UPDATE TO THIS ARTICLE: El 1 de noviembre de 2013.
Hola. You might want to read yesterday’s (El 31 de octubre de 2013) update below before you read this update. There was such a difference between last night and tonight. I spent some time in the Castro tonight; about the same amount of time as spent last night. There were about as many people walking about tonight as last night. One or two were in costumes tonight. Some of the homeless were sitting on the sidewalk bothering no one. The Jane Warner Plaza was open (unlike last night) and people sitting there. There was no drumming tonight at 18th/Castro. Other than that it was the same as last night except for one important different: the bully cops were not there tonight with their ridiculous “show of force” mobile command unit (like last night). Tonight, the Castro barrio had a very different/pleasant feel. It felt very calm tonight and not threatening. It could have felt like this last night if the cops hadn’t shown up to create a problem where none existed. But last night they felt they had to fuck with and harass the homeless and street people. The cops on a power trip created problems last night (I guess to justify their salaries!). Interesting how the two nights were so much the same, with the only different being no bullies/thugs in uniform with a badge creating problems tonight. It was pleasant tonight. Chau.—rosa barrio

UPDATE TO THIS ARTICLE: El 31 de octubre de 2013.
Hola. The contempt that San Francisco has for the homeless and street people could not have been more evident than on the unofficial Día de las Brujas/Halloween in the Castro. There is no official event in the Castro any longer for this day. The official event was ended by inept corporatist politicians. So what one mainly saw tonight was people walking around, some in costumes. When I arrived at Castro/Market I knew there would be trouble from the cops because a SF Police Mobile Command One vehicle (a picture of the vehicle can be seen at this link made a left turn to go down Castro, so I suspected that mobile home-sized vehicle would be parked on the east side of 17th Street at Castro, as in the past. That ridiculous “show of force” vehicle eventually arrived there as in the past on this day. At Castro/18th there was a group of street people sitting against the bank building on the south-east corner at that intersection. Some of the street people were playing drums. Their drumming gave a pleasant atmosphere to the area. It reminded me of the University of California-Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza in the 1980-90s. I noticed one of the store workers in the barrio doing a little dance in beat with the drumming as he was working. Then the fascist thugs arrived (officially called la policía) who had been brought in for Halloween by the city. One group of la policía thugs arrived after another. They were always in large groups (like a gang). Are they afraid to be by themselves? Or was this some macho “show of force” bull shit? Some of the thugs in uniform were standing on the back of police vans as they drove down the street presumably in their attempt to intimidate people. After about 15 minutes of the drumming “music,” one group of police thugs went over and stopped the street people from drumming and made them move away. I would guess that some conservative busy-bodied tight-anus in the barrio whined about the drumming, as they usually do. There cannot be any live music in the Castro anymore (unless one has a city-authorised permit, I think), especially under that piece of work politician Cocks. The music ended and the street/homeless people left. Then the area had a very different and cold feel to it. More and more cops came into the barrio making for an even colder feel (who wants to be standing among cops?), and they were mostly being thugs with other homeless in the barrio and harassing them. And they had closed the Jane Warner Plaza so that no one could sit there. You wouldn’t want people to sit in chairs in a plaza as they usually do! No, we can’t have that! This is what I had expected to happen on this day, but it was the thugs in uniform called la policía who ruined Día de las Brujas for me. The police in San Francisco have done a “180” in recent years. During the former police chief they didn’t act menacing and did not act like thugs on a power trip to bully the homeless and street people. From what I’ve read online in credible article and videos I’ve seen, police all over The Cesspool (los Estados Unidos/the US) are acting like fucking bullies on a power trip these days. It’s as if they’ve had a lobotomy. They have no feelings in them. One of the street people was being bullied by a group of 6-8 cops (it takes that many cops to deal with one muchacha who is harmless?) and she was rightly getting disgusted with them and the cops kept a no-expression “I’ve had a lobotomy and have no feelings in me” look on their faces. Mi amiga/my friend said that the police today are essentially acting like gangs. It’s just that they can bully and thug and crack skulls and get away with it. Many people who are police should not be police. They don’t possess the maturity or people skills. They are still adolescents in adult bodies. I heard someone ask a cop if there would be a parade. The cop barked out in a rude-angry manner, “Absolutely not!” The muchacho/guy who asked the question was blown away at the cop’s reaction. Then he told la muchacha with him, “well I just asked a question.” But that’s how these bully cops behave now under the new police chief, and under this conservative alcalde/mayor and conservative politician Cocks. So add this incident/experience to San Francisco’s desire to delete the homeless. Meanwhile in the barrio, there was no shortage of two-story tall tech shuttles coming back into the barrio as San Francisco becomes a suburb of Silicon Valley. And I should also add that this comes at a time when politician Cocks has proposed a needless, purely symbolic and feel-good law (catering to politician Cocks’ conservative base) to close all city parks between midnight and 5.00 a.m. Of course this has nothing to do with the homeless! Right. Sure. I refuse to write the reason politician Cocks is giving for the law. The law is intended to remove the homeless from city parks—and the mayor let it slip that he hoped the law could be used to deal with the homeless—during the time that they would sleep in the parks. It’s another useless, draconian law from a corporatist bourgeois elite politician who claims to be gay (I’ve never seen him with anyone – male, female or transgender) who lives in a condo. Why doesn’t politician Cocks try being homeless for a period of time himself and see how he likes the laws he’s dreamed for other people and against the homeless. Seems only fair if you’re writing laws for other people that the politician should personally experience the same law themselves to see how he or she likes the law. Yeah, that will happen. (See the bottom of this page for information/details about the flyer above from gayshamesf.org on the upper right hand side of this page.) Chau.—rosa barrio

