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Susan King and all,<br>
<br>
Susan, I am concerned.<br>
<br>
Here are excerpts from a Guardian blog report by Steve Jones on Sunday
Streets, including a quote from you..<br>
<br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">"-- it’s unsettling to see
Sunday Streets brought to you by some of the most villainous
corporations in town, including <a
href="http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?catid=77&entry_id=1927">PG&E</a>,
<a href="http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6843&catid=4">Lennar</a>,
<a
href="http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2007/10/procar_crowd_draws_first_blood.html">WebCor
Builders</a>,
and Clear Channel Entertainment, and laid out as a promotional tool for
the very Fisherman’s Wharf merchants who opposed it last year.<br>
</font>
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">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?</font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">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.</font></p>
<p><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">“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.”"</font><br>
</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
This experiment has now gone too far.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
sincerely<br>
<br>
Eric B<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
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