March 19, 2019

Over 200 cyclists and their supporters rallied in front of City Hall to mourn the death of Tess Rothstein on March 1, protesting  the lack of protection for cyclists and demanding  City officials do something substantive immediately.

Following the rally, many cyclists spoke up and spoke out during a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.  The Commission listened.  The Commission voted to make immediate improvements in those busy corridors where cyclists and pedestrians are most at risk.

After the rally, I cycled down to 6th and Howard Street where a grim reminder of Tess Rothstein’s senseless death is memorialized.

Photos by Lee Heidhues

Attached is a link to the San Francisco Examiner by Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez who does  a stand up job of covering bicycle safety in The City.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sf-starts-planning-protected-bike-lanes-howard-street-waterfront-cyclists-death/

March 19. 2019

Every Picture Tells a Story.  Ongoing Series

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinda_Ardern

March 18, 2019

Liz Heidhues and I have been riding our bicycles in San Francisco since 1972. Bicycles are our means of transportation. We have never owned a car.

How many cyclists will die before San Francisco really protects its cyclists?

I will join outraged and grieving bicyclists  at San Francisco City Hall on March 19 at 12:30 pm to demand City officials immediately  install more dedicated bike lanes,  and place restrictions on vehicles in these bike friendly corridors.

Despite a number of increased bike lanes, San Francisco is still a dangerous place for cyclists.  The death of 30 year old Tess Rothstein on February 22 as the Stanford grad cycled near 6th and Howard Street traumatized and motivated the cycling community. Photo atop this Post is her mangled bicycle.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, with over 10,000 members, has been fighting for the rights and protection of cyclists since 1972.

Photo above. Human bike lane on Howard Street after death of Tess Rothstein

Liz Heidhues bringing home the unwieldy freight on her bicycle. A bicycle can bring home anything

Lee parked on Market Street.

https://sfbike.org/event/rally-for-protected-bike-lanes-at-city-hall/

 

March 17, 2019

This question is actually getting media play.  Given the complaisant American public anything is possible.

What would happen if Donald Trump suspended the Constitution, ruled by emergency executive decree, disbanded Congress, and ordered the Justice Department to arrest a list of “the enemies of the people” and suspended habeas corpus?

https://www.quora.com/

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 3.16.2018

Yellow vest protesters have set fire to stores and clashed with police in a return to violence on the streets of Paris. Organizers are trying to give new momentum to their movement, after weeks of dwindling numbers.

On the Champs Elysees, rioters set fire to a bank, an upmarket handbag store and two newsstands. The high-end Fouquet’s restaurant was also damaged.

Hooded demonstrators in Paris fought with police and set several stores alight on Saturday, as yellow vest organizers sought to breathe new life into a movement that has rocked the administration of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Police said 42 protesters, 17 of their own officers and one firefighter were injured during a day of violence that followed weeks of relative calm. Nearly 240 protesters were arrested, out of an estimated 10,000 participants.

https://www.dw.com/en/france-violence-flares-at-yellow-vest-protest-reboot/a-47945793

 

Excertped from The New Republic 3.15.2019

President Trump condemned the March 15 Christchurch, New Zealand attacks in which Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant, 28,  killed 49 people at Muslim mosques, but his administration has spent the last three years emboldening white nationalists and neo-Nazis, cracking down on left-wing activists, and mainstreaming anti-immigration conspiracy theories tinged with anti-Semitic undertones not dissimilar to those promulgated by Tarrant.

Trump called the attacks a “horrible, horrible thing” before quickly pivoting to the topic of immigration. “People hate the word invasion, but that’s what it is,” he said.

In October, the president addressed an audience of supporters at a campaign rally in Houston, Texas. He prompted “USA!” chants from the crowd when he declared himself a “nationalist” fighting against “power-hungry globalists.”

During the 2018 midterm elections, Trump maligned a U.S.-bound caravan of refugees and migrants as an “invasion,” a conspiracy theory repeated by white nationalist Robert Bowers when he gunned down worshippers at a Pittsburg synagogue last November. The Christchurch shooter used eerily similar language in a blog post on Thursday: “I will carry out an attack against the invaders,” he wrote, apparently referring to Muslim immigrants.