UPDATE TO THIS ARTICLE: El 16 de junio de 2013. Hola. Where are the homeless? What’s happening to them? Are they being deleted? “what is is” of the pink barrio told me that there used to be 2-3,000 homeless people at the “Livingroom” end of Golden Gate Park and many more thousands throughout the Park. They have mostly all “disappeared” over the last several weeks. In the Castro barrio, I don’t see most of the homeless who used to hang out there. There are now new homeless people coming in to the Castro area, but what happened to the many homeless who used to hang out in the Jane Warner Plaza? Where have the homeless people gone? I know what the right-wing haters would say in response to my questions because I can recite their hateful spew from memory having read their despicable troll-like comments so many times on message forums. Considering what San Francisco has become, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I were to read a headline that said: “San Francisco homeless placed on barges and left to die in Pacific Ocean.” That wouldn’t surprise me at all. A corporatist city couldn’t care less about the homeless despite newspeak, word manipulation and sweet words to the contrary. In fact, this corporatist conservative city —the right-wing/conservatives call it “center, moderate” to disguise and hide their agenda—wants the homeless out of sight and out of mind so that this city is only for the wealthy and nose-in-the-air bourgeois elite. Chau.—rosa barrio

UPDATE TO THIS ARTICLE:
El 19 de mayo de 2013. Hola. I’m going to put this update on other pages also as some people only go to certain articles. I was disgusted at what I saw going on in the Jane Warner Plaza yesterday afternoon and I thought to myself: They should close this place (meaning the plaza) because of hate for the street people. I am sick of it. Two bully bicycle cops were harassing a homeless person sitting in the plaza and he got up and left so I assumed he was ordered to leave. Why? Then the cops talked to some people (didn’t appear to be homeless) on the other side of the plaza. Did they complain about the homeless person? I saw a painting artist was painting a canvas scene of the area facing Market Street. He and his partner were over in the south corner of the plaza. Had they been harassed by the bully cops? I don’t think painting a small canvas is allowed there (I’m serious). I left the area in disgust and walked down Castro. There were street people sitting—minding their own business—in a vacant store front area. They gave me a peace sign with their hand as I walked by. I gave them a smile and a peace sign in return. They smiled. I felt sorry for them. Wish I had some dinero/money to give them. There was another street person or two asking for help down the street. I said hello to him. Shortly afterwards I walked back up Castro Street and the bully bicycle cops were writing citations for the homeless group I had given the peace sign to. Disgusting. The bully cops must not have any conscious whatsoever. How can one human being on a power trip write a citation to someone who doesn’t have anything? How the fuck does this bully cop think the homeless people are going to pay the citation? Doh. Is there any brain in that head anywhere? Corporate fascism is something else. I kept walking in disgust and then saw a muchacho lying on the sidewalk with a medical emergency. The only positive thing about that was that it took the bully cops attention away from the homeless/street people and onto the person about to go to the hospital. Then I went back to the Warner Plaza and saw that the artist who had been painting had left the plaza. Earlier, I had sensed that he had been asked to leave. You know how terrible it can be to have an artist painting a local scene on a canvas. He could be a terrrrrrrrrrrrist you know. Afraid of your own shadow? [sarcasm intended.] Ugh. But what was all of this that I had observed about I later asked? I think all of this harassment/citations for the homeless/street people was because of that dictatorial, fascistic and useless merchants group. They were having their useless “sidewalk sale” event with their green balloons (and their logo on the balloons) where the member stores of that despotic group put some of the things they sell in their store out on the sidewalk to try to get some sucker to buy it. So I would suspect that merchants group (which needs to be disband) asked the bicycle thug cops to keep the barrio clean and clear of homeless and street people during their street sale bull shit event. Hopefully, no one bought a thing. May they rot from their hate. We refuse to buy anything in the Castro these days. And considering what the Castro has become we feel very comfortable with our decision. And if you are coming here for some reason (I don’t know why you would since it looks like any place else now!), please don’t give any dinero/money to any of the businesses here because by doing so all you’re doing is feeding hate, despite any bull shit they spew to the contrary. There are a few businesses in the area who are not members of this irrelevant hateful merchants group. For example, if you want nice flowers, go to Urban Flowers on 18th Street. They are not a member of this merchants group. But most businesses are members so as to be a part of this elitist hateful clique and to say they are a member (for bull shit purposes) since most people don’t give a damn whether a store is a member or not or even look for the window sticker. Chau.—rosa barrio

