No. 40, October 2004

Sound Bites, Meeting Notes, Street Scenes

GALLERY ‘RAID’

The Yahoo forum that Alliance for a Better District 6 hosts was practically searing cyberspace once its hottest topic ever hit the Net. On Sept. 23, a posting from David Baker, former NOMPC president, went out to the 930 online members, setting off a chain reaction that soon reached a crescendo of chat-room-like chatter.

“The 13th annual San Francisco Fringe Festival was celebrating its conclusion at the avant-garde RX Gallery at 132 Eddy . . . when the police joined the party.” John and Michael Nulty, Susan Bryan and Marvis Phillips had told the cops that RX owners, Monika Bernstein and William Linn, who’d lobbied the TL hard to support their beer and wine application, were violating their conditional license by selling alcohol. Wrote Baker, after the Sept. 19 “raid,” “The RX Gallery was shut down for the night [and] the crowd ambled over to Original Joe’s on Taylor to party on.”

It might have ended there, but up popped this on Sept. 28: “Kudos to the Nulty Brothers and those involved, for their vigilance in behalf of the people of the T/L. Those who make promises in order to get liquor licenses must be held accountable to those promises. Well done!” — Chaplain Earl Rogers [S.F. Rescue Mission]

That set in motion these Sept. 29 postings:

“I am very upset and troubled by this. Nobody deserves kudos for failing to listen to reason or being so blinded they can’t see the forest for the trees. I agree that the Tenderloin has far too many liquor licenses. . . . [But] we must support positive and beneficial businesses like Rx Gallery. Otherwise the only thing that will succeed in the TL will be liquor stores.” — Dennis Isner [NOMPC vice-president]

“Thank you, Dennis. I could not agree more. In fact, I am not at all sure that a ‘police raid’ actually occurred. If so, it was truly a waste of police time and effort in an area where there is true and life-threatening crime going on all the time.” — Glenda Hope [S.F. Network Ministries]

“In light of recent events and discussions regarding the RX Gallery, I would like to call a special meeting of the Alliance for a Better District 6 for Tue., Oct. 5 . . . . We need to clear the air about what happened and, just as importantly, develop some concrete solutions to the supersaturation of liquor licenses in our neighborhood.” — Roger Gordon (co-president, Alliance for a Better District 6)
The SFPD report for the RX Gallery incident says the gallery owners did violate their conditional license, which only allows alcohol sales Wednesday through Saturday. Also, the officers estimated the post-Fringe crowd at 75; the gallery’s capacity is 49. Finally, noted Officer Glenn Juco on the report, a promotional flyer for the party advertised “dancing” as well as a no-host bar. The RX’s conditional license says no dancing at any time.

“We asked Bernstein to shut down the bar,” wrote Juco. “The party was stopped with no further incident. Bernstein was very cooperative.”

Michael Nulty, one of the cyber board’s monitors and co-president of Alliance for a Better District 6, told The Extra that he used to evaluate only new members’ postings. When this fracas started, he began monitoring all postings and nixed seven immediately. The chatter stopped.

The messages on the Yahoo forum were becoming insulting and abusive, Nulty said. “It says right at the bottom of our message board: ‘Remember to respect others and no personal attacks towards fellow members which will ban you from this site.’ ”

— Marjorie Beggs

Mayor is the Man

A dozen people were gathered two-deep around a trash can at Seventh and Market. A tall man in a dark blue suit was using the top of the can to write on a business card while speaking with a grizzled old guy attached to an oxygen tube upright on a little cart. The guy had been at the Department of Human Services that morning and was refused some service he felt entitled to.

The suit agrees. “You do need it,’’ he affirms.

“They told me they couldn’t help me because it was against the law.’’

“Well they should break that law,’’ says the suit, handing over the card he wanted the oxygenated man to give to someone at DHS. Suddenly, he whips out a cell phone and starts dialing DHS. This is the mayor, he tells whomever answers, explaining that he’s on Market Street, talking to a man who had been refused help. He says he wants the man to get what he needs. This, apparently, meets some resistance.

“Then break the law,’’ he tells the DHS worker. “Within reason, of course,’’ he cautions, “but I want this man to get help, no matter what the law says.’’

A roar of appreciation goes up from the crowd.

“Thank you, Mr. Mayor,’’ the old guys says. “You’ve got my vote.’’

“That’s not the point,’’ Mayor Newsom says as the man heads off down Market Street, pulling his oxygen cart, absolutely beaming, so pleased the mayor of San Francisco had listened to his plea and done something about it – instanter.

Mayor Newsom turns to the street folks and says, “Some of these state and federal laws are not right. I don’t want anybody who needs help to be denied it.’’

Passers-by keep stopping to shake the mayor’s hand, positively gleeful that he is right there among them, leaning on a garbage can, listening to their troubles — and cared enough to do something about it. On the spot. Who wants to fight City Hall when City Hall is on your side?

Someone had a beef with the Office of Neighborhood Services. Newsom’s aide handed over a business card and Newsom the Great began working his magic with the cell phone and the scribbling.

Next in line for this godfather-like gathering was a man from the Aida, the tourist hotel next to a now-empty Merrill’s. The man complained about people sleeping in the doorway and pointed to a gray-bearded black man sleeping there now.

Mayor Newsom, acquainted with the reclining homeless gentleman, explains that the old man doesn’t want to go to a shelter. “But I’ll come back and try to talk him into it,’’ he says.
Newsom sympathizes with the hotelier. “I’m working on it. We’ve gotten things pretty well cleaned up down there,’’ he says, pointing toward Sixth Street, “and soon we’ll start down here. We’ll turn up the heat. But slowly. I don’t want anybody to be hurt. I want them to get help.’’

Exiting to applause, the mayor slides into the back seat of his waiting Town Car and is whisked away, leaving a lasting impression on a few random folk whose lives he’d touched. They don’t get much respect from many people. But they do from this mayor.

— Geoff Link

Latest on the Pavilion

The $200 million Pavilion Project, a long time coming and not there yet, is “three-quarters of the way through the entitlement process,” Paula Collins of Glide Economic Development Corp. told community folks at a Tenderloin Futures Collaborative meeting. The EIR draft would be published in September and certified by February 2005.

“We have site control over half the block now,” Collins said of the project, bounded by Eddy, Taylor, Ellis and Mason. “Four of the 12 parcels have closed and the others are in negotiations.” Asked about the design, she said: “We’re going to make sure that this isn’t a fortress in itself — it needs to feel like it’s part of the neighborhood.”

— Marjorie Beggs

Fanfare for Firefighters

The firefighters were on the ball on a recent afternoon when someone called in a fire at 1111 Market. Four, maybe five fire trucks responded, with firemen fully equipped including oxygen. The 1111 lobby is sandwiched between Payday Loans and the Bargain Bee, and curious people milled around in front. Sirens were going as trucks arrived.

I sidled up to a pair of firefighters discussing the incident — only a fluorescent light fixture on the second floor “on the fritz,” one said to the other.

As I ambled away, a young woman on the sidelines spoke up loudly. “Thank you,” she said with a happy smile, and I heard her sentiments ricochet here and there throughout the appreciative crowd.

— Geoff Link

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