What is the role of art in gentrification and displacement?

Time and space work together to both reveal and obscure communities and cultures at work. Today, our world-class art museums sit at the intersection of the Financial District, the Tenderloin, the city’s most dense retail area, and the Filipino Cultural Heritage District. Each community and neighborhood is populated by individuals with diverse values, beliefs, and histories. Often, they are seen to outsiders as a monolith or singular entity with a unified voice. Entering into each space,

READ MORE

What the Arts Can Do to Fight Gentrification

Betty Marín, Heather M. O’Brien, and Christina Sanchez Juarez met through organizing work in Los Angeles. Their conversations began in a group called School of Echoes, which operates as an open listening process of community-based research, popular education, and organizing to generate experiments in political action. In 2015, the group joined with other tenants in struggle to form the Los Angeles Tenants Union / Sindicato de Inquilinos de Los Ángeles. LATU/SILA is a membership-based,

READ MORE

Evicted by SFMTA: When living in your car is illegal

When your car is your home, SFMTA becomes your landlord. 

The following is a public comment statement by Melodie, a woman who lives in her vehicle, in regards to SFMTA’s Engineering hearing on Friday, August 4, 2017 regarding the establishment of new tow-away zones: Specifically, on the east side Jerrold Avenue between Barneveld and Bayshore and on the west side of Barneveld Avenue between McKinnon and Jerrold Avenues. The former would be no stopping anytime,

READ MORE

SB 185 Passes, Reduces Burden of Unfair Fines and Fees

In 2014, San Francisco police issued over 11,000 quality of life citations under current California state law, according to a 2015 report by the Coalition on Homelessness. The report also stated that 62 percent of all citations went unpaid. These unpaid citations place a myriad of burdens upon poor people. Unpaid fines are sent to collections agencies, ruining credit scores and placing barriers on people searching for housing and employment. But until recently,

READ MORE

How Accessible are Feminine Hygiene Products in SF?

The past few years have brought immense attention to the inaccessibility of feminine hygiene products in our country. In an effort to make these products more available for those who need it most, activists and legislators have fought to ban the tampon tax that many states still impose. A total of twelve states currently do not tax citizens for purchasing products like pads and tampons. Despite assembly member Cristina Garcia’s efforts, California is not one of them.

READ MORE

Resistance: The Meaning of Black August

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”

― George L. Jackson

Unlike the so-called Black History Month, a month that celebrates commercialism and a sanitized version of the history of decedents of the Afrikan holocaust,

READ MORE

Meet Your Vendor: Jeffrey Chambers

Jeffrey Chambers has been a vendor for the Street Sheet for the 16 years he has lived in San Francisco. It’s the only job he’s ever had here. He never really felt that he needed to do anything else. He lives with his wife in a townhouse on Treasure Island that they’ve had for nine years. Together they have three sons — ages 12, 13 and 15 — but they are living with their grandmother temporarily in Stockton.

READ MORE

For LGBTQ+ homeless community, shelter system can be a nightmare

The LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and other identifications) community faces various forms of discrimination everyday.  Even in SanFrancisco, a city which many assume to be the most liberal, those who identify as LGBTQ+ are faced with homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of intolerance.  On August 11, 2016, the San Francisco LGBT Center was attacked, as an individual proceeded to shout homophobic slurs and shatter the building’s glass exterior with a metal pipe.

READ MORE

Vendor Profile: Ronald Rodgers

I’ve been selling the Street Sheet for over a year now. I sell the Street Sheet in order to provide for myself and my needs, and help others. I like the paper; I want the people to understand what’s going on here in San Francisco. I’ve been in Oakland, San Leandro, Sacramento with the Street Sheet and most people are amazed by the stories going on in San Francisco. I’m glad we have the paper called the Street Sheet,

READ MORE

Poetry: The Way It Is by Jack Hirschman

THE WAY IT IS

J.W. told me tonight
that Mitch the Chipewa
died two nights ago.

“Over-exposure and drink.
39 years old.” “And he had
a bad ticker,” said Gyzmo’s

friend, coming into the Bar
mainly to whisper some stash
of a deal into J.W.’s ear.

The Tenderloin Times says
108 or 109 died homeless
this year, but we know many

more simply could no longer
bear the excellent San Francisco
food fare.

READ MORE