El 10 de mayo de 2013. Hola. UPDATE: I walked through the Jane Warner Plaza at around 7.00pm or so this evening. There was no one sitting in the red chairs in the plaza except three street/homeless people at one table. I noticed that two bicycle cops were bullying them and one of the street people was telling the cops what he thought about being harassed. I thought: why are the cops bullying these muchachos? They appear to be bothering no one. There was no one there for them to bother. I suspect one of the hateful anti-homeless merchants called la policía and that’s why they were there. The Warner Plaza is a public area (or it’s supposed to be) and the homeless/street people are part of the public but in rampantly gentrified San Francisco the pretentious bourgeois elite/haters want the homeless out of this city and out of sight/mind. The cops looked like they were writing the muchachos tickets. How are the street people supposed to pay those tickets when they don’t have any dinero/$$? I left before I became outraged. Someone else was also observing this from a distance and he walked away. Chau.—rosa barrio

El 28 de marzo de 2013. Hola. UPDATE: There have been no homeless/street people hanging out in the Jane Warner Plaza for at least a week, so I suspect that they were ordered by somebody (either la policía or the despotic business district group and the piece of work that runs that useless and irrelevant thing) to stay out of this public area, even though the homeless and street people are part of the public. “what is is” of the pink barrio says that he thinks the City recently did another one of their “sweeps” of the homeless. The intent is to get them out of sight because elitist pretentious snots with homes like to live in denial and pretend we have no homeless people in corporatist San Francisco. “what is is” told me that there were very few homeless in Golden Gate Park when he went through recently and there are usually lots of homeless people in Golden Gate Park since that’s where many homeless people live. He suspects the homeless have been “swept” to another part of the City (to get them out of sight and away from the pretentious who like to put themselves on a pedestal and think they are better than other people), which is typical policy for corporatist San Francisco even though the City is now denying they do that. Uh huh. If you’re asking, “this is happening in San Francisco?” the answer is yes and I suspect you’re thinking about the City that we long had a reputation for being. That City is gone due to rampant gentrification and many people being evicted from their apartments due to TIC conversions. Chau.—rosa barrio

El 26 de marzo de 2013. Hola. UPDATE: Last week in the Warner Plaza, I saw that piece of know-it-all who pontificates over the business district group. It (the know-it-all) was seemingly discussing “landscaping” of the cement planters with someone. Of course this is the same area where “No Landscaping” is allowed according to the signs in the area. But I guess their “landscaping” is okay and acceptable. Today, they installed what looked like cement borders on the front edge of the planters. My first thought: These borders are intended to keep people (what kind of people? homeless and street people) from sitting in the planters. The intent: Think of wiring used to keep pigeons away. It’s the same intent. So these la basura are installing these things in the cement planters. My suggestion to homeless and street people: One could easily bring a pillow and put it over the cement borders and sit there. With the pillow, it might even feel better than it did before. I’m sure the business district group will disguise their hate for the homeless and street people by saying, “we’re beautifying the planters with borders.” But that’s not what they’re doing, is it? Instead, it’s more hate for the homeless. You’re not fooling anyone business district group. Any of you could also become homeless at any time and face the wrath of the despotic business district group. Good luck with that! Chau.—rosa barrio

El 15 de marzo de 2013. Hola. Below is a video of the Jane Warner Plaza in San Francisco. As I wrote in the previous update, there are supposed to be approximately 10 red tables with 3 chairs each in the Jane Warner Plaza. It was impossible to video one side of the plaza where there are now no tables or chairs. Awhile back, across the street in the Harvey Milk Plaza, the despotic business district group decided (along with conservative corporatist politician Cocks) that the benches should be removed to keep the homeless/street people from sitting there (see pictures down the page of where the benches were removed in the Harvey Milk Plaza). Now, no one can sit in the Milk Plaza. It’s a very sterile and unwelcoming area. Consequently, the homeless simply moved across the street to the Warner Plaza, as any thinking person would do. Homeless and street people do have brains despotic business group la basura. If you were homeless or a street person, wouldn’t you go and sit in the other plaza? We have some very thick and hateful people in positions of power. So about a week ago, the dictatorial business group (who only want people to spend their dinero/money in the Castro barrio and then leave the area) removed most of the tables and chairs in the Jane Warner Plaza to try to keep the homeless/street people from sitting there (most tables and chairs removed as seen in this video). Gentrified San Francisco also has the hateful and draconian sit-lie ordinance which criminalizes homelessness and means that the homeless/street people cannot legally sit or lie on the sidewalk for 16 hours a day (during the day). So where exactly are they supposed to sit and rest? It seems that the business district group, conservative politician Cocks and the police only want *certain* people sitting in the plaza….of a specific income level. Will people need a license to sit there sometime in the future? Wouldn’t surprise me at the hateful rate things are going. Here’s a short video of the plaza with most of the tables and chairs removed. Chau.—rosa barrio

