San Francisco

Violent Right Wing Groups Try To Organize In Bay Area

May 16, 2020 It's Going Down. Educate! Antifascist, Neo-Nazis, Right-Wing, San Francisco

Earlier this week, neo-Nazi group Patriot Front vandalized the front of the historic Gilman Street punk music venue (recently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic) with a stencil promoting its website and various stickers. The graffiti is only the latest in an ongoing campaign by Patriot Front members to promote the organization in the bay area. Local antifascist groups report that Patriot Front stickers have also been recently found (and quickly destroyed) around the UC Berkeley campus and in various bay area cities. Patriot Front is a re-brand of Vanguard America, which grew out of the neo-Nazi web-forum, Iron March. Violent paramilitary organizations such as Atomwaffen, which has been linked to several murders and bombing plots, also grew out of the same online space and such groups continue to have some crossover with Patriot Front.

San Francisco To Pay $369,000 For Police Raid Of Journalist’s Home

March 7, 2020 Nicholas Iovino, Courthousenews.com Resist! Journalism, Police, San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – The city of San Francisco will pay $369,000 to settle claims over its police raid on a journalist’s home and office this past May, an action condemned by press advocates as chilling the ability of reporters to get information from anonymous sources. Police barreled through the front door of freelance reporter Bryan Carmody’s home with a sledgehammer...

San Francisco, CA: Report Back From Lockdown At Chase Corporate Offices In Solidarity With Wet’suwet’en

March 2, 2020 Staff, Itsgoingdown.org Resist! Indigenous Peoples, San Francisco, Solidarity

Coastal GasLink is a project of TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada Pipelines, an institution leading multiple extractive energy projects on Indigenous land. Coastal GasLink is a pipeline intended to go across the unceded territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in so-called Canada.

New San Francisco D.A. Inherits Chance To Hold Police Accountable In Shooting Of Man With Mental Illness

January 25, 2020 Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, Theappeal.org Educate! California, Mental Illness, police brutality, San Francisco

On Jan. 6, 2017, at about 4:15 a.m., San Francisco Police Department officers Colin Patino and Kenneth Cha arrived at Sean Moore’s home. Moore’s neighbor, who had a temporary restraining order against him, had called police when he heard a knock on their shared wall. Body camera footage shows that Moore answered his door and, in response to their questions, denied violating the restraining order.

Los Angeles And San Francisco Announce They Are Moving Forward With Plans To Start Public Banks

October 11, 2019 Staff, Publicbankinginstitute.org Create! Los Angeles, Public Banks, San Francisco

Close on the heels of the Public Banking Act being signed into law last week, LA City Council President Herb Wesson announced he will be introducing a motion within the week to hire a banking expert to draft a comprehensive plan for a public bank for the City. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that San Francisco was also pushing ahead with plans for a city-owned bank. Wesson announced the motion in a press conference (Facebook link) celebrating the unprecedented success of AB 857 in front of Los Angeles City Hall on Monday Oct 7.

A Bay Area Housing Solution With Worker Empowerment Built In

October 10, 2019 Aaron Fernando, Shareable.net Create! Affordable Housing, Housing, San Francisco, Workers

As housing crises heat up across American cities, the San Francisco Bay Area is experiencing an extreme disparity: in 2017, it added three times as many jobs as it did new housing units for those workers. To address this challenge, the region and others will need to embrace a number of different complementary solutions. One creative solution, available for decades but growing in popularity, is bottom-up in its nature: the granny flat. Technically known as Accessory Development Units (ADUs), these residencies are small housing units built on existing single-family lots...

Gentrification vs. Revitalization: The Fight For Affordable Housing In San Francisco

September 19, 2019 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com Resistance Report Affordable Housing, Development, Gentrification, San Francisco

A close up look at the epicenter of the nation's affordable housing crisis: San Francisco. We sit down with local residents and activists to hear about the manifold problems that gave rise to this crisis, and the creative ways in which folks are fighting for their human rights.

Whitewashing American History The WPA Mural Controversy In San Francisco

July 25, 2019 Jack Heyman, Internationalist.org Resist! Art, History, Mural, Revisionism, San Francisco

There has a been a controversy percolating the last couple of years over protests against the 13-panel “Life of Washington” murals painted in 1936 by Works Progress Administration (WPA) artist Victor Arnautoff that are on display at George Washington High School in San Francisco. These murals dared to challenge the patriotic stereotype of Washington, instead portraying him as a slaveholder and military commander overseeing the genocide of American Indians. This radical artist was in many ways far ahead of his time, seeking to portray the brutal reality of U.S. history not the myth ensconced in school textbooks and the national anthem by the ruling class.

Seizing The Initiative

November 20, 2018 Lester Spence, Dissentmagazine.org Strategize! Electoral Politics, Revisionism, San Francisco

When we look back at the 2018 midterms, we will likely remember the historic victories of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and many others elected as part of the blue wave that helped retake the House of Representatives. And we should. Their elections signal resistance to Trumpism that we, the left, can build on. But while we can and should focus on who we elect—particularly candidates like Ocasio-Cortez, who were put in office on the backs of mass movements—focusing solely on elected representatives puts far too much responsibility and stakes too much hope on them as individuals. Electing the right people is a start, but it is not enough. We should instead spend far more time on the ballot initiatives. Here’s why.

