San Francisco Bay Guardian Issue 47.48

2013·21.7 MB·English

by  San Francisco Bay Guardian

r a i s i n g h e l l s i n c e 1 9 6 6
the san FRancisco bay guaRdian | sFbg.com | august 28 - septembeR 3, 2013 | Vol. 47, no. 48 | FRee
’night, ladies pot luck sWinging FoR ccsF
Lusty Lady co-op strip club closes its doors P12 Petit Pot serves hot lunch in little jars P17 Herrera files suit against accreditation board P16
Study Somatics in Depth
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Emphasis in Somatic Studies
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one of the foundational principles of depth
psychology—an understanding that there
are forces of the psyche that stimulate the
body’s capacity to heal itself. This new
paradigm has led Pacifi ca to off er this
exciting degree program specialization.
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aanndd iiss aaccccrreeddiitteedd bbyy tthhee WWeesstteerrnn AAssssooccaattiioonn
of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
For U.S. Department of Education Gainful
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805.969.3626, ext. 305 | www.pacifica.edu
For more information, including transportation and parking options,
visit our website at www.ciis.edu, or call 415.575.6154.
2 SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN opinion news food + drink the selector music arts + culture film classifieds
opinion news food + drink the selector music arts + culture film classifieds AUGUSt 28 - SeptemBeR 3, 2013 / SFBG.COm 3
Let the Wonder_The Last Reef.indd 1 7/29/13 10:52 AM
INTELLIGENCE
POLITICAL ALERTS
“REAL,” AGAIN
FRIDAY 30
Is anyone still watching The Real World? Twenty-
one years after its New York City debut, the show PRE-LABOR DAY BREAKFAST
that shaped reality TV as we know it has become Hilton San Francisco, 333 O’Farrell
nearly unwatchable, peppering its casts with Street, SF. www.sflaborcouncil.org.
8am, $75. Join the San Francisco
self-absorbed fameseekers destined to bring Labor Council for an annual event, the
out the worst in each other. Ergo, the announce- Pre-Labor Day Breakfast. The keynote
ment that the program would be returning to San speaker will be Assemblyman Tom
Ammiano, and guests will also hear from
Francisco — site of the show’s landmark third sea- executive secretary treasurer of the
son, which chronicled charismatic Pedro Zamora’s California Labor Federation, Art Pulaski.
struggle with AIDS — to film its final season is more Mix around, sip coffee, and get updates
on worker campaigns. RSVP to Emily
shrug-worthy than anything else. Still, as MTV’s Nelson at [email protected].
cameras descend to record booze-fueled scream-
outs (sorry if you live anywhere near the former SUMMER OF SOLIDARITY
OILY FINALE CONCERT AND FORUM
Avalon Ballroom on Sutter Street, rumored to be
ILWU Local 34, 801 Second St, SF.
the SF cast’s home base), it’ll be interesting to see
www.summerofsolidarity.org. 4:30-
if San Francisco’s current culture shift makes it This is it: your last chance to check 10pm, donation. The Summer of
into the show. Plus, anything’s better than Bravo’s out the San Francisco Mime Solidarity tour is a 17-day, 13-city
dismal Start-Ups: Silicon Valley. www.mtv.com Troupe’s 2013 show, Oil and nationwide tour of local union activists
and community allies aimed at support-
Water, two one-acts containing ing local struggles and connecting them
cautionary tales about the envi- with the broader fight against corporate
power. Co-sponsored by Laborfest, the
ronment. The final show is free
event will begin with a forum on labor
RALLY FOR JOSE JULIO SARRIA, (of course) and starts at 2pm on journalism at 4:30pm, followed by a
Labor Day in Dolores Park. www. forum on labor and community struggles
A REAL WAGE 1923-2013 at 6pm and a concert at 7:30pm featur-
sfmt.org
ing Anne Feeney, Michael O’Brien and
others. For more visit www.laborfest.net.