Related: Close the Jane Warner Plaza

Update to this article:
El 12 de marzo de 2013. Hola. I was talking with a local friend this afternoon and she told me what was going on in the Jane Warner Plaza. I had noticed that tables/chairs were missing and I had assumed it was the busy-bodied business district group once again hating on the homeless. I was correct. My amiga said that she heard from a reliable source that la basura who runs that group claimed that la policía suggested to that group that they remove some tables and chairs from the area to try to deter the homeless/street people from sitting there. Here we go again. This is the same demented and reactionary tactic this same useless group used across the street at Harvey Milk Plaza, which many locals complained about. This business district group was supposedly meeting with corporatist conservative politician Cocks to decide what to do—what a waste of time that meeting would be!—as many locals don’t approve of what they’re doing since no one (or very few) can sit there now, just like across the street. These la basura should resign and close their despotic organization. They’re useless and irrelevant. Chau.—rosa barrio

Update to this article:
El 6 de marzo de 2013. Hola. This past weekend I saw something which I had to walk away from. I was a block away from the Harvey Milk Plaza in San Francisco. There was a homeless/street person sleeping on the sidewalk out of the way and up against a building. He was in a fetal position bothering no one. No one was bothering him. UNTIL someone (a city worker sweeping the sidewalk) came along. It was sort of crowded out and I asked myself: Why is this muchacho sweeping the sidewalk at this time? Why doesn’t he wait until it’s less crowded/busy? He went over and told the homeless guy to get up. I’m not positive but I think the city worker used his toe to try to awaken the guy. The homeless person continued to remain there asleep. I felt like saying but didn’t (to the city worker): Have you had a lobotomy at some time in your life? Would you like to be awakened if you were homeless and trying to sleep? From past experience, I knew that I needed to move away and get out of sight because I didn’t want to see what was going to happen. It would make me boil inside. So I went up the street and came back down and as I got back in view of the homeless muchacho, the city worker had left and gone up the street and the homeless guy was now standing and talking with someone else. Many San Franciscans (politicians and residents) despise homeless/street people, and especially the despotic merchants’ group, the despotic business district group and corporatist politician Cocks. Meanwhile, out of the other side of their mouth they have up signs in their store windows, “No Hate. No Violence.” (A picture of the sign is down the page aways). The “No Hate” part means nothing to them because they clearly hate the homeless despite any sweet pabulum they speak to the contrary. I don’t know how that city worker could do what he did to that homeless guy. I couldn’t do it, even if it were part of my job description. I wouldn’t do that part of waking up a homeless person/street person. It’s inhumane. How many times during the day and night does that homeless muchacho get awakened and have his sleep interrupted? Disgusting. In addition, to my knowledge only the cops are allowed to enforce our draconian “sit-lie” ordinance, and no one else. So what was this city worker doing trying to enforce sit-lie?

And meanwhile, the homeless are freezing to death in Chicago. There’s endless dinero/money for drones, homeland insecurity, occupations for oil and other natural resources (and the long list continues) but there’s supposedly no dinero for keeping a person from freezing to death in Chicago. When is Obama’s next vacation to Hawaii?

Then today, I noticed no homeless or street people in the Warner Plaza. I also noticed that the plaza looked very bare. There were only 4 red tables there and not many chairs. I suspect the despotic business district group removed the tables and some chairs to deter the homeless and street people from sitting there/hanging out there. Why don’t la basura just close the Warner Plaza and return it to the street it once was and be done with it? And then proceed to continue with your sanitizing, sterilizing, homogenizing the Castro to the clean little “straight” bland and boring barrio they want it to be with “their kind” of snooty, bourgeois elite people in it. (I’m just trying to bring a little happiness to people’s sad lives). Chau.—I’m rosa barrio

