Through the Ringer
Thea Selby
The Planning Commission just decided to give AHHS their permit.
Astounding. They completely ignored the testimony of the neighbors, basically saying that
1. We were "upset" because Jason didn't want to join our club (that's how they dismissed Jason's never reaching out to the neighborhood).
2. We were racist; just because these people don't look like you doesn't mean you should judge them
3. The police didn't give any substantive evidence
4. Who cares if the police were there; they weren't in uniform
5. There was a lot of testimony from people FOR the club. (never mind that they are rent-a-testimony bussed in by Wayne and Jason)
6. They didn't hear anything against AHHS as a bad business. It's just that the neighborhood is bad.
Huh?
It's just that the neighborhood is bad.
WOW.
Talk about a way to give up on a neighborhood. I'm blown away.
Thea
Tim Irvin
I don't agree with Thea's impression completely, but overall I
understand where she's coming from. I don't think the Commission
"completely ignored" the neighborhood's opposition, and in fact if they
were destined to approve this then the (somewhat non-binding) language
they added about AHHS having to work more closely with the neighborhood
and report back was a good addition (and I think a signal that the
neighborhood did have an impact on them).
I think what I saw was that many of the Commissioners had their minds
made up about this application before the hearing began, and they were
then somewhat in pains to justify themselves by explaining away the
presence of SFPD, and the vocal opposition of the neighborhood at the
meeting. I'd like to understand more about how the alliance of SF
politicos and the MCD operators is manifested; it seems to me that many
of the members of SF leadership (including Supervisor Mikarimi) are
allowing quite a lot of latitude to these businesses, and I'm not sure I
understand what is driving that.
I totally agree with Thea that it was very disheartening to hear what
amounted to an abandonment of the neighborhood. I don't understand how
any Commission in the City can say that a neighborhood is bad, has
always been bad, and will just continue to be bad -- not an exact quote
by any means but the basic gist of many of their arguments.
I think what is abundantly clear from the evening is that without hard
evidence it's a somewhat losing battle. And I'm not sure I disagree
with that as a general rule. Hearsay, impressions, and innuendo aren't
going to provide a method of convincing the already convinced, and as a
small business owner I'd be very frustrated if I got shut down without
clear and convincing hard evidence brought against me. It just means
that what Vallie has been preaching -- take picture, write down logs of
events, etc. -- is very important with any endeavor such as this.
I'm hopeful that AHHS will take the Commissioners to heart when they
asked Jason to work more closely with the neighborhood on their
concerns; hopefully it was a wake up call. Time will tell.
Thanks Vallie for all your efforts on this, and for everyone who spoke
tonight! Even if the final result wasn't what we wanted, I hope that
everyone can take the Commissioner's suggestion of working together to
heart -- perhaps there can be a positive outcome in the end.
Just my 2 cents from the peanut gallery....
Tim
Kendall Willets
facility? It seems like the burden is on them to ensure that
negative impacts are prevented in advance.
lowerhai...@gmail.com
i concur. what is very clear is that the fact that the neighborhood
doesn't want this business in our midst is not the deciding factor by
any means for that board. and yes, here-say, generalities about being
scared to walk down that block just don't seem to cut-it.
we do need facts, evidence, photographs etc. the problem is of course
that taking photographs of drug-dealers and generally collecting
evidence can be distinctly bad for your health and certainly isn't for
the faint-of-heart.
i think we definitely need to regroup and consider our options. how is
that the divisidero corridor can get rid of macdonalds and batteries
plus and yet we in the Lower Haight can't influence the board over a
badly managed pot club? is there something wrong with our approach?
the other thing to think about is who are these people we've elected?
are we going to vote for them again? how do we get our voice heard in
this mess? who should we be voting for?
the lower haight grew up along time ago, its no longer a ghetto. i
think we need to find politicians that are aware of our realities
here.
Thea Selby
Yes, my response was emotional, right after the event. I am really looking forward to the meetings with Jason and the Shaman. I think they are going to be very helpful and I'm hoping to find a past life I've lost.
Regarding evidence: we had it. They ignored it. The Commissioner outright lied about the police report; we hand-couriered a oh, maybe 30 page call log with all the incidents ONLY on the 400 block. We documented with emails written at the time of events. Honestly, I don't think it's about facts. The opposition lied about the beat cop not having a problem with the club, about getting support from John Muir school (we had evidence, Tim, signatures from every Pre-School parent and the Pre-K teacher at John Muir, plus a detailed letter from the PTA head).