From Walmart associates to the Larger than life, full of fire, and a grand
folks taking orders at McDonald’s drag dame worthy of his title Empress UBER-GOOGLE SATURDAY 31
drive-thrus, retail and food service I, the Widow Norton, beloved San COMMUNITY FORUM
workers haven’t got it easy when it Francisco fixture Jose Sarria passed TechCrunch and other technology ON TRANSIT WORKERS
comes to paying bills and putting away from cancer at the age of 90. A blogs reported last week that Unitarian Universalists’ Hall, 1924
food on the table. On Aug. 29, a World War II veteran and legendary Google Ventures had promised Cedar, Berk. www.bfuu.org, work-
group of low-wage workers will Black Cat Bar habitué (billed as the to invest $258 million into kin- wdoeneakt@ioknp. fJao.oinrg K. P2F-A4 pfomr ,a $ t5o–wn$ h1a0l l
rally at 4pm at Oakland’s AFL-CIO “Nightingale of Montgomery Street” in da-creepy car-on-demand service style labor community meeting. The
Labor Temple as part of a national cabaret acts), Sarria was the first openly Uber. The supposed difficulty of talk will include the voices of transit
day of action. They’re gearing up gay person to run for office in America getting a cab in SF: Will the best wwohrakte isrs h, arpidpeerns,in agn wd irtehs oeuarr ctrhaenrssi at bsyosu-t
to demand living wages and the — for a seat on the Board of Supervisors tech minds of our generation ever tems, and how to solve problems facing
right to form unions without fear of in 1961. After founding the Society be able to solve workers, communities and the public.
retaliation. for Individual Rights in 1963, which this intractable SBpFoUnUs oSroecdi ably J KuPstFicAe W CoormkWmeitetke,e a.nd the
promoted gay rights and education, problem and
SUNDAY 1
Sarria assumed the title of Empress save the world?
and established the sprawling Imperial We’re guess- SAN FRANCISCO ZINEFEST 2013
Court System, a global charitable net- ing no, but County Fair Building, Golden Gate Park,
work of elected drag “courts.” Queens there will 1199 Ninth Ave, SF. sfzinefest.org.
from around the world would come probably be 11-5pm, free. This year’s Zinefest con-
venes over 140 creators of art, comic,
during annual, hours-long Coronation a lot more and writing zines packed into two exhi-
pageants to pay homage to the great splashy bition halls, including workshops with
Empress I. Long live the Empress! launch local and national zinesters and artists,
plus a reading room and library. Off-site
parties.
poetry readings and post-festival party
are open to all.
JAPAN DOLPHINS DAY
FRACKING CLAIBORNE IS COMING
Fisherman’s Wharf, between Piers 41
FROWNED UPON and 43, SF. japandolphinsday.net.
In the 1995 movie version of 11am-2pm, free. Activists will gather
to call attention to the slaughter of
MARRYING MAN Stephen King’s then-atypically dolphins in Japan, a cruel practice that
The Marin County Board
serious novel, Kathy Bates turned was exposed by the award-winning
of Supervisors passed a the title character into a tragicomic documentary, The Cove. This peaceful
Guardian Editor Steven T. Jones, unanimous resolution in gathering will coincide with Japan
author of The Tribes of Burning support of a statewide powerhouse of sour jibes and tart Dolphins Day, an annual event created
philosophizing — perfect fodder by activist Ric O’Barry, who has gath-
Man, is off this week on his annual moratorium on fracking, for an adventurous diva in a con- ered more than 2 million petitions to put
pilgrimage to Black Rock City, an oil extraction method a stop to the dolphin slaughter.
temporary opera, to be sure. Now,
along with 63,000 others. And that environmentalists
King’s tale of hallucinatory moth-
as this issue hits the newstands fear could result in spoiled
er-daughter struggles over a violent,
on Aug. 28, he’ll be marrying his waterways and backward
buried past will be blown up to
sister on the playa... to someone momentum on addressing
spectacle-size, as composer Tobias
else. Yes, the Rev. Scribe will be climate change. Californians
Picker and librettist J.D. McClatchy
officiating the dusty nuptials of Against Fracking, a broad
join forces to bring the world pre-
Kim “Grey” Williams to Geovoni coalition of green organi- miere of “Dolores Claiborne” to the
“Crash” Gabriele, and we at the zations, is leaning on the
San Francisco Opera stage, Sept.
Guardian wish them a dusty “mazel Legislature to put a stop to
18-Oct. 4. www.sfopera.com
tov!” the practice. PHOTO BY CORY WEAVER
4 SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN OPINION NEWS FOOD + DRINK THE SELECTOR MUSIC ARTS + CULTURE FILM CLASSIFIEDS
opinion news food + drink the selector music arts + culture film classifieds August 28 - september 3, 2013 / sFbg.com 5
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Don’t miss the first event in the City Arts & Lectures’ On Arts series this
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SELECTION, PRICE, SERVICE! Mission District non-profit. Get your tickets at tinyurl.com/OnArts. EDITOcRO PAyT ELDAIRTGOER bstreuwcae rbt. baprpulgimnann
Tuesday, September 3 at 7:30pm @ Nourse Theatre, 275 Hayes, SF csOuNsTaRnIB gUeTrIhNGa rEdD,I TjoORhSn kniym rbaeyr hlyu scthounn,,
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opinion news food + drink the selector music arts + culture film classifieds August 28 - september 3, 2013 / sFbg.com 7
OPINION THOSE WITH THE MOST POWER TO KILL OR MAIM NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
Fulfill MLK’s dream of
a guaranteed income
BY ALLAN SHEAHEN doesn’t need everyone to have a
job in order to produce what is
OPINION Today, Aug. 28, we needed. We need to rethink the
mark the 50th anniversary of concept of having a job. When
Martin Luther King’s I Have a we say we need more jobs, what
Dream speech at the March on we really mean is we need more
Washington. But we are sobered money to live on.
