Liz Heidhues – Blog Post and photo Contributor 5.25.2021
Let’s preserve our Slow Streets for the fast times of San Francisco’s post-pandemic recovery.
San Francisco motorists are angry. They plow through intersections where Slow Streets barriers are placed, honk their horns at me when I am walking in Protected Lanes, and careen through the Avenues.
Reckless driving and road rage in America are on the uptick. The National Highway Traffic Safety cited a report showing a 22% increase in the median speed of drivers in 2020.
Memorial for pedestrian killed by hit and run in 2015 before Slow Streets
San Francisco’s not doing any better than the rest of the country.
There are at least 800 people hit every year in San Francisco. In fact, San Francisco has more motor vehicle accident injuries per-mile-driven than any other sizeable city in California.
Traffic fatalities in San Francisco claimed 29 lives in 2020, the same number as 2019, an increase from prior years.
San Francisco is failing abysmally at meeting its goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2024, the Target of the Vision Zero SF program.
Since the inception of Vision Zero SF in 2014 more than 200 people died and another 20,000 suffered serious injuries from traffic accidents in the streets of San Francisco.
Slow Streets Cabrillo enjoyed by walkers and a runner
Slow Streets debuted in 2020 as a therapeutic response to the social isolation, economic upheaval, and online exile of the pandemic. Streets in San Francisco’s neighborhoods were transformed for the use of pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers, kids playing, wheelchair users, and urban animals to prowl without winding up as roadkill.
Rancorous drivers believe that San Francisco’s streets are solely for them to drive their cars on. Drivers are enraged to see their entitlement removed.
Mom and son with The Family Dog on Slow StreetsCat ponders Slow Streets crossing
Motorists will never cede over ownership of residential streets to the rightful heirs. Neighborhood streets were built for people to enjoy and interact with – not for 2-ton vehicles that kill and maim.
The core experience of San Francisco is walkability.
Liz Heidhues is a life long San Francisco resident. Her means of transportation are her bicycle and her feet with an occasional trip on public transit.
Top photo – Road rage crashes into Slow Streets – 40th Avenue and Cabrillo, San Francisco
Everyone must have a place to live at a reasonable price. In April one of Germany’s highest courts over turned a strict rent control measure instituted by the Berlin government. On Sunday in Berlin several thousand demonstrators took to the streets and the River Spree to vocally protest this abridgement of the right to fair housing.
High rents are a problem worldwide as the population increases, wages remain flat and landlords seek to gain more profit. The reality is that governments and courts side with the landlord class to the detriment of renters.
Governments and courts forget that renters are people. Not a disposable item to be bartered away to satisfy the landlords bank accounts.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.23.2021
Protesters voiced anger over rising rents in the German capital and a court ruling that overturned a major price control measure. However, police said the number of participants was much smaller than expected.
Some 2,500 people marched through Berlin against high rent prices in the German capital, police said on Sunday. The organizers, however, claimed “at least 10,000” people took part.
The protest took place after Germany’s constitutional court overturned Berlin’s rent cap, leaving tenants across the city suddenly facing price hikes. The constitutional court overturned the Berlin measure on April 15, ruling that the state government didn’t have a right to impose the cap.
The main rally, under the slogan “Stop the rent madness!” moved from Potsdamer Platz to the neighborhood of Schöneberg, starting one hour later than previously announced.
Protesters were seen carrying banners such as “To reside is a human right” and “No interest on rents.”
Separately, some 30 participants organized a demonstration of their own by sailing boats on Berlin’s river Spree (pictured below), and displaying the banners against the rising rents.
The rent cap was a measure implemented by the city-state’s government that went into effect in late February 2020. It froze the prices for nearly all apartments in Berlin for five years, locking them in place at their June 2019 level. New rental contracts were not allowed to exceed that rate — and some rents had to be reduced.
The Berlin state government said the measure was intended to reduce pressure on renters and buy time for more housing to be built.
The measure was strongly criticized by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), who lodged a legal complaint against it.
Freed from the constraints of the Pandemic San Franciscans took to the streets on a sunny day in late May to show their love and support for the Palestinian people. The marchers included a number of Jews who support the Palestinians and deplore the recent military actions of the Israeli government in occupied Gaza.
The 11 day assault on the people of Gaza by the Israeli military supplied with weaponry by the American government is an outrage.
