TRUTH IN ADVERTISING

this is what it looks like when we FILL THE STREETS WITH SEAMEN

more photos:     http://www.flickr.com/photos/orinrobertjohn/sets/72157636537561044/

48 people in sailor suits forever changed the direction of the Mission district by altering the path of a chain store worth over a billon dollars.

 

All you ever really need to do anything is a plan. No matter how stupid, insipid or impossible that plan might be. Now, this action wasn't really the reason why Jack Spade "pulled out". It was a many little things, a few big things and this action came at the right time as the straw that broke the camels back. There was all the letters you guys wrote. There was the bombing of their facebook page. There was the phone calls. There was the comments section of the articles. The bad press. There was the VCMA doing the appeals of their building permits.  There was the members of the Latino Community that spoke out at the hearing, and Calle Biente Quatro. There was the letters from Supervisors, assemblymen and legislators. There was the people who showed up to City Hall and spoke. There were the merchants who put no Jack Spade signs in their windows. There was the T-shirt company that make shirts for free: Ape Do Good. Arin Fishkin graphic design.  The Make Out Room for letting us have a benifit there (that paid for the appeal filings). There was the plea to action for the Mission Merchants Association (a cabal of landlords) that got the conversation going. And a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting and even some stuff I probably don't even know about.

The point is that we committed. We committed to do whatever it took to get it done. This is paramount. We stuck together and stuck it out.

So now what? Now we have the RESPONSIBILTY to keep going. There is legislation (that I will tell you about very soon with the help of Jeremy Pollock) in front of the Supervisors to beef up our chain store laws to prevent this bullshit from happening again. They are voting on this in November. We need to stop having these battles. We keep winning, but at great cost of time and resources that could be used to have fun or make art or help people. This is a waste of our time and really a waste of the landlords' time and most certainly a waste of the chain stores time. I mean, this is why we have a friggin' planning department and a zoning commissioner (who is awesome, by the way). We should give them the tools they need to do their jobs. Right now, the Zoning Administer had no choice but to favor Jack Spade in this battle. We need to have the laws better stated to make it easy and better for him. I mean, this is all they do... they plan our city. We should let them, th ey have our interestes in mind.

So thank you to the sailors, the fisherman, the pirates, the sea monsters, Camilla the accordian playing fishwife and Kirk the sea forager for singing the songs that Hal Robins wrote for us. Thank you thank you thank you.

On September 12th I sent a single mail to this list asking for a little money. You all sent donations of $10 to $100. Here is how I spent your money:

$400 on sailor hats, t-shirts, pirate eye patches, spray paint and shipping

$100 to Hal to write the songs

$100 to Kirk and Camilla to sing the songs (and pay for the baby sitter)

$300 on No Jack Spade window signs

$500 to Arin Fishkin for designing the Jack Off flyer, window signs and songbook

$120 to print the Jack Off flyer and songbook

$18 to feed the fucking meter all day for my truck to sit in front of 3199 16th

$200 to Orin for helping me all day and taking photos

So it's $1,738. Not bad, actually. Here is what we collected from the plea on Sept. 12th:

So we are $338 short of breaking even. That is not too bad. Actully, Chris Breen sent $100 to my paypal and chris demontery sent me $20 in the mail. So we are down $218... I am happy to put that amount in. Gladly.

This ends the saga of the Jack Off. I've still got a few bodily fluids up my sleeve. Next political action: The Shitshow? Bloodbath? Bile-aide?

the mind reels...

chicken john