Tag Archives: Jane Warner Plaza

Celebrations for Harvey Milk Day set for around the Castro

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Harvey Milk Day May 22ndIt’s been 5 years since Arnold Schwarzenegger established Harvey Milk Day. On May 22nd, we celebrate the life of this first-ever openly gay politician, gay rights activist, lover, brother, and to a lucky some, old friend. If you’re looking for a way to celebrate, check out some of the events happening around the Castro this week (if we are missing any, let us know and we will get them up!):

May 19th
At 1PM at Jane Warner Plaza, speeches, music and a reenactment of Milk’s stirring 1977 “You’ve Got To Have Hope” speech. The speech will be performed by five local artists: Courtney Walsh and Aaron Wimmer, two actors from “Dear Harvey”, the recent New Conservatory play about Milk’s life; Randall Mann, local poet and winner of the 2003 Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry; Sister Roma, drag artist and 20-year member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and; Andrea Shorter, political activist. Organized by the Castro Community Benefit District.

May 22nd
All day at the GLBT History Museum they will be giving free admission to all visitors and providing special Milk-related displays and tours. In addition, the museum is extending a welcome to Bay Area schools, many of which plan GLBT history activities in conjunction with Harvey Milk Day.

At 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30 at the Castro Theatre, the non-profit group, Friends of Harvey Milk, will be showing the film MILK which charts the last eight years of Milk’s life and his political platform, revealing a legacy that resonates in the here and now.

At 7PM at Books, Inc., in comemmoration of Harvey Milk’s birthday the SF GLBT History Museum and Books Inc. present An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk’s Speeches and Writings, with editors Jason Edward Black and Charles E. Morris III, photographer & former employee at Harvey Milk’s camera shop Daniel Nicoletta, and Harvey’s speechwriter, Frank Robinson. Check out our review of the book.

Ammiano’s Homeless Bill of Rights Act Moves Forward Despite Wiener’s & Opponents Vocal Opposition

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homeless-youths-of-sf
SF’s State Assembleyperson, former Castro Supe and one time Mayoral candidate, Tom Ammiano, Homeless Bill of Rights cleared a major hurdle on Tues. the 23rd when it passed through a key committee with a vote of 7-3. The bill now moves to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations, next up the Assembly, Senate, and finally-if all goes according to Ammiano’s plan-the desk of Governor Jerry Brown for signature into law.

SF Assemblyperson Tom Ammiano

SF Assemblyperson Tom Ammiano

The bill is officially known as AB5: The Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights and Fairness Act. It establishes a string of legal protections for homeless people. Topping the list-drastically limiting local municipalities ability to enforce laws like SF’s No Sit/No Lie ordinance.

“It cannot be criminal to be homeless.” Ammiano has said in multiple interviews.

He’s been a champion of the homeless since he first started to climb the political ladder in the City. Now, as he terms out in Sacramento as SF’s Assembly rep, he sees the Homeless Bill of Rights Act as one his political bucket list items that must be crossed off before time runs out.

He and AB5 aren’t without opponents including sometime ally and heir apparent of the coveted SF, Dist. Eight, Board of Supervisors seat, Scott Wiener. Wiener has said bluntly that he is ‘very opposed’ to AB5.

Wiener also labeled it as ‘inhumane’ to the homeless community. He believes the Acts passage will help perpetuate at risk individuals to stay out on the street rather than transition through the shelter and City service system and eventually back into productive members of society.

District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener

District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener

Wiener is a firm proponent of the No Sit/No Lie provision and it’s cousin, the Care Not Cash Law created by former SF Sup./Mayor now Lt. Gov., Gavin Newsom limiting General Assistance cash assistance to homeless in favor of services only.

In the last year Wiener supported the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District (CBD) decision to remove the public benches from Harvey Milk Plaza in an attempt to curtail their use by the homeless. More recently he advised the CBD to limit the number of chairs and tables put out each day at Jane Warner Plaza in order to suppress homeless from congregating disturbing locals and visitors to the Castro.

Removal of street furniture however hasn’t solved the Castro’s homeless issue. Our less fortunate San Francisco citizens remain displaced and gather at a variety of other locals throughout the neighborhood.

Ammiano’s bill establishes a number of rights for homeless people, including: the ability to use public spaces, sleep in legally parked automobiles, and reject admittance to shelters/social service treatment.

