— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Remember when the city of Oakland rose up against Foot Locker's reign of terror and thwarted their menacing plans to sell kicks? Well, apparently Mission kids couldn't handle being upstaged by our revolutionary neighbor and opted to take over the T-Mobile building on Mission St. in order to protest Gavin Newsom's gentrification agenda. Mission Loc@l reports:
A group of housing activists occupied the vacant second floor of a building on the corner of 20th and Mission Streets Monday night and said they don’t plan to leave unless they are forced out.
T-Mobile occupies the first floor.
“We are going to vote with crowbars,” said one protester at the rally that began at 5:50 p.m. at the 16th Street BART Station.. Unlike other anti-
Of course, it wouldn't be an anti-gentrification protest without “the vehicle of gentrification” helping transport the audio equipment:
Way to go, guys.
(Link - all photos Mission Loc@l)
Comments (11)
It’s nice to see the kids who helped spark gentrification in the area make some sort of effort (no matter how benign) to stop it. Like a retarded Schindler’s List.
These people seem to have a lot of complaints, but not much in the way of solutions.
These “new school” agitators and community organizers need better optics… Let me offer some suggestions:
First, Everyone knows that the black bandanna look is as dated as Barbara Boxer’s hair. Second, where are the dancing flashmobs and viral youtubes, people! Wage your gentrification war on an underground farmer’s market or set yourself on fire in an awful organic cafe (just don’t hurt the waitstaff) or somewhere that has something to lose. Public is not invested in this BS, as they are already gentrified. Who are you inconveniencing? Sludgy played out tactics would make Saul Alinsky (and even a retarded Oskar Schindler) puke.
gentrification is like erosion or entropy or gravity. what a lame thing to protest.
so many things to say here but its really just too stupid to even argue with. viva la black bandana rebellion.
This 43 unit Sierra Hotel on the corner of 20th and Mission streets in San Francisco has sat empty for over a decade because of the owner’s intransigence about meeting the city’s requirements for livable housing. Rather than comply, the owner has allowed housing for 43 or more individuals to sit vacant for ten plus years. This is just plain wrong. With thousands of homeless in San Francisco, this is a crime against the people of my city. Showing courage in face of almost certain arrest, a small but devoted group has temporarily liberated this property from this misguided landlord.
Some would argue that property owners have absolute rights over their physical domains and can do whatever they like with their properties regardless of how many nearby are suffering or are in need of housing. I disagree. During the greatest recession since the great one, piggish and self centered landowners like this need to be taken to task and be reminded that with the privilege of land ownership comes responsibility. To willfully withhold housing from a city without enough is morally wrong. In my view, it is also criminal as well. I applaud those who took this bold action to demonstrate this wasteful and wrong-headed use of real estate.
Later in the evening KTVU Channel 2 news showed up to broadcast a news story about this political action. The police waited nearby, holding off on breaching the property until they could contact the owner – not an easy task given that he lives overseas.
so many haters. these people are taking action during the worst economic meltdown of our lives. all you can do is comment on what they’re wearing. congrats, you’ve confirmed what we already knew: you are a vapid consumer. have you actually ever tried to get together with other people to do something good? to tackle an issue in a community? People, families, businesses, and communities are getting ripped apart by this meltdown. As change never, ever comes from above, people clearly have to take matters into their own hands. This is one way of doing that. Cheers.
what “action” are they taking exactly? as stated by an earlier commenter, lots of complaints, few (no) solutions. What “good” are they achieving? Perhaps you think they are bringing attention to an important issue. As you’ve already seen in these comments, they are actually bringing scorn upon themselves and eroding any support they might have garnered. If you can suggest some concrete, workable solutions and/or provide examples of the constructive action that came from this ridiculous “protest,” I’m willing to change my POV.
nice headset
wait, so if these 43 units were made livable then the homeless would just move right in? awesome. problem solved. i wish we had realized the problem was this easy to solve years ago.
also, dude there is plenty of housing in other cities. maybe these people should move there? try detroit, shit is empty and vacant.