NATIONAL PRISON STRIKE

On august 25th, the Bay Area witnessed an outpouring of more than 300 people mobilizing for a call to action at an entrance point of the San Quentin State Prison.  The Mobilization and Call To Action was organized by the Bay Area National Prisoner Strike Solidarity Committee, a regional network of organizations that includes POOR Magazine/Poor People’s Revolutionary Radio, the Anti-Police Terror Project, Worker’s World Party, California Prison Focus, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (Oakland),

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I couldn’t take it anymore

Walking by sad, homeless people,

barely looking at them

as I passed them by.

I wanted to be better than that

so I decided on a simple outreach plan:

I would give them granola bars.

Using my instincts,

I chose the people to approach.

I thought my gift to them was the granola bar,

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The oldest homeless person I’ve known was in her early to mid 80s.  Netta lost her house to foreclosure and had no family. She had nowhere to go so she continued living in her foreclosed home until the sheriff sent an ambulance to take her away. She was frail but not particularly sick or disabled.  The hospital admitted her but she didn’t need hospital care and, without a disabling illness, the hospital couldn’t send her to a skilled nursing home.

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When I first arrived in Sonoma County as a new student at Sonoma State University I was greeted with a few lovely towns with nice people who are overly friendly. Coming from San Francisco this was a shock. But I noticed something strange… The homeless community is constantly pushed around and hidden from the greater population to preserve this fantasy world of a lovely nice perfect place to live.

In October 2017 a multitude of fires hit Sonoma County hard.

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San Francisco has a long illustrious list of quirky residents who have called this city home throughout the years. Reigning at the top of this list of peculiarity would be none other than the late and great Emperor Norton, whose bicentennial birthday was recently celebrated this year. Norton was an eccentric fellow who may be credited with giving this city its characteristic embrace of the unconventional, always looking towards the horizon for progress and providing a place to call home for those that would be shunned elsewhere.

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What is a BID?

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are areas of cities where property owners have voted to take over the roles of security, marketing, and management usually performed by local governments. Once created the city itself is responsible for collecting property assessments from the business in the district, and then turning that money back over to a BID board composed of property/business owners voted in by other property owners in the district.

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