— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
As you might have recalled from last fall, the Rec. & Park Department decided to lease parts of Dolores Park over to businesses without proposing the idea to neighbors and park users. Some people supported the department, most people did not. And then there was that small minority, primarily led by Chicken John, that talked about active resistance to the commercialization of the park.
Now I may not be a fan of Chicken, but credit to him for sticking to his guns. This Saturday at 2pm, Chicken's organizing a “puke in” at the park in protest to the opening of a new foodie-centric taco truck:
We are having a puke in. Pukin'. We are going to collectively lose our lunch on a trailer this weekend. I've hired a photographer to document it. To show other potential stores in the park what happens when you sell the park out. When you try to be an agent of Control. When you steamroll people.
So why exactly Chicken and a few hundred other people puking in Dolores this Saturday at 2pm?
I'm gonna go puke on a trailer this weekend because no one knows that this weekend a commercial entity is going to open a store in Dolores Park and is doing it without anyone knowing. Just like last year, they are trying to sneak in like sneaky sneakers. After all the meetings, the 1,500 signatures we collected, the emails, the outrage and the vitriol we showed last year, it's the same slimy tactics all over again. The fact is that Dolores Park is surrounded on 3 sides by pavement which is designed to drive cars, trucks and trailers on. Why these people just don't put their store on the other side of the curb is beyond me. The Department of Parks and Recreation wants the revenue. Why? Because they just hired like 5 more $100,000 + a year staffers they have to pay… although that shouldn't be a problem, as they fired ALL the teachers and closed 80% of the clubhouses.
He goes on to talk about how Rec. and Park isn't listening to neighbors. That they're commercializing the park was always done deal; that they never cared what the users of the park thought. That DP is “a collaborative artwork, not a profit center.” Good points, indeed. So what happens next?
The permits that RPD issued are still valid. So very quietly, very stealthy… they went about forming alliances to put more stores in the park. They were trying to be very quiet about it, but it didn't work. Because EVERYONE they tried to form an alliance with, said they didn't want a store in the park. So we told them that we would protest. Picket. We would sue. We would pour gasoline over our heads to make us martyrs for the cause.
Whoa! People are going to be burning themselves alive? Fucking. There.
Anyway, if you want to learn more about the protest, you can check out their Facebook page, look at the new petition being circulated around, and read all of Chicken's thoughts on the matter.
Comments (96)
What an asshole.
Damn. Erik beat me again. That guy is good. I’m gonna recruit him….
I can’t read that many grammatical errors without gouging my eyes out. Someone needs to lead me to the puking spot. Also, don’t leave me there.
Ironic that someone complaining about “slimy tactics” used by “agent[s] of Control” is going to puke on someone’s truck because they are not doing what he wants
You have to battle slimy people with slime. Our plan is to fill the park with vomit, and watch the trailer float away on a river of puke. The progressive left of SF has a gag reflex. Shove privatization down our throats long enough, we’ll puke on you. It’s not about not getting our way, it’s about just being sick to our stomach. Hasn’t politics ever made you nauseous?
I find it infuriating that recently you were claiming that you never were encouraging people to spit on blue bottle if it opened, trying to rewrite your prior words (that were very clearly stating that you were encouraging people to actually spit) to claim that you were saying people would be spitting mad. And now you launch this ridiculous puking campaign. You, sir, disgust me.
It disgusts me that someone could be so ignorant as to actually fall for a simple publicity stunt.
Could you just go away. Somewhere? Anywhere? You make me sad to be a progressive.
The whole reason for Chicken John’s latest petulant outburst is because Ritual Roasters was passed over by Parks and Rec for a spot in the park.
As evidenced in this video, clearly he doesn’t have a problem with the “commercialization” of public space.
http://vimeo.com/6196211
That floating swingset from teh video is dope.
…Do you actually have any evidence of this claim as to his motives?
I spoke to some of the folks at Ritual months ago about this, and they said they had steered clear from the whole project because there would be so much public outcry about it.
what business is opening saturday?
None – turns out La Cocina will be opening the following week. Oops!
http://sf.eater.com/archives/2011/04/20/puke_in_rallies_against_la_cocin…
fuck these pukers, give me sopes and cochinita
Seconded.
You can both walk your asses a block a way and pick them up at the goddamned store then, as you would have anyway, leave the litter for someone else to clean up.
yeah please show me where you can get either within a block of the park
I’d have more of an issue with this if it wasn’t la cocina
Seriously? You can’t find two traditional dishes within reasonable walking distance to the park? One block, I admit, was gratuitous. But the rest of it stands. Keep the private vending out of the public park(because, well, this is exactly what the public who fund the park actually want) and pack it in, pack it out.