San Francisco has consistently shown its support for the people of Palestine whose land was taken from them in 1948 when the State of Israel was created after the Holocaust and World War II.
The living conditions for people in the occupied territories of Palestine are grim. There is not much of material value we in San Francisco can do. By showing its support theworld knows that San Francisco has the people of Palestine in its collective heart.
San Francisco Chronicle 5.22.2021
A ceasefire is in place — for now — between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but the international conflict prompted yet another outpouring in the Bay Area on Saturday, as hundreds of people rallied for the Palestinian cause in San Francisco.
A diverse crowd chanting “Free, free Palestine” and carrying signs marched from the Mission District to Civic Center Plaza, where they promised to keep demonstrating for a peaceful resolution to the latest military clash. A protest last Saturday drew several thousand in San Francisco, while one in front of the Israeli embassy on Tuesday attracted several hundred.
Up top showing support for the Palestinians
The demonstrations arose, in part, because of the heavy casualities sustained on the Palestinian side since the fighting began more than a week ago during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
Lisa Rofel of San Francisco, a national board member of Jewish Voice for Peace, said the organization has 18,000 members and supports boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel as nonviolent means “to bring Israel to finally negotiate the end to their occupation.”
“The Israeli government claims to speak in our names as Jews,” she said. “We have the right and the responsibility to speak back, to support the end to the violent occupation. Jews need to speak out for justice for Palestinians just as we spoke out for justice for African Americans, for Native Americans.”
Dozens of Jewish people also showed up to say that being Jewish doesn’t mean they support the actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It’s painful to see my Jewish identity weaponized against the Palestinian people and used to justify atrocities,” said Sarah Small, a UC Davis law student and San Francisco native.
The ceasefire that took effect Friday paused 11 days of combat in which Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire left 248 Palestinians dead, including at least 66 children and 39 women, according to the latest estimates from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Rockets fired by Hamas forces killed at least 12 in Israel, two of them children.
Protesters said the temporary stoppage in fighting wasn’t enough.
Dr. Hatem Bazian, a Palestinian and UC Berkeley professor of Middle Eastern languages, said he wanted the Israeli government to pull its settlements out of the West Bank and to provide aid to the Palestinians who lost homes and businesses to the settlements, and called on the U.S. to stop providing military aid to its longtime ally.
“A ceasefire does not end or resolve any of the issues we’re dealing with,” Bazian told The Chronicle. “There’s still the siege, still the suffering that has been visited upon the people.”
The contentious dispute over who has rights to occupy an area east of Israel on the west bank of the Jordan River that contains a number of Jewish holy sites goes back decades. But it also involves a nation, Israel, that has been defending its right to exist since its creation in 1948, and a group of people, Palestinians, advocating for their own nation state.
Palestine supporters in front of San Francisco City Hall
Local demonstrators said on Saturday that they felt a surge of multiracial and multi-ethnic support for the Palestinian cause, as they marched down Van Ness Avenue alongside Black and Jewish allies.
Ahmina James, a 30-year-old legal assistant from Oakland, carried a handmade sign with gold letters reading “Black power for Palestine liberation.” She said she that support for Palestinian human rights dates back the Black Power movement.
“Before Black Lives Matter,” she said, “with the Black Power movement in the ‘70s there was huge solidarity with the liberation of Palestine. That solidarity is surfacing again.”
It’s a proud day as parents when you can say your son is a law school graduate and will forever have the title, JD (Juris Doctor) after his name.
The past nearly four years Paul has worked, raised a family and attended University of San Francisco Law School at night. Paul has overcome many hurdles, not the least of which is the fact Paul is visually impaired. Paul fought for the accommodations he needed from the USF Law School Administration. Paul prevailed. He attended class and completed the arduous workload before and during the Pandemic when San Francisco was transformed into a Virtual City.
Paul’s fight was tough. He’s always been a battler. When admitted to the California Bar, Paul will be a zealous advocate in whatever field of law he practices in.
The commencement speaker was Hon. Martin Jenkins, an Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court and USF Law school graduate (class of 1980). Justice Jenkins told the virtual audience, “I was proud that I had finished such a rigorous curriculum at USF. A curriculum that required intelligence, tenacity, and courage in equal parts.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who earned a Masters Degree from USF in 2013, told the graduates, “You have achieved this incredible milestone during an unprecedented and challenging time…I am so very proud of you.”
