— By Jack Morse (@jmorse_) |
In what has to be the most literal analogy possible for gentrification in the Mission, a video from two weeks ago depicts a conflict over who has the right to play on the soccer field at Mission Playground (located off Valencia between 19th and 20th). In the video, a group of adults attempt to kick a bunch of young people playing a pick-up game off the field because said adults had previously paid for the time slot via “an experiment with new mobile app technology” (or something).
The following exchange seems to sum up the disagreement best:
Guy Already Playing on Field: You don’t understand— this field has never been booked. How long have you been in the neighborhood?
Bro: Over a year!
GAPOF: Oh, over a year?
Off Camera Guy in Dropbox Tee-Shirt: Who gives a shit? Who cares about the neighborhood?
Update: It has come to our attention that the field was not rented via the SF Pickup Soccer mobile app. Instead, the group of adults seem to have rented the field directly with the Rec & Park Department (and paid $27 to do so).
There has been quite a bit of debate as to whether the adults’ actions were justified because they legally rented the field. It’s clear the Rec & Park’s relatively recent policy of allowing Mission Playground to be rented out is deeply controversial, and might not have been made in the best interest of the community. Making public spaces quasi-private by charging usage fees is always going to restrict lower income resident’s access to parks—especially children’s. People should question the Parks Department judgment in making this policy.
But the policy is besides the point. Having the proper paperwork does not excuse shitty behavior. Once a group adults threatened to call the police on youths playing soccer, they’ve lost.
Comments (475)
This was hard to watch but I’m glad it was caught on film.
Not very surprising that a 30 year old dude who still wears his UVA hat has such a strong sense of entitlement and blatant disregard for the field’s long-standing system.
I definitely don’t think these guys handled this well, honestly on either side although the kids were pretty composed, but do you not think the field can have reserved use? It seems a bit tough for a set of people who aren’t good enough to play every-day soccer players to have to “win” the field to play against people of their own level.
also FWIW, this reservation pay-to-play is only tuesday and thursday nights: http://missionlocal.org/2012/10/petitioner-fights-pay-to-play-in-mission…. On all the other days it’s the first come, first serve style the kids want…
Apparently someone’s never played Street Fighter in the arcade before…
Maybe i’m overthinking this but, why not just play the kids for the field like normal people do in these situations?
I`m with Rico on this. Do the new guys in town want to make friends? Do they know how? They will see the OTHER players again in the neighborhood. How would they like that future encounter to play out? I`m a weto that grew up in town, still live here, and worked for years in the Mission. The guys with the reservation make themselves appear to be douchebags. They aught to wise up.
I agree with both Rico and Andy.Unfortunately what was transcribed pretty much sums up how these guys would have never thought to play soccer with these kids or anyone who has lived in the Mission for decades:Who gives a shit? Who cares about the neighborhood?It’s that sense of rich self entitlement that is not inclusive to old white guys on wall street.It also applies…to young white guys who run Silicon Valley with an apps in their hands.I think its now time Anonymous does some creative take back of a soccer field. I don’t know…block out all of its time to the user “A. Neighborhood”
If they had a legitimate reservation, and they apprently did, the punks need to move on. Tough guy got a little too close for comfort – could have gotten his skinny ass kicked!
This policy will never work, and always cause problems, unless Park & Rec posts notice, and probably a worker, to make this smooth. Douchebag self-help to take control of the field from kids already playing will always lead to disaster…
Mike,
I agree. If the park department insists on trying to make a buck then they need to post a worker to escort people onto and off of the field at the designated time slots so that it is fair to everyone involved. Its sad that everything has to have a dollar sign on it nowadays. It should be free AND have a worker who handles booking the field.Of course where I live at, they have a huge baseball field that is kept locked up an empty most of the time. Unless you pay money to use the field you cant get in at all. That is where this country is heading to and eventually everything will cost you money because there is simply no support for social programs and people who can afford to purchase property want to make as much money off of it as they can. I wouldnt be surprised if that court is turned into a parking lot in five years and it costs you $20 to park your car in a slot for 6 hours. Then where are the kids gonna go?
troll
“punks”???
after that slam, nothing you say has validity
There are all sorts of things wrong with having the field reserved for pay-to-play organizations. First off, young minorities tend to have some of the lowest rates of physical activity among any population. The reasons for this are complex and many, but chief among them is that the barriers to engaging in leisure-time physical activity (fancy-talk for going out and being active instead of sitting on the couch.). Two of the largest barriers to entry are lack of access to facilities and lack of financial resources. In other words, poor minority kids tend not to have anywhere to play that doesn’t charge them money they don’t have. For example, prior to this park being renovated (which seemed to only occur after a bunch of relatively wealthy young white folks moved into the area, but that’s another discussion), it was a dirt field with no markers or goals, let alone being uneven and rocky, which really lowers the ability to use it as a soccer field (though, bless them, they still managed). The SF parks department to then turn around and rent out the public park for pay-to-play organizations is a direct reinforcement of these barriers. It is a failure of the SF parks department to support the community. So there’s that.
One would think that there is nothing wrong with allowing a field to be reserved. However, when it is the ONLY field available, that’s a problem. When it costs money to make that reservation, it is a problem. At that point, the SF Parks Dept is unfairly discriminating against the poor. The same truth extends when the SF Parks Dept allows the park to be rented out by pay-to-play organizations. This is a public space, and NO ONE should be barred from using it because they can’t afford to pay for it, on any day of the week. The city should not be in the business of selling special rights to public places, period. That is a prima facie truth.
Just like in Tennis courts, they should start a que and each gets 40 minutes to play, they can frigin wait in line like everyone else. We are all equals. OK, those that thing their shitty apps actually carry weight in the real world are little less than equal, but still we can pretent.
ITS NOT A TENNIS COURT. That may be whatever protocol ON ANOTHER BLOCK IN ANOTHER CITY. This is La Mission. So don’t think twice about how this went down.!
Really, you’re comparing a soccer filed in the mission, to a tennis court? What is wrong with you. Alhtough all sports are encouranged for pshycial activy, the Mision does NOT have a history with tennis courts, seomthing only scene in more privelaged areas in SF. I’m not quite blaming someone who booked a play for pay, but this sets an example of what SF is becoming. Thanks ED LEE. SF has become a playground for the privelaged. SAD.
Actually @Alex Mission Playground does have a very strong history with producing tennis players when there used to be free tennis programs at Mission Playground for all the youth. People in the local junior tennis world will tell you that a very high percentage of the public high school city champions for San Francisco, both for boys and girls, trained at Mission Playground. A good number of tennis players who trained at Mission Playground in the free program went on to play tennis for colleges. And yes, the same is true that there are a good number of soccer players who trained at Mission Playground that went on to play for college teams, the videographer is one example.
I’m gonna blame it on Giants celebration, but I meant to write,
And yes, the same is true that there are a good number of soccer players who trained at Mission Playground that went on to play for college soccer, the videographer is one example.
This wasn’t a dirt field with holes before. That was Dolores Park. This was a blacktop field. First set up as a baseball field. Then David Vidro brought two soccer goals that USF was otherwise throwing away to the blacktop field, and it became a center for futsal.
What year did it transition from baseball to futsal?
Bravo! Your comments are spot on! This is just one more example of how our beloved city is being shanghaied by wealthy young snobs. Their wealth does NOT entitle them to push working class, or very poor families, aside, and yet so often they act as though they believe it does. It breaks my heart to see how this class of new residents is gradually chasing away the low- to middle-class families who are native San Franciscans. And the ones who have made our city into what it is today.
It seems to me that if anyone is going to be discriminated against in situations like this, it’s about time that it be the newcomers, with all their money and absolutely no class! (If that sounds harsh, consider that it’s 2:30 a.m. )
It’s not just the bros who don’t know the neighborhood culture - it’s also Parks&Rec that offered to rent them the space and charged them money for it. The City bureaucrats are just as privileged as the bros.
Hi there!
I’m now considered one of those “wealthy young snobs” from face value, but underneath I came from poverty and had a dream of living in SF any way possible because I was closet LGBT in my southern state where I was an outsider.
I wanted it so bad, I went to war to get a college education just to afford to live in the bay area. That was over a decade ago. I worked my way up from military grunt to civilian hospital grunt to high paid engineer.
I just gave a large percentage of my stock payout to a local charity as well as an anonymous cheque to a Bay Area family.
I have a son in Visitacion valley schools and I want him to grow up in this wonderfully inclusive and loving city that is absolutely a gem in the US.
We aren’t all tech assholes. Some of us are your neighbours who are helping And we aren’t any more happy about what is going on than you are.
I don’t wish to push anyone out just as much as I don’t want to be pushed out for being part of an industry with jerks :(
Lol I think ur mostly full of sh!t. And if you’re behaving like those dingus’ in the video, then Yah, you need to leave as well.
Oh look, who’s the asshole now? Based on your comment, you have way more in common with the bros in the video than the guy you just replied to.
Seriously, self-awareness much?
