Nowtopian

Strange Loops

LaborFest is happening again, and it’s better than ever. Pretty ironic, given the amazing shift in San Francisco’s population… In a Chronicle article about the exodus of the “middle class” from San Francisco they printed these numbers:

From 2002 to 2006, the number of households making up to $49,000 per year dropped by 7.4 percent, those earning between $50,000 and $99,999 declined by 4.4 percent, and those bringing home between $100,000 and $149,999 fell by 3.9 percent, according to Census Bureau estimates. In polar opposition, the number of households making between $150,000 and $199,999 surged 52.2 percent and those earning more than $200,000 climbed 40.1 percent.

The growing interest that the vibrant LaborFest would indicate is a bit hard to explain. But I’m enjoying it a lot, regardless. I caught a quirky “performance” of the 1901 waterfront strike at Hyde Street Pier this afternoon. Actors played strikers and owners arguing in public with one another, with a bourgeois woman wandering through the crowd denouncing the strikers, and a confused worker asking bystanders what they thought as she tried to figure out who to support. It was very staged, so I’m not sure anyone was actually challenged to think differently, but it did catch something of the personal confrontation that class conflict used to consist more of.

It’s spooky though, imagining how the current demographic shift will show up in local politics in coming years. This fall will be telling, I suppose, as there are 7 of 11 seats up for new candidates on the Board of Supervisors. But no compelling reason to support anyone that I’ve heard of yet… maybe some readers will pitch one or other emerging candidacies…

I saw a great new Ken Loach film “It’s a Free World” after conducting my twice-annual Labor History bike tour on July 5. The Laborfest program is chock-full of interesting events and I recommend checking it out. I’m going to a Chinatown Labor History walk tomorrow morning at 10, and there’re some May 68 films tomorrow night. Earlier today, also part of LaborFest, I caught a few New Deal films at the Library, which has its own 3-floor exhibit on the New Deal right now. Interesting juxtaposition of New Deal propaganda, putting America to work etc., to the actual work going on across the street in front of City Hall. A new Potemkin Victory Garden has been installed by Slow Food Nation and a bunch of friends:

During the past week I’ve been lurking around (and helping a bit) the Victory Garden being installed across from City Hall. It’s sponsored by Slow Food Nation, the upcoming national convention/party of Slow Food folks in the U.S. (it’s an important international movement of course). I spoke about Victory Gardens during my Nowtopia tour, and continue to pump the idea of urban food forests as a more sensible use of our remaining public commons (all that land stupidly covered in asphalt). So I’m very enthusiastic about the temporary Victory Garden in Civic Center, and hope we can shoehorn the enthusiasm it’s generating into a more concerted effort for transforming public lands throughout the city. It was a curious juxtaposition though, to see all these folks essentially creating a public works program from below, and then watching films of the massive public works programs pushed from the top during the 1930s. Here’s a victory garden photo gallery:

It started on July 6 and 7 with black plastic and pouring soil into these circles of straw… not meant to last too long, clearly!

By July 10 things were shaping up further.

Continue reading Strange Loops

A Belated Conclusion to the Tour

Been home over a week now, and fully immersed in projects that had built up in my absence (two book design jobs, two periodicals), and haven’t had much time to come up for air… But the Nowtopia tour ended in Victoria, a town that didn’t really thrill me. I’d heard a lot about it in terms of its quaintness, its “Britishness”, etc., but overall it was just a small town in Northwestern N. America, big yards, quiet streets, typical modern shopping district to attract tourism, etc. We had a great host in Peter and his family, and he was also our host for the reading at Camas Infoshop, a recently opened anarchist-inspired bookshop on Quadra Street.

We tooled around town a bit too, and came upon this elderly woman’s front yard. She was smiling to us from her window as we photographed her signage. The first one is in regard to the Winter Olympics coming in 2010 and some recent regulatory changes, the second is self-evident I hope!

Thanks to a good article written in the local Monday Magazine, we had a decent audience of about 20+ folks. The conversation after the readings turned to our recurrent theme in the northwest: End of Civilization, armed self-defense, that sort of thing… another old draft dodger refugee, now in his 60s (I was told he was an old Trot), argued that it “wasn’t time yet” to pick up weapons, vs. a young punk queer anarchist covered in tattoos who urgently insisted that we had to prepare immediately. He also was a fan of Derek Jensen’s End Game, which he assured me is much more sophisticated than the Original Sin orientation of John Zerzan… he also insisted that Jensen is not misanthropic and that he is very enthused about First Nations peoples… just not too fond of anyone who is a product of our current world!… hmmm…

Continue reading A Belated Conclusion to the Tour

Thank You Corkers! Vancouver Critical Mass, June 2008

This is mostly a huge photo gallery, but let me tell you a little about it too… first off, “thank you corkers!” was the surprising refrain we heard throughout the ride as we passed by groups of people corking. Unlike San Francisco, corkers are welcomed by all here, the police don’t hassle or ticket them, and the riders are clear that a great service is being provided by those who stop to barricade the roads to allow Critical Mass to pass unimpeded. As it turns out, Vancouverites turn corking into a series of mini-parties, each one attracting a growing number of cyclists who stop to talk, have a beer, share a puff, what have you. It was remarkable! Here are a couple of shots of corkers at work:

Motorists were surprisingly mellow in general (a few exceptions of course, including one report we heard a day later of a brawl between a cyclist and motorist, punching each other on the street, but that’s only hearsay)… Here’s an angelic rider in conversation with a sheik and his Bollywood star girlfriend (note the corkers jamming the taxi behind them):