor people access to equity! Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia
"I stand here, the descendent of a stolen people in San Francisco, Mexico", The next testifier was welfareQUEEN and poverty scholar in residence at POOR Magazine, Queennandi, who wrote a poem in honor of the ceremony, "My house is not my home, technically I'm houseless and don't own nothing .serial land robberies.the landlord whipped me with an eviction notice cuz I resisted being whipped"
"Under article 22 of the UN declaration, I accuse the federal government of benign neglect of disabled people, women and children locally and globally", founding member of POOR Magazine and poverty scholar in residence Joseph Bolden cited the declaration.
"I want to take you on a journey, in the U.S. we have the fair housing act, it came down under the Reagan administration" locally we have proposition K and L put into affect by Willie Brown, ostensibly to create more offices for non-profits- under these laws we have right to the right to be housed, not temporarily but permanently. Illin and chillin columnist for POOR and founder of KRIP HOP also cited UN declaration 22 and the recent laws that were passed to protect housing but seem to mean nothing to our communities.
Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired. (Article 26 of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples)
Byron Gafford,Bayview resident of Alice Griffith who's family is facing pending eviction along with 150 others recently served with eviction notices in the Bayview thanks to government and corporate developers Lennar displacement efforts, testified with a poetic tribute to long-time girlfriend and recent victim of negligence at the hands of PG&E in the Bayview. "to rob, steal, and kill the good like shirley weston in order to claim the neighborhood of death for his own With the help from PG&Evil.."
.
Aldo Arturro Della Maggiorra called on our spirits and ancestors with the conga drum, Joe Smooke from Bernal Heights Community Center spoke on media mis-representations of poverty, RAM from POOR Magazine led the power-giving chants, San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman spit his beautiful tribute poem, Eviction, allies from Homeless Action Center in Oakland testified on their collaborative work with POOR, Bruce Allison at POOR spoke a tribute poem to elder eviction resistor Jose Morales, Mrs Booy from the Bayview, Quanah Brightman from DQ university, Leroy Moore/Illin n chillin, Jewnbug repping FAMILY project and many others spoke, represented and testified. So many powerful voices rose up and honored the silenced voices of indigenous peoples who struggled before us, who struggle with us today and will struggle and resist this in the future.
"To all of the Newsoms, Guiliani's and Schwarzeneggers, we will never give up." Revolutionary legal advocate, poverty and race scholar in residence at POOR and staff writer Marlon Crump authored a poem for the event which began, "This is OUR land you seize from OUR hand,
be..bop..bop..bopbebop..bop..
Postscript: After the ceremony the new owners of 1095 Market street met with POOR Magazine staff and committed to helping POOR Magazine and the other tenants who face eviction make a smooth and safe and transition to another space that will stabilize your urgently needed youth and adult programming for the long-term.
Well the above is how it hit me as in a delayed dream sequence.
First I though it a sick joke then as I hear over and over on the news, E.T. (I don’t consider Entertainment Television) as News.
Mr. Issace Hayes, old Truck Turner, who on the” Rockford Files” called the main character Mr. James Garner played on the convict-turned detective series (RockFish) For nearly a year I really thought the show was called or renamed RockFish.
That was how strong Issac Hayes's Character was to me.
In 1971 Grammy winner for the music sound track of “Shaft” in his home, unconscious next to his treadmill died soon after.
Police ruled out foul play.
I don’t think he’ll be remembered meerly as “Chef” on “South Park” way too much musical, political, movie air time for that.
Bernie Mac, dead-on real street cred serious with a series to boot and movies.
One of the Kings Of Comedy and in a few action films died of complications due to pneumonia Saturday in a Chicago-area Hospital.
Mr. Mac was 50 and Mr. Hayes 69 still relatively young, much too young to die.
Yes, there's another previous death before these two shining stars.
Earlier, Tuesday, July 22, Ms. Estelle, Getty died at 84 In Los Angeles.
Star of stage, and screen best known as Ms. Bea Arthur’s satirical, quick, witted, and quipping Mother Sophia on” Golden Girls”The tv sit com from 1985 to 1992.
Ms. Getty is surrounded by family and friends before her demise.
It is the way of life I guess that the so called three happens or are conditioned to see it?
I like many others didn’t want to place Ms. Getty along with Mac and Hayes.
Yes, I admit I didn’t hear about Ms. Getty until later and waited for another of my people to fall replacing Ms. Getty but I’d be wrong.