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Update to this article:
El 14 de febrero de 2013. Hola. I was thinking about what I wrote yesterday (see below) regarding some possible new hateful legislation coming. That could happen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Jane Warner Plaza was closed permanently/removed in the name of, “it attracts undesirables” (translation: people who aren’t wealthy, pretentious and elitists just like us. Some of the homeless and street people sit in the plaza and we can’t have that!). The Warner Plaza is a closed street with cement planters serving as a barrier to traffic on Castro/Market Streets and Muni’s F line street car runs through the middle of it, literally. I can see the Warner Plaza being removed in the name of “civility, reasonable, sensible, rationale” and other newspeak words that the right-wing/conservatives use frequently (at least here in San Francisco). Since yesterday, I read a comment from that muchacha who is head of the business district group. The comment she made had to do with the naked muchachos. She was/is part of the hate group, as I had thought she was. Her comment was the standard script used by the conservatives/right-wing to hate on the naked muchachos and to oppose nudity. Prudish! I won’t repeat what she said but it was the usual repertoire of distortions, lies and she used the perfunctory Fear Card. She’s quite a piece of work. Maybe that explains that snarl she often wears. As too often is the case, the people who are heads of organizations seem to enjoy being on a power trip. It seems to go to their head and I sense that’s the case with this muchacha. Why are so many bad people in positions of power? Chau.—rosa barrio

Update to this article:
El 13 de febrero de 2013. Hola. I was in the Warner Plaza this afternoon and made some observations:
I’m expecting some more hateful, anti-homeless, anti-street people legislation to be proposed soon and put in place by the conservative politician for the Castro barrio. This afternoon, I observed la muchacha who runs the business district group. She and her group were responsible for removing the purple benches from the Harvey Milk Plaza so that the homeless/street people didn’t have anywhere to sit. Hateful and Despicable! I saw this business district group muchacha today talking with a couple of muchachos and I sensed they were in agreement with her and the conservative policies taking place in the Castro barrio. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they told her about something they had seen (I heard the word metro mentioned and I assumed they meant our subway system) and this la muchacha went into this extreme overdrive gasp mode with mouth wide open (as if she had heard something so outrageous and reactionary she had never heard before). She held that gasp-mode, reactionary body position for about 3 minutes as these two muchachos told her some outrageous story of something they had seen. Based on her extreme reaction and the way I saw her scanning the plaza area with her usual snarl (there was one table occupied by a small group of homeless/street people with their companion dogs), I’m expecting more hate to come as a result. That’s how things happen in San Francisco these days: Very reactionary. Don’t actually try to solve a problem respectfully for all people involved, but rather react to it with hateful, draconian measures. The only people who are “respected” are the wealthy, bourgeois elite and those who pretend to be. And by the way, there’s currently an attempt to erode/gut rent control in San Francisco. The conservatives/right-wing want San Francisco to be a City of only the wealthy and elitists. They want more homeowners and less tenants/renters. The measure has been authored by two conservatives on the Board of Supervisors (one of them is gay and he’s the conservative politician for the former “Gay Mecca” Castro barrio). Translation: More homeowners = conservative and fewer “liberal” politicians and that will help to continue to turn San Francisco to the right. As for the naked muchachos, there were none there today. Back to that muchacha from the business district group, as she was talking intently with these two muchachos someone was heavily smoking nearby and the smoke was blowing in her face. There’s a smoking ban in that area. She said nothing about the smoke. But I suspect if some naked muchachos had showed up, she would not have remained silent about that. Nudity kills you know, but second hand smoke doesn’t. [sarcasm intended]. Chau.—rosa barrio

Update to this article. El 26 de diciembre de 2012.
Today I read this headline: “US mayors’ survey: Food insecurity, homelessness rising across the country” and one paragraph reads, “Emergency food assistance requests increased by an average of 22 percent, and the number of such requests rose in all but four of the cities. Some 51 percent of the demand for assistance came from members of families. Perhaps most tellingly, the report also documented that over a third (37 percent) of those in need of emergency food assistance were employed.” The link to the article is below under “Related.” So despite the number of elitist San Franciscans—including one major corporate news webcast which uses hate of the homeless to sell newspapers and to generate website hits—rising homelessness is not a problem that is going to go away no matter how many benches are removed and how many chairs are locked up and other despicable and hateful tactics used by San Francisco’s bourgeois elite politicians and merchants (who think they are above seeing homeless people) to keep the homeless and street people out of sight (out of mind). And there’s some good news: Berkeley (California) rejected sit-lie (narrowly) and the San Francisco Model. The link is down below in the “Related” section. Chau.—rosa barrio

Update to this article. El 26 de noviembre de 2012.