Coalition on HomelesnessnessIt would also require SF and other California communities to put together health and hygiene centers that would be open 24 hours a day. And finally Sit/Lie ordinances would be contingent upon the homeless needing medical assistance and housing. Opponents believe this is an end run around the intent of No Sit/No Lie leaving the laws essentially useless.

AB5 is supported by a variety of Homeless advocate groups including SF’s Coalition on Homelessness (COH )and is co-sponsored by Western Regional Advocacy Program. According to figures from the COH, SF spends $12 million bucks a year on arresting, citing, prosecuting, and harassing people whose only crime is being too poor to find a place to live. Why not shift that money to solution versus prosecution?

Opponents see the Act in a completely different light. They believe Ammiano’s bill goes in the wrong direction. In a recent editorial the SF Chronicle said,

“San Francisco spends more than $200 million per year to house, treat and feed homeless people, who number between 5,000 and 10,000. In return, people living on the street get services, not welfare cash. Panhandling is restricted and homeless people are not permitted to sleep on sidewalks, although those laws remain a low priority for police.

San Francisco has employed a balanced approach – blending relatively plentiful services with reasonable restraints on behavior that intrudes on others. True, those quality-of-life laws do not address the underlying causes of homelessness – poverty, mental illness, drug abuse – but they signal a commitment to maintain a livable city for all while offering food and shelter to those without homes.”

Homeless sitting in the Castro

Homeless sitting in the Castro

Ammiano admits the approval road ahead of the Act is a tough one. Municipalities in the state with current No Sit/No Lie laws and variations on that theme are lining up to fight it.

Ammiano is undeterred. He’s altered the bill from its original form, made compromises and tried his best to work with those across the aisle from his way of thinking. He is willing to continue to find solutions that work best for all, but, on one thing he will not yield: his commitment on seeing this emotionally charged issue have some sort of new path offered besides the current one it’s running down.

Castro Street Vibrant: 2nd workshop on Castro streetscape redesign takes shape

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From day to night, Castro Village Vibrant

From day to night, Castro Village Vibrant – SF Planning Department’s vision for the Castro

The San Francisco Planning Department in partnership with the SFMTA, the Department of Public Works, and local neighborhood and merchant associations had their second public workshop regarding the redesign of Castro’s streetscape Wednesday night at the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy auditorium. The space was larger than the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, which hosted the first workshop, and rightly so; the first meeting was busting at the seams and for the second meeting on Wednesday night, the room was packed.

Future Castro Street Sidewalks 3-D rendering

Future Castro Street Sidewalks 3-D rendering

Nick Perry, Urban Planner with the SF Planning Department, laid out the basic plans for what the department is billing as “Castro Village Vibrant”: a thriving pedestrian village with easy access to local businesses during the day, and an active and safe nightlife after dark. The modifications to Castro’s streetscape based on the feedback received from the first workshop and the departments original design include:

  • Widening sidewalks on Castro between Market and 19th
  • Creating a crosswalk spanning Market Street near Jane Warner Plaza that is more direct
  • Street lighting AND pedestrian lighting along Castro between Market and 19th
  • Reserving space for the Rainbow Honor Walk on newly paved sidewalks
  • New trees

Additional enhancements to the design include 4 options (based on the project’s budget) which include:

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North of Market Corner Bulb-outs

North of Market Corner Bulb-outs

Only one of the options will be chosen for the final plan due to budget constraints. Developers of the Market and Castro RC Gas Station site were in attendance and attendees suggested that they sponsor one of the four options, namely the Market and Castro intersection improvements in option 4. They cited the pedestrian improvements made at the new Whole Foods location paid for by the developers of that complex as an example. The developers took Nick Perry’s card and seemed interested in talking. If the developers are willing to make improvements laid out in option 4 then the planning department would still have money left in their budget to implement one of the 3 other options; a win for the Castro.

Fearmongering about double parking and the loss of parking was in no short supply.

Some attendees expressed deep concerns about getting around double-parked vehicles on Castro Street now that the lanes are to be narrowed. One of the biggest culprits of double-parking are trucks loading and unloading goods to local merchants. The Planning Department will be working with the merchants to come up with ideal times for time-limited loading zones along Castro Street to alleviate this risk.

The base plan includes a net-loss of one parking space without any of the four optional enhancements. This was achieved by shortening the parking stalls and turning some of them into compact spaces for the slew of Smart Cars, Fiats, and Mini Coopers that are popular in the neighborhood.