Hon. Martin Jenkins – Associate Justice California Supreme CourtSt. Ignatius Church on USF campusLighting the Commencement candlesUSF Law School Dean Susan FreiwaldUSF Law School virtual graduation at St. Ignatius ChurchA Law School graduate celebratesSan Francisco Mayor London Breed
I can appreciate that the German government wants to display its ‘Solidarity for Israel’.
Germany will never be forgiven and the world will never forget the genocide the Hitler’s Nazi government committed against the Jewish people of Germany and Europe at large from 1933-1945.
I am unsure what will be the impact of a ‘Solidarity for Israel’ rally while Israel’s brutal assault on the Palestinian people of Gaza continues. A feel good moment? Perhaps.
While the talking and rallies go on, the killing continues, The ceasefire reported today is only a lull before a new round violence, with Israel holding the heavy weaponry, begins again.
Israeli soldiers detaining a Palestinian during clashes at a protest, Hebron, West Bank, February 2018
Deutsche Welle 5.20.2021
Politicians reiterated the country’s “special responsibility” at a Berlin demonstration, which aimed to show solidarity with Israel and reject antisemitism. For some onlookers, the government response was “one-sided.”
“Anyone who burns Israeli flags in front of synagogues, throws stones, calls for rockets against Tel Aviv, isn’t a so-called critic of Israel,” senior Green Party politician Cem Özdemir told demonstrators, adding: “They’re nothing more than a banal antisemite.”
Some people, however, argue the space for legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s actions has become restricted due to the extreme actions of antisemites.
Just hours before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire on Thursday evening, around a thousand people filled the square — Platz des 18. März — behind Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. While some donned Israeli flags like capes, or attached tiny flags to FFP2 face masks, others carried placards with slogans like “Israel has the right to defend itself” and “Free Gaza from Hamas.”
“Solidarity with Israel — against all antisemitism” was the official motto of the demonstration. Organized by a group of Jewish and non-Jewish societies and associations, several prominent politicians also gave speeches — all of them reiterating Germany’s “special responsibility” to protect Israel due to Germany’s history.
Germany’s Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said ensuring the safety of the Jewish state was among Germany’s national goals and ambitions.
“Nothing justifies the firing of thousands of rockets on the Israeli state by a terror organization whose stated goal is the killing of Jews and the annihilation of Israel,” the Social Democrat politician went on to say.
Hamas’ latest barage of rockets, which began 11 days ago, was in response to Israel’s crackdown on Palestinian protests against the threat of forced evictions in East Jerusalem. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be an official part of its territory, but the international community, including the EU and Germany, condemns Israeli settler expansion into the occupied Palestinian territories.
Berlin – Palestine supporter watches ‘Solidarity with Israel’ at historic Brandenburg Gate
Yusef, a young Berliner, was cycling by Brandenburg Gate when he stopped to see what the demo was about. The tassels of his red, black, green and white scarf stand out against the largely blue and white emblazoned crowd at the demo.
“I wear it in solidarity with Palestinians,” he says. “It’s sad to look up and see just the Israeli and German flag up there on the stage. I have the feeling that nobody cares about all of the children being killed on the other side. And it’s difficult to voice legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.”
Another young man who asks to remain anonymous, looks on alone. Sporting a white sweater with a triangular Palestine logo, he says he wanted to see for himself what politicians had to say.
Towards the end of the demonstration, a Palestinian man wearing a keffiyeh walks through the crowd. Demonstrators are distracted only momentarily, as he strolls by, his arms raised in the air, his fingers making V-shapes. No one interacts with him except for the police officers in high-visibility vests, who tail him from a distance.
Margreet Krikowski, a member of the German-Israeli Society
One member of the German-Israeli Society, Margreet Krikowski, however, said “now is not the time to be criticizing the politics of the Israeli government.”
“Israel is trying to protect itself,” she insisted.
An Olympic track and field record holder and early trend setter for Black empowerment in the sports world has passed away.
The Guardian 5.19.2021
Lee Evans, the record-setting sprinter who wore a black beret in a sign of protest at the 1968 Olympics, died Wednesday. He was 74.
USA Track and Field confirmed Evans’ death. The San Jose Mercury News reported that Evans’ family had started a fundraiser in hopes of bringing him back to the US from Nigeria, where he coached track, to receive medical care after he suffered a stroke last week.
