Creative Expressions, a Catalyst for Social Change
Editor's Note: Early morning on New Year’s Day 2009, 22-year-old Oscar Grant III was shot and killed in Oakland, California by a Bay Area Rapid Transit agency police officer. Grant was unarmed. His face—pressed down against the cement. Onlookers video-phoned the horrific spectacle as his life was taken from him.
Closing Reception: Exhibition of I Am San Francisco (IAMSF) (February 22, 2018, 6-9 pm)
Including special guests: Urban Funk Machine and SF Poet Laureate Devorah Majors.
IAMSF explores San Francisco’s social and cultural values and concerns through the lens of its Black natives, residents, and leaders. Curated by Jarrel Phillips, with art by photographer Michole “Micholiano” Forks and muralist Sydney “Sage” Cain. The exhibition brings to life the some of the scores of interviews published in RP&E over the past 2 years. (See below for links.) Meet the artists, eat the free food, all are welcome! Exhibit continues through Feb 2018. Join us for the Closing Reception on Thursday February 22, 2018, 6-9 pm at SF State University. Cesar Chavez Student Center Art Gallery, 1600 Holloway Street, SF.
Excerpts from a panel discussion with Jodie Geddes, Rose Elizondo and Garry “Malachi” Scott, moderated by Lisa Dettmer.
Contemporary restorative justice practices, which arose in the early 1980s, focus on healing and transforming the wounds of victims, offenders, and the community caused or revealed by the wrongdoing.
Movement Making Media
Street Spirit and the Homeless Human Rights Movement
An interview with Terry Messman by Jess Clarke
Terry Messman has been organizing for peace and social justice since the late 1970s when was arrested at a civil disobedience protest in Montana. For the past 25 years he has worked for human rights for homeless people, organizing direct actions and legislative change, and editing and producing one of the longest-lived poverty rights publications in the United States.
The Bay Area economy and labor market is increasingly regional: 29 percent of Bay Area commuters cross a county boundary to get to work each day. These long commutes, many of which traverse the bay, put incredible stress on constrained transportation corridors. Two-thirds of Bay Area commuters drive to work alone, creating significant congestion on the region’s freeways and bridges. Dramatic growth in employer-run shuttles over the last few years demonstrates the demand for alternatives, both to car travel and to regional transit such as BART and Caltrain, which are running short on room for passengers. As people move further out to find affordable places to live, the expectation is that the use of regional travel will grow.
For these reasons and others, such as managing sprawl and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Bay Area invests heavily in transit. It is spending $21 billion over the next 25 years to build public transit infrastructure and $159 billion to operate and maintain the transit system. Despite similar expenditures in the past, overall transit ridership has not been growing in the Bay Area. Download the report using the link below.
By Mario Navarro
For the first time in its history, San Francisco youth will be able to travel to and from school, work, after-school programs and other activities throughout the city for free.
A vote by the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency board (SFMTA) on Wednesday to approve the Free Muni for Low-Income Youth means that the cost of public transit no longer will be a barrier to opportunity for young people in San Francisco.
For the past two years, youth and transit advocates tirelessly fought to transform the free Muni program from an idea into a reality.
PLEASANTON -- The debate over where to rezone land to accommodate nearly 2,300 affordable housing units focused Tuesday more on sites left off the city's list than those included.
The city's planning commission and City Council met Tuesday to provide input on nine of 17 sites Pleasanton submitted to the state in July as part of its housing element and to comply with a legal settlement.