There are always exceptions… thanks for loving our city!
@Tyler. You nailed it. Not as much fault to the rich guys as it seems here. But people like to tee off.
Right on Tyler! Minority kids have few opportunities for decent recreation and leisure/play facilities. Shame on SF Parks & Recreation for not managing this situation.
The fee is too low for a soccer field. For example. Our community is really small and has a pool. It is free admission. You can rent it for $450 for 3 hours and only your guests can swim. The local public school rents it once a year for the end of year party for the 5th grade classes. The swim team also rents it once a year. I know a pool is more expensive than a field to maintain, but $27 is not high enough price for the community to give up its access.
The issue is definitely what that park was “before” Valencia Street gentrified so radically in the last two or three years…It was a place most young, wealthy white men would never hang out, although parents of all colors used the playground. I spent many a wonderful afternoon there with my son when he was 4, 5, and six. The playground was renovated first with new furniture. Then the field was changed by Rec n Park to astro turf and they put in lights, and finally, the dingy park area along Valencia’s sidewalk was turned into a strollerville/water feature type of mod respite for kids and families. It is much nicer than before when routinely inhabited by homeless park benchers. At the same time, its renovation is a sign of the times along Valencia Street which is a hall mark promenade of the changed Mission, especially on Saturdays when swarming tourists come to gape at our fading multicultural bohemia reworked into expensive artisan products with enough effective ethinicity as to turn no doubt huge profit.
That film was painful, but I thought remarkable well-handled on both sides, really. The kids stood up for themselves. The gormless white guys who had obviously gotten on line in their newfound city and discovered that SF Rec and Park had a neat app or system for booking, and booked only show us how virtualized San Francisco is becoming. That SF Rec n Park has only two days a week when they charge demonstrates that they themselves know of the community use of the park. That they need to charge anyone and can charge everyone 27.00 for use of a playing field only makes me wonder about this astro turf proposition on the ballot in November. More privatization of public space.
And, yes, young people of color have few places to go where they can really, safely be themselves, and do their thing; especially in overly policed Mission District streets and parks. Another aspect of this ongoing “space war” is the renovation, a few years back now of Dolores Park playground, which, though carefully designed for play, and much safer than the old splintery furniture, also shows a push back to the long standing Mission community - large families, many Mexican families as usual, used the several picnic tables which surrounded the old playground regularly for parties, barbecues, and sitting on sunny afternoons.
But, that type of space, too, has been designed out of Dolores Park. The tables are gone with the new design, which in its appeal to safety of children, is also a wiping away of a type of urban lifestyle that is disappearing from our neighbhorhood, the absence of which has evolved alongside Sit and Lie law about sidewalks and other demarcations of law and order. A small concession stand for Yucatan plates is the conscession to the more public diy lunches and barbecues that would be brought by families.
Some how, all this “booking” (which has been in place for years on barbecue pits and picnic areas for Rec n Park), artificial turf and tidy food vending mentality seems more than rampant in the age of the “personal” app. iPower is, afterall, the individual ability to schedule one’s time in accordance with work, and other activities; to reserve, book, and hold means “to manage” and to schedule the city in a “real time” management modality. That capacity to schedule is part of a larger framework of expensive and bloated urban bureaucracy (undoubtedly covering corruption and debt) which must then be paid for, obeyed, accessed, and “configured” to suit the needs of its organizational goals. It is frequently, as we have seen, the only way that the new population to an old neighborhood even begins to understand access to public space, much less the community that was there before them. Unfortunately, the entitlement that comes with “access” is the new interaction in a city dominated by, as it was put, putting a dollar sign on everything. Free public space is public space in which people, not bureacratic paper trails, decide how to work and play together. Amazing how this group of soccer players suggested this, and tried for that solution.
A most telling shot, in terms of the conflict, was the white dude who did not like having himself and his dude friends on camera and accused the videographer of being wierd and questioned his behavior.
I’m afraid that the Mission is full of such incidents these days and its all about the encroachment of the sanctuary for the rich upon what has been the turf of the immigrant family, the artists’ milieu, the wealth of community-based families.
This is how you get better! Play teams that are better than you.
The point was not that field’s cannot be rented. In many upper-to-middle class neighborhoods have established priviledged systems were this ultimately takes place everyday. However, this was on Valencia Street between 19th and 20th that’s in LA for those who don’t know. Those kids are not priviledged enough to have money to pay $27 per hour for that soccer field, so trying to kick those kids off who had to probably wake up extremely early in the morning and beat other soccer teams in order to establish control of the field is fair.
White-priviledge is literally waved in their face with that piece of paper. Same manner as Colombus, the Spanish, Italians, British, French, Portuguese, Germans, Belgiums, America, and other “Western societies,” deemed to be their property when stealing, pilaging, raping, and murdering people and land around the world.
That is their way of life, arrive on the court, wait for your chance to play, consequetively win and the field is yours. Honestly, you need to go travel a bit OP because this is pretty common in middle-lower class neighborhoods, break out of your bubble.
Ummm … The field squatters asked to see the paper.
Field squatters? That phrase marks you as a douche right out of the gate.
Squatters? You my friend are the dumbest person to comment so far congratulations! I grew up in NYC and played in the parks my whole life. If some stuck up white kids came to our courts with a permit we would have laughed and kept playing. These kids handled the situation very well. I hate people who think they are better than you because they have money.
Field squatters?
The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine.
Lumping all western Europeans together, nice. Inaccurate first semester history class, but nice.
This is what you want to speak up about, here?
in LA? you don’t know what you’re talking about one bit. these confrontations happen all over San Francisco, nightly. All those people weighing in on it just want to flex their “I hear the Mission more than other white people” cards. whatever. the field is for rent twice a week. the kid with the braids told like three untruths, and this was framed in an easily digestible binary way. and plenty of people lapped it up.
that was ” I heart the Mission …”
To put “two times a week” in perspective, the field is lighted only six nights week. So 33% of the prime after work hours the local player are evicted from the field.
San Francisco homie. There may be a 19th and 20th valencia street in LA but id recognize my city n e where even with all this gentrification happening, thats the mission in san fran. Good point tho, he WAS literally waving white power around with that waiver. Ive played on that field before, good times, back in simpler times of course
They sure love Mexican food though
http://i.imgur.com/O1KoiKt.jpg
Wait White entitled?You mean the ones that rented and paid for a field that is allowed to be rented… BECAUSE THE KIDS WHO ARE PLAYING FOR FREE ON SOMEONE ELSES DIME ARE THE ONES THAT THINK THEY ARE ENTITLED.
Christ, which part dont you have bassackward?!
The white peeps apparently didnt think they were entitled because they took the time and PAID FOR IT – IE, DID NOT THINK THEY COULD DO IT FOR FREE.
hahhahaha. And the douchebag comment award goes to Jabbbbbberrrrwooooolf.
hey, jabberwolf……how long have you lived in the mission ? who do you work for ? those playgronds have been free and used by mission kids F O R E V E R ! waving a paer around, owning the place, you are ruining a great city. the whole damn group of you are getting tiresome……
its not a park you can pay for or has ever been…thats why the kids are so mad. The city probably created something with out posting any notice or letting the community know. So yes these kids have every right to be mad. If these guys really wanted to play they could have played 7 on 7 with the kids instead of throwing a grown up tantrum. I also don’t see how 27 bucks can give them a right to a whole park for an hour that seem like a load of crap. I us to work for a park and rec and the places that they did charge which was mainly tennies they always had an attendent if they did, mainly to avoid things like this.
OMG you can’t make this stuff up! Wait-are you making this up, to fan the flames?
Either way, you are a collosal asshole, and your remarks give me the sickening feeling that I have been too generous in my thoughts about the influx of gauche young tech types to our city.
difference between the trolls and some real commentor needs a microscope to tell apart.
@Jabberwolf, you’re kidding me. This was the Mision latino community space before the teachies moved in (because it was cheap), and now you’re saying the new generation makes the new rules because the rules have changed due to them. Check yourself, or move out if you cant resepct the history of the area. You cannot move into an area and not consider the history. POS.
If we want to respect the history of an area, all of us have to get out of this country and return it to the Native Americans. Just saying.
Meritocracy, bro. If you’re talented enough to win, you get to play. That is the Silicon Valley way.
the other issue is that from reading comments, it seems a lot of techies never played pick up sports growing up. It’s always winner stays, loser sits unless the court or field has a long standing rule dictating otherwise
It’s more like income and social inequality, rather than meritocracy, that made those guys. None of the kids will have the chance to become “something”, not because they lack the skills, but because their families are poor to begin with.
Now they come and claim the public place with their money, 27$ nothing for those guys, but it’s a lot for those kids, not because they are entitled, but because shitty policy of renting the place out indeed discriminates against the poor.
You keep telling yourself it’s a just world, but it won’t absolve your guilt.
Cool story, you can take your ass to Palo Alto with it.
“Meritocracy, bro. If you’re talented enough to win, you get to play. That is the Silicon Valley way.”