But what if the choice comes down to vending the park or not having restrooms? Parks cost money, and with the city in debt and giving companies tax breaks, you can’t blame Parks and Rec for looking for a solution to keep the park maintained.
but since your false dichotomy is false what then? i don’t think we should have vending in dolores park. i don’t think anyone should get puked on, but I don’t see why we can’t have a non-commercial open space in the city. If the supes can’t figure how to fund parks and rec they should either reduce services, raise taxes, or spend their 6 billion a bit more wisely. Because you, me and the mom and pop shop, all know that it won’t stop at one trailer.
It may sound like a “false dichotomy,” but it’s exactly what happened. You and I both know that the supes aren’t going to raise taxes. They didn’t even raise taxes when it meant cutting Muni service drastically. And what are they going to cut? There’s nothing left to cut that can be cut legally or politically.
Are you joking. They will be bringing in $12,000 a year from La Cocina! Uh, that doesn’t even pay a month of water bill. Mr. Eric Sir, not only do you have zits and you are out of shape but your reasoning equally is a measure of your looks. Sorry guy! The goal would have to be to have a food truck chain to obtain adequate funding.
The Irony. La Cocina’s primary concentration is to help minority business owner go into rich, hip areas to make money while completely abandoning those underserved areas that actually need commerce and revenue. That La Cocina guy. He’s such a hero for the little people!
Dolores Park is so oversaturated and becoming gross. While I love food carts to the bone, the Chaac Mool truck is super ugly looking. Was over at Hayes Valley the other day. Not one person in line at the taco truck. They were offering free tacos while the ice cream stand was packed a mile long. Commerce at its best filling space!
Lousy way to protest, but a great way to spread disease. Shows a complete lack of respect for the City of San Francisco and the people who live and work here. Please feel free to drown yourself in your ‘River of Puke’. You are a fraud, Chicken John.
It’s fake puke. It’s a cardboard trailer.
Way to fall for a publicity stunt hook, line, and sinker, dude.
this is dumb, but the coverage of it in the press/ blogoshpere is going to be insufferable.
of course the people trying to actually help the park are going to be cleaning it up on Saturday for Earth Day, rather than puking in/on it…..
Good for Chicken for standing up to Rec and Park’s plans to sell out our parks. R&P shouldn’t be in the business of making money off of commercial leases. We pay taxes so we can enjoy our parks and public spaces.
If it’s so important to have the La Cocina truck at Dolores Park, put it on the street instead of in the park! Which should we sacrifice for some Yucatecan food: grass or concrete?
And it’s not just parks that Rec and Park is selling out. They also wants to make money off our rec centers. Last week LGBT youth protested changing the Eureka Valley Recreation Center from a drop-in center for queer youth to a place where you can pay for latin dance and Zumbatomics lessons:
http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=5642
R&P did the same thing to SOMA youth at the Gene Friend Rec Center where they kicked out a nonprofit that ran a free after-school program and started charging kids:
http://somarec.wordpress.com/about-the-campaign/
I don’t know whether it makes me want to puke or cry.
Yeah, how dare they open private businesses in the parks! Like a science museum, or a golf course, or a tea garden, or…
…oh wait.
Chicken John is nothing but a bully for ritual roasters. Boycott Ritual! Or better yet, shit on their store! Shit on Chickens shitty building he can’t even sell because it is shit!
Eat shit and die, “Chicken John” your failures as a person are clear and you offer nothing but bullying on behalf of those assholes at Ritual. Hope they go out of business and fucking McDonalds takes its place, you fuckhole lying asshole!
Chicken, your view about what constitutes a good cup of coffee is completely wrong. Oil *belongs* in coffee.
However, this is completely spot fucking on. I’ll be there. Petition signed.
To all the detractors- have you been turned into fucking robots? Is Skynet actually self aware and you are just carrying out the part of a consumption machine? Is there not a perfectly serviceable coffee shop right across the fucking street? And then three blocks up is Phils and the fucking tea house? Good lord. Spit on Blue Bottle all day long. And I wonder how many of you bitchy little Furbys are the ones who litter the park with you Bud cans, paper bags and various other bits of detritus. I swear the park was cleaner when the junkies ‘owned’ it.
And Mr. Eric- interesting bit about those private business in the park- they do not contribute any money back to the park itself- like say to the Boat House. Let’s not follow a stupid land/money giveaway with another stupid land/money giveaway, because that would be stupid.
What a thug. He doesn’t get what he wants so his reaction is violence? Intentionally throwing up on someone is assault.
Carrie said:
“I find it infuriating that recently you were claiming that you never were encouraging people to spit on blue bottle if it opened, trying to rewrite your prior words (that were very clearly stating that you were encouraging people to actually spit) to claim that you were saying people would be spitting mad. And now you launch this ridiculous puking campaign. You, sir, disgust me.”