by the fact that 46 million citi- Today there are more than 300
zens are living in poverty and that income-tested federal social pro-
we have become two Americas — grams costing more than $400 bil-
one for the rich and one for the lion a year. Much of that money
rest of us. goes for administrative expenses,
Dr. King had a solution to not to the needy.
poverty and to the bleak eco- Charles Murray, a conservative
nomic conditions faced by many author whose 1984 book Losing
Americans today. “I am now con- Ground claimed that welfare was
vinced that the simplest solution doing more harm than good,
to poverty is to abolish it directly now agrees with the Rev. King’s
by a new widely discussed mea- approach. Murray calls for giving
sure: the guaranteed income,” he an annual cash grant of $10,000
wrote in his 1967 book, Where — with no work requirement — to
Do We Go From Here: Chaos or every adult over age 21.
Community? “A host of psycho- “We still have millions of
logical changes inevitably will people without comfortable
result from widespread economic retirements, without adequate
security.” health care, and living in poverty.
In 1969, a presidential com- Only a government can spend so
mission recommended, 22-0, much money so ineffectively. The
that the United States adopt solution is to give the money to
a guaranteed annual income, the people,” Murray writes in his
with no mandatory work book: In Our Hands.
requirements, for all citizens Indeed, the state of Alaska has Anti-cyclist bias must stop
in need. The report was buried given an annual cash grant to its
and forgotten, even though the people for the past 30 years of
National Council of Churches, between $800 and $2,000, with
by a vote of 107-1, agreed. So no work requirements, reducing EDITORIAL The streets of San Francisco violence is an acceptable response The city should also do a public
did the Kerner Commission, the poverty and the inequality of can be dangerous enough for their to bicyclists who don’t obey traffic outreach campaign to improve the
California Democratic Council, income in Alaska. most vulnerable users — pedestrians laws to the letter. awareness and safety of all road
the Republican Ripon Society, The U.S. is a wealthy nation. and bicyclists — without the aggres- Compounding the anti-cyclist users, particularly targeting com-
and the 1972 Democratic Party Our net worth is $58 trillion. sive, insensitive, and judgmental bias of the SFPD and other police mercial truck drivers, who have
platform. That’s an average of $185,000 for attitudes that have recently been agencies — which routinely fail to now fatally run over three bicyclists
Fast forward 50 years and the each man, woman, and child in expressed toward those who choose cite motorists even when their inat- this year. The weight and poor
concept of a guaranteed income the country. A basic income guar- to get around this city by bike. tention or negligence results in the driver visibility of these vehicles
— or Basic Income Guarantee — is antee would establish economic The Guardian’s Politics blog loss of life — is the revelation that make them particularly dangerous,
not discussed much anymore. But security as a universal right. It exploded with caustic comments SFPD misrepresented its efforts to and they must drive them in a cau-
it remains, as even the late econ- will give all of us the assurance last week after a pair of reports seek video surveillance of the col- tious and predictable manner. The
omist Milton Friedman always that, no matter what happens, we related to the death of bicyclist lision, which activists easily found city should also have clearer road
maintained, the most practical won’t go hungry. Amelie Le Moullac. Among the from a neighboring business. markings to encourage safe merg-
and sensible way to end poverty This year, as we celebrate worst of these blame-the-victim We call on the SFPD to fully ing at problematic intersections like
in America and provide economic the March on Washington, the attitudes was expressed by SFPD investigate Le Moullac’s death, Folsom and Sixth streets.
