long live citizen journalism
i spent the morning at the mayor's
bayview town hall meeting
and the afternoon trawling
the internet for recaps.
(do not read as "looking for
photos of myself online.")
the sfist post captures
the way the actual meeting felt,
like a bit of political theater
in a school gymnasium,
spiffed up for the occasion
with vinyl banners,
half full of aggrieved citizens
and half full of commissioners.
before the show, some guy
commented on gavin's drink,
to nobody in particular,
"how much you wanna bet
that's an irish coffee?"
activists interrupted
gavin's self-congratulatory
"brief introduction,"
then left, still shouting.
we all laughed nervously
and started over as people moved
to fill the empty folding chairs.
gavin was irritated,
"i didn't come here because
i want to avoid the issues.
i came here because
i want to confront them."
people yelled that they hadn't had heat
all winter, that all the kids' computers
were stolen, five times over.
the coos charts were colorful
ribbons, with print too small to read.
the charts were followed by a huge
satellite photo mounted on foam-core,
"this is your neighborhood."
people who knew each other waved
across the crowd. an old woman in
a leopard-print hat spoke passionately
against the planned shutdown of
the alice griffith housing development,
then slipped outside for a smoke with the cops.
halfway through, i slipped out too.
at the "jobfair" out front, i grabbed
a couple free samples of dentyne ice,
and chatted with a cynical cameraman.
his videos will be up on youtube soon.
meanwhile, the san francisco chronicle
piece is painfully dull, "Newsom
promised to have his staff
look into the issues."
and too pretty. even through
i recognize the faces, it looks
more like that episode of the wire
with the town hall meeting.
you know the one,
in season three, where
all the residents cautiously
applaud city officials for the
concrete results of all their
innovative new policies.
that's the meeting he wished
he was at... at one point,
he even muttered "you can't win
with these people."
you could just sense
him posing the whole time,
hoping when he looked for
photos of himself online
they would be flattering,
hoping that the images would tell
the story he wanted. poor guy.
good news: thanks to community
pressure, the city admitted that the
the child development center
is "an embarrassment" to them
as its landlords. they have committed
to providing brighter lighting
and tighter security on the weekends,
in order to prevent theft and vandalism.
they'll also promptly complete routine
maintenance on the grounds,
like powerwashing the building and
cutting back the trees that threaten
to take over the parking lot.
not a glamorous victory,
but much-needed.
posted by self_invasion | 10:00 AM
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