I never said nor meant that I would spit on anyone. I clearly said that people were spitting mad. It was a cleverly worded HYPERBOLE to get a reaction. Thanks for jumping through the hoop…
The idea here is that we have an issue that no one was talking about. Now we are talking about it. This is what you have to do to get an issue in the press. So what if it’s a showmans’ trick. You want me to apologize for facilitating a conversation?
Fact is that you know that I would never spit on anyone. At any time. For any reason. And you know damn well that I can not command anyone to spit on anyone at any time. Who would listen to me if I told people to spit? No one. Do you think the people on my mailing list worship me or something? They don’t. They sorta like me, most of the time. But they also trust me. They know that I’ve always got something up my sleeve. You, you don’t know that I’m just a clown. You think my intention is to spit on people or puke on people…. and that’s kinda sad.
But here we are, talking about the issue! And that is grand. People are writing about it, talking about it. there is a petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dpTBOP1&1
And there is dialog. Caleb was trying to sneak into the park quietly, then use the enivitabilty device to stay. “Too late, you shoudl have said something before.”. Well. Now is before.
So please tell me, Carrie… do you think that the trailers should go on the curb or actually in the park on the grass? It’s cool if you disagree with me, not all my friends agree. But we all agree that there should be dialog….
You are a class A bullfighter who lies cheats and steals on behalf of your jiz jar at ritual roasters. Fuck off and die and go back to the non SF shithole you came from! Hope some gang banger shoots you in the balls!!
“Fact is that you know that I would never spit on anyone. … “
No. I don’t know you because we’ve never met in real life and you’re posting all your threats on THE FUCKING INTERNET.
Yeah. Congratulations, man. Posting public threats will get you lots of attention. I guess that’s what passes for showmanship with you these days.
Hey, I’m gathering a posse of my Facebook friends to go gang rape one of Chicken John’s child relatives! Who’s coming with me? Ha! Just kidding. Fact is that you know that I would never do that.
Oh. Wait a second. That’s right. You don’t know me.
“You think my intention is to spit on people or puke on people…. and that’s kinda sad.”
1) Yes, because you stated you would and even went so far as to say so on your blog thing and facebook page. You’re broadcasting that message out there loud and clear for the world to see. Are you going to stand behind those words if someone follows through with them or are you going cop out with a bullshit “Geeze, you guys know I was just kidding with yuz all.” routine.
2) You have a history of talking massive shit with carefully worded veil threats against someone/thing and then one of your mentally imbalanced lackeys follows through with those threats.
If there was any justice in the world La Cocina would get a restraining order against you and we could all enjoy a Chicken John free park.
“Do you think the people on my mailing list worship me or something?”
Not all of them, but you do have some easily impressionable retards that soak up all that vile that you spew out and act on it. You want proof? 2 words.
Paul Addis.
Dude was a lawyer. How many years of his life and several tens of thousands of dollars did he spend to get that degree, just to torch it and his career over some BS arts festival that all you guys don’t even like in the first place.
I talk a lot of shit, but if I saw that my shit-talking was inadvertently causing serious harm to one of my friends I would tone it down. Now I’m assuming that Paul was a friend to you and not just a convenient tool for the moment so I may be wrong there.
You just put a message out there for all of San Francisco to see, a hitlist with some names and two faces attached to it.
All I am left with after your Paul Addis reference is bewilderment. You obviously know zero about his situation or Chicken’s relationship with him. So just shut it.
Anonymous Coward said on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 8:49am (link)
“The whole reason for Chicken John’s latest petulant outburst is because Ritual Roasters was passed over by Parks and Rec for a spot in the park.”
Then you show a video of the Ritual trailer that I floated to the middle of a lake on BLM land. Where we GAVE away coffee to the 200 people there. That day. One day. Your move…
Keep digging, cunt. You are a paid thug for a business and advertised your bullshit “services“ ‘after the American Apparell debacle like a good protection racket. Seriously I hope some kid with a 9 kills you I’ll happily pay for his defense while you rot fucker!!
Seriously, threatening murder is an appropriate response to a fake puke-in? Step AWAY FROM THE KEYBOARD and smoke a big phat bowl of San Francisco’s best medical grade. Come back later and review what you just did there.
Ok, so if the La Cocina trailer gave away free food in the park then you’d be cool with it?
“Where we GAVE away coffee to the 200 people there.”
Also known as advertising. So you have no problem with using public space for advertising? I guess we could erect a giant billboard in Dolores Park, maybe two or three…
Chicken John is English for “worthless cunt bully on behalf of his snatch “
Put La Cochina or whatever other business Rec and Park likes in a PARKING SPOT next to the park.
Not in the park.
Parks are for people.
Not businesses.