security to all Americans. adoption of a basic income guar- Sgt. Richard Ernst, who showed two similar cyclist fatalities earlier We all need to learn to safely
Today we have more than 14 antee would help to fulfill the up Aug. 21 at an event at the site this year, and the actions of Ernst, share this city’s roadways, which
million Americans unemployed Rev. King’s dream of economic where Le Moullac died to lecture who clearly abused his authority starts with simply slowing down
with no evidence to back up the security as a universal right of all those mourning her death and and misrepresented the results of and paying attention. To focus
claim that we can create jobs Americans. 2 make a series of unfounded, irrele- an open investigation in order to exclusively on the behavior of
for everyone who wants one. vant, and thoughtless accusations make political points against a class cyclists is like blaming a rape vic-
Machines are doing work people Allan Sheahen is the author (for details, see “Shit Happened”). of road users that he doesn’t like tim for wearing a short skirt. Those
used to do. Jobs are not coming the new book: Basic Income These attitudes have no place or understand, needlessly creating with the most power to kill or
back and many families teeter on Guarantee: Your Right to in a civilized debate over how we a safety hazard in the process. maim need to be held accountable
the brink of poverty. Economic Security. He is a board share the roadways of this city, and Perhaps temporary reassignment when they blow through red lights
Relying on jobs and econom- member of the U.S. Basic Income they are particularly reprehensible to bike patrol would give Ernst a or drive unpredictably, and that
ic growth does not work. Job Guarantee (USBIG) Networks coming from someone in a posi- clearer perspective on the entire should be a higher priority for the
creation is a completely wrong (www.basicincomneguarantee. tion of public trust and authority, community that he’s supposed to SFPD than to piously lecture those
approach because the world com). validating the dangerous view that be protecting and serving. mourning a tragic death. 2
8 SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN OPINION NEWS FOOD + DRINK THE SELECTOR MUSIC ARTS + CULTURE FILM CLASSIFIEDS
opinion news food + drink the selector music arts + culture film classifieds August 28 - september 3, 2013 / sFbg.com 9
NEWS
“IF THEY START ALLOWING CHAINS TO COME,
IT WILL BE ONE CHAIN STORE AFTER ANOTHER.”
SH!T
P A PAIR OF
H
O
T
O
S SPADES WINS
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y S A strong showing by small busi-
F
H@#PENED B nesses and activists concerned
IC
Y about chain stores and gentrifi-
C
L
E C cation in the Mission won over
OA a 3-2 majority on the Board of
L
8.21-8.27.2013 IT Appeals on Aug. 21, but their
IO
N appeal of a city ruling that
Jack Spade isn’t a formula retail
business was denied anyway
because it needed four votes.
UBER SUED FOR
The Valencia Corridor
Merchants’ Association
DENYING DRIVERS
MEMORIAL FOR CYCLIST MARRED BY SFPD HARASSMENT challenged the Planning
TIPS Department’s June decision
to issue a building permit to
A memorial and informational event on Aug. 21 at the And apparently Ernst didn’t stop at denouncing Jack Spade, a men’s clothing
A class action lawsuit filed against Sixth and Folsom corner where a bicyclist was fatally Le Moullac for causing her own death, in front of peo- chain moving into the old
Uber, a tech-based service that con- run over by a delivery truck a week earlier was marred ple who are still mourning her passing. Shahum said Adobe Bookstore location on
nects riders to drivers and has filled by a tense and unsettling confrontation with an SFPD Ernst also blamed the other two bicyclist deaths in SF 16th Street. Officials ruled that
San Francisco streets with sleek black sergeant who showed up to block the bike lane with this year on the cyclists, and on “you people” in the chain has fewer than 11 loca-
town cars, alleges that the company his cruiser, lecture the cyclists, and blame the victim. SFBC for not teaching cyclists how to avoid cars. tions, so it wasn’t required to
is cheating its drivers out of tips. The event was organized by the San Francisco “I told him the SF Bicycle Coalition does a signif- go through the conditional use
The suit also charges that drivers Bicycle Coalition to raise awareness of the incident and icant amount of safety work educating people biking hearing required of “formula
have been misclassified as indepen- that dangerous intersection and to call for the city to and driving about sharing the road, and that I’d be retail” businesses.
