San Francisco Bay View

The Quesada Kids Community Fruit Stand was the talk of Third Street over the weekend. Quesada Gardens Initiative co-founder Shane King organized half a dozen youngsters to harvest his backyard plum tree and sell the fruit at the tip of the Quesada Garden by the Bank of America. The fruit sold out in about an hour, the kids made more money than they expected, passers-by LOVED the idea and everyone wants more of the same.

“The California Hotel is just the first building,” said Robbie Clark, an organizer with Just Cause Oakland, who led the chants and rallying cry with tenants and supporters Monday. “There will more than likely be others. We have to come together as a community and prevent the displacement of residents.”

Findings of the 2008 State of Black San Francisco public conference predicted our present: "a combination of violence, economics and lack of Black leadership has contributed to a situation that could soon turn SF into a city with only a handful of very rich and very poor African Americans."

Oakland's California Hotel residents have organized and taken over management and maintenance since building was abandoned by property manager John Stewart Co.