Is this a joke?Is this how those ugly kids on their phones, in the start-up hoodies, think and talk? The ones I have been exhorting my Old San Francisco friends to treat kindly, because “you never know”?
It seems from this incident, and the attendant comments, that this city is more doomed than I had thought. Nerds used at least to have humility. Where does this arrogance come from?
Please: Get the fuck out of our city!
It’s also a bit unfair for a group of guys means to leverage the field from a bunch of kids without.
go try and rent the basketball court for an hour on 125th st in ny
what they are buying is the privilege to not have to interact with the community, that’s what they are buying. To stay in their own little click-ich circle of friends. so no its not wrong to make reservations or have a system as such. But I will say this, all my life I grew up in a neighborhood that was dangerous and neglected and the courts and fields are the few places that I felt free and escaped from the problems in life, it becomes a special place. And if you spent your whole youth there you had to earn your way in through pick up games. See poor people do not have the system or paying to play, you earn your way in with courage and skills. The more white people that move in like that with since of “oh its the rules dude” kinda shit, I guarantee you no real athletes will come from that community. Ya they may have the right to reserve but they cowardly culture just ruined a long standing culture of street ball. fkn pucies should just play like the rest of them. That way they have to interact and actually make friends and start to respect people, but when you can buy it you don’t have to respect people you just buy it. That’s what I see, so both sides of this argument are right but the real loser is the kids and a culture that probably created some of the best athletes in the world, street ball is where its at and when they turn it into 24hr fitness that’s over.
Bingo Tony!!! Paying for the privilege to not have to interact with the community. That is exactly what is going on. It is neo-liberalism at its best, taking what was once public and selling it back to you, and it’s decedent of colonialism.
I agree with everything you say in this post, but for crissakes–is there a way WE can be insulated from having to deal with these skeevy, maladroit tech people?Because I would pay…
But no worries, dude, you’ll just fix it all through disruption, right? Throw an app at these kids and everything’s fine? Of course, heaven forbid the technorati’s children have to deal with that crap – high-stakes testing is for the plebes.
And I’m with Janey Doe below – I have a PhD. and I have been known to kick out the occasional F-bomb.
I do have to argue that they contribute to the IQ of the city ;I think they think they contribute to the IQ level because they have high paying jobs. But I think there are plenty and plenty of high IQ people choosing to work in professions like social work, education and activism that dont have big pay cheks; or that have big time credentials in another country that just dont translate into income power here; or that simply didnt have the family wealth to get the papers to “prove” that they are high IQ. I can tell I am preaching to the choir, but I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Hi,
My name is Derek and I’m a San Francisco native getting my MFA at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. I’m calling out from one elitist to another: Shame on you! This “rental agreement” has got to be one of the most attrocious displays of “We deserve more than you because we earn more than you” that I can recall in recent memory.
Now, grow some balls and play a game of pick up with a group of kids. Let them kick your ass; you’ll become a better player because of it. Plus, you won’t have that sick feeling in your stomache when you think about that really awkward confrontation you had with people 6 years your junior and about a foot shorter.
Good luck!
yes, this post is the correct answer.
My son and I were playing catch on a baseball field a couple weeks ago, and then a local Little League showed up for a game. I guess instead of leaving, I should have demanded to see their reservation, compared how long we’d lived in the hood, and then demanded they include us in their game. They were mostly white kids, so I suppse we have the moral high ground.
^^^Stoopid
So some guys follow procedure and rent the field and they are not entitled to use said rented field….if these kids(20years old. Not sure that is a kid) play here all the time ant the field is rented 2 times a week them I am sure this is jot the first time they pulled this. For anyone that calls it white entitlement your an idiot. $27Between what 2 teams of 7. That’s less than $2 ea. So if your 29 yrs old and don’t have 2 bucks to spare maybe go get a job instead of playing soccer all day.
200,000 YouTube views, that means that there is more to this then you are describing.
why don’t you see it this way…how about your kid is playing baseball and a bunch of grown men come to tell him he cant play there even though your son might have played there everyweekend since he was little for freeeeee. Its not a leauge park its a public park there is a difference. Doesn’t matter how long you have lived here thats not the point the point is that its a public park if they want to start to rent it out the city needs to follow certain procedures as well to avoid conflict. Being that thes guys where adults they should have just joined the game with the kids and tried to get there money back…DONE!!!
Thats not the same thing pops. An organized league and pick up sports are completely different.
We have removed racist posts from this particular thread and all their replies. Apologies for the people who made sane, well-thought out replies.
you forget the thinly veiled racist reply sitting right above this one on the feed.
Hi, I’m assuming my comment was deleted. I hope it’s not policy or procedure to throw the baby out with the racist bath water!
How is having a permit being ‘entitled’? By definitly the teens acted entited as they felt they didn’t need to follow the rules.
Following the rules is a lot easier when they are designed and created to cater to your needs. When you are expected to give up a community space because a new decision was made that suddenly privatices what has always been a public space, in the interest of new groups moving into your neighborhood driving prices up and thus families out of their homes and parks- it is not simply a matter of “following the rules.” We are allowed (and should be encouraged) to be involved in community policies and regulations that effect our community, to question them, to raise awareness to newcomers of the culture and history of a neighborhood that is new to them. Did the guys renting the field think they were following protocol? Sure. Clearly they showed up thinking they were following the rules. But they declinced an opportunity to understand that this has not been how this particular field has been used historically, or why this sudden change might upset people who have grown up using this field without having to pay for it. For those crunching numbers and saying 2.00 twice a week is nothing, some people don’t have two dollars to spend on food, much less recreational activities. If that reality escapes you, it is not suprising the complexities of gentrification are also lost on you entirely.
Well, it seemed the punk with the finger has a massive chip on his shoulder. He should be careful, he’s a whopping 150 pounds of skin and bones with a bicg mouth.
The parks are controlled by the city government. If they had a permit, get the fluck of the field!
Ironically his title is Conor Welch ‘Community Support Lead at Airbnb’
How was the renovation of the field paid for? It makes sense to have a couple of paid nights to return money to what is probably an incredibly limited Parks and Rec budget. That kind of system will continue to make the facilities that lower income citizens have access to better. 2 pay to play nights a week to let a few middle aged developers kick around a ball and feel better about themselves is fair, so long as the kids respect that these old twunts are actually paying for THEM to continue to have better facilities and the old twunts respect that they are not entitled to shit and these kids deserve the field as much as anyone else desiring to kick balls around in the name of fun, fitness and well being.
I think the real flashpoint of this whole incident was the “f*ck the neighborhood” comment. The outrage is no so much about who did or did not follow the signup rules (altho the whole “by app” thing is weird) but the callousness of that particular comment given the current tensions between longtime mission residents and new ones.
ABSOLUTELY Waffles!It’s the ‘tude’.
I’m not so much pissed at whitey per se’. Whitey is typically unhip and a dipshit. Like this dude. I’m more pissed about the whole TechPrivilege thing. The busses. UBER. LYFT. Parking meters you can just keep resetting without getting off your ass. Anything that gives the Tech holder the edge over the common man.The queue? A thing of the distant past. Now we just have a caste system that’s codified in law. And by apps. Like that save a parking space bullshit they just tried to pull?? WTF is THAT??
I also hate the special sections for people from Oracle in the front row of the concert. There’s an “ownership” sentiment that goes with tech. My shit is newer than your shit. Take your phones, your elite status, and your head of the line mentality ELSEWHERE. We’re just sick of you.
Get there early. And quit acting like you built this place. You merely invaded it.
While awkwardly weird Conor may look like a douchebag wearing a tuxedo and drinking champagne in Africa; on his blog he writes this about helping kids play soccer:
“Yesterday we built some small, 5-on-5 soccer goals at the school. They are basic, fashioned from branches, but we dug them into the ground pretty good and fastened the joints with nylon cord, so they should last. Even without the nets, which we’ll attach today, twenty children rushed to the dusty field after school and began to choose sides. This is a recording of the chaotic selection process.”
http://www.conorwelch.com/
http://lightingout.tumblr.com/page/3
I wonder why he doesn’t have the same respect for the chaotic selection process in the Mission?
I agree with a previous commenter. Watching this video was disturbing. I am glad I saw it and was very impressed with how the young men handled themselves. I don’t have a problem with the park department making revenue off of some services. nonetheless, any decisions made about changing park use should be made in collaboration with neighborhood residents and regular park users. Clearly, the Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) needs to do a better job of working with park users to ensure everyone has what they feel is fair access to our neighborhood parks.
There are two things folks can do to get rid of this practice: 1) Call 311 and voice a complaint about renting out soccer fields. This will create a “ticket” that gets sent directly to RPD. 2) Email the general manager of RPD, Phil Ginsburg (Phil.Ginsburg@sfgov.org) and copy your local area supervisor. I think David Campos represents the Mission (David.Campos@sfgov.org). If you can get more people to share the video with requests to complain, you could make them eliminate this new policy.