dent contractors under California law. make improvements. It included friends and co-work- happy to share more information with him. I again Though it indeed has
Uber’s website tells customers ers of 24-year-old Amelie Le Moullac, who was riding urged him to move his car out of the bike lane. He only 10 locations, Jack Spade
there is “no need to tip,” and drivers in the Folsom Street bike lane on the morning of Aug. again refused, saying it was his right and he wasn’t “has a complete imbalance of
are prohibited from accepting any 14 when an unidentified truck driver turned right onto moving until I ‘understood,’ ” Shahum wrote. power and resources, which is
extra cash. The complaint alleges Sixth Street, across her path, and ran her over. Shahum said there were multiple witnesses to the exactly what the formula retail
that “drivers do not receive the tips SFPD Sgt. Dennis Toomer tells the Guardian that incident, including three television reporters who legislation aimed to remedy
that are customary in the car service the department has completed the traffic incident were there to cover the event. in the first place,” Mission
industry and that they would oth- report, information from which can only be shared “In addition to the Sgt’s inappropriate and dan- activist Kyle Smeallie told the
erwise receive were it not for Uber’s with the parties involved, but that the investigation gerous behavior of parking his car in the bike lane Guardian. Jack Spade is owned
communication to customers that of the fatality is still ongoing and will be forwarded to and blocking safe passage for people bicycling by, it by Fifth & Pacific (aka Liz
they do not need to tip.” the District Attorney’s Office for review once it’s done. was deeply upsetting to see him unnecessarily disrupt Claiborne), which also owns
The lawsuit was filed in San But SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum said that and add tension to what was already an emotional the Kate Spade women’s cloth-
Francisco’s Northern District on Aug. SFPD Sgt. Richard Ernst, who showed up at the event a and difficult time for many people who lamented this ing chain.
16. Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan little before 9am, had already drawn his own conclusions sad loss of life,” Shahum wrote. “We’re going to make the
told us that by withholding tips, about the crash and showed up to make his apparent dis- Asked about the actions and attitudes expressed by case that, since it’s named
“Uber is artificially trying to make dain for “you people,” bicyclists, disturbingly clear. Ernst, who we could not reach for comment, Toomer Spade, it has benefitted from the
the total price look lower — and in Shahum said that she tried to be diplomatic with told us he “cannot talk about personnel issues.” association with Kate Spade,”
doing so, they’re hurting the drivers.” Ernst and asked him to please move his patrol car out Compounding Ernst’s insensitive and judgmental Smeallie explained. “Legally, we
Douglas O’Connor, named as of the bike lane and into an available parking space approach, it also appears the SFPD may have failed to have a case to say a Spade is a
a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that that was right next to it, saying that it presented an properly investigate this incident, which Shahum and Spade and they should be con-
when he started working as an unnecessary hazard to bicyclists riding past. the SFBC have been tracking closely, and she said the sidered one and same.”
Uber driver in San Francisco about But she said Ernst refused to do so for almost 10 SFPD told her that there were no video surveillance Local business owners fear
10 months ago, he was told not to minutes, telling the group that he has “a right” to tapes of the collision. that an influx of chain stores
accept tips because they were includ- leave his car there and that he was “making the point After the event, SFBC’s Marc Caswell decided to will drive up commercial rents
ed in the service fees automatically that bicyclists need to move around” cars parked in check in at businesses on the block to see if they had in the Mission and force them
charged to customers’ credit cards. bike lanes, according to Shahum’s written account, any video cameras aimed at the intersection, and out of business.
But there’s nothing in his paycheck which she prepared to file about the incident with the he found an auto body business at the intersection “I’m strongly opposed
to indicate whether he has received Office of Citizens Complaints. whose workers said they did indeed have revealing because of its potential to
a gratuity or for what amount, “He then told me explicitly that he ‘would not footage of the crash that the SFPD hasn’t requested, destroy the culture of this
O’Connor said. leave until’ I ‘understood’ that ‘it was the bicyclist’s but which SFBC delivered to investigators. area,” Michael Katz, owner
“For some of the drivers there fault.’ This was shocking to hear, as I was told just a “He had the time to come harass us at a memo- of Katz Bagels across 16th
has been a line item, but that line day ago by Commander [Mikail] Ali that the case was rial, but he didn’t have the time to see if anyone had Street from the site, told the
item that’s called the gratuity still under investigation and no cause had yet been footage of this incident,” Shahum told us. “It’s very Guardian. “If they start allow-
has not gone to the drivers,” Liss- determined,” Shahum wrote. unsettling.” (Steven T. Jones) ing chains to come, it will be
Riordan explained. In those cases, one chain store after another.”
it appears Uber takes half, she said. the representation that any tip was yet been served with this complaint, Frivolous lawsuits like this cost valu- Activists say they’re consid-
And in cases like O’Connor’s, “There included in the first place is “a lie.” the allegations made against our com- able time, money, and resources that ering their options and not yet
is no separate gratuity that’s going Uber spokesperson Andrew Noyes pany are entirely without merit and are better spent making cities more ready to give up. (Steven T.
to the drivers,” Liss-Riordan said, so told the Guardian, “While we have not we will defend ourselves vigorously... accessible.” (Rebecca Bowe) Jones and Parker Yesko)
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