An entirely reasonable solution, though I’m betting P&R can’t get the $$ they want by being reasonable.
“Seriously I hope some kid with a 9 kills you I’ll happily pay for his defense while you rot fucker!!”
I’ll pray for you….
As for would it be OK if they gave away food… C’mon!!!!!! We took the trailer and floated it to the middle of a lake for a day! 1 day, and gave away coffee. For fun. On a lake that no one uses. You are not going to get me to see how that’s the same thing, and frankly, no intelligent person is going to have this debate. Your grabbing at straws, here. I floated a trailer because it was funny. Can you imagine, going to a lake and someone floated a trailer in the middle of it. So you swim out to it and they give you coffee? Go ahead, rip that apart. Go nuts. Tell me that you hope someone blows up our trailer and kill rape ect…
Fact is we are going to puke come Saturday!!!!! To show the progressive left of SF has a gag reflex!!!!!!!!
For starters, I am not the one calling for you to be taken out with a “9”. I would never stoop to your level off tossed off threats, sir. However, I would love to see you leave SF for somewhere where you could be happy and free of the insidious scourge of capitalism and big-city government.
Grabbing at straws? Really? It stands to reason that if you were really so against the commercialization of public space, you wouldn’t partake in ANY commercialization of public space whatsoever, whether it be for one day, one minute, or one year. Floating a Ritual Roasters trailer emblazoned with requisite branding may have been shits and giggles for you and your pals, but it IS still commercialization of public space. Giving away free coffee doesn’t change that. Ritual is STILL a for-profit business. The trailer was essentially acting as a billboard whether that was your intention or not.
You present yourself as some sort of crusader against the encroachment of capitalism in public space, but it really appears as sour grapes on your part because you and your business interests were left out of the dialog. Your calls for more public outreach by Parks and Rec. is just a smokescreen and you know it.
John, the coward has a point and one that you must see. Burning Man is guilty of this type of blinder as well. It is as expressed above- you are presenting a false dichotomy. Just because you are giving it away doesn’t make it free from commercial encumbrance(you with the logo and Burning Man LLC at-whim and tithe protections of it’s name and likeness).
However the anon is failing to see the obvious point and pointing a finger just because they have some personal bias against you- the public has in fact already spoken and said no. Parks and Rec need to honor the public wish despite their terrible mismanagement of money. It is that simple. Leave your bias out of it.
I have nothing to do with Ritual. I’m Eileens’ boyfriend. From time to time, I do handyman work for her. But I have nothing to do with the running of the business nor do I drink coffee. I don’t have any vested interest. We are not married. She doesn’t really like me all that much, to tell you the truth… but I’m a good kisser.
“Commercialization of public space” does imply some sort of commercial exchange. If I have a small business and wear a t-shirt with my logo on it to a family picnic in a public park at no-reservation-fee-necessary picnic grounds, I think it would be pretty ridiculous to argue that I was “commercializing” the park.
The owner of Ritual went on a camping trip with a bunch of friends and friends-of-friends. They all wanted to build boats, so she and her boyfriend brought a bunch of spare “building materials,” including a disused trailer that had been utilized by her business, and was branded as such. She likes coffee, particularly her own coffee, so she shared a bunch of it with the folks who were camping with her.
Are you seriously trying to claim that in having a community camping trip, she was “commercializing” the free-to-use, open-to-the-public land?
“I floated a trailer because it was funny.”
And the giant logo on the side was part of the joke, right? Maybe next time you could float a giant ad for Nike and handout coupons for shoes, then immediately afterwards go tell everyone about how public space shouldn’t be used for private enterprise. It would be hilarious!
Yet again- missing the point. It’s fine to rail against John for this. A more analogous comparison would have been if the shoes were free. But this is not the issue. Public do not want vending in the park, Parks and Rec should not disobey that. What you are saying here is that since John has decided to do this event, the rest of the residents and businesses who have said no to this are invalidated because of a Ritual caravan floating on a BLM lake. Sounds simply stupid and spiteful.
That’s actually not what I said, but thanks for trying to read.
Replying to the cumulative missing of point that is being made on here- you included.
But this does give us common ground- you are then in agreement with CHicken that there should be no vending in the park because that is what the public wants. I am glad we all could arrive here.
No, again, not what I said. You seem to need some remedial reading courses.
Why do you feel that you stand for “what the public wants”? The public has never been addressed here. Just because you want something doesn’t mean everyone else feels the same way. Perhaps we should bring it to a vote.
Ahh I see you didn’t actually bother to do any work on your own to see that the public has already been asked. I guess you’d have to like read and actually be interested in the subject or something.
So yes, please, have the vote. Ask the people again since you apparently weren’t listening the first time.
Since when did a petition equal THE VOICE OF THE PUBLIC?