Still, some attendees fired shot after shot at Perry as if the Department was getting rid of all parking and that people would be stopping their cars regularly in the middle of Castro Street to backup traffic. Supervisor Wiener stepped in several times during the heated exchange to allow Perry to address these concerns without snarky comments being constantly overlaid by these curmudgeons.

Attendees also weighed in on the finer points of the streetscape redesign.

Trees will line Castro between Market and 19th with perennials throughout the mid block and evergreens near the block corners. The perennial selections are white bark birch, armstrong maple and the columnar ginkgo. The evergreen selections are the queen palm, the king palm, and the magnolia. The magnolia trees were the least popular as attendees cited their messiness and their tendency to grow large and dense and probably block the view of Castro’s beautiful architecture. People were also very concerned about who would be maintaining the trees and their effect on sidewalk health. As we’ve reported before, the City has made the maintenance of trees on the sidewalks the responsibility of the adjacent property owner.

18th Street Bus Bulb-Outs

18th Street Bus Bulb-Outs

The option which includes Muni bulbouts at Castro and 18th was popular amongst attendees except for the reconfiguration of the Muni stops on 18th Street. In the option, Muni eastbound would stop in front of Harvey’s Restaurant instead of the Bank of America and westbound would stop in front of K-Pop/Starbucks instead of on the side of Walgreens. In this option, attendees were concerned that Muni would backup traffic just before each intersection, with no room to pass. The SF Planning commission noted that keeping the bus stops where they are at the bulbouts would have the same effect except that traffic would back up into the intersection blocking even more traffic.

Scrambles, while deemed not feasible due to light-timing and backed-up traffic were still popular at 18th and Castro. Some people were very upset about the planning department’s inability to make the scramble option work; they wanted a better explanation as to why it wasn’t possible so Supervisor Scott Wiener agreed to get a memo out to the neighborhood associations to explain the details to residents.

One of the optional enhancements, the bulbout in front of Anchor Oyster and the HRC / Harvey Milk Camera Store, was not popular amongst attendees. The idea was that the bulbout would serve as a gathering spot for the community in honor of Harvey Milk’s old camera shop, but the consensus was that the store itself is more or less a consignment shop of HRC memorabilia than a place for the community to gather.

Additional enhancements include

Additional enhancements may include “mica sparkles” for sidewalk fabulousness and Castro history facts embedded into the concrete.

Folks also asked about the abundance of newsracks in the Castro and if it was possible to remove some of them as they take up valuable sidewalk space and are usually epmty. Supervisor Wiener noted that agreements penned with Clear Channel and JC Decaux (agreements he noted he would have never supported) will allow for the removal of only a certain amount over a span of several years.

Trey Allen, avid bicyclist and community activist, cited a lack of bicycle infrastructure included on the base plans and sent a letter to Supervisor Scott Wiener calling for a solution.

Funding for the project comes from a 4+ million dollar bond augmented by a contribution from the SFMTA to cover the lions-share of the cost of the relocation of Muni overhead catenary wire system. The moving of the wires could extend the completion deadline, but the MTA already has a preliminary plan in place if moving the Muni poles to the edge of the extended sidewalk is included in the final plan.

The SF Planning Department still needs your help. Fill out their survey and either snail-mail it or send it in an email to Nick Perry by next Friday, April 12th. Submission instructions are located near the bottom of the form.

Another final public meeting is slated for late April 2013.

Presentation Documents (pdf):
Full presentation
Revised design with optional enhancements
Preliminary design upgrades
Workshop 1 survey results

UPDATE: Porn Parody “The Cover Up” Based on Wiener’s Nudity Ban Releases Trailer (NSFW)

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Golden Gate 5: The Cover UpLast month SF based Queer porn company and sexual rebels, Naked Sword, produced a porn parody based on the City’s infamous. Sup. Scott Wiener initiated, partial public nudity ban. The finished product has left the editing room and now teaser trailers are available for viewing.

For readers who might have missed the original post the company wrote a script loosely based on the struggle to ban nudity in the Castro and San Francisco. Naked Sword tapped Castro resident and porn director, Mr. Pam, to helm their new tongue on and in cheek vehicle shooting one of the films outdoor, transition scenes at the corner of Castro and Market Streets at Harvey Milk Plaza under the watchful eye of the SFPD essentially violating the City’s new ban.

About a dozen actors and real life nude activists stripped down and paraded about challenging the new ban while being filmed. No arrests were made. Two weeks later several of the public naturist activist who participated in the filming returned to Jane Warmer Plaza for a Nude Dance In and were arrested.