One place we agree is on the support we got. People worked really hard to pull together the evidence, to write letters, to get petitions signed, to show up at the hearing itself. A hearfelt thanks to Vallie, to Sabine, to Shawn (THANK you for getting them to stop eating their dinner for a moment and take note), to Simon, to Simone, to Margaret, to Robert, to Richard, to Unicorn, to Albert, to Kirk, to Dick, to Kendall, to all the merchants who didn't sign the amorphous "support" petition put out by AHHS, to Capt Casciato, to Heather Fong for letting the police speak, to Commissioner Bill Lee for picking up the phone, and to many other people who helped out with this. I'm proud to be associated with this effort, and I look forward to what the next six months will bring.
KomedaSF
lies. I was sitting next to Vallie and she was gasping as he told lie
after lie.
On Feb 8, 9:42 am, Thea Selby <T...@nextstepsmarketing.com> wrote:
> Hello, Tim.
>
> Yes, my response was emotional, right after the event. I am really looking forward to the meetings with Jason and the Shaman. I think they are going to be very helpful and I'm hoping to find a past life I've lost.
>
> Regarding evidence: we had it. They ignored it. The Commissioner outright lied about the police report; we hand-couriered a oh, maybe 30 page call log with all the incidents ONLY on the 400 block. We documented with emails written at the time of events. Honestly, I don't think it's about facts. The opposition lied about the beat cop not having a problem with the club, about getting support from John Muir school (we had evidence, Tim, signatures from every Pre-School parent and the Pre-K teacher at John Muir, plus a detailed letter from the PTA head).
>
> One place we agree is on the support we got. People worked really hard to pull together the evidence, to write letters, to get petitions signed, to show up at the hearing itself. A hearfelt thanks to Vallie, to Sabine, to Shawn (THANK you for getting them to stop eating their dinner for a moment and take note), to Simon, to Simone, to Margaret, to Robert, to Richard, to Unicorn, to Albert, to Kirk, to Dick, to Kendall, to all the merchants who didn't sign the amorphous "support" petition put out by AHHS, to Capt Casciato, to Heather Fong for letting the police speak, to Commissioner Bill Lee for picking up the phone, and to many other people who helped out with this. I'm proud to be associated with this effort, and I look forward to what the next six months will bring.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lowerha...@googlegroups.com [mailto:lowerha...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tim Irvin
> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 10:03 PM
> To: lowerha...@googlegroups.com
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thea Selby
We have the packet of info they submitted. I'm not sure where to find that report, but you're welcome to look through the packet.
Thea
-----Original Message-----
From: lowerha...@googlegroups.com [mailto:lowerha...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kendall Willets
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 10:13 PM
To: lowerha...@googlegroups.com
Cc: ross.mi...@sfgov.org
Subject: [lowerhaightorg] Re: Through the Ringer
kirkw...@gmail.com
here is the link to see the webcast of the meeting (you can skip down
to item 20, which was our item #)
http://sanfrancisco.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=20
rob b
given the block, that they'd get a neg dec. That's what most of their
"customers" were stressing: The block was bad before AHHS, and would remain
bad after. No one seemed to hear that AHHS was exacerbating the problem.
Also, I didn't hear their proximity to the at-risk youth in the project
brought up as a problem, but I arrived late.
I never thought that I'd like Antonini best on the commission, but he was
the only one who seemed to hear that there was a problem, and seemed savvy
enough to sort out all their rent-a-stoners from actual testimony.
In the end they were given a 6-month "probation" to try and work things out
with the neighborhood. I spoke with Commissioner Lee afterwards and he said
that if we presented evidence that they were not cooperating and continuing
to be a problem they could have their permit pulled.
SOOOooo! Now more then ever, it's important to call police, keep a log,
take photos and videos, and any other evidence that illegal dealing is going
on in the club. I might try to get a card (I'm HIV + so it shouldn't be a
problem) and do a little inside investigating, and at least maybe try and
get a dialogue going with Jason. I guess I'll need a spy camera, like the
man from UNCLE!
Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: lowerha...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:lowerha...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kendall Willets
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 10:13 PM
To: lowerha...@googlegroups.com
Cc: ross.mi...@sfgov.org
Subject: [lowerhaightorg] Re: Through the Ringer