I urge you to look in to the community meetings a year ago. Then come back.
Oh, and your caps lock is on. On the left, above the shift key. Sometimes has a light.
“Community Meeting” = a bunch of assholes who like to shout and have nothing better to do.
Again, that’s NOT the “voice of the public.”
Community Voice equals Mr Zitty unattractive zit faces Mr Eric Sir berating his one man show on hipster websites that few people read pouting, shouting, stomping his feet being a meanie face since noone in high school gave him any attention.
A handful of people who signed an online petition (all of which could have been you, for all I can tell) is NOT the voice of the public. A bunch of people yelling at a meeting is also NOT the voice of the public.
There is one and ONLY one way to get the voice of the public – it’s called voting.
Umm- ok so now you are saying that you do know about the meetings you previously didn’t know about? I am really confused. But I’ll go with that. And obviously, the online petition is a method of gauging, Facebook is another, etc.
And if you brush up on your civics a vote is indeed one way to get the voice of the public. It’s just not the only one.
See you Saturday to show your solidarity with enforcing what the public and business want or?
“Umm- ok so now you are saying that you do know about the meetings you previously didn’t know about?”
Learn to read.
Uh, theres no voting Zitty Face EricSir. It’s a bunch of retired rich overpaid people appointed by the ex-corrupt mayor who areon the board of Rec and Park who brought in Phil Ginsburg who got the prized job ($200,000 salary) for saving our corrupt ex-govenor from media shame and scrutiny after drug filled induced partying, drugs, and extra-marital affairs. Yes, these are our fine feathered unpaid leaders who vote on all of our parks futures. Yes, be proud Mr. EricSir for we serve these totally entitled idiots and you represent them. Go get’em Charlie!
Whoa, don’t bogart the crackpipe bro. Not cool.
Here’s what I want to know, and maybe you can answer this; if the City approached Ritual, and only Ritual, about setting up a trailer in the park, would CJ call them out for wanting to “commercialize” the park or would he say, “Hey, you know, I’ve already got a trailer, when can we start?”
But is that relevant? And I would never answer for John or anyone else. Your whole premise is pretty dishonest.
If such a thing were to happen, I would protest Ritual in the very same way. I don’t appreciate the ice cream vendors there either. But I am big enough to realize that this is one person’s opinion and were the community and businesses to speak in favor of it, I’d sit on my opinion and be done with it.
And that is the larger point- sure hate on John all you want but he’s just taking action (or perceived action) on the part of a larger voice that has already spoken.
“…he’s just taking action (or perceived action) on the part of a larger voice that has already spoken.”
I.e. YOUR voice. Don’t confuse the public with YOU.
See above- not solely mine but I understand what is happening here. You’re just looking to fight. I am just going to ignore you now.
In other words, you’re a coward who choses to ignore and belittle anyone who’s opinion differs from yours. Have fun in the echo chamber you’ve created for your tiny mind.
MY VOICE too!
I would not put a retail environment in green space. I also refuse to sell alcohol. I don’t want to profit off booze or other things that might challenge my integrity. I know that must sound hysterical to some of you. You can have that. It’s on me. I’m a strong believer in volunteerism. So are most people I know. No stores in the park!
OK, I’ll take some licks…
Lets say for example that me floating the trailer for a day was, indeed, commercialism of public space. OK, I’ll give it to you. So if that is true, then I regret doing it. Because I do not believe that we should use public space for commercial endeavors. I’ll take a lick for that.
But I have been an activist against the commodification of public space for 25 years! In 1988, we were protesting the same shit at Tompkins Sq. Park in NYC. I just drove Rev. Billy and his choir on my bus doing shows about coal companies blowing off mountain tops to get coal IN STATE PARKS!!!! I am NOT new to this issue, so saying that my girlfriends’ coffee shop was passed over is wildly outrageous. If she put a coffee shop on public space, our relationship would end that second. But she would never, which is why we are together. We have similar politics (but she despises my actions around DP, for obvious reasons). So she just stays out of it.
Sure, it’s a low road. But 2 weeks ago when I called the press, no one ever bothered to get back to me. Now, it’s a shitstorm. I just wanted to get the issue out. Last year we had a petition that was signed by 1,500 neighbors. That’s HUGE. All against the trailers. This year, I have a full time job, so there are only just over 300 sigs. But still, 300 neighbors against trailers and Caleb saying they did community outreach. Community reach-around more like it.
The trailer belongs at the curb and everyone knows it. You can beat me up all you want, but you know you agree. You can kill me or rape me or my mom or whatever, it doesn’t bother me. I’m pretty tough, if ya didn’t know. I’m a New Yorker. I’m not some passive/aggressive needy moody guy who needs to talk about his feelings. This is supposed to be funny. It is in your power to just laugh at this. I’m rootin’ for ya….
chicken
“I am NOT new to this issue, so saying that my girlfriends’ coffee shop was passed over is wildly outrageous. If she put a coffee shop on public space, our relationship would end that second.”