Thanks for sharing, and please keep us posted on updates.
Everyone had there opinion and each tried to convey it in a reasonable manner, could have been a lot worse.
Absolutely. Even though I agree with the kids over the “bros”, the bros looked like sturdy dudes and had they been less decent people they could have taken the field a different way. Good to see both sides keep their cool on the field.
Broken Finger Guy is the emmenintely reasonable one here. He should run for office. Did they ever play each other as he suggested?
actually, when he said the field could not be reserved, he was - in fact - 100% wrong.not saying the rental policy is a good one, but he was entirely wrong.
Yes entirely reasonable in trying to broker a compromise so everyone wins.
*Yet
That was awesome, but what happened the next week?
Thanks for publishing this. For a long long time, this field has been a community field where during popular hours, the teams would wait their turn. The team that scored stayed on the field, and the team that lost was replaced by a waiting team. This system elevated the level of play, so that the quality was good enough to watch, and the teams waiting would joke around and socialize. The system also worked out that during popular hours the field supported usage by several teams, and spectators, some 40 to60 total people. With the rental players, the field become a graveyard, and was a very inefficient usage of a scarce resource.
This “rental” system is the city picking the winners and losers, rather than the sport and skill picking the winners and losers.
What a unique system!
I also read that for a long time, this field wasn’t even a ‘field’. I’m glad you guys have an improved place to play but come on you guys can give it up 4 hours week to subsidize it.
Right, city taxes don’t subsidize these things or anything….
This field was given to the city by a non-profit. Not everybody with money is bad.
Ok - how is it maintained? By a bond and taxes; i.e. EVERYONE’S dollars
Crying that in 2014 San Francisco is too poor to have free soccer fields for the community, while it was able to do so for decades when the City was in, waht. a boom, just doesn’t pass test of being able to say it with a straight face.
I totally agree with that.
The guys toting the permit are foreigners, it’s apparent, although no the tourist kind. They don’t really live there so they don’t have the connectedness to the community to play. Carpetbagging all round the city now.
Very well put and I used to live in that neighborhood! That’s exactly how it’s always been for that field. Now, you have Gentrified MotherF*&^%rs that build an “app” so they can “buy access” and break local tradition and norms! Suckers don’t have the patience to “wait out” and respect local protocol. Why? Because they probably “suck” as a team. I left the Bay Area 5 years ago because I had seen this coming….
So you moved to Portland just to read SF news blogs?
nobody bought an app, dude. but i hope you had fun with your little slash and burn, “i remember sf when i was the only cool white dude in town” routine.
I just feel bad for both sides, the kids have been playing and they should be able to play. However the guys did rent the field and they should be able to play. The bigger issue and the true problem in this situation is the rental company which needs to negotiate what this fields policy is, thus to avoid further conflict.
Perectly said. They only guilty parties here are the City and whoever the creator of the app is.
Word!
This is completely the fault of the ‘rental company.” If there is now, indeed, a rental policy in place that is legitimate that policy needs to be POSTED, LOUD and CLEAR, on the field so everyone entering that field is aware of it, and this notice should be posted in as many languages as is necessary to inform all users of the field.
WE NEED TO SCHEDULE A GAME BETWEEN THESE 2 TEAMS, SELL $5 TICKETS AND DONATE ALL PROCEEDS TO A MISSION CHARITY.
FOOD TRUCKS. TAMALE LADY. BOOMBOTIX. SHUTTLE PINATAS. LEEEGGGGOOOO
Would go.
Like! As a white guy , I’ll be rooting for the neighborhood kids!
In!
Great idea. I want to know how this drama is resolved. Would make a cool movie too.
Look, as someone working in tech I want people to try to be understanding of the unfortunate here. And by unfortunate I mean the new guys. They don’t understand. They live in a word where you can sign up at a website and pay $27 to rent a field for an hour. And to them it makes sense. They have been mislead by a stupid policy that is out of touch with the community and should be repealed.
New guys. Take a step back. Try to relax. And JOIN the community. By that I mean, contribute a positive attitude. Respect the existing society and community policies. Realize that the rental is dumb. And, participate in a polite mutually respectful dialogue with YOUR NEIGHBORS.
If you’re cool, you will make a few friends and earn their respect. They might teach you a thing or two about life, about futbol… you might be surprised. And yeah, a community tournament that brings people together with ALL of the community involved would be awesome. I would come by to support the comradery.
@Bros - If you decide to be closed minded and demand that your reservation take precidence. Well, good luck with that. You’re going to end up looking like an ass in another online video. You might even tarnish the name of Dropbox or <insert your tech company logo here> in the process.
IN…but shocker, I’m putting $5 on the bros. UVA has a helluva program.
UVa does, not that soft peasant in the hat
Great idea!
Old Mission Neighbor, do you remember when the Police department team played the ti-crus for the final when it was a blacktop park? There were like 4 to 5 hundred people for the game.
But as a partial substitute, in the last months there has been the tech-bro team of new to the neighborhood and mostly french players who “get” the pickup style process. The french team worked out really well, they had some different styel of play, but didn’t have the attitude displayed in the youtube of , “we’re gonna get all legal on you and evict you from your park, besides who gives a damn about the neighborhood.”
I don’t remember that, no. 300-400 people sounds like a lot of money raised for charity, though.
Who wants to put me in touch with the teams from the video?
This is also a perfect realization of the way that apps/ smartphones/ social media is mediating our experience. Like DCPLean explains above, we used to talk to each other, pick teams, winners stays, you call next and we’re all there dealing with each other. Now it’s we tapped a glass few times, we own this public space.
Next up; an app that allows one team to pay another to wait in line for them.
All SF problems will soon be resolved by way of coding.
A Libertarian paradise.
you know one of the things you can do with Taskrabbit is hire someone to wait in line for you for things like the recent iphone release, or a movie, things like that? I bet they’d totally be willing to take up pickup soccer.
Isn’t it hypocritical to bash the “techies” when they’re using the systems set in place by the local government? Why not complain to them? This isn’t money vs. non-money this is a city not listening to its inhabitants.
No.
Thank you for your eloquent, lengthy and well-reason reply. Really helped moved the conversation along here.
your reasoning skills are compelling and persuasive
It’s not hypocritical to bash the “techies” for being completely unaware, unfeeling, unflinching and uncaring about the community they are displacing regardless of whether or not the city happily facilitates it.
100 % agree!
on point, tuffy
You don’t understand what hypocritical means.
Ed Lee and his admininstration absooutely plays a role in something like this. But as one native to another, the rules of this field are put in place over decades by the community NOT some new “enlightened” tech-savvy director who comes up with a “great” idea. I hope these dudes are shamed by those around them.
SF Native - Your spot on as far as i’m concerned.
Tom
Fellow SFN
Clearly you do not understand. The city put in the turf field (with cheap bond money borrowed from my grandkids) over the blacktop but does not and has never controlled it. One rule: loser walks. No permits, asshats. I went to several events the city ran where it was made clear that this field would be for the neighborhood, not rented to teams and leagues. There were pickup games on the blacktop from time to time, but the turf field is now REALLY popular all the time. Can’t let the city off easy for this stupid “trial” app, but I suspect that trial is over now.
Yours truly,
A “techie” from the neighborhood embarassed to share a part of the periodic table with these Silicon-Valley idiots.
So now what are we going to do about all the other rentable lit turf fields in San Francisco? Many if not all are made possible through a rich white guys’ philantropy ( the fisher family). Let’s get id’s to show which neighborhood you are from so we can determine if you belong. Let’s see how good your soccer is or how poor or rich you are to determine if you belong? don’t wear a signature t-shirt, you maybe a labeled a techie and be insensitive and an asshole. Love to be on the best team that night or any night, I will get to play all night and the kids could not complain about not getting any play time - losers sit right? you mean kids <14 yrs old actually get play time or are they just forced to watch and run up the field for a few minutes while the older “kids” have a change over. Let’s kick all the techies out of the mission, they earn too much money, make the rents go up, and are following rules set by others.
What is City Fields position? Some people are saying like that City Fields people are in favor of the rental system, I don’t think so, but it would be good for City Fields to take a position bfore Thursday’s morning’s meeting or people will think they want that.
Yes of course, but these guys are the visible face of it and the video sets it up as an us vs them
bingo. people and directing what could/should be anger over the rental policy towards those guys - no matter what you think of them.
The “bros” in this video had every right to the field. If anything the kids were just being rude. Just because you have lived somewhere forever doesn’t mean you have a claim to anything. If there was a process in place to reserve the field and it was followed then it is too bad for you and your pickup game. Fields are reserved all across the country and have been forever. It doesn’t matter if you had to reserve through an app, online form, or through a paper application. They reserved it. It doesn’t make you right just because you don’t like or agree with something. Get off your high horses and quit blaming everything on smart, hard working, well paid professionals.
“quit blaming everything on smart, hard working, well paid professionals.”
lol
lock thread
Nice trolling.
