By Tim Redmond
SF Weekly and its corporate parents, New Times and Village Voice Media, owe us $20 million from our lawsuit victory last year — and they’re trying hard to duck payment.
But a big national chain can’t hide its money forever — and we’ve made some progress. Here’s a press release we’re sending out on our collection efforts:
By Caitlin Donohue
Chef Jon Hall of sustainable food management company Bon Appetit was profiled in recent SFBG article on class issues in the sustainable food movement. Photo by Erik Anderson
I’ve been pleased and impressed with the thoughtful feedback we’ve received on my recent cover story on class issues in the sustainable food movement. Many who wrote in took issue with my charge that sustainable food activists often don’t do enough for the working class. They cited programs that “good food” groups have implemented to work on making sustainable food accessible to low income groups, many of which I was excited to learn about and applaud. But is it counterproductive to “go after” organizations that are already doing important work to bring health back into our food systems, as rchstev- whose intelligent response raises a lot of great points- implies?
rchstev writes:
I’m disappointed, however, that the author and Bay Guardian editors chose – in the opening passage, closing statement, and under-headline – to disparage the sustainable food movement (and Slow Food in particular) as a hook for delivering the message.
Problems in our food system are complex and multifaceted. In many instances, addressing one concern, such as increasing wages and benefits to farm workers, can create offsetting problems, such as affecting the viability of smaller operations who want to produce high quality, healthy food and provide workers fair compensation and safe conditions. Talk with most independent producers and even the most successful say it’s an extremely difficult balance. (One reason numerous organizations are actively working to effect governmental changes.)
By Tim Redmond
The battle over the future of the Democratic Party in San Francisco is underway in earnest. The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), which represents downtown property interests, is holding a forum Dec. 11 to talk about the Democratic County Central Committee — and, perhaps, kick off organizing for a downtown-backed DCCC slate.
The forum is in the board room of the Chamber of Commerce, which is also sponsoring the event.
Mayor Gavin Newsom and the downtown business community have been decidedly unhappy with the state of the panel that controls policy for the local party since a progressive slate led by Aaron Peskin took control in 2008. The DCCC often seems like a political footnote, but it has considerable influence: the committee decides on local party endorsements, putting the stamp of the Democratic Party behind candidates for local office. And the San Francisco Democratic Party slate card has been largely in the progressive camp the past two years.
The BOMA forum will feature two DCCC incumbents, Mary Jung and Scott Wiener, who are both in the moderate-centrist camp. Wiener told me he sees this just as an informational event, “to let people know what the committee does.” He said he knew of no political agenda behind the discussion. (Although, interestingly, Peskin — the chair of the local party — wasn’t invited to speak.)
Ken Cleaveland, BOMA’s director of governmental affairs, also said he was only out to educate his constituents. “Most of the business community doesn’t know what the DCCC does and doesn’t know why it’s important,” he told me. “We need to be aware of the influence it has.”
But he’s certainly not against using the meeting as an organizing platform: “I would love to see a pro-business slate happen,” he said. “The business community hasn’t been as organized as the progressives have in fielding slates.”
We all knew this was coming — but it’s a sign that the progressives will have to mount an even-more-serious campaign to hold onto control of the DCCC against what could be a well-funded assault in June.
By Steven T. Jones
Before you wait for your usual bus or train this weekend, check here for new changes to Muni routes and schedules. Here’s what I wrote about the changes in this week’s Guardian:
Service reductions that will affect about half of all Muni routes start Dec. 5, the result of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s early summer deal to close a $129 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year. And that’s just the beginning of the bad news.
Less than halfway through this budget cycle, SFMTA is already looking at an additional $45 million deficit, partly because of the agency’s failure to follow through on plans to increase parking revenue, such as the stalled proposal to extend parking meter hours.
So additional layoffs and Muni service reductions or even another fare hike are possible, even though Muni fares have already doubled to $2 since Gavin Newsom became mayor. SFMTA officials say midyear budget reduction decisions will be made by the SFMTA Board of Directors over the next two months.
By Rebecca Bowe
Tomorrow evening, Project Censored will celebrate its release of Censored 2010, a yearbook compilation of the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-2009, published through the nationally renowned program at Sonoma State University. The Guardian’s coverage of Project Censored’s Top 10 Stories can be found here.