Evans became the first man to crack 44 seconds in the 400m, winning the gold medal at the Mexico City Games in 43.86. His victory came shortly after his teammates, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were sent home from the Olympics for raising their fists on the medals stand.
Lee Evans – number 270 shows clenched fist at Mexico City Olympics
In later interviews, Evans said an official warned him not do anything similar. He took a different approach, wearing a black beret to show support for the Black Panther Party and other civil rights organizations.
Like Smith and Carlos, Evans was a college star on the San Jose State ‘Speed City’ teams. He was also a high-profile member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which called attention to racial inequality and oppression and spearheaded the protests at the 1968 games.
“His legacy of contributions to sports and the struggle for social justice is indelible and enduring,” tweeted Harry Edwards, the architect of the movement.
After running the 43.86, Evans anchored the US 4x400m team to a world record of 2 minutes, 56.16 seconds. The 400m record stood for almost 20 years. The relay record stood for 24.
Evans won five US titles at 400 meters and is a member of both the USATF and US Olympic halls of fame.
After he stopped running competitively, Evans spent ample time in Africa, working for the United Nations, and also coaching national teams in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. The Mercury News said he was currently coaching high school track in Lagos.
It’s a good night for the progressive District Attorney movement in America.
Larry Krasner, one of the first of the new look DAs, has been pummeled by police groups and the conservative media machine during his four years in office.
Krasner and his progressive policies may infuriate the law and order crowd. But he is popular where it counts. With the voters in Philadelphia.
It’s a good omen for other progressive DAs like Chesa Boudin, the subject of a recall in San Francisco. If the voters in Philadelphia can respond favorably to progressive polices in law enforcement, so will San Francisco.
Excerpted from The Intercept 5.18.2021
FOUR YEARS INTO his experiment with reforming Philadelphia’s criminal justice system, Larry Krasner overwhelmingly won his primary race for reelection to the office of district attorney on Tuesday.
By late Tuesday night, Krasner was leading his Democratic primary challenger Carlos Vega by a nearly 2-1 margin, with about 117,000 votes counted. Vega conceded the race shortly before midnight, and Krasner is all but assured victory in the November general election.
“We in this movement for criminal justice reform just won a big one,” Krasner said in a victory speech. “Four years ago, we promised reform, and a focus on serious crime. People believed what were, at that point, ideas. Promises. And they voted us into office with a mandate. We kept those promises. They saw what we did. And they put us back in office because of what we’ve done.”
Vega, a former homicide prosecutor who was one of 31 staffers Krasner fired during his first week as district attorney, had run a campaign attacking Krasner’s policies as soft on crime and was boosted by one of the largest expenditures from the city’s police union in more than a decade.
Though he said his campaign was not pro-police, Vega campaigned with Philadelphia’s FOP Lodge 5, a local chapter of the Fraternal Order of the Police, the largest police union in the country. The police union gave more than $100,000 to Protect Our Police PAC, a political action committee that launched last year to push Krasner out of office. Vega and POP PAC tried to distance themselves from each other throughout the race: POP PAC claimed it wasn’t supporting Vega but ran a video encouraging Republican voters to switch their registration to vote in the Democratic primary against Krasner. Vega renounced POP PAC after the group sent a fundraising email blaming George Floyd for his own death. The group spent $45,000 on TV ads attacking Krasner in the final month of the race.
Since his election in 2017, Krasner has become a symbol of the burgeoning movement to elect reform-minded prosecutors. “Krasner has been kind of a model,” said Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal justice campaigns at Color of Change, a racial justice group that supported several such prosecutors’ bids and endorsed Krasner. “I can’t tell you how many potential DA candidates I have talked to who lead with, ‘I’m going to be the Larry Krasner of fill-in-the-blank city.’”
While at the time of his first campaign Krasner was perhaps the most reform-oriented prosecutor to be elected, his win has also inspired many would-be prosecutors pushing for even greater change, said Roberts, citing San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin as an example. “Showing that someone with Krasner’s agenda can get elected I think encouraged tons more people, some with even more transformational politics than him, to get into these races.” After Krasner, reform-minded prosecutors were elected in other large cities, including Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, and Atlanta.
