[Sustain] NO To Corporate Sponsorship Of Sunday Streets

[Martin Zehr]

Sorry I screwed up. Am sending this again without the attachment.






Eric,
 
help me a little here. What would it take for us to promote the idea of neighborhood associations holding these street fairs? I understand the reluctance to accept corporate sponsorship for the Sunday Streets. How can this one particular event be held without draining city funds? Seems we might try different sponsors or less ambitious venues to localize it. i will bring up the idea to the C.I.A. (Cayuga Improvement Association) to do something in my neighborhood. It might work if we began to compile a list of local service organizations and businesses who might like the chance for public exposure who are more Green-friendly. It would also give us a chance to meet other Greens in our own neighborhoods and set up networks for campaigns and public events. 
 
I have an Earth Day PDF file " A Green Party Generation" that we are still working on in the Eco-Action Committee. I have it on Publisher if anyone wants to make your own changes to it or have additional local info. Just email me directly or ask for it on the list.
 
Mato Ska 




 


  


Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:32:35 -0700
From: brookse32 at aim.com
To: active at sfgreens.org; sustainability at sfgreens.org; cc at sfgreens.org
Subject: [Sustain] NO To Corporate Sponsorship Of Sunday Streets

Susan King and all,

Susan, I am concerned.

Here are excerpts from a Guardian blog report by Steve Jones on Sunday Streets, including a quote from you..

"-- it’s unsettling to see Sunday Streets brought to you by some of the most villainous corporations in town, including PG&E, Lennar, WebCor Builders, and Clear Channel Entertainment, and laid out as a promotional tool for the very Fisherman’s Wharf merchants who opposed it last year.
Yes, it costs money to close streets, money that the city and community event promoters just don’t have right now. But what does it say about San Francisco when we need to rely big corporations in order to use and enjoy our public spaces?
Of course, that’s not the only way to look at this, particularly when one’s goal is to push the envelope on seizing back space from cars. Susan King, a Green Party member helping to organize Sunday Streets for Livable City, acknowledged my point-of-view but said that it’s a step forward when institutional powers are willing to help with progressive goals.
“It really mainstreams the concept of carfree spaces,” she told me, noting that directing traffic through and around the street closures is a complicated effort that will cost between $40,000 and $50,000 per event. “The costs are associated with how difficult it is to take a roadway and repurpose it.”"

I was grudgingly willing to go along with this dubious Newsom initiated program when it clearly had some merit. But now that Newsom is simply using it as yet another tool to greenwash corporations that are destroying our city, like PG&E and Lennar, I am vehemently opposed to this.

Furthermore, I am sure that very few Greens agree that partnering with evil corporations mainstreams them with supporting public goals. On the contrary, it helps them to co-opt and destroy those goals and make it easier for them to plunder our environment and community, and control our politicians, while they make themselves look good to the public; thereby making it easier for them to kick our ass in ballot measure battles like the recent props F and H.

And as to the events themselves, I have completely stopped attending street parties in San Francisco because they have become such a tawdry, dingy, corporate controlled joke. The last thing we need is for the same ugliness and cheapness to descend on our Sunday Streets events.

This experiment has now gone too far.

We need to find a way to nix the corporate sponsorship of these events pronto, so that this takeover doesn't ruin the Sunday Streets project.

I would like to see this agendized at the next GM so we can make clear that the SF Green Party does -not- support corporate sponsored Sunday Streets events.

sincerely

Eric B
-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.sfgreens.org/pipermail/sustainability/attachments/20090410/5d18a93e/attachment.htm>