The event, which will be held in Santa Rosa, will feature music, food and drink, Project Censored awards, and a list of leading progressive speakers including author Michael Parenti, Flashpoints Radio’s Dennis Bernstein, Miguel Molina, and Nora Barrows-Friedman, and Guardian publisher Bruce Brugmann.
Every year since 1976, Project Censored has spotlighted the 25 most significant news stories that were largely ignored or misrepresented by the mainstream press. Now the group is expanding its mission — to promote alternative news sources. But it continues to report the biggest national and international stories that the major media ignored.
The project staff begins by sifting through hundreds of stories nominated by individuals at Sonoma State, where the project is based, as well as 30 affiliated universities all over the country.
Articles are verified, fact-checked, and selected by a team of students, faculty, and evaluators from the wider community, then sent to a panel of national judges to be ranked. The end product is a book, co-edited this year by Phillips and associate director Mickey Huff, that summarizes the top stories, provides in-depth media analysis, and includes resources for readers who are hungry for more substantive reporting.
Admission for tomorrow’s event is $35 including food, one drink ticket and an autographed Censored 2010 yearbook; $20.00 general; and $10.00 for students and low-income individuals. Proceeds will benefit Project Censored. (Click here for details.)
By Steven T. Jones
Mayor Gavin Newsom, with Bike Coalition director Leah Shahum and Department of Public Works head Ed Reiskin, helped create new space for bikes yesterday.
As he helped paint San Francisco’s first green “bike box” and celebrate the creation of the first new bicycle lanes in more than three years, Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday finally seemed to really reengage with the press and public for the first time since his failed gubernatorial campaign and the testy period that followed.
The occasion was right in Newsom’s sweet spot — urban greening and livability initiatives — and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition actually delayed this scheduled press conference for two days so the mayor could attend after returning from a trip to India. Also in attendance were Sups. Ross Mirkarimi (the only elected official who biked to the event), Bevan Dufty, and Sophie Maxwell, SFMTA director Nat Ford and SFMTA board president Tom Nolan, DPW head Ed Reiskin, and a variety of activists.
I’ll have more on the press conference and San Francisco’s quick pace for making bike improvements in next week’s Guardian, but for now I want to focus on Newsom’s extended conversation with journalists after the main event, which went almost 30 minutes and covered a variety of issues.
Newsom was still combative and petulant at times, and he continues to take a dismissive approach to those who say he must take a more active role in finding new revenue sources. But he took all questions and stayed engaged in the conversation until most of the journalists had peeled away.
And for those who remained, Newsom and Ford ended up announcing some significant news: Clear Channel Communication has failed to exercise its contractual right to create a bike-sharing program for San Francisco – a 50-bike proposal that the Guardian and activists had criticized as more symbolic than significant – and the city is now seeking a new vendor for a bike-sharing program that would include about 2,700 bikes.
Text and photos by Sarah Phelan
The City Attorney’s office has been trying to smoke out Russoniello for weeks on the city’s sanctuary ordinance.
And finally, US Attorney Joe Russoniello has replied in writing to City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s Nov. 10 request that Russoniello provide “reasonable assurance” that his office won’t prosecute local officials who follow the city’s new sanctuary policy.
And it seems that Russoniello’s answer is “no way,” though it’s qualified by conditions that suggest that the feds are only interested in deporting convicted juvenile felons, even as their policies rip innocent kids from their families.
“I have no authority, discretionary or otherwise, to grant amnesty from federal prosecution to anyone who follows the protocol set out in the referenced ordinance,” Russoniello wrote in his Dec. 3 letter to Herrera.
Meanwhile, a group of community advocates shared their concerns that the sanctuary legislation be duly enacted with City Attorney spokesperson Matt Dorsey (left) today. (See end of this post for further details.)
“We present a case for indictment when there is a reasonable basis for believing that a federal crime has been committed and a conviction can be obtained,” Russoniello wrote, noting that, ”not every case that meets this test is necessarily brought.”
“A number of factors may come into play… including, as you correctly referenced with respect to so-called ‘medical marijuana’ cases, our need to prioritize cases, given our limited resources,” Russoniello stated.
Under the city’s new sanctuary policy, juveniles will get their day in court before being referred to federal immigration authorities in an effort to prevent needless deportations.
This new policy, which takes effect Dec. 10, gives the city’s Juvenile Probation Department 60 days (Feb. 8, 2010) to figure out how to implement the new legislation.