Hola. Regarding the removal of the purple benches above Harvey Milk Plaza (see article below), the useless and hateful business district group was responsible for that along with the consent of that reactionary, polarizing, lacking-in-social-skills divisive, extremist and conservative politician for the barrio. There’s no “gray area” in his world apparently, just “black and white” thinking. From my understanding, the homeless/street people were awaken at 7.00 a.m. so that the benches could be removed. I suppose it wasn’t possible to wait later in the day. That would require some humanity/huwomanity. And hate overrides huwomanity and humanity these days. Over the years, I’ve noticed that whenever the rabid conservatives/right-wing are at the point of “last resort” and so desperate to ram their agenda through that they drag out the “Defecation and Urination” Card. That’s what they did for this situation. They claimed that the homeless/street people were urinating and defecating at the benches area of the Harvey Milk Plaza. They dragged out the same “Defecation and Urination” Card during the sit-lie/Proposition L campaign in San Francisco (see this article for more information on that). During that campaign, if one didn’t know any better one would have the impression from the rabid conservatives/right-wing that homeless and street people’s caca was piled high on most street corners throughout San Francisco and that their urine was pouring into our storm drains at flood levels. The right-wing really have an obsession with caca and piss and they drag both out when they want to ram their hateful agenda through to create the image of “an awful situation that must end.” I never saw any shit or piss (or smelled any) around the benches area. I once saw one of the street people unfortunately become sick and he vomited near the benches. I suppose his vomit was bad. We can’t have that! But around that same time period, two blocks away every Sunday mostly “straight” people were vomiting in front of the now-closed bar/restaurant Lime during their weekly “bottom mimosas” puke-fest. I didn’t see or hear the rabid right-wing/conservatives get that upset about that vomit. That vomit was more “acceptable” compared to homeless or street people’s vomit. Sigh. People! I’ve had enough of this topic as I can only take so much hate for people’s right-wing agenda. Chau.—rosa barrio

Update to this article. El 25 de Noviembre de 2012.

Hola. In this article: San Francisco’s Fading Gay Mecca, I talk about the “straight invasion” of the Castro. I was just talking with “what is is” of the pink barrio (you will know him from his “Peak Oil Noticias/News Update” videos). He updated me on two things happening in the Castro. It looks like the bar/restaurant near Castro/Market has replaced the now closed bar/restaurant named Lime. Lime was known for its “puke fests.” (Ugh). Every Sunday mostly “straight” people came to the Castro and poured into Lime for partying and to get drunk off of “bottomless mimosas.” People got so drunk that they vomited up and down the sidewalk in that block and surrounding blocks as they stumbled (in a drunk stupor) around the Castro. Many residents complained about this weekly puke-fest and after a long period of time, the bar (Lime) was finally shut down, but for other reasons. “what is is” tells me that the same thing is now happening at a bar/restaurant near Castro/Market. He passed through that area earlier today and observed dysfunctional, arguing, drunk “straight” people (male-female couples). The bar/restaurant had a trash can placed outside for people to vomit in. Then he updated me on the Jane Warner Plaza which I talk about in the article below. He said that some of the homeless/street people are now hanging out in the Warner Plaza since the benches were removed from above the Harvey Milk Plaza. But la basura in this City who despise and hate the homeless are now chaining up the red chairs in the Warner Plaza during the day so that the homeless/street people can’t sit in them. Neither can anyone else. I find that despicable and reprehensible. And it merely reinforces what I wrote in the article below that San Francisco wants to delete the homeless. But fortunately, the homeless and street people are not allowing the chaining of the chairs to deter them. They are remaining in the Warner Plaza. Right-on! I would too. And as I saw tonight, it might not be completely comfortable but anyone can sit in the top chair of each stack of locked chairs as someone was doing. They haven’t banned that yet. Chau.—rosa barrio
El 24 de Noviembre de 2012. Hola. What is happening to our City of San Francisco? (Rhetorical question. I already know the answer to that). Aside from our many skyscrapers and other buildings in San Francisco, and our beautiful views of the Bay and Bay Area, la Ciudad I moved to in the late 1970s is becoming unrecognizable to me and other locals.

San Francisco was once known as a very “tolerant” City (before gentrification). I never did like the word “tolerant” no matter who used it. I prefer the word “accepting.” Tolerant means putting up with something or somebody or enduring them (as in, “I’ll tolerate you.” I always think: oh how very nice of you!), which is not the same as accepting someone. Accepting means “consent to receive” or “agree to take” (which sounds much better than “enduring” or “putting up with” somebody or something). And when accepting someone, hopefully one is accepted unconditionally. The San Francisco of today is becoming a very hateful City (often with covert hate) from merchants, residents and corporatist politicians. The hate is especially directed at the “have-nots” as well as those who are not conservative/right-wing. As I’ve said in other articles recently, San Francisco is moving quickly to the right, though of course the conservatives/right-wing deny that to disguise, camouflage and continue their hateful agenda. They operate in Denial mode much of the time anyway.

