Since Proposition 8 passed, Marriage Equality USA, an Oakland-based non-profit, has been surveying people online and around California about the effects of the initiative's campaign on their lives.
Today, MEUSA published a report entitled, "Prop 8 Hurt My Family -- Ask me How," which documents the verbal abuse, homophobia, physical harm, and discrimination people reported as a result of the campaign. Some children with gay parents expressed fears that they could be taken away from their families, and some students and teachers reported Prop 8-related bullying at their schools. Many people said that Prop 8 divided their families and communities.
An influential neighborhood group serving one of San Francisco's most crime-ridden districts has thrown its weight behind San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer as successor to San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong, who announced her retirement last month.
In a statement released Saturday, the Community Leadership Alliance (CLA), a group active in the Tenderloin that has strong ties to the mayor's office, said picking Manheimer "is an opportunity for our police commission-mayor to make history, and to give our city the very best police chief in the nation."
Before becoming San Mateo's top cop in 2000, Manheimer (pictured) was SFPD station captain for the Tenderloin. CLA Director David Villa-Lobos told SF Weekly that Manheimer is "the very, very best we've ever had. She truly cares. This is somebody who got stuff done."
In its endorsement, CLA noted the potential for monthly meetings of a citywide police community advisory committee, modeled on a similar group that Manheimer convened in the Tenderloin.
Fong's successor will take on a spate of problems at SFPD, including
a high homicide rate and low public confidence in the effectiveness of
law-enforcement. A recently completed analysis of the department by the
Police Executive Research Forum recommended a number of significant
changes, including some aimed at curtailing officers' excessive use
of force.
I know we're all expecting the new Board of Supes to jump in and save us from the old Board of Supes, but ... hey, what did you accomplish in your first week on the job?
Eric Mar and David Chiu don't even have committee assignments yet (at least not officially, as of this writing), so it's okay if they take it slow. It's not like the sky is falling ... very fast ... and I'm sure they'll have some weighty symbolic gestures to make. Just you watch. Right out of the get-go, from the very first moment, they'll do what it takes to make us confident that a whole new era is upon us. Expect meetings FILLED with heavy symbolism.
You watch.
Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2 p.m. - Full Board of Supervisors
The very first item of business that the new Full Board of Supervisors takes up (after appointing a president) is ...
... appropriating $500,000 of Revenue from the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tournament Agreement for staffing and improvements to the Harding Park Golf Course per the PGA Tournament Agreement at the Recreation and Park Department for Fiscal Year 2008-2009.
Which, you know, kinds of sets the tone for the future. What will the class of 2008 be remembered for? Golf.
Or maybe sportsmanship. Or professional associations.
Something.
Like that.
The meeting pretty much continues in this vein. The "crisis" that everybody was talking about last week will take a back seat to notable items like these:
Chiropractor Steven Biegel and former patient Christopher Norberg have settled a lawsuit in which Biegel was suing the disgruntled Norberg for posting a poor Yelp review of the doctor's billing practices. The offending review has been swapped out by Norberg to read:
"A misunderstanding between both parties led us to act out of hand. I chose to ignore Dr. Biegel's initial request to discuss my posting. In hindsight, I should have remained open to his concerns. Both Dr. Biegel and I strongly believe in a person's right to express their opinions in a public forum. We both encourage the Internet community to act responsibly."
Aww! And everyone learned a really valuable lesson in the end. And that lesson is that if you write a bad review of someone's business on Yelp, they might sue you, but then you will settle to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. Or something.
"Voices of Rwanda," an organization that has been filming and recording the stories of survivors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, is making a screening/fund-raising appearance tomorrow night in San Francisco.
The 6 p.m. event at 251 Rhode Island St. comes with "drinks on the house," though drunken levity does not appear to be the M.O. of the day. Your $35 suggested donation goes to "recording and preserving testimonies of Rwandans, and to ensuring that their stories inform the world about genocide and inspire a global sense of responsibility to preserving human rights atrocities."
For more information, visit here.
baseball."
[Last week], the streets of Oakland came alive.Where to start? Those who remember the church-going Grant recall him as a loving, earnest man -- so does it make sense that those to whom Grant is only a symbol, a blurry image on a graphic video, should "avenge" his death by burning public property and trashing Mom 'n' Pop shops?
This isbigger than Oakland, however. The relationship of the police officer
and the civilian is perverse: an unelected authority who has the
unencumbered power of life and death over a population.
Lastmonth San Francisco saw a confrontational solidarity action against the
police murder of a young man on the other side of the world, yet there
has been nothing against the police murder of a young man on the other
side of the bay.
There will be a demonstration against thepolice murder of Oscar Grant on Monday, January 12 at 5pm at the Civic
Center BART station.
The kids in Oakland know how to party. Let's show them they are not alone.