All three were in their fields were great entertainers and that’s the way of it except…
How Ms. Getty had family and friends surrounding her before she left earth.
While Hayes is alone and Mac with loved ones and friends.
It tells me to keep your dear friends close, family closer and do as much good as you can before departing this fragile existence.
For though reincarnation’s return may be possible, just in case be the best person you can be because you just may see all of 'em again someday.
It’s always best to have more good, dear friends than bad, revenge driven enemies.
Send comments to ask/tell Joe(I don’t know which) @poormagazine.com or jsph_bldn@yahoo.com
Julius Domantay is released from prison on a pardon and within minutes is seized
by Tony Robles/PNN
An ancestral voice draws me closer. Thick syllables weave through the air like brown leaves steeped with the wisdom of winter rain; proudly displaying its beauty like a butterfly coming into bloom--wings beyond reach.
I have no watch but I know I'm late. I scurry down Sansome Street past skyscrapers that Henry Miller described as the "Great big tombs in the sky". I reach my destination - The United States Appraisers Building at 630 Sansome. I'm met by 2 uniformed security officers with brown faces like mine. Same routine - off with the metals, belt and dignity. I deposit my metals and belt in a plastic tray. They look at me as if I'd committed a crime --no connection in our brown faces. I retrieve my belongings and walk to the elevators.
I get off. A group of Pilipinos minus uniforms and badges are gathered. I nod at them and walk through a door. A man in an orange sweatshirt sits behind a plexiglass barrier. I sit and pick up the phone. "Are you Julius?" I ask. "Yes" he replies. His is the voice I've been looking for. His is the brown face I will connect with.
Julius Domantay's face is youthful. He has spent the majority of his 50 plus years on earth within the confines of prison. His eyes are piercing yet gentle; eyes once set like stones-- eyes that now radiate passion and truth about his life and community.
The son of a Filipino immigrant father, Juluis went through hard times as a youth. He and his siblings were teased for their broken English, alienating them in a culture that placed little value upon them. The hardest relationship was with his father. The elder Domantay left Julius and the family to come to the US; sending for them later. When 11 year old Julius arrived in the US, he was in for a surprise. "When I got off the plane my father told me, this is your new mother", Julius says leaning close to the plexiglass.
As Julius and his 4 brothers and 2 sisters grew, their father had difficulty keeping a roof over their heads. He wasn't the kind of parent to reason with his kids. Julius got into trouble, landing in youth facilities. "I was a gangbanger", he says. One day in 1977 he and a group of friends went for a ride. They stopped to get beer at a corner store owned by Sam Totah. Totah was a long time storeowner who had businesses in the Western Addition of the 60's. Julius pulled a gun and the man known as "Uncle Sam" lay dead. Domantay and his crew fled, not bothering to take the beer. He was captured shortly after and tried as an adult at the age of 17 - the youngest person ever tried as an adult in San Francisco at the time. His sentence - 7 years to life.
Julius has spent more than a quarter century in various prisons in California - most of that time in San Quentin. Like many youngsters coming in for the first time, he was hotheaded and combative - alienating his fellow convicts. "Lots of guys come in wanting to be bad, to be something they're not" says Julius. Julius spent time in solitary for fighting. Julius adds, "You got to be humble. You got to be able to say I dont want to fight, and walk away".
Over time Julius has gained wisdom through examining his life. He earned his high school equivalency degree and auto vocational training. He has also attended groups addressing anger issues. The most important moment took place in the main yard at San Quentin. "I was with my homeboy when I got distracted. I walked away and came to a man preaching the gospel. I gave my life to God that day. He found me". Since then he has become an effective minister, touching and changing lives behind prison walls. I look at Julius' face through the plexiglass barrier. Id like to kick it in and embrace this brother but I can't. I can only look at his face and the hint of tattoo on his arm.
Julius has worked with at risk youth for more than a decade, giving testimony to his own life in an effort to reach kids that are headed in the wrong direction. One organization he works with is United Playaz (www.unitedplayaz.org), based in San Francisco. Founder Rudy Corpuz describes Julius' approach in reaching the youth. "His approach is genuine, truthful, embracing and real", says Corpuz, a former convict at San Quentin turned community and youth advocate. "He has inspired many youngsters to get out of the gang life; some are in college and leading productive lives. Others are travelling across the nation spreading the message that gangs ain't the answer and some are parents themselves". United Playaz and other organizations recently held a fundraiser on behalf of the Domantay family, beset by legal costs. But the costs are not all monetary. "When you do time, your family does time too", says Julius.