San Francisco wants to delete the homeless/street people. As The City becomes increasingly a City of “the haves,” and for the 1% (and not the “have-nots”) the bourgeois elite/corporatists want the homeless/street people out of the City or at least out of sight. People who are secure with themselves don’t feel the need to put themselves on a pedestal and pretend they are better than others. But many elitists feel they are above seeing homeless/street people, and many of the same people like to live in Denial as to the realities of this declining nation, the Estados Unidos/U.S. Many homeowners in San Francisco feel that their home ownership entitles them to special rights and to dictate what goes on in the barrio, simply because they own a home there. Screwy, self-entitled thinking!

San Francisco has long had a ridiculous approach to homeless/street people. The City likes to move (“sweep”) the homeless/street people around from one barrio to another. So the homeless/street people may be “swept” out of the Haight district which gives the impression to the bourgeois elite in the Haight that “we have no more homeless people. Isn’t that wonderful?! Just us self-entitled wealthy people in our moldy million dollar homes.” Of course, when the homeless/street people are “swept” out of the Haight, they have to go somewhere and they end up in another barrio of The City. I think the “sweeping” is dependent upon what busy-bodied elitists squawk the most about the homeless. The reality is that there is only so much any city can do about the homeless problem in this nation. And there are many reasons that a person is homeless. The homeless problem is a federal level problem and must be addressed at the federal/national level, but of course it won’t be other than with lip service. One cannot expect a Corporatocracy and their corporatist career politicians of and for the 1% to care whatsoever about homeless/street people.

I began to realize the amount of hate in San Francisco for the homeless/street people when the draconian measure Proposition L (known as sit-lie) was passed by the majority of those who voted in the 2010 election. It was approved by 54.3% and opposed by 45.75% of those who voted (voter turnout was 61.02% in el Noviembre de 2010 election). One can read more about sit-lie here: Haight Voters Rejected Sit-lie(The Haight district was where the measure began and it failed there), and Sit-lie Measure Poised to Pass.

The hate for the homeless/street people in San Francisco is mostly covert when people are “out and about.” But online, the right-wing hate is rabid with the haters often using anonymous screen names and hating on the homeless/street people and others whom the right-wing (sometimes posing as “progressives” and “liberals”) hate and want out of sight or out of the City entirely.

In the Castro district, above the metro entrance in Harvey Milk Plaza there were purple benches for people to sit and hangout. Recently those benches were removed without any input at all from the so-called “community.” This was the second installation of benches at this location. The first installation was previously removed. The street people/some homeless hung out there and sat on the purple benches during the day and in the evenings. I never had any problem with the street/homeless people. I felt quite comfortable around them, in part, because I can’t image what’s it like to be a homeless/street person. A very difficult life. Some locals hate on them (rather common here these days, unfortunately). I’ve read covert hateful references to the homeless/street people in some online comments asking why the conservative politician for the Castro area, “doesn’t do something about the area above Harvey Milk Plaza.” Some locals described these particular street/homeless people as “hostile.” I suppose they could be hostile like anyone else if harassed or approached by someone with an anti-homeless or anti-street person chip-on-both-shoulders attitude, a snarl or the disgusting snooty, “I think I’m better than you and you don’t belong in my City. Get out of my City” attitude, which I’ve read in online comments unfortunately. I’ve walked by that particular group of street/homeless people and ridden by them on my bike and felt completely comfortable. And I was respectful to them. If one or more of the homeless/street people became hostile for whatever reason, a person should have the maturity to move on (unless one likes to engage in dysfunction as many people do). Some immature people do respond to being called a pejorative name, rather than having the maturity to ignore it, dismiss it and move on.

Also, a large number of homeless people are GLBTQueer youth, and they are just as hated on and despised as anyone else by those who don’t want to see or can’t stand to see homeless/street people. I think some of the GLBTQueer youth come to the Castro thinking it’s a very different barrio than it really is today, and they become quite discouraged, depressed, angry on occasion (I can certainly understand that) and down by how they’re treated, rejected, and the hate they are subjected to from residents/locals (including that despotic merchants group) and la policía.

Other people sat on the benches all along the wall also. But the bourgeois elite in those unattractive “luxury” condos across from the benches began whining and moaning about the street/homeless people. They didn’t want to see or hear them or have to walk by them. They’re too good for that, you know.

My question to the bourgeois elite (especially those in those condos): You’re in The Castro by your choice. Supposedly no one has required you to live in the Castro or in those condos. The Castro barrio has a reputation/history of being a “constant party atmosphere” and it can be rather noisy 24 hours a day. So what did you expect, bourgeois elite, when you moved there? Why did you move there to begin with? That doesn’t seem like a very bright thing to do. (Answer: They moved to the area with the intention of changing it to the way they want it to be: stale, stagnant, corporatist, boring and conservative). Unfortunately, the Castro is becoming all of that along with the help of other factors. The same residents have whined about the rainbow flag flying near by on the flag pole in that it makes too much noise for them when it’s windy. My suggestion: MOVE, elitists! If I were that unhappy in a place, I would move. I think the elitists wanted the rainbow flag removed too! That hasn’t happened yet, under the conservative, authoritarian merchants’ group for the barrio.