The city changing the rules to favor some “bros” does not make the tech dudes right.
a dollar per person and the kids could have reserved it themselves. how is that unfair?
It’s a whole thing dude. To reserve the field you need:
1. Knowledge of the res process
2. Access to res system
3. Time to use the res system
4. Money.
So the kids have to be made aware, they need easy access to this type of system, time to use it, plus the money (which, I’m assuming, needs to be in the form of a credit card).
None of those things is huge, but they are components that are generally way easier for people from certain backgrounds to wrestle with. People like tech bros.
It’s an externally imposed system that benefits a tech savvy non-native group (the neighborhood’s one-year tech bro vets who want to engage with space on their own schedule, not the community’s) over a presumably less tech savvy native group that already has their own system for field management in place.
It’s not cool. The tech bros are the new kids in town. They gotta play by the existing rules. If they want to change the rules, it should be up to them to gain support from within the community to create that change, not externally impose it.
There is actually no “right” to this field. The way parks are reserved actually does not imped the public use of that area at all. Meaning, you can reserve a field of play or a park, however this does not prohibit other users in any way. It can’t actually, due to the nature of public parks and what they are legally.
“Meaning, you can reserve a field of play or a park, however this does not prohibit other users in any way. It can’t actually, due to the nature of public parks and what they are legally. “Better check the municiple code. This isn’t true. Try walking into the closed-off parts of Golden Gate Park during outside lands, and tell that to the cops as they are handcuffing you for trespassing.
Public fields should be a free place to play for all. THAT is the point of them. Scheduling time on the field is for leagues… not random dudes that don’t have the social maturity to play pick up games and will pay a convience fee to just take it. I like how the ‘friend’ that shows up with paperwork introduces himself to the others on ‘his team’.
Nah - if this were true there would be no organized sports or events. Little league baseball, AYSO soccer, company events or paid events like Outside Lands - they all need to be able to reserve public parks for their use. When parks are not reserved, they’re open to the public. The parks generate revenue which they use to maintain the parks. This isn’t rocket science and it’s not a new concept.
Right, those kids should have just gotten on their iPhone 6 Plus’s and reserved the field like anyone else!
I see the point you’re making, but in all likelihood those kids do have smartphones.
Or they could simply call Parks and Recs reservation number (831-5500)
Here’s an alternative way of viewing things: We don’t need to make going to the park complicated, creating a system of reservations, fees, and the likes. Playing soccer at a field should be simple, not the outcome of a rational system.
All baseball and softball fields are rented in SF. What is any difference for soccer fields. It’s an organized sport for a reason. Book a field to ensure ur children can play and practice at a certain time. Everyone else in SF does it to have a set time on a set field. Otherwise just grow up people. Jeez. Rich or poor everyone can rent the fields to assist the city in maintaining them as well as creating new ones….whats the big deal other than some douchebags being douchebags. Hence whey I moved out of the mission!!!!!
“Just because you have lived somewhere forever doesn’t mean you have a claim to anything”
#Colonialism
This is a pretty spot on paraphrasing of what Ayn Rand said about Native Americans.
So there’s that. Ugh.
Well played!
…yeah, except that’s the rationale people fall back on when they want to continue some reactonary poicy ” “We’ve always been here, and we don’t need you outsiders telling us to respect the gays/blacks/Jews/Muslims/[insert group for hating here].”
This is a BRILLIANT point, Maus. And one I am frankly shocked took this long to be raised. The argument that “we’ve been here, so you need to follow our traditions” is pretty much exactly what people who did not want blacks, Latinos, Moslems” - any of the “others” - moving in said.
It’s terribly ironic to see what in all likelihood are people who would self-identify as “progressives” arguing that newcomers do not belong. And talking about obviously Spanish-speaking people as “natives” of the area. I would bet that at least one of the so-called “neighborhood kids” is not even born in the US, let alone California or the neighborhood. The Mission District 100 years ago was primarily Italian and other Southern Europeans, who got pushed out. EVERYONE in the Bay Area came from somewhere else; the Ohlone are pretty much all gone.
BRILLIANT point. Observer? Calling out specific newcombers for their specifc acts of documented rude and entitled behavior, is not the same as “arguing that newcomers do not belong”–as much as you wish it were for the sake of bolsteing your straw man arugment.
You’re not very bright, are you Andy?
The Mission wasn’t a “Latino” neighborhood before the ’60s. When waves of immigrant latinos came to the neighborhood in the ’60s and ’70s, would you have supported blaming them for everything wrong and giving them less rights to neighborhood public spaces in deference to people who had lived there “forever”? #moralrelativism
I’ve lived in the neighborhood for over a decade, don’t work in tech and I don’t like bros and douchebags, but I’m also sick and tired of people claiming that the neighborhood or the city is theirs. It’s not.
This community field has been there forever and we have always played by pickup games. Just because these douche bags come in thonking they own everything doesn’t mean shit. I don’t care what stupid little program they used to book the field, winner plays is they way it should stay. I’m glad the kids stood their ground.
“Get off your high horses and quit blaming everything on smart, hard working, well paid professionals.”
How do you know this about these men?
Because the had Dropbox gimme shirts and UVa ballcaps, duh.
“Just because you have lived somewhere forever doesn’t mean you have a claim to anything.”
Ha! Keep talking, dude. You’re a great spokesperson for the dudes in this video–entitled and utterly clueless.
You said that they dont have a right to it just because they have been there there whole lives? LOL Fine then i will go and set up a tent in your back yard and I will invite everyone from south america to come live here.
Hahaha!
While we are at it let’s make it a requirement that all public school text books are in ebook form and you must provide your own iPad to get access. If you cant afford it well tough shit. Get you education somewhere else. Spounds totally fair right? Like iPads are just falling from trees right?
Seriously… don’t be dumb. Sometimes for these kids it’s all they have. Go pay the extra $100 and go to some 24 hour fitness indoor field. You don’t want to hang with our dirty improvised people any how.
Jo$h McBro? Conner VonTechington III? Which one of you wrote this?
Hard working?! Yeah, pushing buttons all day is SUCH a difficult job. And smart! Sure, following other douchebros’ orders and wearing the same clothes with the same haircut certainly does denote a high level of intelligence, huh? You putz. Go back to whatever bullshit suburb you came from to ride the big white bus, jackoff. Or better yet, go in public with your shitty attitude and see how long it takes for your goddamn skull to get bounced off the 24th Street Curb. I can’t wait until the next gen of tech CEOs fucking sends all your jobs overseas so you all can go back to wherever the fuck you came from.
That there is heart warming.
Just how different is this little rant from “Go back to Mexico?”
Not very.
“Pushing buttons,” eh? $1,000 says that if you were asked to sit down in front of a computer and write some code that does something, anything, you’d produce nothing more than a fart. Let’s even keep it stone-cold simple. Sit your ass down and write some very simple HTML/JavaScript that moves text from the top of the screen to the botton. Oh, wait, you can’t? DIDN’T FUCKING THINK SO, LOSER.
“Sit your ass down and write some very simple HTML/JavaScript that moves text from the top of the screen to the botton. Oh, wait, you can’t? DIDN’T FUCKING THINK SO, LOSER.”Omg. You can not be an actual person who actually said this?! Absolute funniest shit I’ve read in my entire life.
MissionDweller aka part of the gentrification problem
Just because you have lived somewhere forever doesn’t mean you have a claim to anything.
This must have been exactly what English settlers said to the Native Americans. Though probably with more “ye” and such.
^The dude in the UVA hat
those guys were dickheads. one of them worked for dropbox
Tough spot on this one. I can see why both sides feel cheated.
Kids - They just wanted to play some soccer, probably don’t have a lot of cash lying round to reserve spaces for them to play. Who are these bros with a sheet of paper claiming to have a reservation on the field while they’re playing? Your reservation paper is meaningless.
Bros - Made a reservation on the sfrecpark site to ensure a spot to play for at least an hour. If there’s people on the field they’ll just need to leave for an hour. According to the sfrecpark site you can reserve any athletic spaces:
http://sfrecpark.org/permits-and-reservations/athletic-fields/occasional…
So, technically the bros did have use of the field (provided it was a legit reservation) but it appears the kids and other adults refused to give up the space. Probably could have called the cops on them to leave, but that seems a little unnecessary. I’m not 100% certain about what time “popular hours” occur so I can’t say for certain what hours you can and cannot reserve the space.
On one hand I like that the space is open to pickup games on a first come first serve. However, if you want to play within a group of people you know who have similar skills/age then by refusing to give up the field they’re saying, “you can’t play here since we got here first, I don’t care what reservations you made.” If the space was reserved for a group of little kids to play, would those people say “too bad, call the cops if you want us to move.”
When we start picking and choosing who can and can’t use a particular space then we’re just discriminating. Poor, middle, rich I really don’t care who made the reservation to use it. If someone pays a non-outrageous price to use a public space for a reasonable amount of time, why can’t we just respect it? Am I being completely unreasonable?
