Tag: Mayor Ed Lee

The Public Health Organization of Graduate Students at San Francisco State University condemns the actions of the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) in the unjust shooting of Mario Woods, a young African American man who was a resident of Bayview Hunters Point, on Dec. 2, 2015. The current situation in which SFPD officers kill community members with impunity is intolerable.

November was a month to remember for City College of San Francisco’s Department of Journalism. The department received national and regional awards for the students’ steadfast work in their bi-weekly newspaper publication, the Guardsman. Department Chair Juan Gonzales was honored by the city and state for his ongoing efforts to educate young aspiring journalists at City College and other publications in the city.

It appears that Mayor Ed Lee’s liaison to the Black community, Theo Miller, has been reassigned to direct Lee’s continued marginalization of San Francisco Blacks for the next four years. In mid-2013, Theodore Miller was hired on a three year $360,000 contract to “try” and reverse the outmigration of Blacks from San Francisco using the Gavin Newson-commissioned 2009 Black outmigration report as his guide.

December is a big month for the jail fight. We have got to make our voices heard loud and clear: This jail is bad for our community and ill-informed policy. The mayor and his conservative allies on the Board of Supervisors are under pressure to push the jail plan through as soon as possible. They know we have been gaining strength, and that once January comes, with changes in the board composition, we will have the numbers to defeat this project. Let’s defeat it soundly.

The light from their eyes was missing; in its place was the color of fear. This was the scene at City Hall last week as the people stood up to behemoth developer Forest City, about to build multiple luxury condominium towers and office buildings that will span almost an entire city block in San Francisco’s long-time Filipino community, effectively wiping out the last shred of this working class community of color.

The current campaign to elect a sheriff for the City and County of San Francisco can and must become San Francisco’s “eyes wide open” opportunity to review what this city and county can and ought to do to identify and promulgate a new path for how it will identify and adopt aspects of the national Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. The City and County of San Francisco can initiate and begin the effort to deincarcerate San Francisco’s jails and juvenile justice center.

In contrast to the hoopla and razzle dazzle of Mayor Ed Lee and company to hoodwink the public into believing that privatizing public housing is a good thing, an Oct. 7 letter from Congresswoman Maxine Waters to Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) calls for more protections for public housing and public housing tenants being threatened by the RAD privatization program.

On Tuesday, Oct. 20, dozens of long time Black San Francisco community residents – many whose families arrived generations ago – took over the Mayor’s Office demanding real solutions. Pastor Yul Dorn, ACCE member and Bayview resident facing eviction, was in attendance and spoke in front of 60-plus protesters crowded into Mayor Ed Lee’s office. ACCE provided a list of demands, also criticizing Ed Lee’s plan to rebuild public housing.

RAD is the newest in a long line of multi-billion-dollar poverty industry ponzi schemes aimed at gentrifying public housing and leaving the poorest of the poor with nowhere to live. On Oct. 14, HUD Secretary Julian Castro, who wrote RAD, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor London Breed held a back-slapping press conference to celebrate the implementation of RAD “to re-envision, revitalize and rebuild the city’s public housing.”

Few aside from the USA’s military industrial giants have made more money on the Iraq War than California’s U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum. The Blue Angels first came to San Francisco in 1981, when Feinstein was mayor. Will the MSF hospital bombing in Kunduz, Afghanistan, put a damper on San Francisco’s annual celebration of war and militarism? The Blue Angels are San Francisco’s choice. The Pentagon does not force them on San Francisco or any other city.

In the mix, during the recent hot Friday early evening, for the PORT OF SAN FRANCISCO RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY, that included Supervisor SCOTT WIENER, D-8. Local Bayview community members and Port officials, that included Commission President LESLIE KATZ and Commissioner KIMBERLY BRANDON. Special guest GUY JOHNSON, son of the late MAYA ANGELOU, accompanied by his wife, lovely STEPHANIE FLOYD JOHNSON, took part in the celebration.

On Monday, June 29, over a hundred working class families of Midtown Park Apartments were joined by community activists, concerned citizens and legal advisors for a rally in support of over 55 households whose rent increased 300 percent. The only such property that is owned by the City, Midtown’s original intent by then Supervisors Diane Feinstein and Ella Hill Hutch was to transform this complex into an equity cooperative – a promise that never materialized.

It is of primary importance that we begin to own our own sports media specifically, but media in general, so we can talk about what we want to talk about when we want to talk about it. San Francisco’s Let’s Talk Sports Nation, which comes on Frisco’s Cable 29 every Saturday at 11 a.m., is such a show. This community favorite has broadcast over 100 shows and is primarily hosted by Jeremiah Khaleq and Jameel Patterson, aka Tha #1 Neighborhood Sports Analyst!!!

There is a new sheriff in town … I mean a new president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She is Supervisor London Breed and I don’t need to tell anyone who knows of her that she is no shrinking violet. However, Blacks excited at the fact that a Black person will now guide this board is a trap that only sycophants can really enjoy. City Hall is still hostile to the San Francisco Black community.

The purpose of this particular article is to clear up misconceptions that have surfaced about Marcus Book Store. By now, most people are aware that in May 2014 San Francisco Marcus Book Store became the site of a tragic event: The store was ransacked and dismantled in broad daylight by the people who acquired the building in a bankruptcy sale. Their action was part of an overall scheme to publicly embarrass our family and dismantle an African American-owned legacy business recently designated by City officials as a cultural landmark. The Sweisses are accountable for their actions, morally and legally.

GOOD NEWS! Especially for VISITACION VALLEY and SUNNYDALE residents - the opening of GROCERY OUTLET Supermarket, located at old Bayshore and Sunnydale, across from the car wash. The T-Third Street Muni line ends at Sunnydale platform. May 1, the bargain market opened to much enthusiasm. Heard nothing but RAVE reviews. The store is independently owned by DEREK AND GINA NAVARRO, who live in Visitacion Valley.

Whistleblowers at the Hunters Point Shipyard told a reporter, “I wouldn’t feel comfortable living there having a yard where I could grow a garden. Absolutely not." “I wouldn’t go there, I wouldn’t take my grandchildren there, I wouldn’t walk my dog there.” A Treasure Island whistleblower said, “My job is to protect people and the environment, and it’s just not getting done.”

As a member of the Equity Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (SFHRC), I learned a lot. It was all bad for The City’s Black community. The SFHRC was formed in 1964 to fight discrimination against Blacks in The City. Today, it is clear to me that this charter commission discriminates against the Black community – with no end in sight.

The undisputed flagship of Black history and literature, Marcus Books, is currently fighting to stay alive in San Francisco, which might now be known as the undisputed pinnacle of wealth-hoarding and displacement. The Johnson family is planning a series of actions to fight this unjust removal, but for now readers can call Royal Cab and tell the Sweis family to sell Marcus Books back to the Johnson family.

Eight months after the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission effectively halted the San Francisco City and County’s renewable power program, San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos introduced legislation that would require the City and County to at least study the option of joining Marin Clean Energy, Marin County’s renewable power program. Supervisors London Breed, Scott Wiener, David Campos and Eric Mar are co-sponsoring the legislation.