This dichotomy of the use of the law is being cited by SF urban nudity activists and their legal team as one of the prime reasons in their ongoing legal challenge to the Wiener statute that’s been on the books since February 1st of this year.

Dale Cooper-Sup. Scott Cox

Dale Cooper-Sup. Scott Cox

However the real life nudity issue plays out here in the City porn reviewers who’ve seen early releases of ‘The Cover Up‘ are raging saying, “its a massive suck-cess”.

The film is the fifth part of the ‘Golden Gate Series’ and premiers on Wed., April 3rd. Star Dale Cooper who portrays Supervisor Scott Cox (wink wink, nudge nudge, Sup. Scott Wiener, if you know what I mean) has been especially lauded for his time on-screen.

You decide for yourself. Fair warning-certainly NSFW by any stretch of the imagination. And don’t forget to turn down the sound or your boss, co-workers or significant other might raise, um, an eyebrow. Click HERE for for trailer.

 

Groundbreaking Lawsuit Filed Against the City and SFPD Chief Suhr

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Homeless activist Bob Offer-Westort taking part in an Occupy SF protest in 2011. Photo: SF Chronicle

Homeless activist Bob Offer-Westort taking part in an Occupy SF protest in 2011. Photo: SF Chronicle

The City and County of San Francisco and SFPD Chief, Greg Suhr are the subject of a groundbreaking lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and activist Bob Offer-Westort, alleging that Mr. Offer-Westort rights were violated when SFPD searched his cellphone without a warrant at the time of his arrest in January 2012 at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro.

According to the ACLU  this is the first “civil suit in California to challenge warrantless cell phone searches at arrest.” In 2011, the California Supreme Court ruled in the case of People v. Diaz that arrestees’ phones can be searched without violating the United States Constitution.

“This suit brings a challenge under the California Constitution’s stronger guarantees of privacy and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, as well as a challenge under the U.S. and California Constitutions’ guarantees of freedom of speech and association,” the ACLU wrote in a statement.

The January protest Mr. Offer-Westort took part in was a reaction to Sup. Scott Wiener’s legislation around homeless citizens gathering at City parklettes and plazas-specifically Harvey Milk and Jane Warner Plazas-that managed to ban just about every activity conceivable in an attempt to make life so miserable for the homeless that they move on from any spot that has public furniture or space to rest.

This legislation was penned in an attempt to supplement SF’s already restrictive and controversial 2010 No Sit/Lie Law. Chief Suhr had also sent specific requests to Sup. Wiener to make sure the new legislation included targeted time periods during the day from 9AM to 9PM.

text-messagingMr. Offer-Westort, a well-known SF activist and member of the Coalition on Homelessness, pitched a tent in protest against this restrictive legislation at Jane Warner Plaza as part of a day of Citywide actions of civil disobedience against the legislation. He was eventually arrested by two SFPD officers and charged with a misdemeanor that carries up to a 500 dollar fine.

The rub of the lawsuit comes when one of the arresting policemen, identified only as Officer Chambers, started to go through his phone text messages. He had earlier been having a private exchange with a fellow activist in which they discussed the short comings of a local politician that Mr. Offer-Westort works with on an ongoing basis. He didn’t want that conversation made public as it’d affect his ability to do his job. He told SFPD that they didn’t have permission to look through his phone, but, they did anyway.

In the course of the warrantless search of Offer-Westort’s cell phone Officer Chambers read messages authored by individuals other than Offer-Westort who had not been arrested and messages that were unrelated to the crime for which Offer-Westort was arrested.

The lawsuit challenges the earlier CA Supreme Court ruling and calls into question personal privacy not to mention Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues.

The City hasn’t made comment on the lawsuit and SFPD policy excludes them from commenting on an ongoing lawsuit. It will be interesting to watch this case birthed at the corner of Market and Castro wind its way through the court to see what kind of historic and lasting changes it may have on future use of phone messages as evidence in the State and City.

Judge Sides with City Against Naturists in Latest Dust Up Over Public Nudity

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Trey Allen post arrest on Feb. 1st. sporting a SFPD supplied blanket.

Trey Allen post arrest on Feb. 1st. sporting a SFPD supplied blanket. Photo: Nude In Blogspot.com

SF’s Urban Nudist pleas for a restraining order against the City and its two and a half month old public nudity ban received a firm legal swat across their collective naked backsides this week when presiding Fed Judge, Edward Chen, denied their request.