Well I hate to tell you this, but Ritual takes a bicycle to Dolores Park on warm days and sells iced coffee out of it.
Ugggg…. illegally selling an iced coffee from a bicycle is not a store. It’s mobile. Now we have come full circle, and are talking about push carts. Which I whole-heartedly support. This whole thing started with permits for BB and La Couchina to have carts, which were assumed to be pushcarts. We we all fine with it. Until we found out that the push carts were actually taco trucks. Which NO ONE wants in DP!!!!! Put them at the curb where they belong!!!!!
So by your standards, Ritual selling coffee from a bicycle in the park doesn’t qualify as commercialization of public space? Please clarify, CJ.
Selling stuff from a push cart is fine. That’s what we all wanted. Selling pot brownies or ice cream or beads or whatever is not a big deal. No generator. No huge footprint. We take offence that RPD is trying to bridge the budget gap (that THEY made with their mis-management of their allocated budget) by selling spots. It’s just stupid, I can’t beleive why anyone can’t see that this is a terrible precident. But to asnwer your question (and walk into your little trap), I, myself and many people LOVE the idea of pushcarts going down the sidewalks and little things. I think selling a cold beer out of a cooler or ice water or good drugs or art or whatever is fine. That’s how a zocolo is supposed to work… But not a giant trailer. Not a food court, with a dozen generators. You are trying to get me to say that now I’m picking which commerce I like and which I don’t… but that is not the point. the point is we are heading for a food court. Not anymore!!!! The idea that RPD sells leases to meet it’s budget is a precident that we can not continue to allow. They are renting out all the clubhouses!!!! They are gone, for 20 years to private companies!!!!! Gone, our clubhouses!!!!!
REad this:
http://uptownalmanac.com/2010/11/mcdonalds-burger-king-jamba-juice-invit…
You’ll be shocked.
Is this what you want?
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/tavern-green-replaced-food-trucks-ice-cream…
Great. Then why is the taco truck only paying $1,000 a month? It’s idiocy. It’s stealing.
We pay 4 million dollars to renovate a clubhouse, then when it’s done we rent it out for 20% of retail…. what. the. fuck.
This DP issue is the tip of the iceburg. Your gonna try to split hairs with a a bicycle that went to DP twice. No one has ridden that bike in 2 years. It just sits there collecting dust. Who cares if someone sold someone a bottle of water in the park or a dimebag of pot. Put the trialers on the curb where they don’t have to pay RPD a dime. Fire Phil Ginsburg and lets make our park system make sense…
chicken
And gay marriage is going to lead to people marrying donkeys, amirite?
Not true! I bought iced coffee from it twice last summer. But whatever.
This is the most sensible argument you’ve come up with – there isn’t enough space at Dolores Park for food vending. It’s not a huge park like Golden Gate, which already has city approved food vendors (Moss Room, anyone?) Fitting a food cart into Dolores Park would be like a tricky game of Tetris.
Nope, you don’t get that one. The bike is broken and hasn’t been ridden in 2 years. It’s hanging from the rafters at the shop and it’s been like that for quite a while. You are mistaken.
RPD plainly said they would like to maximize DP and put in 8 vendors. Then, they backed down to 2, for starters. But you werent’ there for all that. We keep telling you that if you knew what we knew, you’d do the same thing we are. As for gay donkeys, I have no idea. But this isn’t a slippery slope arguement. They plainly said “Food Court”. This is the first step of the food court. We can not let this first step happen.
That there is not enough room is almost besides the point. Why should RPD have the power to sell parkland because they are too stupid, too inept or to corrupt to balance their budget? It’s treason. They are supposed to protect the parks. It’s quite the opposite.
23 acres of park land is being sold to a developer for condos. Unprecedented malfeasance. Is that a slippery slope, or is that RPD selling parkland to a developer?
“Why should RPD have the power to sell parkland because they are too stupid, too inept or to corrupt to balance their budget?”
I agree 100% on this… but that’s not what’s happening here. A permit to operate a food truck on certain days isn’t really “selling” anything.
“It’s treason.”
No, it’s not.
If you want to protest something, protest Outside Lands. It turns large swaths of GG Park into a paid area for three days!
They are selling a lease. The product is a lease. The lease superceeds a citizens’ right to have acess to their park. They are also leasing out clubhouses. By the dozen. Those leases are for 20 years, in most cases. That’s my lifetime. I’ll never get to use those clubhouses again in my lifetime.
Festivals are cool. Commerce or no. They are a temperary and usually connected to some kind of art happening.
