Reclaim the Streets: Renters Rise Up!

RECLAIM THE STREETS: RENTERS RISE UP!

San Francisco renters will be taking to the streets on May 31st to reclaim public space and call attention to the urgent need to protect tenants’ rights in this ever-gentrifying city. The action has been timed to raise awareness about the urgent need to stop Proposition 98 and save rent control in the June 3rd election.

Reclaim the Streets: Renters Rise Up! is being organized by a collective of artists, teachers, tenants’ rights activists, students, union organizers, and renters. The group will gather at Dolores Park in the Mission District and will then depart to an undisclosed location. The action will festively proceed through the streets of San Francisco, complete with music, performers, moving sound systems, spontaneous art, and dancing. Reclaim the Streets organizers will not obtain a permit for this action, because we believe that we should not need permission to use public space in our city. Control of our neighborhoods should be in the hands of people who live in them, not high-paid developers, elite politicians, or hostile police. When we stand together, we can reclaim public space and fill it with art and celebration.

Reclaim the Streets: Renters Rise Up! is about reclaiming public space, by taking to the streets in “unpermitted” celebration and by fighting to ensure that San Francisco remains a vibrant, multicultural city welcoming to more than just the rich. All are invited to attend, especially Bay Area renters, and we encourage participants to bring games, music, costumes, and stunts.

Date: Saturday May 31st

Time: 1:00pm

Location: Dolores Park in the Mission District San Francisco, CA

http://www.reclaimsf.org

EVERYONE IN CALIFORNIA: VOTE NO ON 98 AND YES ON 99 ON JUNE 3RD!

If Prop 98 passes it would eliminate rent control and make it easier for landlords to evict tenants. This statewide proposition threatens to erode hard-won tenants’ rights, displace entire communities, and push countless renters out of San Francisco (and other areas with rent control including Berkeley and Santa Monica). If this passes San Francisco will drastically change within a matter of years, forcing out the city’s working class and people of color in record numbers in record time.

This is a STATEWIDE proposition so, please, ALL California voters vote NO on Proposition 98 and vote YES on Proposition 99 (a proposition put on the ballot to undo the damaging effects of Proposition 98, in the event it were to pass) even if that’s all you vote on in this election.

For more info:

Full Text of Proposition 98:

http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/initiatives/pdfs/i684_2007-05-03_07-0015_Initiative.pdf

Western Center on Law and Poverty’s Analysis of Prop. 98:

http://www.sftu.org/071220%20Western%20Center%20Memo.pdf

State Campaign for No on 98, Yes on 99:

http://www.no98yes99.com/

SF Campaign to Save Rent Control

http://homepage.mac.com/davegun2/SFSaveRentControl/

Also—for San Francisco voters—vote YES on F, NO on G for affordable housing in the Bayview.