I was at that meeting and you are horribly misrepresenting it. Are you just sad none of your “angry hipster” friends showed up to party? Why shouldn’t the neighborhood have a say in what happens there? Why would you say that drugs, graffiti and larceny aren’t a problem? You are just a little rebel without a real cause aren’t you?

“The worst part? No one was there to tell them they are wrong.”

you were there.

Kevin you sound like a twat, moaning about old people. Bet mummy and daddy are really proud of their son coming all the way to SF. Once you get over a certain age you’ll move back to the burbs where you came from and talk up how hip it was in SF.
Its so cool in your part of the Mission where all the crack whores hang, it must make you feel real and part of it.
Man you talk so hip you twist in my melons man.

Ok, lets be honest here. If any of us had to really live with ourselves, we would be screaming like banshees. About how obnoxious we are. But for now, denial, cocktails and immaturity provides a lovely shield.

But as Sulu always said, the shields are failing, Kirk, at which point we *will* have to live with ourselves. Or something like that. Suicide notwithstanding.

Which will be not unlike living next to Dolores Park, when the dark days of self awareness come.

This is a generational battle, not a racial or intellectual or certainly an ideological one.

So stop pretending, and please continue to enjoy your youth. Because that is why I read your posts. For the pleasure, not the petulance. Its your giz, not your logic, that makes so much sense.

Everyone trying to say beer and smoke is a problem is completely out of touch with reality and needs to seriously reevaluate their concerns. I hope for them that out our goverment spends so much of its money cleaning this park, that they can’t pay medicare for their parents, and they shrivel up and die. Welp at least the park is clean.

I was at the entire meeting.

As far as I can tell, and by “tell” I mean remember and deduce, this was the first of a series of meetings about the Dolores Park (DP) renovation that will take place over roughly the next few years. Please note, I said “roughly” and did so because renovations are supposed to start in January of 2012. There are roughly two years between now and then, so that would leave roughly two years of meetings.

The renovation of the playground is a separate project and is supposed to begin…??…when? I can’t remember? Anywho, definitely before the renovation of DP as a whole.

In my opinion, the main issues and/or highlights of the meeting were as follows:

1) Closing DP in its entirety versus a little bit at a time;
2) “Taggers” and public safety; and
3) The absence of a clearly articulated agenda for the meeting.

So, number one, do we close the whole park or do it a little bit at a time? “Segmentation” was used to describe doing it a little bit at a time. Bevan took an informal poll of the room. I think literally everyone raised their hand in favor of doing it a little bit at a time. I think literally no one raised their hand in favor of all at once. Again, this appeared to be an informal poll as opposed to an actual, binding vote. Bevan even remarked that in all his years as a Supervisor, he had never seen such a lopsided vote.

Dawn Kamalanathan then posed an interesting question: how do you feel about a complete closure that would allow renovations to be completed in eight months versus segmentation that would take three to four years?

And, number two, taggers, the homeless, “Quality of Life,” and public safety in general.

This, for me, was easily the most interesting conversation to observe and take part in. Two police officers spoke about this issue, one somewhat more than the other. The language they used was very, very disturbing. Specifically, the word “disappear” was used over and over. For instance, the first officer to speak repeatedly expressed his desire that “taggers” and other presumed scum would “disappear” after being arrested and processed. He also asked people who see tagging in action to not approach the taggers because you could get assaulted. So now we have created an image of violent taggers, probably black or brown, who need to be arrested, processed and disappeared. This sentiment was echoed throughout the evening by the almost totally white crowd. By the way, I’m white.

For instance, a woman representing a DP community group (can’t remember name) also spoke about the issue. She started off by saying that her group deals with issues that “we can all agree on.” She went on to mention tagging. To state it simply, I do not agree with you. Also, two candidates for Superviser introduced themselves near the end of the meeting. Each focused on public safety, “Quality of Life” issues or crime, whatever you want to call it.

First of all, why do police officers come to community meetings with weapons? There is no reason to have a gun at a community meeting. This militarized approach to discussions and community safety is very troublesome to me, moreso when rampant insensitivity and ignorance are displayed by the people in possession of those weapons.

Second of all, people and problems do not just “disappear.” The police and others spoke as if an arrest of someone tagging was and is the ONLY appropriate and possible response. They basically said, “Just call us, we’ll arrest them, and its done.” The first candidate used the phrase “Quality of Life” at least once. The second candidate for Superviser, an assistant district attorney (ADA), continued by mentioning that she had personally been involved in the cleanup and presumed disappearance of all the bad people from 16th and Mission. I guess the point was, she’d do the same with all the bad people in DP.

This is thinly coded talk about targeting “poor” folks and especially “poor” folks whose skin is darker than mine. California’s jails and prisons are bursting. We are in the middle of a terrible budget crisis. Bevan, the officers and others repeatedly expressed dismay at having to spend $50K a year on graffiti removal. But how much is spent on processing people through the court system? Given the tens of thousands of dollars that it costs each year to incarcerate only one person, I can’t help but think that arresting taggers costs taxpayers waaaaaay more than $50K. Is this the best way to spend our money? What is the cost to families and kids who are separated when someone is incarcerated? What about re-entry into the community?

As the first officer clearly stated when I asked him about arresting homeless people in DP, they are jailed and released and we just do the whole thing all over again. This is not a solution or even an attempt at a solution. This is a harsh and short-sighted response to deeper issues that our community faces, many of which revolve around issues of income and skin color.

Using the word “disappear” in a law enforcement context in a community with a large Mexican and Central American population is ignorant and insensitive. Both Mexico and the nations of Central America have been and are plagued by disappearances, which are used by law enforcement to murder and get rid of people who are seen, for whatever reason, as nuisances. That the room was almost totally white comes as no surprise. What was the PR firm hired for? Could the same discussion about disappearances and Quality of Life issues take place in a room with more people who are not white?

Also, as a defense attorney, I can assure everyone that the picture described by the officers and the ADA is rarely as tidy as they would like it to be. The problem does not end when someone gets arrested. For any number of reasons, cases linger, are delayed, get dismissed and generally just go in a direction that is not nearly as straightforward as the picture presented.

So why not have a place in DP where people can write/tag/create murals?

And finally, the absence of an agenda. Throughout the meeting, it was difficult to know what we were discussing. Naturally there were a number of topics that people wanted to discuss. Things went all over the place. At different times, different people were talking about different things.

I would suggest creating some kind of agenda for specific topics. This will allow people in the room to be on the same page. For instance, there could literally just be a big piece of paper on the wall that says something like:

6 - 6:10 Introductions
6:10 - 6:30 What is going to be discussed, some kind of list so we have a general sense of what is going to be discussed
6:30 - 7:30 Discussion
7:30 - 8 Wrap things up, the future

Just a suggestion.

Somewhat random thoughts:

I enjoyed attending the meeting. Kevin, I hope you keep attending. That’s politics dude. Doesn’t matter if you are in the White House or the Church on Dolores. Very rewarding in the end, as we will all get to know each other, learn from each other and work towards making our little chunk of urban space enjoyable for the community.

Glad to see Mr. Palacio (can’t remember title, first name) taking part in efforts to get neighborhood people involved in planting, gardening, etc. I think this is crucial and very much want to be involved in a project like this.

Cheers,
Mike