But Mayor Gavin Newsom has said he intends to ignore the policy, claiming it violates federal law, as has Gabe Calvillo, president of the city’s probation officers union. They also cite a federal Grand Jury that Russoniello convened last year to investigate the actions of Juvenile Probation Department officers, who tried to repatriate Honduran teenagers accused of selling drugs, instead of referring them to the feds forl deportation.
City Attorney spokesperson Matt Dorsey listens as community advocates express frustration over Newsom’s comments that he intends to ignore the sanctuary legislation, even as Herrera has promised to aggressively defend the policy.
Russoniello has claimed that JPD’s former activities were tantamount to “harboring.” But that procedure was discontinued last year, and it won’t be reinstated, when the city’s amended policy kicks in, in February.
But while Sup. David Campos has repeatedly stated that his sanctuary policy amendments won’t shield anyone found guilty of a felony, Russoniello claims the new policy violates federal law, even as he admits that cases are typically prosecuted by his office in the belief that a conviction can be obtained, and on a priority basis.
Dorsey (second right) listens as Cynthia Muñoz-Ramos of the St. Peter’s Housing Committee (far right) requests that Herrera provide the local community with written assurances that the new sanctuary policy will be duly implemented.
By Rebecca Bowe
How much did the mayor’s security detail cost when he campaigned outside SF? SFPD isn’t telling.
When San Francisco Police Department Assistant Chief Jim Lynch spoke before the Rules Committee this morning, he mentioned that the Police Chief George Gascon was unable to attend because he was at the swearing-in ceremony of Los Angeles’ new police chief.
“Out of curiousity,” Sup. Michela Alioto-Pier asked Lynch, “How many officers went to L.A. with Chief Gascon?” She was referring to his security detail for an event that was clearly unrelated to San Francisco city business.
Lynch replied that he could not say. When pressed whether security had in fact been provided for him by SFPD, he gave the same response. Sorry. Can’t tell you.
It’s the same response that Sup. Ross Mirkarimi received for months when he tried in vain to get the dollar amount for Mayor Gavin Newsom’s security detail for campaign-related events outside city and state borders. According to the SFPD, divulging that information could compromise security tactics.
The discussion at this morning’s Rules Committee focused on legislation authored by Mirkarimi, co-sponsored by Sups. John Avalos, David Campos, and Chris Daly, which would require elected officials to reimburse the city for the cost of “dignitary security” (think bodyguards) when that protection is provided on the campaign trail outside San Francisco.
“It’s not about one elected official,” Mirkarimi noted, while acknowledging that Newsom’s frequent travel had sparked interest in the issue. “It’s about reviewing standard operating procedure,” he said, and creating a system for cost recovery when taxpayer dollars are used to send SFPD forces off to campaign-related events. With the General Fund already in rough shape, Mirkarimi added, “fiscal vigilance is demanded.”
By Ryan Thomas Riddle
The Catholic Church, which is exempt from paying property taxes, is feeling persecuted for having to pay property transfer taxes.
Not surprisingly, the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco is contesting the Dec. 4 ruling that holds it responsible for paying an estimated $14.4 million dollars in transfer taxes to the city, vowing to challenge the ruling in court.
In April 2008, the diocese had shuffled 232 properties from one church-held corporation to another. Archbishop George H. Niederauer argued that the property transfers were exempt from transfer taxes in a December 2007 statement. The Transfer Tax Review Board disagreed. The 3-0 ruling was a major victory for Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting whose office is calling this the “the second largest transfer tax event in our city’s history.”
By Marke B.
Anna Conda runs in D6. Photo by Pete Werner, www.wernerimage.com
So, yes, punk-rock drag mistress, community spokesperson, tireless activist, party hostess extraordinaire, exceptional hairdresser, and all-around knockabout gal Anna Conda has thrown her bloody boa into the ring with about 15 others to slide into Cris Daly’s, er, seat in District 6. In an exclusive round of frantic Facebooking she told us:
My political stance for this campaign? I am not running my campaign only to win — because I have no control over winning or not. The voters do. I support repealing Prop 13 on commercial real estate. Many such properties are now owned by trusts and foreign interests — and why should they not be paying taxes when we can’t find money for ADAP [AIDS Drug Assistance Program]? Injustice by governing bodies is intolerable and it is now commonplace. What I hear from people, they feel like they can’t change anything. I’m here to say we can and we will.