So the City is spending even more dinero/$$ on removing benches. Loco. Now there’s no place for anyone to sit above the Harvey Milk Plaza other than up on the cold cement planters above where the benches were attached. I have seen some people sitting up there since. All of this speaks to such “stellar leadership” (ha!) on the part of this conservative corporatist politician for the area. I and others knew he was going to be bad noticias/news from the beginning while others were gushing over their new conservative “savior” and falling for his little handwritten notes he left on gullible people’s doors while campaigning. What gullible people! Many people love to fall for sweet words from a politician. Now, some people are saying, “He’s been a disappointment.” He’s been what I thought he was going to be: Malas Noticias. What did one expect if one had taken the time to research him and had paid close attention during that campaign? But watch those who are saying, “He’s been a disappointment,” vote for him once again expecting something differently from him the second time around before he officially runs for alcalde/mayor. Sigh. Ever since he’s been an elected politician, he’s been simultaneously running for mayor because no one needs the amount of attention he craves unless they’re running for another position (i.e. “higher office”) and that’s what this muchacho is doing. Some people have noticed this and spoken about it. The other supervisors on the Board of Supervisors don’t get the amount of media attention this muchacho gets. He seems to frequently be dreaming up some loco, regressive, backward, conservative law/ban to give him attention as the author of it and to get his name out there. He often makes the proposed law as draconian as possible initially and then to give the appearance/impression that he’s “compromising,” he takes out some draconian things that he knew wouldn’t pass to begin with. He’s most transparent, like other corporatist, conservative politicians.

From my understanding there was a strong push to remove these purple benches from the totalitarian merchants’ group, that business district organization and their beloved conservative politician because of their combined hatred for the homeless/street people. Meanwhile, many of these hypocrites (merchants et al) display that sign you see on the right side of this page, “NO VIOLENCE, NO HATE” in their store windows yet they are among the first to hate. That piece-of-work merchants’ group for the barrio endorsed the hateful sit-lie measure also, and they only invited the pro sit-lie side to their endorsement meeting and then proceeded to ask their membership (merchants) to vote for sit-lie/Proposition L. These dictatorial organizations/groups operate in secrecy, unilaterally and without input from anyone. No transparency whatsoever. There was no community input before the removal of these benches. These despotic organizations just had the benches removed.

Then over across Castro street is Jane Warner Plaza. The Plaza is really a closed street (next to a gas station) with some plastic tables/chairs in it. Muni’s vintage F Line street cars run through the middle of it on rails as the street cars turn to go down Market Street towards The Embarcadero/The Bay. The Warner Plaza is certainly no “Towne Square” as that conservative politician for the barrio likes to go on about. I often pass through the Warner Plaza between 9-10 pm, and I’ve seen on numerous occasions a couple of people stacking the red chairs and chaining them together. Is that so no one can steal them overnight? Anyone could steal one or more of the chairs during the day if one wanted to when they are not chained together. The chaining of the chairs is done to prevent the homeless/street people from sitting in them or lying in them overnight. How terrible it would be to have a human being without a home using one or two of those chairs to stay off the cold ground and to be able to sleep some during the night hours! No, we can’t have that in this City. We don’t care about the homeless. Let them die, seems to be the mentality of many in formerly “liberal” San Francisco.

As a San Francisco resident wrote on a local message forum recently (I’m paraphrasing but keeping the original intent): “San Francisco likes to send a message to the homeless/street people on occasion to tell them not to get too comfortable here, because this City wants you dead (if you’re homeless or a street person).”

Chau.—rosa barrio

Related:

El 18 de abril de 2013: Homeless in San Diego, California

27 December 2012: US mayors’ survey: Food insecurity, homelessness rising across the country

Berkeley Rejects Sitting Prohibition and the San Francisco Model.

What’s wrong with the Sit-Lie Campaigns’ Story?

 

More about the flyer from gayshamesf.org on the upper right side of the page:

I’ve provided the flyer here for information and educational purposes. I like the flyer because it tells the truth. Some of the text may be hard to read so here’s what the flyer says:

The flyer reads:

“The Weiner fascist agenda:

* Remove public benches (Ed. at Harvey Milk Plaza)
* Criminalize nudity
* Silence street performers
* Close recycling centers
* Condos, condos, condos !!!
* Close parks
* Amend environmental review for development”

That list doesn’t begin to cover it, but it’s a start. The list also omits Prop L/Sit-lie which criminalizes homelessness which politician Cocks strongly campaigned on and supports. Then he created another version of sit-lie for both the Jane Warner Plaza and the Harvey Milk Plaza.