I’m not trying to convince you of anything. If you have the information you are welcome to have an opposing point of view. We will always have the majority of people. Duh. SF is a very liberal place. Liberal’s dont’ like privatization. People who don’t want to see this as privatization will call us haters and talk about how yummy the tacos are. We can bear the brunt of that. What we can’t endour is apathy and lack of information, which is what RPD and Caleb are trying to do. They are trying to sneak around like sneaky sneakers. No sneaking allowed.
We talk about these issues. We air them out. Figger it out. Argue it out. Then we all live together. Happily ever after…
chicken
Do you see why it’s starting to sound less like you have a coherent argument about what should and shouldn’t be allowed in public space, and more like you’re finding a way to rationalize your distaste for this particular use of public space?
I understand people are pissed about the way this whole thing went down, but the philosophy behind the anti-commercialization movement (or whatever it is) seems half-baked at best.
It’s funny CJ, you and I are actually in agreement on some things, and others, not so much. The reason why people question you and call you out is so they can try and get a handle on your motives and agenda because you do flip-flop and outright contradict yourself on a lot of things. You come across as disingenuous and your tactics discredit a lot of what you are trying to accomplish. It seems like you are more interested in drawing attention to yourself rather than the issues you supposedly care about, but I digress…
In the beginning, you claimed to be against the commercialization of public space, to keep commerce out of the park at any cost. But, oh wait, push carts are ok and so are trucks and trailers parking at the curb. Really? So a food court at the curb is ok. A mobile food court of push carts roaming through the park is ok, but really you’re against the buying and selling of goods and services in the park, really, you are! You can’t have it both ways my friend.
No, I get it, you have an axe to grind with Rec and Park. They didn’t do proper outreach, blah, blah blah. You claim they solicited bids from an array of fast food companies, yet you provide no official documents or evidence to back up your claim. While I do believe our City government is rife with corruption and gross mismanagement, and it’s entirely possible that they did solicit these bids, how is anyone supposed to believe anything you say? It all just sounds like typical CJ hyperbole.
The fact of the matter is you don’t work in Rec and Park, you don’t have insight into their budget and budget problems. Really, the amount of money the City will bring in from one trailer in Dolores Park is a drop of piss in a bucket. Even if there were 12 trailers, that really wouldn’t amount to much more than a trickle of revenue coming in to the City (and yes I would agree, 12 trailers would not be a good fit for the park). But I suppose a trickle coming in is better than the raging torrent leaving the Rec and Parks budget, no? And people might even enjoy the food from the trailers as well! Far be it for us to actually enjoy anything in this town though, right? Not when there’s whining, spitting, and vomiting to do.
I’m sorry, I can’t give you any of that. Here is an article with a link to the fast food vendors RPD approached: \
http://uptownalmanac.com/2010/11/mcdonalds-burger-king-jamba-juice-invit…
The point is not about commerce, it’s about RPD. RPD shouldn’t be motivated by money to impliment commerce in the park. We shouldn’t suffer loss of space to balance a budget. This isn’t a slippery slope, it’s part of a process. I am not against commerce. I am against RPD making decisions that affect the welfare of the park solely on money. And that is what is happening here.
I would have no problem with a trailer or even a food court if that was the intelligent thing to do. If we didn’t have a garbage problem. If we had working toilets. If there was plumbed power outlets comming out of the ground instead of generators. If we had room. If it made sense. If the park had a long term plan.
The park doesnt’ have a long term plan. This is a thrown together idea, poorly implimented. The execution of this is pathetic. We can do better.
You can hate me and freak out about my lady and pick apart every detail of my very public life and you’ll still end up with this: the neighbors don’t want it. They want a say in their park. They want commishoners that listen to them. They want a fair and equitable process. And finnally, they are not organized (yet) and can not speak with a unified voice. So this is the method we have to take to get people’s voices heard. You can hate me all day, but we had a petition last year with 1,800 signatures on it. This year, we will have the same. We are just over 600 now. And a week before the puke in. Our goal is 2,000 signatures by next Saturday.
How can you ignore 2,000 signatures? You can’t. Sure, you can say that their all mine. But they are not. YOu can verify them. Give us a hearing. We will bring thousands of people to it. People are pissed off. They do NOT want their parks privatized. You can talk shit about me all you want, I’m immune. Thick skinned. I’m a New Yorker, remember? But there are people here who reallly, really pissed off. The trailer will not go in the park. There are just too many people against it. And only a handful of foodie types for it. In the end, it will be simple economics. Too many people will not patronize the trailer unless it’s on the curb. So they will move it. that’s the plan.
chicken
Dude, a blog post is hardly a credible method of proving that RPD solicited bids from fast food companies.