Anna’s really found her political voice in the past couple of years, leading many “Take Back the Polk” protests against the dequeerification of that once proud pink hotspot and standing up against AIDS service budget cuts. In fact, there’s been a wonderful if odd surge of drag queen activism in the past year, perhaps accelerated by the passage of Prop 8. Well, one good thing came of that, I guess. Help on Heels.
Anna Conda at a recent protest against ADAP cuts. Photo by Ryan Cleary
(Could we be seeing the resurrection of Sister Boom Boom‘s ghost?)
By Tim Redmond
I always walk by the red kettles without putting in money. Mostly that’s because I like Jon Carroll’s Untied Way — I give money directly to panhandlers and cut out the middle man.
But I have a special dislike for charities that talk of good works to hide their institutional bigotry. And now this.
Skip the kettle. Give the Untied Way.
By Tim Redmond
So the mayor of Vallejo thinks gay people can’t go to heaven because they’re sinners. If that’s true, I’m afraid heaven will be a very boring and unattractive place.
By Steven T. Jones
The latest bike lane is on Mississippi Street in front of the Guardian Building.
In the week since a judge freed San Francisco to finally do bicycle improvements, city crews have already installed three new bike lanes and dozens of bike racks and shared lanes markings, known as sharrows or bike boxes.
“This is huge. We’re really pleased with the pace the city is moving on. We’re thrilled to see so much on the streets already,” San Francisco Bicycle Coalition director Leah Shahum told us.
The latest lane, still being striped as I write this, is on Mississippi Street, right in front of the Guardian building. Yesterday, crews converted one of two turn lanes at 9th and Howard streets into a bike lane. And on Monday, they created a bike lane on Scott Street through The Wiggle, a route popular with bicyclists.
Tomorrow at 1 p.m., SFBC will hold a press conference at Scott and Oak streets, where city crews are creating one of the new bike boxes (intersection spots where cyclists can safely wait for the light to change) going up around the city. Attendees will include Mayor Gavin Newsom, Sups. Ross Mirkarimi and Bevan Dufty, and SFMTA chief Nat Ford.
“The SFMTA is poised to make San Francisco the pre-eminent city for bicycling in North America,” Ford said in a press release announcing the partial lifting of the three-year-old injunction against new bike projects. “Today’s action by the Superior Court will foster the responsible promotion of bicycling envisioned in the Charter-mandated Transit First policy.”
By Rebecca Bowe
Would you pay five cents more for this if it was going to fund local health care services?
So the city of San Francisco is staring down a $522 million deficit for next year. Does this mean local elected officials are seriously exploring options for new revenue measures? When we asked Board President David Chiu last week if new revenue options were in the cards for next year, he replied, “that has to be one part of the equation.”
David Metz, a partner in Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, says he discovered that a majority of San Franciscans supported certain revenue-generating options after his firm was commissioned by the San Francisco Labor Council to conduct a poll. FMMM&A has conducted polls on hundreds of tax and bond measures since 1980, when the firm was established.
“There was a majority of support for a number of different options,” Metz told the Guardian. FMMM&A asked 600 “likely voters” in San Francisco in July if they would approve temporary tax increases that would be imposed for no more than three years to help prop up city services. Tossing out a few ideas for bringing in more money, this is what they found:
· 72 percent of respondents said they would support a nickel-per-drink tax on alcoholic beverages in bars, in order to bolster city health-care services. 27 percent were opposed.
· 58 percent said they would vote for an increase in tax charges to hotel / motel guests. 37 percent said nay.
· 60 percent said they’d support a temporary half-cent sales tax increase. 38 percent opposed it.
· 53 percent said they’d support a 2 percent, temporary tax on the value of cars registered in San Francisco, while 44 percent said they’d reject it.
By Tim Redmond
It’s not this affair or that affair. It’s his connection with some evil corporate giants, particularly Chevron.
Or so says Dave Zirin, writing in The Nation:
In 2008 Chevron entered a five-year relationship with Tiger Woods’s foundation under the guise of philanthropy. But if Woods had a shred of social conscience, this partnership never would have existed. Lawsuits have been issued against Chevron for dumping toxic waste all over the planet. Alaska, Canada, Brazil, Angola and California have all accused Chevron of dumping. Even worse, Chevron has a partnership with Burma’s ruling military junta on the country’s Yadana gas pipeline project, the single greatest source of revenue for the military, estimated at nearly $5 billion since 2000.