But Krasner’s election and the reforms he enacted as soon as he took office also sparked a fierce backlash — making him a national target for law enforcement groups and prominent Republicans. Former President Donald Trump, for example, claimed in 2019 that prosecutors in Philadelphia and Chicago “have decided not prosecute many criminals” who pose a threat to public safety.
Krasner’s reelection bid came as an increase in gun violence in many U.S. cities — including Philadelphia — and calls to reduce the scope of policing prompted a return to tough-on-crime rhetoric and rebuke of reformist efforts. But other reform-oriented DAs in cities with considerable gun violence — like Chicago’s Kim Foxx and St. Louis’s Kim Gardner — recently won reelection bids despite sometimes vicious attacks on them.
“People want to see these prosecutors’ offices being focused on bringing down incarceration rates, and holding police accountable.”
According to a recent poll by Data for Progress, many of the reforms Krasner enacted remain popular with voters in Pennsylvania. Sixty-four percent of people surveyed expressed support for limitations to the use of cash bail, 60 percent were in favor of the decriminalization of drug possession, 75 percent favored sentence reductions for good behavior, and 68 percent supported terminating probation when supervision is no longer needed. Just this week, a Philadelphia City Council committee advanced a measure outlining procedures for a new police oversight board that will go to a full council vote later this week — the result of years of organizing by local activists who have pushed to create a body with power and funding to hold police accountable for misconduct, with renewed energy after police met protests last summer with brute force.
KRASNER WAS ELECTED in 2017 on a promise to end mass incarceration in the city and transform the way prosecutors approach crime. At the time, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch described Krasner’s win as “a revolution.” The win by a former criminal defense and civil rights attorney who had never worked as a prosecutor until his election ushered a new era into an office that had been run for two decades by one of the “deadliest prosecutors” in the country, Lynne Abraham, whose office sent 108 people to death row.
Krasner’s office pledged never to seek the death penalty, stopped requesting cash bail for low-level offenses, expanded diversion programs for some gun offenses, and stopped prosecuting marijuana use and sex work. He also took a hard line on police accountability, brought charges against more than 50 officers accused of misconduct, and instituted a “do not call” list of officers with a history of misconduct and dishonesty that his office deemed unreliable witnesses and would not call to testify in court. The district attorney revamped a conviction integrity unit that has helped to exonerate 20 people since he took office in 2018.
The DA’s decarceral approach drew criticism from city residents and police forces who claimed that Krasner’s policies drove a spike in gun violence in the city last year. Krasner has also faced pushback from the left, including some of his supporters and groups like the Philadelphia Bail Fund, which said he hasn’t lived up to his campaign promises to end cash bail. Krasner’s office has continued to request high-dollar figures for cash bail in certain cases, and it’s an issue the DA acknowledges he hasn’t solved.
The fight over Krasner’s handling of cash bail is just one that highlights the limitations facing prosecutors running on promises of reform, said Chenjerai Kumanyika, a scholar and journalist in Philadelphia, and assistant professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. Even some of Krasner’s allies are clear-eyed about the impracticality of investing in progressive prosecutors as a long-term solution to the problem of mass incarceration, Kumanyika explained.
Cat Brooks is a nationally-recognized Bay area artist and activist against police brutality.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is committed to bringing equality, fairness, and humanity to the criminal legal system. Boudin’s opponents are using the same tactics that conservative media harnessed to thwart the movement for Black lives: fear mongering, misinformation, and doomsday predictions.
No one who genuinely cares about Black lives can support the effort to remove Boudin. Without progressive prosecutors, we will return to a system where jail and prison are the only acceptable responses to all of society’s ills.
Last summer, the murder of George Floyd ignited unprecedented support for the movement for Black lives. Finally, after decades of screaming genocide into the ether – only to have it fall on deaf ears –the brutality of Floyd’s public execution seemed to mortify white Americans into action.
A national chorus of voices spoke up to stand with Black demands for more accountability for law enforcement and a change to the legal system.
Where is that solidarity now? The fight is far from over and yet, not even a year after thousands took to the streets, and as the police continue to gun down Black and Brown people, there are efforts to take down elected leaders who stand for more accountability and equality in our system.
DA elect Chesa Boudin – Election night 2019
The current effort to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is one of them. I supported Boudin’s candidacy for DA and I support him now. I support him because unlike most prosecutors, he’s taking real steps to move us away from the criminal industrial complex.