Julius was granted parole several times only to have it denied by Governor Gray Davis who asserted that no convicted murderer would be paroled on his watch. Julius' parole was approved by Governor Schwarzenegger, who had previously denied him, earlier this year. Upon his release he was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and has been held in Yuba County ever since. At issue is the fact that Julius' immigration visa had expired while he was incarcerated. The government wants to deport him back to the Philippines. "Go back to what?" Julius asks. "I have a couple aunties in the Philippines but they're in their 80's. They don't want to take care of me nor should they have to". He now waits as his lawyer and family fights to keep him in the US.
"It's all about politics", says Julius. "The governor is playing politics with my case to appeal to his constituency. I can fight it but like everything else, it's about money".
Julius waits while the courts and the politicians take their time. His lawyer has taken his case to the 9th circuit court of appeals. If he loses there, the next step is the United States Supreme Court.
I jot on my note pad. Julius' relatives are close by. There isn't much time until he is transported to the holding facility in Yuba County. Our time together is over. Before I leave I ask him if God has ever let him down.
"Never" he replies without hesitation.
I thank him for his time, say goodbye and hang up the phone. I walk to the elevators having just spoken to a free man - freer than most.
I walk past the Pilipino guards and out the door leaving the words that echo off the walls and into their ears: FREE JULIUS! FREE JULIUS! FREE JULIUS!
A profile on the revolutionary work of (CHAM) Community Homeless Alliance Ministry
by Tony Robles/PNN
"Jesus was a revolutionary"
--Bill Sorro
The preacher and the poet are similar. Both are passionate and use words to illustrate that passion. Both use actions to back up the words and both are afflicted with shortcomings and contradictions. As a revolutionary I ask, is God a part of our revolution? If not, do we have room for him (or her)? Does an empty belly have room for food? How would you answer this question?
I met 2 spiritual revolutionaries from the Bay Area on a recent trip to Chicago - from a San Jose based organization called CHAM--Community Homeless Alliance Ministry www.cham-ministry.org. Pastors Sandy Perry and Muliaga Togotogo were attending a national conference, along with POOR Magazine, on housing and homelessness. Sandy and Togo was an unlikely pair - Sandy a bespectacled man who looked like an accountant or engineer and Togo, who looked like the offensive lineman of an NFL football team. The 2 are a pair of beautiful brothers in the lord, dedicated to ending poverty and homelessness.
CHAM started in 1990 as SHA (Student Homeless Alliance) at San Jose State University by Pastor Scott Wagers who was a sociology student. Sandy Perry joined as a volunteer in 1991. Since then CHAM has grown into a powerful organization working in tandem with community and other faith-based groups advocating for increased affordable housing, the decriminalization of poverty, and decent, accessible healthcare.
Perry says, "Housing is a human right. We try to organize people to reclaim housing as a right. This is a justice issue, not charity. Charity is what they use to cover up injustice".
CHAM's work includes operating a shelter to house homeless families. The resources of the shelter are the residents themselves. They handle the cooking and the cleaning. "In our view it's entirely communal. 5 families currently stay there" says Perry. "The normal stay is 3 months".
Recently CHAM representatives were in Chowchilla on a "Journey for Justice". The event included panels and speakers addressing the increase in the numbers of prisons and the increased numbers of houseless people in Fresno. Because of CHAM and the work of their allies, the city of Fresno was found guilty of violating the civil rights of houseless people by law enforcement's practice of throwing away their property. The city was forced to pay monetary compensation to those it violated. "When people come together in spirit, we can find the solutions to these problems" says Pastor Togo.
On Saturday October 25th, CHAM will host a forum at their church called, "Reclaiming the Right to Housing". The forum will call for full funding of the National Affordable housing trust fund, a half-million new section 8 vouchers and an immediate moratorium on all foreclosures. The forum will be held at First Christian Church, 80 S. Fifth Street in San Jose, 930 a.m. to 1pm.
Was Jesus a revolutionary, I asked Pastor Sandy. "Absolutely", his voice sang out. Jesus said "blessed are the poor and woe to the rich. Those who are first shall be last and those who are last shall be first". That's the definition of a revolutionary...someone who wants to turn things upside down".