Zirin’s one of the few progressive political sportswriters out there, and I hope this point catches on. I don’t care who Tiger Woods did or didn’t have sex with, but I’ve always been a little pissed that the world’s most prominent and richest black athlete has been so generally silent about race, class and human rights issues. (He wouldn’t even take a real stand against the exclusion of women at Augusta National.)
By the way, the other best comment on this whole sordid affair comes from Scott Ostler:
Hit a fire hydrant … hit a tree … escape from dire peril thanks to crazed flailing and hacking with a club. Isn’t it crazy how this matches the description of my most recent round of golf?
By Rebecca Bowe
Not every bright star who snags a James Madison Freedom of Information Award is a superstar investigative journalist. The annual contest, administered by the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, honors citizens and journalists alike who’ve exercised their right to obtain public documents and used the information to produce stellar work. The awards also recognize those who’ve poured time and energy into promoting greater government transparency.
Right now, the SPJ NorCal Chapter’s Freedom of Information Committee is accepting nominations for The 25th Annual James Madison Awards. The awards recognize Northern California organizations and individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of freedom of information and expression in the spirit of James Madison, the creative force behind the First Amendment.
Click here to go to an online nomination form. The last day to send a nomination is January 9, 2010.
The awards are presented at a ceremony in March during National Freedom of Information Week, near the anniversary of Madison’s birth. Eligible for nomination are Northern California journalists, citizens, media organizations, or community groups who, during 2009, have defended public access to meetings, public records, or court proceedings or otherwise promoted the public’s right to know, publish and speak freely about issues of public concern.
By Tim Redmond
I got a bit of a start this morning when I read on Calitics that Assemblymember Fiona Ma, who has done some awful stuff in Sacramento, was in the running to be the next speaker of the Assembly.
But that, for the moment, appears to be a false alarm — when I contacted Ma, she forwarded me this Capitol Weekly piece that quotes her supporting John Perez, who would be the first gay speaker.
So it looks at this point as if the race is between Perez and Kevin De Leon, who will have a lot of progressive backers. Perez supporters say he has the advantage of being a first termer, which means he’d be around as spekaer for five years — an eternity in term-limit land. On the other hand, he’s also relatively inexperienced; this is his first elective office, and when you’re fighting with the governor and the GOP, experience helps a lot.
But it won’t be Ma — “Unless she suddenly changes her mind again,” one Capitol insider told me. “And with Fiona, you never know.”
By Steven T. Jones
Photo by Bill Hackwell from our award-winning story “Resistance is futile — or is it?“
As President Obama announces an escalation of the war in Afghanistan this evening, anti-war activists are planning to take to the streets in protest. The questions now are whether the movement can gather the numbers and energy that it had back in 2003, after years of being ignored and demoralized, and whether this new president will listen.
Code Pink will host on event today at Tommy’s Joynt (1101 Geary) starting at 4 p.m. for those who want to watch Obama’s speech together, and they’ll march on the Federal Building afterward. There will also be a march this evening in the East Bay, starting at 7 p.m. at the clock tower at 4063 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland.
Then, tomorrow (Dec. 2) at 5 p.m., a half-dozen anti-war groups will join forces for the main local march against the war, gathering on Market Street at Powell. And the American Friends Service Committee will simultaneously protest outside the new Federal Building (90 7th Street).
P.S. If you’re still on the fence about whether escalating the war in Afghanistan is “necessary” or a dangerous clusterfuck, check out this piece in The Nation about how US contractors are funding the Taliban or this piece on Bill Moyers Journal about how this escalation is likely to do more harm than good.
By Ryan Thomas Riddle
Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting is the victor in the high-stakes battle against the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. The church has been ordered to pay an estimated $14.4 million in transfer taxes to the city. But the victory comes on the heels of the California State Board of Equalization’s decision to slightly lower property taxes statewide.
On Tuesday, Dec. 4, the Transfer Tax Review Board voted 3-0 in favor of the Assessor’s Office, resulting in what the office is calling “the second largest transfer tax event in our city’s history.” The board decided that the Archdiocese’s extensive 2008 property transfers were taxable under the Real Property Transfer Tax Ordinance.
Ting said via phone conference that board’s decision shows that his office has been “aggressive and fairly enforcing the law.” He added that while the Assessor’s Office may have turned a blind eye in the past, the board’s verdict shows that every taxpayer gets treated the same under his watch. “We have worked hard to ensure every taxpayer is being assessed transfer taxes in a fair and consistent manner.”
