First of all…

 

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/gov/2351187307.html

 

Second of all, please sign the petition!!!!

 

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dpTBOP1&1

 

So, today is day 3 of trying to disseminate information to the end of gaining support to accomplish a simple task: Take Back Our Parks.

 

The blogs are alive with the sound of music. Do a google search for Chicken John, Puke In. The coverage is staggering. The press in this town is tabloid, to be nice. They wrote 50 articles of gossip. So far, I have spoken to 2 (and only 2) media outlets:

 

The first article is called:

Chicken John admits he is a liar

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/04/chicken_john_liar.php

 

Coments are closed for this article, we have inputted several, none have been approved. You would think that they would have taken this one out, from Tom Price:

 

“When oh when will San Francisco media learn they are but a harp upon which Chicken John bangs out Ramones tunes?”

 

The second one is: Chicken John clarifies that puke-in won't involve real puke

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=87791

 

This article is really funny. Especially since they mention I am collecting signatures for a petition, they do not link to the petition. When we try to include a link to the petition in the comment section, that comment is removed. Kinda puts a chill in the air, no? Again, the SF Gate REMOVES comments that have a link to my petition to remove trailers from the park. Go ahead, put one on there. See what happens. The fix is in…

 

Can you believe it? They are actually pissy with me because I tricked (?) them into writing that I was gonna puke. Did they really think I was gonna puke? There is nothing you can say to me to make me believe that someone was stupid enough to think that after all we’ve been through… after all the gags, and the bullshit and hyperbole that someone would think that I would ruin my 43 year streak of doing exactly what I say I would do which is exactly not what you thought you heard. Remember I’m living my life as a show over here… and nothing can prepare you for the disappointment of the show you didn’t know you never wanted.

 

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. We are talking about our parks system this week. And I know these emails are long, but the fucking meetings are longer, so suck it up.

 

Have you seen this?

http://bit.ly/muiDpp

 

So what if it’s 2 years old,  then there is this:

 

http://bit.ly/iSCIDE

 

They made it smaller. They are selling less of the parkland to condominiums’. Parkland. To a developer. For condos. First time in the history of our American civic apparatus. More population. Sell parks to make room. What Republican sleezeball came up with this idea?

Liberal Democrat Mark Leno.

 

Lets ask someone who isn’t a Senator what she thinks of this deal:

 

From Kristine Enea:

For background on the sale of park land to developers - about a year ago, Mark Leno authorized the sale of 23 acres of state parkland to Lennar. Before that was Prop G, the purpose of which was to allow RecPark to transfer the 100 acres underneath and around the football stadium, also to Lennar.

 

There is supposed to be a one-for-one swap on the latter but we all know how that goes. First, the replacement "park" land includes the parking lots for the new football stadium, then the total falls at least seven acres short, then if the new stadium doesn't get built, "park" = R&D office space corporate lawn, which will be yet another few acres short of the previous short total. In reality, there is no swap at all - the land being counted as a swap was already planned to be a park.

 

So we'll have a net loss of 100+ acres of RecPark land plus 23 acres of state park land, both going to Lennar…

 

Lennar is a developer from Texas or something.

 

I want to also today talk about something else…

 

 

http://nyti.ms/98m7f4

 

Venice, Italy. 2 summers ago, all of you sent me on my first trip to Europe to build beautiful boats with spoiled rotten artists and crash the Biennale.   Thank you. But while I was there, I couldn’t help but notice that all the fucking building were wrapped in plastic advertising head to toe. Cell phones, toilet paper, Coca Cola… the works. It was gross. It made me not want to be there. I asked people how this happened, the answer was: “Slowly.” Now these are 1,500 year old building. Beautiful buildings. Raped. Form fitting plastic crassly covering windows and top to bottom. With an ad for cigarettes’. You see, someone needed the money, so they sold the rights to a building for ads. Then, the buildings next door did the same thing.  Over a period of 5 years, as Venice got more and more impoverished with the number of Venetians plummeting (they even initiated FEMALE gondoliers, but still had to be born in Venice) and the civic infrastructure eroding and so on, they turned to this quick and easy way to get capitol.

 

It’s totally backfiring on them. Tourism is down. Way down. Super down. Did you know that thousands of people went there every year to as their ladies to marry them in a gondola? Well it’s true. No more. It’s like a floating commercial. It sucks.

 

Is that what you want Doritos Park to be like? I’m sorry, they havn’t sold the name... yet… Dolores Park. Is that what you want Dolores Park to be like? If the first person didn’t say yes to getting the first building wrapped, Venice would look like it looked in the 6^th century. It happens fast. There are thousands of articles on this, if your interested.

 

There is a group here in San Francisco called:

Take Back Our Parks.

http://www.takebackourparks.org

 

They are super cool people all baffled at why Phil Ginsburg fired $35K a year teachers, closed our clubhouses and spend $1.7 Million hiring new office workers at over $100K each.

 

They are horrified by the idea of putting a sewage treatment plant in Golden Gate park.

 

They are infuriated at the $7 fee for the Arboretum.

 

They detest the privatization of Dolores Park.

 

They are saddened by the handling of the Stow Lake boathouse lease being given away to a company from New Mexico with the promise of  “high end food and trinkets”.

 

They are outraged at the proposed closing of the HANC recycling facility.