The similarities are not going unnoticed. “In this case, a killer attacked Muslims worshiping at two mosques. In November, a killer massacred Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh,” Southern Poverty Law Center President, Richard Cohen said Friday. “Though the victims were different, and the attacks came in different parts of the world, the terrorists shared the same ideology of white supremacist hate.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/153329/white-nationalism-international-threat

March 15, 2019

Oregon, California’s neighbor to the north, recently instituted statewide Rent Control.  See Blog post 3.3.2019. Perhaps, California has the political will to keep up with the neighbors and provide renters  relief from soaring rents and no cause evictions.  Beware. The real estate industry will throw every resource, mainly money and lobbying, to bring some equity into the rental housing market.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 3.15.2019

SACRAMENTO — The push to expand rent control in California returned to life in the Legislature on Thursday, just months after state voters overwhelmingly rejected an initiative that would have removed barriers to new tenant protection laws.

“The rent is too damn high. It’s time for us to act,” Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, said at a Capitol news conference.

Gov. Gavin Newsom told lawmakers in his State of the State address last month, “Get me a good package on rent stability this year and I will sign it.”

A group of Democratic legislators introduced bills to cap annual rent increases statewide, prevent evictions without just cause and return to cities the authority to adopt rent control ordinances for newer homes and apartments.

Supporters said urgent action is needed to address what has become a statewide emergency, as families face soaring housing prices and the prospect of homelessness. About half of California renter households spend more than 30 percent of their income on shelter, which experts consider to be a cost burden, according to U.S. census estimates. More than a quarter spend at least half their income on housing.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Rent-control-back-on-California-s-agenda-with-13688715.php#photo-17072096

Every Picture Tells Story. Ongoing Series

The New Republic 1.4.2019

I found this article by Jillian Steinhauer in the January-February 2019 issue. Ms. Steinhauer takes a deep look at  photographer Martha Rosler, who mixed art and politics in a very adept and intellectual manner.This is my first encounter with the work of  Martha Rosler.  The retrospective on her work at the New York Jewish Museum , regrettably, concluded earlier this month.

The article provides a link to the retrospective and is an opportunity to view her work and listen to her discuss several topics from both an artistic and political perspective.  It’s fascinating.

https://newrepublic.com/article/152663/martha-rosler-irrespective-jewish-museum-shows-how-world-works

Excerpted from The Guardian 3.14.2019

French Health minister Agnes Buzyn calls protest about lack of medical insurance ‘taking women hostage’

A French gynaecologists’ union has threatened to halt pregnancy terminations in an attempt to force the country’s health minister to meet disgruntled doctors.

Health minister Agnès Buzyn (pictured below) and feminist organisations said the threat was “unacceptable” and amounted to “taking women hostage”.

 

The feminist organisation Osez le Féminisme tweeted: “Syngof threatens an abortion strike. They could have had a cervical smear strike, non? This from the same union which called abortion a homicide”.

The Syngof union wrote to its 1,600 members calling them to be prepared to stop carrying out abortions to “make ourselves heard” and force the government’s hand.

Syngof, which represents about a quarter of France’s gynaecologists and obstetricians, published the letter as a protest over what it claims is a lack of insurance funds for colleagues convicted of medical errors.

In a statement Buzyn wrote: “In no case should taking women hostage in this way be used as a lever for negotiations or for media coverage of an issue the department is following very closely.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/14/french-gynaecologists-union-threatens-to-stop-performing-abortions

People like Gary Delagnes  deserve a special place in the wasteland of respectable society. Good riddance.  Enjoy your retirement.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 3.14.2019

Deputy Public Defender Rebecca Young, who co-chairs the San Francisco Public Defender’s Racial Justice Committee, said she was “revolted” after seeing former POA boss Gary Delagnes’ post about her former boss.

“I did feel that Jeff, who was an extremely powerful presence in our city and in our lives, would reach out from the grave and undo that man permanently — I was sure of it,” she said.

Gary Delagnes Facebook post, which came six days after Adachi died from a suspected heart attack on Feb. 22, characterized Adachi as a “vile, despicable, bottom feeding human being” and included accusations involving the late public defender’s family.

Delagnes, 64, retired from the department in 2013, but stayed on with the union as a paid private consultant.

Tony Montoya, the current president of the union, said the post not only crossed the line by mentioning Adachi’s family, but damaged the recent work he’s been doing to generate goodwill in City Hall and the community.

Montoya said he understood Delagnes was venting, which “was his prerogative,” following a string of mostly positive media stories on Adachi, a longtime adversary of the department.

“But when it got back to me that I was somehow complicit in Gary’s rant, I knew I had to take action for the betterment of my membership,” Montoya said. He called Delagnes and informed him he was out of the consultant job.

“I had a great run,” Delagnes told The Chronicle on Wednesday night. “No regrets. My time is over. I wish everybody well.”

News of Delagnes’ departure from the association was welcomed from his longtime foes at the public defender’s office.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/SF-police-union-cuts-ties-with-former-head-over-13687003.php