By Just A Guy
Editors note: Just A Guy spent more than two years as an inmate in a California state prison. He was recently released and is continuing to comment on news and trends in the prison-industrial complex.
Been out for about a week and half now and things are going really well.
I am very fortunate to have been able to get out of California and go home for the holidays, very fortunate that I have the means and support to do so — and to stay the fuck out of California.
I think of all the men and women that are going to get out to nothing and wonder what will become of them. I wonder how well spent our taxpaying dollars are being utilized to ensure the safety of the public. How can the situation that currently exists in California promote public safety? How can a system that allows parolees to live on the streets possibly protect you from someone who wants a warm bed and something to eat?
What is going on out there? Where is the money going? Already, before I got out, they were starting to shut down a lot of the programs that were supposed to enable a person to transition back into society more effectively, that made it easier for a person to get work, to stay off drugs/alcohol, to live.
Here’s what’s going on now:
The state, in its brilliance, wants to send a good portion of people to county jails to ease prison overcrowding. It’s completely unconscionable that the state try to pass the buck to the counties. If you think there are no programs for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmates in the prisons, ha! Wait till you see how fewer there are in the county jail.
Remember, all of this is done in the name of public safety, yet they fail to tell you the full story of what will happen in the future when these people get out with even less rehabilitative programs. All of this is to cover political asses. It’s political wrangling, and there are no plan plans that will save butts across party lines — because they will blame the feds if Willie Horton happens (it will).
What really needs to happen is for the public to wake up and realize the self-fulfilling prophecy of recidivism is a result of 70,000 families being dependent on CDCR for their livelihoods (not to mention vendors etc…). That California is a state that is dependent on its prisons for its sense of self. Yeah, really, most people are, disgustingly defined by their occupations, so California is defined by its.
Ya’ll have fun now getting unburied from your mess.
By Steven T. Jones
Going into another weekend, I find myself thinking about our story on San Francisco Police officers seizing DJs’ laptops as they raid house parties. The SF Weekly got on the story about the same time we did, but their music columnist got it into the paper a week before us. We furthered her reporting by naming the main cop culprit and showing the Chief’s Office knows about it, but it’s frustrating that the policy isn’t being addressed more directly, given the level of concern. Our story is getting a few comments and I’d love to hear others weigh in here on a tactic that seems punitive and perhaps unconstitutional.
That’s what I called it when SFPD spokesperson Lyn Tomioka wrote an e-mail to me defending the practice (I was the editor for our story, which was written by freelancer Joshua Emerson Smith). She wrote: “Our primary focus is always public safety. In the past we have seen over crowed [sic] events that the Fire Department would not have been able to rescue all of the people, in the event a fire broke out. Under age drinking is another concern and the serious issues that have been associated with that. There are other public safety issues that concern us.”
To which I responded: “I understand your concerns about fire and underaged drinking, but I’m still not clear what those things have to do with laptop computers or how their seizure proves anything. Playing music is not a crime, nor is having it on your computer. Frankly, the policy seems punitive and perhaps unconstitutional. We hope the SFPD will review this tactic, allow the public to weigh in on it, and consider modifying or rescinding it.”
What do you think?
By Steven T. Jones
Whether you mark the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day (I tend toward the latter), the color of San Francisco today does seem colored by the darker hues on the spectrum. Maybe part of that is the fact that Black Friday this year falls on the anniversary of the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone.
Nonetheless, I just pedaled past our downtown shopping citadels a little while ago to take in the mood. The shoppers definitely outnumber the protesters of hyper-consumerism or fur, but neither side seemed particularly animated by their missions. Maybe it’s the gray day or the tryptophan hangovers.
But if you just want to go with the somber motif, you can join the march marking the Milk and Moscone deaths, which starts at 6 p.m. at Harvey Milk Plaza at Market and Castro. Speakers include Milk and Moscone relatives and two of Milk’s old allies on the Board of Supervisors, Harry Britt and Ruth Carol Silver.
Or if you’re feeling a bit more spirited and mischievous, Critical Mass starts just after 6 p.m. at Justin Herman Plaza, at the base of Market Street. Nothing says “thank you for shopping in San Francisco” like being blocked by bicyclists on the drive back to the ‘burbs.
