Re:Move This Person
hey Winter,
you were asking me about that time Willie had me thrown out of the Armory building -- the time you and i met, right? that was a while ago, summer of 2000, but i think i can remember the details.
i know i don't have to recap for you what was going on here in San Francisco. seems like every third person you talked to back then was having to move. artists, arts organizations -- to say nothing of all the Latino families in the Mission district. i remember a lot of people were angry with the dot commers -- a lot of them 20 something kids fresh out of college (if even) who wanted to get rich quick. i remember someone telling me, "Gordon, you know these kids work like 70 hour weeks." i could not believe it.
that's how little contact i had with that whole scene. i'd been living here for quite a few years already, making art. that's what originally attracted me to SF -- the idea of a tolerant, civilized, affordable city with lots of cultural activity (i can't say i ever found much of that in detroit -- even now, where's, say, the independent film?) but all of a sudden it seemed like all these companies were moving in. remember the Bayview Bank building in the Mission? how 25 or so small businesses and nonprofits were kicked out to make way for bigstep.com. that was just one incident of many. let's not even talk about the 500 or so bands that lost their rehearsal space in that one building.
that's the thing -- though the dot commers were certainly part of the equation, they weren't all to blame. the developers and their cronies in city hall -- they were just as much, maybe more to blame. bigstep.com was not legally supposed to be able to take up that much office space, but the city gave it to them anyway. that's what i liked about MAC -- the Mission Anti-displacement Coalition -- they knew where to point the finger. did you go to that public meeting they held in the spring? it was huge -- tons of people. remember how a couple members of the city planning commission came, and spouted the usual bullshit, like "oh we can't do anything." yeah, you can -- just say NO to development. fuckers. i still remember that woman Rene Sausedo from the day laborers org yelling, over and over again, MORATORIUM!!
well, what was it -- late july? yet another company got the green light, this time to develop the Armory building as dot com office space. you went in there, right? big cavernous place on Mission and 14th, built literally to house SF's armory, like a century ago. i guess it lay vacant for years.
the company hadn't even been officially cleared yet and already they were having a celebration pary in there. an open party. that was another great thing about MAC -- "it's an open party? let's go in!"
after the signs and speech making, a bunch of us did just that. remember that scene? some brilliant person thought, well it's the Armory -- let's do a military theme party! so they had these party workers running around in olive green tee shirts that had some acronym done up like the M*A*S*H logo. and those little finger sandwiches with the little american flags sticking out of them. was anything actually edible?
were you there yet when a bunch of the MAC peeps jumped up on stage during the cheesey rawk band's break and started rocking the mic? -- or tried to. with, uh, military precision, the sound was cut off the second someone tried to say something. so they just yelled. it was hard to hear exactly what they said, but the tone was clear. that lasted until the police "escorted" them all out. isn't it funny how the cops always seem to do double duty as security guards at these kinds of things?
then all of a sudden a group of people formed around the base of the stage. another mic was set up. then, like Moses and that proverbial sea, Mayor Brown glided in. he didn't have any tablets. he didn't even have index cards. he was smooth. how else could such a scumbag get elected twice?
remember the clip of Willie from "Boom, the Sound of Eviction"? where he's speaking with characteristic aplomb about how, actually, Latino families were voluntarily moving out of the Mission because they were getting big enough cash settlements to buy houses elsewhere. classic Willie. as for what was replacing them, what did he say? -- "everyone wants to be part of the new Loft Culture." i can't remember which line drew a bigger laugh. cuz everyone in the audience knew that the lofts he mentions, shoddy ugly constructions that were sprouting up like weeds, were by law intended for artists, but no artist could afford them.
anyway, so i'm standing there, listening to Willie speak. he talks about the Armory building, about how great it is that they finally found **something worthwhile to do** with it. he mentions that the city tried to turn it into a homeless shelter once, but for some reason, "that didn’t work." as I listen to this, I remember a statistic i've heard recently, that in a climate of skyrocketing rents, the leases of roughly half the Nonprofits are due to expire within the year.
i can't contain myself anymore. "what about the Nonprofits?" I shout. "why don't you move the Nonprofits here?" remember what happened next? Willie’s response was nothing but thoughtful and considered. pausing, he cocked his head back slightly and, gesturing with a regal air, proclaimed, simply, "Remove This Person."
so here I was suddenly being strong-armed out by some smirking stooge in one of those M*A*S*H style tees. i could almost hear the theme music, the original lyrics for which went "suicide is painless ..." i tried to make as much noise as I could on the way out.
so yeah, that's how Mayor Willie Brown evicted me. at least you and i ended up meeting as a result. and Lissa Ivy. and you guys ended up being so great as my "heavies" when i decided to serve eviction notices on Mission bar and restaurant patrons later in the month.
yeah, too bad Willie had to go. but oh, not to worry! now we have his buddy, Gavin Newsom as mayor. did you see that story in the Chronicle about how these city workers have come forward and said they were pressured to vote and campaign for Newsom? funny how that all got swept away within weeks when Gavin started performing gay marriages. isn't San Francisco great?
at least some of us have managed to hold on and make some more art. funny though, i don't see many of those dot com kids anymore.
--
SIGNature:
GORdon Winiemko
http://www.enjoythesign.com
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