Since the start of February when the ‘No No to Nudity’ ban, penned by Dist 8 Sup. Scott Wiener, backed by a majority of the Board of Supes and then signed, sealed and delivered by Mayor Lee was initiated there have been four incidents which have laid bare what Naturist identify as naked inconsistencies in the City’s public nudity policy.

Two or the actions: the first, held post ban at City Hall on Feb 1st, and most recently a nude ‘dance in’ on Feb. 27th at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro resulted in misdemeanor arrests of activists for violating the public nudity ban.

Two others: one at Harvey Milk Plaza where SF porn studio, Naked Sword, filmed a large outdoor crowd scene with naked participants for an upcoming porn parody using the nude ban controversy as a plot device and second: the City’s annual Naked Bike Ride.

Both of those events-stuffed with ban violations-were exposed to a good dose of police presence but resulted in zero tickets or arrests.

Urban Nudists cite that kind of pick and choose attitude and use of the law as the basis for challenging the new ban. In a statement they said the City is, “engaged in a pattern of illegal arrests and discriminatory enforcement.” They also remain firmly committed to continued challenges both legally and actively with escalated defiance of the ban.

Judge Chen disagreed with their assessment stating their case, “was lacking in any substantive legal argument in support” of their claims and that they also didn’t provide enough evidence.

So the City’s ban stands. Again.

Trey Allen leaving court post prelim hearing for Feb. 1st City Hall nude protest. Photo: M. Petrelis

Trey Allen leaving court post prelim hearing for Feb. 1st City Hall nude protest. Photo: M. Petrelis

Nudist Trey Allen and Gypsy Taub have already been to prelim court over the City Hall disrobing and Gypsy and Sup. candidate and nude activist, George Davis, have an upcoming court appearance over the Jane Warner naked dance party exhibition.

More to be revealed on this ongoing social and political face off as the weather warms and more opportunities present themselves for the Urban Naturist activists to exhibit their case to the public.

Friday, March 22nd, they and their supporters returned to the steps of City Hall at noon and held a permitted rally against the ban. No arrests were made.

 

 

 

 

Tables and Chairs Go Missing from Jane Warner Plaza

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Missing Chairs from Jane Warner Plaza (credit: Castro Biscuit)

Missing Chairs from Jane Warner Plaza (credit: Castro Biscuit)

Facebook tipsters Tiger and Richard let us know that there were some missing red tables and chairs from Jane Warner Plaza (17th and Castro in front of Twin Peaks) yesterday. We headed out there to confirm and lo and behold there were only four red tables with three chairs each as opposed to the 8-10 sets of tables and chairs that are usually out there.

We gave the Castro Community Benefit District, the organization that maintains the tables and chairs, a call to find out what was going on. We spoke with Executive Director, Andrea Aiello, who said that they have temporarily removed the other tables and chairs at the suggestion of the San Francisco Police Department as an “experiment” after issuing citations to the seemingly homeless youth who have camped out there regularly for the past couple of weeks. The idea is that if there are fewer places to sit, they would not congregate in large groups and take over groups of chairs and tables. When we went out to Jane Warner Plaza, there were, indeed, no homeless, but Aiello said the amount of calls she has received from people who are upset about the tables and chairs being removed indicated that the experiment is probably not in the best interest of the many community members and visitors that enjoy soaking in the sun and the sights of the Castro.

Homeless at Jane Warner Plaza (photo: Ken Mauldin)

Homeless camping out at Jane Warner Plaza (photo: Ken Mauldin)

Though removing benches from Harvey Milk Plaza (across the street from Jane Warner Plaza) back in November seems to have “fixed” the problem of the homeless hanging out there, the idea was not very popular and the homeless have just migrated to JWP across the street. The removal of all the tables and chairs from Jane Warner Plaza would be a very unfortunate solution to this recurring issue, so the CBD will be meeting tonight with District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener to discuss alternative solutions.

Aiello said that one possible way they can curb homeless from dominating the plaza is to add additional community events to the plaza’s schedule. Every summer the CBD hosts “Live in the Castro” which is an event held in Jane Warner Plaza several Sundays a month featuring live music, Litquake readings, and other activities. Aiello said the CBD may receive a grant to help expand this and other kinds of entertainment in Jane Warner Plaza, but details on the amount of the grant and what additional programs will be brought in will not be known for sure until the grant is finalized.

The CBD did not mention when the chairs would be brought back, but we will know more by tomorrow afternoon and will let you know how the CBD decides to act.