Chesa is actively addressing racial bias and disparities, dramatically shrinking the criminal legal system, and respecting the inherent value and potential of all those drawn into it. For the first time in San Francisco, an elected D.A. has held police accountable.
This recall effort endangers the safety of Black people in our community, with a looming threat of return to the status quo of mass incarceration, dead Black bodies, and singular pathway pursuits toward public safety.
One out of every three Black boys born today can expect to serve time in prison during his lifetime.
Children with incarcerated parents have a substantially increased likelihood to become homeless, suffer from depression, anxiety, or behavioral problems, struggle with learning disabilities, or become involved in criminal activity.
DA Chesa Boudin with San Francisco Mayor London Breed
The American government’s refusal to condemn Israel for the carnage being inflicted upon the citizens of Gaza is obscene.
Only with unwavering support of the Israel by the American administration can Bibi Netanyahu continue to unleash the destructive power of US supplied armaments resulting in massive death and destruction.
World wide public opinion does not support the Israeli military actions. Right here in San Francisco (see photo above) and cities around the world thousands took to the streets to condemn the brutal Israeli actions against the Palestinian people.
Al Jazeera 5.17.2021
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deadly bombing of the Gaza Strip would continue despite an international outcry and efforts to broker a ceasefire.
In a televised address on Sunday, Netanyahu said the Israeli air raids were continuing at “full-force” and would “take time”, adding that his country “wants to levy a heavy price” from Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Israeli air raids on Gaza City flattened three buildings and killed at least 42 people early on Sunday, health authorities in Gaza said.
The violence marked the worst fighting since the devastating 2014 war in Gaza.
The air raids hit a busy downtown street of residential buildings and storefronts over the course of five minutes just after midnight, destroying two adjacent buildings and one about 50 metres down the road.
At one point, a rescuer shouted, “Can you hear me?” into a hole in the rubble. “Are you OK?” Minutes later, first responders pulled a survivor out and carried him off on an orange stretcher.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 16 women and 10 children were among those killed, with more than 50 people wounded, and rescue efforts were still under way.
Earlier, the Israeli military said it destroyed the home of Gaza’s top Hamas leader, Yahiyeh Sinwar, in a separate raid in the southern town of Khan Younis.
Israel appears to have stepped up air raids in recent days to inflict as much damage as possible on Hamas as international mediators work to end the fighting.
At least 192 people have been killed and 1,200 injured there so far, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Rockets fired at Israel by Palestinian groups in Gaza, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have killed 10 Israelis.
Speaking to CBS’s Face the Nation, the prime minister claimed the building hosted an “intelligence office for the Palestinian terrorist organisation [Hamas]” which “plots and organises the terror attacks against Israeli civilians”.
He did not present any evidence of his claim but said it was “a perfectly legitimate target”, nonetheless. Asked if he had provided any evidence of Hamas presence in the building in a call with US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu said, “We pass it through our intelligence people.”
“We are targeting a terrorist organisation that is targeting our civilians and hiding behind them, using them as human shields,” he added.
The al-Jalaa tower, which also housed offices of the US news agency Associated Press (AP) and other outlets, was destroyed by an Israeli air force attack on Saturday.
Lee Heidhues 5.17.2021 at The Great Walkway March and Rally
Senator Scott Wiener (D-SF) made an impassioned plea to designate both The Great Walkway and JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park permanent pedestrian and cyclist thoroughfares. The Senator implored the crowd to stay strong and work until the goal is achieved. In stark terms he said emphatically San Francisco cannot return to the pre Pandemic way of life where cars dictated public policy.
San Franciscans have been advocating for decades to have open space where the all encroaching automobile cannot enter. Thousands who have been pushing this goal to make San Francisco an acknowledged World leader in fighting climate change are close to victory.
The effort will continue until entrenched political interests designate The Great Walkway a pedestrian and cyclist thoroughfare by the Pacific Ocean.
Sunday a large crowd of all ages rallied, cycled and walked down The Great Walkway to express their resolve and determination.
Surfboarding down The Great WalkwayBlog contributor Liz saddles upSenator Scott Wiener addresses The Great Walkway Rally
Taking a shotSeabird looks onThe band plays onGetting ready to go down The Great WalkwayThe Great Walkway spiritSunday morning on The Great WalkwayThe Great Walkway overlooking the Pacific Ocean
Lee's Perspective 