 

And they aren’t 23 year old pot smoking progressives from Capp Street. These are people from the other San Francisco. They are older. Organized. They have connections. Money. And they are asking hard questions. Questions that Phil Ginsburg can’t answer…

 

We danced in the street when Obama was elected. I watched strangers with tears streaming down their cheeks embrace in the middle of Valencia Street. I wanted to feel that, it seemed like such fun. But I just couldn’t do it. Now that Obama has bombed his 7^th country, it’s a different story. But the analogy here is that the debate that is raging about Dolores Park isn’t one of people who are against privatization, and people who are for it. It’s a debate with people who are against privatization and people who simply don’t know what it is!!!!!!!

 

I’ve asked Andy Blue from the League of Young Voters (also the league of pissed off voters) to write something to help out, so it’s not just me talking all the time….

 

Dear Chicken,

 

Let me start by saying that I think the folks at La Cocina are great and I don't believe for one second that they are the enemy (not to imply that you think they're the enemy either).  I think your suggested compromise of converting a parking spot for their use, or something like that, could make sense. Nobody really loses in that scenario. Right?  But I think pretty much everybody loses when we start privatizing public space and commercializing our public parks. 

 

The real enemy here is Phil Ginsberg, the GM of Park and Rec. This guy looks at public parks and public assets and sees nothing but dollar signs.  Let's be clear, he has no intention of stopping with one friendly food cart. Central to the philosophy of Ginsberg and his ilk is the notion that parks should pay for themselves -- even make profits.  I believe that most San Franciscans realize that this is not how things should be. I think most San Franciscans see the inherent value in public spaces that are free of commercial interests and private control.  I think San Franciscans have shown they greatly prefer non-commercialized public parks to Sony Metreons, for example. (You been in there lately? The place is an eerie ghost town.)

 

Most of us who love Dolores Park don't just see dollar signs.  We see thriving community, culture, and freedom.  Part of the reason there's so much freedom in Dolores Park is because the place, and one's experience there, are untainted by private control or commercial interests.  Sure, people are walking around selling their homemade cookies and crafts, etc.  This is cool.  We like this.  It's ultra-local, sustainable economy.  And sure, La Cocina is cool and local-economy as well, but Ginsberg doesn't want to stop with La Cocina. Not by a long shot.

 

Like Michael Moore said a few weeks ago in Wisconsin:  don't believe anyone who tells you this country is broke. Likewise, don't believe anyone who tells you we need to sell off our commonwealth to private interests.  Privatization is an ominous global trend that almost never brings the public benefits its proponents promise it will. The people who want to privatize your parks are the same people who want to privatize your schools, even though all the evidence has shown it's a failed concept. They're also the same people who hate rent control and want a San Francisco with ever-escalating real estate prices that will gentrify you, and every other poor and middle income person, out of this city. And I'll bet these people never even go to Dolores Park.

 

Just don't ask me to endorse (fake) puking as the tactic that will most effectively get this message across!

 

Cheers,

Andy

 

 

Lets close just one golf course. Can we put that on the table? How about the one that is causing the lawsuits against the endangered specices of frogs or whatever...

One last thing today, and then I’ll be back with more info soon…

 

I spoke to a volunteered named Adele, who helped out at the Eureka Valley Rec center. Here is the story: starting in 1996, the space at the Eureka Rec. Center was allocated for drop in youth to get help. Medical, advice, food… this is set up basically for homeless people (or transitionally housed) under the age of 21. People fundraised to make this happen, like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. It underwent a 4 million dollar renovation. With fundraised money. Queer (LGBTQ) youth need guidance. If they participate in risky behavior, they do so in a vacuum. With no guidance. They need peers. They need role models. They also need access to information and they need to be able to interact with people who don’t want something from them. You can imagine.

 

San Franciso is more then a city of Art and Innovation. It’s a beacon of tolerance and strength. Queer kids come from ALL OVER THE WORLD to figger out how to orient themselves in the world. Here. On our doorstep. These are good kids, shut out by the world. We love them. We support them. We don’t want them to have nowhere to go. That’s why we built a facility for them.

 

RPD started making it very very hard to serve these kids. They wanted them to have memberships. They wanted to collapse them into other programming for adults. Like Pilates classes. Then, the shut down started happening. The door was always locked. They wouldn’t give a key. Basicly, fundraising to help these kids wasn’t a priority. They had the people help, they had the money and they had the new, 4 million dollar space. What was missing? Motivation. Why help these kids? What’s in it for Phil Ginsburg? All his talk of “safe, family oriented programming”. Please. Queer people exist. Queer teens exist. Queer teens are on the street, hustling today. There was a perfectly good program in place the cost the city little or nothing. Why? Why do they keep doing this? Is it ineptitude? Is it hate? Is it fiefdom? Are they that broke?

 

We simply can’t figger it out. The youth program at the Eureka Valley Rec Center is dead. You can see the Facebook page is like a ghosttown….

  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eureka-Valley-Recreation-Center-Youth-Space/244318870847

 

You can, however, take Pilates classes.

 

Fact is, I can’t find any queer anyting. At the Rec center in the Castro. Which is gay Mecca…

 

On and on... I keep finding that the more I dig, the worse it is...

 

I've basilly given my week to doing reserach and talking to people. It's blowing my mind.

 

chicken