The reservation idea for those that have money and want the exclusivity of only playing with their friends, rather than take the challenge of the field works better in place like Crocker Amazon where there are about 8 lighted fields. They can drive and park there.
^ Does MissionDweller work for Dropbox?
I totally saw this movie! In the climactic final scene, the scrappy neighborhood kids beat the gringos 3-2 on an amazing last-second goal by Paco, who has cancer, and slips it past Trentworth Dilforth’s outstretched arms. The community center is saved! A previously unreleased Survivor song plays in the background.
No dance-off in overtime?
That’s during the montage.
Oh please, MisisonDweller, these “bros” with their permit don’t come across as smart, and certainly don’t display much social intelligence. The cool kids know the legacy has been pick-up games where best team stays on the field, and anyone can play if they’re comfortable waiting. Walking in with a permit demanding the space is pure assholism (and let’s see any permits for the illegal AirBnBs that have been operating all over the City). If these broholes had any tact (and any athletic skill), they’d hang and wait their turn, and probably get their frat asses crushed.
“and let’s see any permits for the illegal AirBnBs that have been operating all over the City.”For the win!
MissionDweller: You are the actual worst. Move back to wherever you came from.
But he’s been here for “over a year”!!!!!!
Yes; go back where you came from.
The last person I heard say that was Pat Buchanan.
Is MissionDweller the same troll that has single-handledly ruined every SF blog? I think he’s presently known as “Sam” on 48 Hills.
“This is really weird! And awkward!”
Yep, thanks for that.
Yo, this is standard operation for almost all parks everywhere. My homies aint ever rented this one, but we rented some others up in those areas. I aint ever heard of a city that didn’t do it actually, but it’s mostly for small private league play, if you got enough players you can do it on the personal. Brother said they had reserved it for 106? It sounds like the right way to do. Just cuz they better off than us dont make it right for us to trump them on the community shit too you know. Shitty Bro’s is part of the community too. I don’t like them but I think these kids was trippin.
really? pretty sure your name is not Jose,and what your cooking smells a lot like Thug Kitchen. http://sfist.com/2014/10/08/sf_health_care_futurist_which_is_ap.php
It’s ok to want to stand up for the bro’s, but this comment is just not believable…..brother.
Yeah, that was almost painful to read.
Sounds legit
Sockpuppets in brownface, can you sink any lower bros?
Who was trying to sell time slots? Instead of just blaming these guys for being assholes why not investigate the douche who was selling time slots? I think this argument wouldn’t have even happened if someone hadn’t sold them a time slot in the first place .. I’m not saying the douches are right or defending them but before we start saying it’s all their fault we need to know why they thought they could take over the field in the first place…
http://sfrecpark.org/permits-and-reservations/athletic-fields/occasional…
the city is the one selling the timeslots…
no one seems interested on focusing on that point. which is too bad, cause THAT’S the story.
The tech bros come off as tone-deaf douchbags, but the root of the problem is that the folks at SF Parks & Rec started charging for access to the previously public-access field in order to line their own budget.
http://missionlocal.org/2012/10/petitioner-fights-pay-to-play-in-mission…
“Who cares about the neighborhood?” says greying boy child in Dropbox shirt. I think we found the new icon of douchebaggery for the next few months. If anyone can reveal his name, please share.
What’s frustrating about this is while yes, Dropbox dudes were legally within their rights to try to get everyone off the field, they didn’t stop to ask whether or not they should. This is one of those situations where it doesn’t matter what your rights are and it’s better to just treat others the way you’d want to be treated.
The better way to handle this would’ve been to just agree to play the people already on the field and in the future realize that it’s probably better to just play pickup and not book the field. Instead, they generally handled it poorly and fueled frustrations it’s pretty plainly obvious to anyone with an ounce of social awareness would be made worse by behaving like this.
They’re not used to face to face interaction with other humans. If only there was an app to resolve this dispute….
Talkly? Discussr?
I like it when they co-opt another culture. Maybe something like “Habla” would work in this particular case.
Too many vowels to be a legit app
H@bl@
Agreed. There was an opportunity to make friends and strengthen the community as a whole. Tensions are already pretty high and this is just more fuel for a fire no one wants. I would be nice to see less “Mine v. Yours” and more “Ours”.
Althou I’m curious about this app. Was the knowledege of it made availble to everyone or only those with Smart Phones?
Yep - one side was alright in playing with or against the other side, but the bros. just don’t know how to share.
Historically people who chose to become coders do so precisely because they lack social skills. Commmunication with a machine is so much simpler for simple minds to master.
Skyler, you sound like a reasonable person, though I strongly disagree with your assertion, “This is one of those situations where it doesn’t matter what your rights are…”. There has to be a better approach than setting a precedent, whereby the legal rights of one person (or group of people) are stripped, because of populist opinion. That’s how you end up with anarchy. Every neighborhood has civic leaders in the governing bodies that create these rules who are elected to represent their interests. Sometimes these local politicians make mistakes, sometimes they are defeated by a majority and at others they are the wrong candidate. Citizens who care about what’s happening in their neighborhoods can write letters and set meetings with their elected official(s) who represent them to express their viewpoints. They can also attend sessions where rulings are made to express their consent or their dissent. Not everybody is going to be happy with all the rulings and with many of the compromises that are a part of politics.
If the citizens in this neighborhood disagree with the government’s ruling, then let your local representative know that if it’s not changed, he/she is not getting re-elected. Get organized and lobby the other city officials as well. Explain to them that this is a government of the people. Use the ballot box, and get people who understand the interests of the neighborhood in the public meetings, where they can express their views and stand up for their rights.
Our country is falling apart, because we the people are so distracted from the truth behind so many issues, and from the reality of how systems actually work and what is really taking place. Much of the media has become quite adept at manipulating data and using hyperbole and rhetoric to stir up emotion to distract the masses or to get better ratings. The media, whether being manipulated by a larger machine (political or corporate) or expressing the explicit views of its staff (populist or elitist), understands the unchallenged and implicit trust that it is freely granted by much of its audience. It is aware of its incredible, unchecked power to manipulate the truth and its strong influence over its consumers’ beliefs and behavior. The state of the political, financial and economic systems, and all of the violations to our basic rights that are imposed upon us by the very people whom we keep re-electing is proof of the danger from reporting such as this, and eveidence of our own lack of effort to understand the truth.
I agree with you for wanting to stand up for your principals. Find out who represents your neigborhood, understand its voting capacity, and go to the municipal, state and federal government(s) and put them all on notice. Let them know that your neighborhood understands its power at the ballot box, and that come the next election, they will as well. Understand your interests and vote in your interests. I suspect that if the bulk of the people (myself included) understand what and who they are voting for, and upon what and how their elected officials acually vote, then there would be less division amongst society and better results from those who are supposed to be representative of all of us.
One of the difficulies with the elected official route, is that this park is at the geographic corner of three supervisorial districts. Campos, Kim, and Weinner. Mostly its the people from Campos’s and Kim’s districts who use the park.
Kim district is the one Chris Daly used be elected by, he was a regular basketball player at the park, and just like his politics, was known to throw some elbows when coming down for rebounds.
Weinner, whose district the park is actually in, favors the govermental theory of moving more and more public resources to the people who can pay, ( and ultimately donate to him)
So the borders of supervisorial districts don’t match the oraganic usage of who goes to the park.
I like your pragmatic perspective, Sugar. I moved from The Mission in ‘02, and haven’t kept up with local politics. I worry for the local kids, that if they get sick of the ordinance, and kick a little ass, that some of them will end up in big trouble, because the’lly lack the savvy and the financial resources to retain good council and avoid severe punitive action.
I’ll committ 5hrs ($135 @ $27p/hr) for the locals if there is a group being organized to do so. Do you have any data?
This video took place in the Mission and involves tech bros, so it looks like a gentrification issue but as anyone who plays soccer knows, this happens everywhere. It’s hard to find a place to play, other than shitty dirt fields, so when a field like Mission Playground exists, everyone wants to use it. Even in cities like LA with way more space, the decent fields are almost always reserved and people generally respect that.
I like the pickup system where you show up, form teams, and take turns based on who wins. I would love to see the county set aside times or even entire fields for pickup use only. The problem is those artificial grass fields are really expensive and rather than spend money on something like a place for kids to play, the county will rent it out to raise revenue.
The permit holders in this video are douchebags, but they deserve a refund from the county. They can’t be expected to enforce a permit themselves or have to call the police to have a reservation honored.
Wow, that’s…a really good comment on this blog.
Yeah, who is this person and what are they doing in our cesspool?
For clarification that artifical fields are expensive, this one was given to the City as a gift by a non-profit. The same non-profit want to donate a bunch of fields by the GGP side near beach challet, but the NIMBY in the sunset don’t want the artifical lights and think artifical fields are bad.
Hundred bucks says those pussy little kids would have walked away if they were black. God damn people these days think they can punk on white people like were gunna sit back and take it. Just because it’s been your “hood” doesn’t mean shit!!! they had legit it reason to be on the field. Grow the fuck up you little beans and get the fuck off. And if you can’t afford 27 dollars when you prob have more then 27 people living in your house then you need to move to Stockton or something.