Loss of space? It’s my understanding that there were two trailers set to go in on the pavement by the statue which is a pretty under used area, even on crowded days. You bullied one of them into submission, so now there is just one trailer remaining. So you’re saying that this one trailer is going to impede your movement in and around the park?
It seems to me that you either have an overly apocalyptic view of the motives of RPD or it’s a case of sour grapes. I just don’t see RPD approving and implementing a shopping mall style fast food food court in the Park. No matter how in or out of touch RPD may be, they would have to know that that would never fly with the people of SF.
Sure, we can all bitch and moan about how mismanaged the City is, but is that really going to change anything in the here and now? Especially when voters keep voting in progressive ideologues who couldn’t manage their way out of a wet paper bag to save their lives. Even the tiniest bit of money coming in from a food trailer could help offset the cost of, say, a couple of new trash cans. Sure, it’s not an ideal situation, but unless if you and your 2000 followers want to pool your own money to maintain and improve the park, what are you going to do?
Man, when you idiots are out of ideas you always resort to telling me I should use my own money to pay for the park. That is the worst kind of NIMBYism. I don’t have 2,000 followers. I’m not a guru. There are many people alligned on this issue. As for that blog post, it links a document from RPD. That document is real, although you won’t beleive anything that is inconvenient for your your side of this complex story. As for the apocolypse of parks or whatever, RPD is selling 23 acres of parkland in HP. How’s that for you? OK? We can just sell parkland when we need money, like an ATM? Once RPD starts selling spots in DP, they are just gonna sell more. More and more. We’ll be fighting this forever if we dont’ stop it now.
Are you talking about this:
http://uptownalmanac.com/sites/default/files/dolores_park_bidders_list.html
Yeah, that looks credible.
I’m curious to know what your ideas are, other than just saying ‘no’ to everything. What would you do to remedy the RPD budget problems and how would you maintain and improve the park?
Thanks.
IMHO they should maybe lay off part of their fleet of mostly-redundant $100k a year executives. That might help.
Dear Anonymous Fu#8er, I mean Coward,
“CJ” has not seemed to flip flop once. It seems by reading your somewhat illiterate banter is that it’s more important to have the last word than to be right. Carts are not trailers and by every account of what I have read “CJ” has always preached the preach of no privitization. Having a trailer, 7 days a week with a generator in a small neighborhood is not a cart douchebag. I think everyone agrees that push carts are cool at every turn. Having a trailer wheeled in is not. Simple. Capiche? Although I think Annoynomous Coward sounds like Phil Ginsburg lets do this. Rec and Park has no accounting system and how much the allocate to each park. Genius level! Bringing in $12k a year is a joke and useless. If you want to raise money for the parks it will take 100 times that amount to pay the lawn mowing bill. Phil Ginsburg is literally getting fat off his phat salary. Fact! Ruining the parks for monetary purposes is criminal and those involved should be treated as such. There are so many cemented spaces in San Francisco it would be a shame to actually use some of them for profit, yo? Caleb is using the poor immigrant tactic to come into rich areas that do not need any more oversaturation. His original plan was for trailers at every corner of the park and the center of the park. Wow. Great guy for common good of mankind! If he is truly a man of leadership supporting the poor minority cause than giving back to those same poor communites, generating commerce within those boundaries is what giving back is all about. Not bottom feeding off successful areas. Douche
Really man, he hasn’t flip-flopped once? He comes out last year foaming at the mouth about how commercialization will destroy the “natural beauty” of DP if we allow it into the park. He never made the distinction between RPD sanctioned trailers or other forms of commerce such as pushcarts, etc.. He made a blanket statement that no form of business should be happening in the park. Parks are for people, not business, right? Now he’s backtracking saying that some forms of business are ok, others are not. Get it, fucking douchebag?
Fuck off and die asshole!
Did you read the part where Mr. John was called out on his support for Ritual selling coffee in public spaces, so he jumped in to support Ritual, then backed off, then changed his argument entirely from “public space” to “parks” and from “commercialization” to “leases”? This thread has seen Mr. John do nothing other than flip-flip when called out on hypocrisy.
Protip: read a thread before commenting in it.
An ignore this poster feature would be helpful.
I don’t really even think you deserve to take a proper lick for it. As you said, one day, free stuff. It was just used to illustrate commercial vs. not- but again- not the issue.
Keep banging on it. You do have supporters.
By the way, that petition is here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dpTBOP1&1
Come back and argue Annonmouse Coward!!!!!
Most people think it is bad to selling their own highly valuable stuff for very little money. It is worse when the political appointees sell stuff that is not even theirs for a pennies. Like selling our park for pennies. And, overwhelmingly the neighbors, public, community, NIMBY’s, how ever you want to call us did not like the way Rec and Park handled this.