San Francisco Erases $32 Million In Criminal Fees For 21,000 People

August 29, 2018 By Joe McCarthy, Globalcitizen.org Create! Criminal Justice System, Mass Incarceration, New Economy, San Francisco

Everything from finding a job to renting an apartment can be challenging when a criminal record is disclosed. As a result, formerly incarcerated people often struggle to get back on their feet when they leave prison and many end up committing crimes that land them back in a cell. To make matters worse, they’re often hit with thousands of dollars in administrative and other fees for their time spent in court and prison. San Francisco is trying to reduce this financial burden by waiving criminal justice fees for 21,000 people, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The city had previously stopped issuing fees to formerly incarcerated people and this new announcement is an attempt to retroactively address the matter of financial hardship.

SF Protesters Say No To “Techsploitation,” Block Buses With Scooters

June 7, 2018 By Charlotte Silver and Abraham Rodriguez, Missionlocal.org Resist! Google, Protests, San Francisco, Technology

Fifty people blocked 14 tech buses by piling scooters in their path and lighting an orange flare at 24th and Valencia. One bus driver tried to move the scooters, but soon resigned himself to just waiting. A passerby sprayed graffiti on one of the idle buses. The group of housing activists reject what they see as tech companies “littering the city,” while homeless encampments are swept away. “This is a message from the community,” said Tony Robles, a community organizer focused on housing for seniors with disabilities. He says that tech companies like Bird, a scooter company, act with impunity and dump stuff in the neighborhoods without considering the needs of current residents. People testified on a PA system about how their lives have been transformed by what they call a tech takeover.

Taking Steps Toward Public Options For Banking

May 15, 2018 Oscar Perry Abello, Nextcity.org Create! New Economy, Public Banking, San Francisco

It’s been an interesting few weeks for the idea of public banking — establishing banks owned by government entities as a values-based alternative to ‘Wall Street’ banks. In San Francisco, where the city has charged a task force with exploring how to set up a city-owned bank, that task force is now looking into how the cannabis industry might provide a key source of deposits and clients that could help get a public bank off to a running start. California’s legal cannabis industry is forecast to grow from $2.8 billion in 2017 to $5.6 billion in 2020, but banks are loathe to deal with the industry for fear of violating federal rules that classify marijuana the same category as heroin — the result being a cannabis industry run mostly on cash. San Francisco’s Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force thinks a municipal bank might provide the industry an option for banking services.

San Francisco Should Have A Public Bank To Leverage The Power Of Its Own Money

May 11, 2018 Staff, Publicbankinginstitute.org Create! New Economy, Public Banks, San Francisco

San Francisco’s Municipal Bank Feasibility Task Force comes under pressure to provide a truly ethical and full-powered alternative — a Public Bank — in an article by Zac Townsend in the San Francisco Chronicle. He calls on the public to take a stand: “There already are indications from presentations and conversations that the task force is backpedaling from a public bank structure and instead considering half measures, such as a revolving loan fund. Such a fund — instead of a public bank — wouldn’t begin to leverage the power of San Francisco’s public funds. It would just leave them at big banks…"San Francisco has an obligation to manage public funds to prioritize environmental responsibility, fair labor practices, and affordable housing, among other principles…

Protesters Descend On ICE San Francisco Headquarters After Immigration Raids

March 2, 2018 Antonia Blumberg, Huffingtonpost.com Resist! ICE, Immigration, Protests, San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO ― Hundreds of activists gathered on Wednesday outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building here to protest the arrests of more than 150 undocumented immigrants in recent days. Local activist groups organized the “emergency rally” to respond to the mass arrests in Northern California, just two weeks after more than 200 people were arrested in similar raids in the Los Angeles area. Some 200 protesters convened outside the ICE building in downtown San Francisco under an overcast sky, demanding an end to the raids. Several groups of demonstrators surrounded the building, shouting chants, marching, locking arms and carrying signs while police and ICE security looked on.

How City-Owned Public Banks Could Transform Cities

February 21, 2018 Oscar Perry Abello, Nextcity.org Create! Cities, New Economy, Public Banks, San Francisco

It’s no surprise that Malia Cohen worries about what local public dollars are doing. As a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the municipal legislative body, it’s her job to know how, where and why the city’s money is coming in and going out. But recently, Cohen has joined a growing number of public officials around the country who are wondering what happens in between — what happens when the money in the city coffers goes to sleep at night. In fiscal year 2017, the city of San Francisco took in an average of $508 million a month in revenues and put out $467 million a month in expenses. But in between, the banks that handle all that cash sometimes used public dollars in ways that, in the opinions of Cohen and others, contradict the reasons why that money is coming and going in the first place.

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