SF Tech Bro Meme
When the techie nerds were being bulliedn in high school, I felt sorry because I thought they had no social skills. Now I realize that they have no social conscience. I apologive to the bullies for doubting their judgement.
No social conscience is right. If a douchebro has any political view whatsoever, it is almost inevitably libertarian, i.e Randian misanthropic sociopathy.
Is that Grandpa Beiber?
Oh my god yes. +1K
So, someone tell me in the end they played together! I hope.
I find it ironic that eveyrone is pounding on the “douchebag” “techie” “bros” whatever you want to call them. To be clear, the kids have every right to be upset. But the fact is that it’s the county (or whoever launched the app) that is to blame here. If the county wants to rent the field out it’s up to the county, but it needs to be made clear to eveyone and possibly even have a county rep onhand to mitigate these issues. The older group did nothing wrong and shouldn’t be blamed for this.
No, in fact, it’s the assholes with no fuckin common sense that are to blame here. I can tell you right now, with absolute certainty, that there is a large majority of people including myself that would have approached the situation much differently, with much more uncertainty about our “right” to be there (regardless of an app or a fee) and far more reverence for the people already on the playground (and if I want to make a huge leap of faith / stereotyping guess, probably grew up on the playground). That’s why someone broke out their camera, that’s why this is a story.
I’m not a native, I’m just an ordinary “moved here 5 years ago and is now telling everyone to go back where they came from” dude. There’s a reason though, and it’s not just because a certain group of people make a shit ton more money than I do on an industry with a whole heaping pile of useless products made for and by social retards. It’s because a portion of them are dicks to boot.
/rant.
Exactly. The level of entitlement seen in that video is ridiculous. And for a group of supposed adults (heh) to come at a group of kids like that is…well…not too unexpected, unfortunately, but a shame nonetheless.
Your argument is full of passive-aggressive statements that really have no meaning (“heaping pipe of useless products..etc”). You’re judging these guys based on an entire industry (when in fact, we have no idea who they are, they could all be teachers for all we know). You’re also saying that because “a portion of them are dicks” that it’s fair to judge these guys on that (forgetting the fact that a portion of EVERY industry is dicks).
Littering your arugment with insults and stereotypes only weakens your voice. The fact is we don’t know anything about these guys, or the kids.
We know at least one of them works at Dropbox and at least 3 of them are dicks.
Oh my dear god. No, Captiain Point-Missed, I’m judging THESE guys by their actions / tone / approach alone. I would call these asshats entiteled fucking morons I there wasn’t a shread of evidence that they ALL work in the Tech industry. I know EVERYTHING I need to from watching how they handled themselves. THEY are the ones coloring my opinion of people who work in tech, NOT the other way around.
It’s possible that you’re so obvlivious to such a grose display of entitlement that you don’t even see anything to take issue with. You’re so confused as to why the county / whoever is making it so difficult for people to figure out how to behave more maturely than the KIDS they’re so abrasively arguing with rather than expecting grown ass adults to be able to do that themselves. JESUS. H. CHRIST.
Your last two comments are spot-on perfect and cut to the absolute heart of the matter. Thank you.
You’re most certainly welcome!
Excellent, J-Train. Spot-on and excellent comments.
https://www.facebook.com/joshpuckett is one of the douchey DropBox guys
from the profile he lives in….. Palo Alto, California.
Sometimes, after a long day of punching away at the ol’ keyboard, a bro just needs to throw off his Company hoodie for his Company tee, call an Uber car to drive him to the local soccer field, and let off some steam…after which he will likely rehydrate with some Box Water and hit up Trick Dog for some cheap $9 brews before placing a dinner order on Sprig and retiring to his bedroom (located deep in the Mission along Valencia) to watch Breaking Bad reruns on Hulu Plus.
A day in the life of a world-changer is not an easy one, fellas. Maybe we should lay off these guys. None of us can really understand what they go through.
i would like to know where the person who oversees this park was at because shouldn’t they be around to regulate? Also anybody can make a fake document. The biggest issue is that the “bros” attempted to run the field instead of being apart of it. This is the biggest problem with genetrification, outsiders come in and claim to be apart of the community but instead push out those who have made the community what is. This is a clear case of douchebags thinking they could out smart locals by pulling rank… take that preppy shit to a indoor gym
@Papp There is no on site rec workers, every since the park was closed for renovation under the 2008 Clean and Safe Bond fund, the building is 95% shuttered. (like why did they spend six million dollars to have a locked building??)
There is a min presense of a program for American Sign Language kids, an admirable endevor, not doubt, but its a City Wide reach, and the effect is to exclude the neigbhorhood kids.
I don’t really blame anyone here. Those “bros” booking a field through the parks department which you would think would be legit if it were an option. Sucks that it’s a change to the neighborhood, but I don’t think they made the app, pitched it to the government and then booked a game on it. I also love the way this is being recorded on a very high quality camera and then the neighborhood bro’s argument is “just cause you have money”.
At any rate, booking is dumb and I feel bad for those kids, but I also don’t want to blame the Dropbox guys either.
https://twitter.com/joshpuckett/status/512225629572308992
Tough luck bro
joshpuckett is small fry. Bring him in to the station and see whether you can get him to flip on greying man boy.
This makes me long for the 70s or even the 80s in the Mission.. This would have been handled in a much more violent way by the street kids. One can dream…
But the cameraphones weren’t very good then. “Why are you taking a picture of your Slimline with your Polaroid? We’re talking here.”
A disc camera would have taken some awesome action shots.
Ah, the good old days of curb stomping.
I love how the tech dudes are trying to kick the kids out, and it’s one of the kids who just asks, “why don’t we all play??” The jerks are more bent on arguing the whole thing out instead of finding a compromise.
Also, what a bullshit location to hold this kinda of “trial.” The locals, who have been playing pickup there for years, and are likely less tech savvy, are going to be aware that it’s shifting to an online booking system. Do that shit in the Marina or Pac Heights.
That’s the definition of entitlement.
Hilarious. Thank you for this.
Hah! Thanks!
While awkwardly weird Conor may look like a douchebag wearing a tuxedo and drinking champagne in Africa; on his blog he writes this about helping kids play soccer:
“Yesterday we built some small, 5-on-5 soccer goals at the school. They are basic, fashioned from branches, but we dug them into the ground pretty good and fastened the joints with nylon cord, so they should last. Even without the nets, which we’ll attach today, twenty children rushed to the dusty field after school and began to choose sides. This is a recording of the chaotic selection process.”
http://www.conorwelch.com/
http://lightingout.tumblr.com/page/3
I wonder why he doesn’t have the same respect for the chaotic selection process in the Mission?
Do you know how absurd it is to go to a neighborhood park that you have never been to and try to get a time slot on an app that isn’t even sanctioned by the city? It’s clear these guys have no intension to be part of the community. They could have invited the kids to play, let them know what’s going on with the app, instead of just flying and showing a piece of paper and telling them to get out. These are grown ass men. Common curtesy. Shout out to the kids for expression there concerns in an intelligent and cool manner, instead of throwing a tantrum like those idiot men did.
This is simple… IF Parks & Rec. legitimately rented the “rights” to a park then the “Bros” have every right legally to ask whoever they’d like to not use or use the space they have rented. It doesn’t matter legally what the younger kids or “community” think. If you have a problem with how that works, then that is something the “community” needs to address with Parks & Rec. not disrespect and violate other people’s rights.. Also, if I heard right he said $27 dollars for the hour?.. If it’s that big of deal everyone throw in $2 and cover the expense and reserve it yourself?…
Is it right? Is it fair?… Depends on which side of it you’re on. Instead of causing a scene once a document was produced, simply ask if you can join their field THEY PAID FOR. No need for a “standoff” or being rude from anybody there…
when they get there ass kicked they wont be pulling that we rented this park shit.
Fourty9ers4life, just because you type in bold print doesn’t make you right, and by the way you are wrong.
Listen to yourelf. They are CHILDREN. Would you like them to be hauled up in court for “violating” those poor rich boys rights to play ball with the other boys? Not everything in life can be boiled down to a legal argument. So crass of you, it’s hard to fathom what planet you’re on.
And you’re seriously asking a bunch of kids to to stop whining, and go pay their $27 to play? Big deal right, it’s only $2 each - well guess what, $2 is probably more than they’ve got. I basically had access to $0 when I was a kid. Another shocker for you - not everyone has access to what you think is a ludicrously small amount of money. Funny that.
But that’s OK. The US is pay to play isn’t it. If you can’t pay, tough, you should fuck off and stop complaining. You can pay, and that’s all you care about isn’t it.
Go sort out your attitude. It’s vile.
“children”? No these are young men. they are old enough to know better and respect that they have a permit and payed for the time slot. Only 1 hour. how would you like it if you paid your phone bill and had to share your minutes with somone? fuck that. This generation of kids is all fucked up.
I don’t get these guys at all. If you want to play, you don’t book a field. You go to a field where people are playing and ask if you can join in. If you do make the mistake of booking and find out from the locals that what you think you did is pretty much unheard of, again, ask if you can join them. Then play your asses off, because they’ll probably say yes and they’ll probably be pretty damn good. Worry about a refund from the city later.
We’re about 20 years past this kind of dignified, handshake agreement. We’re so deep in, up to our ears with legally entitling people that the response caught on video is common place.
I don’t buy that. I’m 43, work in my own corner of tech and still play. I would walk into that park and find a way to play without pissing anyone off. I agree the system is getting more and more screwed up around us, but it’s our f*ing system and neighborhood parks should still always be there for the neighborhood.
Even with a large group of your friends that want to play each other? Doubt it. By yourself, sure, that’s how you meet people. I’d say you can’t fault the people that reserved it as that’s all they know.
YES.
But then they’ll lose to a bunch of kids instead of competing awkwardly against one another. This will then destroy company morale and delay Vry iMprTnt product launch!
Does anyone else think it’s ironic that the hispanic guy is asking the white guy for his papers?
In what way is that ironic?
…because usually in this country if someone says “show me your papers” it’s a white officer questioning a hispanic regarding his right to be there. In this case it’s a Hispanic guy questioning a white rugby regarding his right to be there…it’s a bit amusing.
The native guy that you call hispanic is the real native the white guys are from europe.
If the white guys are from Europe then the “native” guy is from Asia.
You know that Spanish is a European language. Spain is a country in Europe, I think.
The guy who has spent just one year in the neighborhood should have gotten information of how the community field use is. It is not hard to notice an influx of teams playing on the field; if you are observant enough you can see a system working. Techies got a dose of outside reality, hopefully they realize that not all things offline can be ‘optimized’ to the way they would want it to.
I’d like to know:
What happened to waiting your turn?
Why should there be an app booking on a mission field that is not organized for profit?
If there was a new thing for the community it should have been brought up and people who have lived and played all their life should have a say in it.
I work for a techie company and at times wonder how people are so offline-minded when it comes to using online based products like software or algorithms(Software generates the RMA no need to call cust service or Goolgle search is algo-based.). BUT, I NEVER try to think ‘online’ when I am in an offline community (when I am with human beings and not dealing with software). I would never go into a community and say ‘F#$%@ it!’ because I paid. What a snobbish way to live.
p.s.
Clearly the techie’s are the bullies here…
p.p.s. No offense meant when bringing up the offline and online thinking do hope everyone gets my point.
I find this amazing. Thought it was a put on …but no, it is real. Amazing how these guys have no fear whatsoever and the way they talk down to people. …I think this minority of ‘tech’ people could use some class war fear put into them.
It is half-staged. Watch the camerawork at the beginning: the cameraman knows what’s going to happen.
The DropBros played their part pretty well considering they were ad libbing.
Shouldn’t those kids be mad at the idiot person at city hall who made this dumb rule that you have to pay!
The guys who booked the field don’t seem like bad guys and neither do the kids already playing there. I do think, however, that the thing to do in a case like this is to just join in like many people have already suggested. Be a real part of the community by getting to know the kids who grew up there and integrate yourselves instead of saying your a part of the community just because you’ve lived there for a year or two.
Don’t seem like bad guys?
I like how this same guy also says “This *one time* we’ll let you play”, cause you know he’s in charge of the field now.
That guy did not say that. A kid behind the 20 year old arguer did. That meme is a fake concoction and you all seized on it. Pathetic.
Actually this specific guy apologized on twitter on Saturday, so I do believe he did say this. although he didn’t specifically say he did. But from the context it seems so.
http://sfist.com/2014/10/13/mission_soccer_bro_and_dropbox_both.php
This is a public space and having to pay ANYTHING to use it is bullshit. Isn’t that what taxes are for? For upkeep of the park? Then why the heck does anything need to be paid to use a soccer field? UGGHHHHH.Who do I bother to get this app business removed?
Did anyone stop to think that these dudes paying money to reserve the field is the type of thing that helps keeps the field maintained so that neighborhood kids can use it?
This is cute.
No, I think that the over inflated taxes we pay to live here do.
nope because as an actual tax paying citizen of San Francisco I know that the park was created through a bond measure that SF residents are paying for not these dude who live in Palo Alto other than the one guy who booked it for his “friends”.
Aside from socioeconomic and ethical.issues. The fee of $27 as a user fee to take a soccer field out of general public use bears no relation to actual cost to taxpayers for the facility.
Agree completely - that’s why I bust through the doors of the Academy of Sciences and De Young without paying because I paid for GGP through my SF taxes.
OH PLEASE!
I am a 57 year old woman who raised a son in that neighborhood. We lost our flat to a snooty building flipper some years back who had just the sort of attitude the men in this video displayed. Your logic is flawed. Our taxes pay to keep the field up and if companies like Airbnb and dropbox did not go out of their way to find ways not pay their fair share of taxes, this City would have the money necessary to keep up our fields.
I am in awe of the poise of the young spokesman in this video for keeping a conversation going. I am also in awe of the videographer for bringing this issue to the forefront.
I hope the men in this video have a chance to really observe their behavior in this altercationa and don’t hide behind defensice childishness.
Typical Californians. Please just don’t visit Oregon. It sucks…
We’ll stay out of your State if you stay off our hyper-local blog with your hypocritical self righteous bullshit.
Anybody interested in getting a campaign together to rent the field out every night so we can let the kids play there for free? Anybody already doing this?
Great idea William. Everyone that is upset, instead of going on here complaining, posting opinions etc where its all just gonna stay in this blog take that passion and drive and how about we mobilize and actually do something about it outside this blog.
Afterall LA UNION HACE LA FUERZA
Feel free to e-mail me if you get something together for this.
gimme_pizza@rocketmail.com
The city should not be renting out this park. It was upgraded with a tax bond, it is maintained by tax money, the idea that people need to get together to rent it everynight because the city has no idea what happens in different neighborhoods is absurd.
Oh, hey Ash-Ash! Conor and Josh and Trip are grabbing some microbrews and totes want you to come down!
These kids have fathers, older brothers, cousins and uncles that will hurt and torture these condescending, entitled idiots. They better watch their back. Leave it to a bunch of waspy mfers to mess up a nice neighborhood.
it’s like an episode of Workaholics
i play pick up soccer all over SF. i’ve been here for 7 years and started playing pick up with locals in the Mish since I moved here. i also play in other parts of the city where there is typically a mix of ethnicities and socio-economic levels and backgrounds. it is getting harder and harder to share these fields peacably amongst locals and non-locals alike. there is a long-standing system of “winner-stays” at a lot of these local parks with the locals. especially in the Mission. but the city has also made these PUBLIC parks available for rent, one-hour at a time, by visiting a site online and paying a fee. i would assume the local kids dont, and have never done that. since the influx of new money and new people aka gentrification, this long-unused system of paying by the hour has now been resurrected by the city. the intention is to provide a fair way to provide access to these parks to the citizens of the city. the problem is that there has been this de facto system in place for the locals who have grown up in SF and lived here for years; and not all of these locals have access to computers and the disposable income to rent these fields the way their new neighbors do. in a way, both sides are right. the important thing is to find a peacable solution to this issue. the real solution i believe is for the city to designate rental and rental days/hours and make sure that both the local communities as well as the online community know. the city has to be super clear. the city has to clean step in and clear this up. cause we all know local gov’t is all to eager to cater to the needs of the new money coming in despite the needs of the local long-standing communities. the city created this mess. they gotta clean it up. or its gonna blow in our faces as a community. it already has in spots. i’ve seen it. but someone’s really gonna get hurt and the city’s gonna knee-jerk react. right now they have a chance to be proactive and nip this in the bud. has this video made it to the desk of any local officials??
* that should read, “rental and non-rental days”.
So much text used but you had to shorten it to the “Mish”?
“Mish” = “Frisco”, douchey newcomer. Good lord.
Working class Irish who moved to The Mission from SoMa after 1906 called it “the mish.” It’s an old term. It does sound extra douchey these days though.
“Frisco” is used by many SF natives - primarily people of color in neighborhoods you never visit. But I understand. When you got here a few years ago, somebody told you “don’t call it Frisco!” and you decided that would be your indicator of authenticity. It came down to you from an old Herb Caen column, by the way. And it’s true, Caen’s people in the northeast part of town don’t say “Frisco.”
Never, ever call it “The Mish”. Never. Don’t freakin’ do it.
i shorten lots of words in my vocabulary. if i crossed some non-coolness line i apologize. can u comment on the other 1000+ words? all u got is: “dont say Mish”? use this space for dialogue not to show how fucking hip and “real” you are. jack asses. comment. on. the. issue. at. hand. for starters, no matter how hip u fucks think u are cuz u dont say “Mish”, i love and work with these local “Mish” kids everyday. what the fuck do u do?? fucking hip police…
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