2008 Awards Ceremony: June 21st at 8pm!

Awarding Those Responsible for Destroying SF Neighborhoods!

WHO: a coalition of social awareness groups concerned about the on-going destruction of San Francisco's low and middle class neighborhoods through real estate speculation. Coalition members include: Gay Shame, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Queer Anti-Displacement Coalition, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, Freedom Socialist Party, Radical Women, Pride At Work, CitiSTOP, St. Peter's Housing Committee, Castro Residents for Fair Housing, Brass Liberation Orchestra, Tenant Attorney Phil S. Horne, Activist Tommi Avicolli Mecca, members of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, and representatives of the San Francisco Community Land Trust.

WHAT: Mock, outdoor public awards ceremony to "honor" greedy landlord speculators most responsible for the gentrification and destruction of San Francisco's communities. This is done with a spirit of community, FUN, and the opportunity to deliver a spectacular, FREE public show. We encourage "campy" themes and attitudes: (i.e.) drag outfits, colorful costumes, fierce attitudes, and outrageous behavior. The event will be filmed by a documentary filmmaker, which will be shared through internet distribution and local screenings in order to raise awareness.

WHEN: Saturday, June 21st at 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Harvey Milk Plaza at Castro and Market in San Francisco (near MUNI underground station)

WHY: To stand up against gentrification by landlord speculators who are destroying our neighborhoods and communities.

2008 Awards Recipients

Top Real Estate Speculators
(Accepted by "Peggy Pigtoe")
Nominated by: Gay Shame, Queer Anti-Displacement Coalition
In 2007, the Bay Area Center for Independent Media published the "The Bay Area's 45 Worst Slumlords, Real Estate Speculators, Gentrification Profiteers and Other Contributors to the Housing Crisis". Local organizations named included (in order) Zephyr Real Estate, Skyline Realty, Trinity Properties, Herth Real Estate, Landmark Properties, and West Coast Property Management. The article asserts that those on the list make a living using malicious and sometimes illegal tactics to empty tenants from buildings in order to "flip" properties. Tactics include evictions, unlawful rent increases, and inadequate maintenance. As a direct result of these companies' actions, San Francisco is becoming a boutique city; only affordable to the wealthy, forcing out the lower and middle income residents who have long made San Francisco a beacon for art, progressivism, and diversity.

CitiApartments/Skyline Realty
(Accepted by "Frank Lembi, Founder")
Nominated by: CitiSTOP, Pride At Work, Gay Shame
CitiApartments is San Francisco's largest landlord, with over 10,000 tenants. CitiApartments, and the plethora of associated real estate companies owned by Frank Lembi, look for buildings that have "upside" potential: a strong possibility that long-term, rent controlled tenants can be cleared out and the building can be turned into something "nice." Tenants, especially people of color, the elderly, and the disabled, are harassed and illegally evicted to raise rents to market rates. The tactics include threatening by armed thugs, exposing children to lead and other toxins, and deliberately harassing the elderly and people of color. CitiApartments is a major contributor to the gentrification of the Polk, one of San Francisco's main working class queer neighborhoods.

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assoc
(Accepted by "Howard Jarvis")
Nominated by: Freedom Socialist Party
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association was the author and one of the major supporters of Prop 98, the recent deceptive ballot measure which would have ended rent control and tenant protections throughout California. While Prop 98 was utterly defeated by the voters, one of Jarvis' earlier initiatives, Prop 13, has devastated California's budget for the past 30 years, contributing to the current sad state of our social welfare, education, and infrastructure systems.

Care Not Cash
(Accepted by "Honorable Mayor Gavin Newson")
Nominated by: Gay Shame, Queer Anti-Displacement Coalition
Care Not Cash, primarily sponsored by Gavin Newsom when during his first election campaign, slashed city welfare payments to the approximately 3,000 homeless adults whose payments decreased from received $395 to $59 a month. Intended to discourage homelessness in San Francisco, the program has been woefully inadequate on the "Care" side. Shelters and housing have been criticized for being of low quality and unsafe. In addition, many critics point out that the premise of the law does not affect the main class of homeless, the so-called "hardcore homeless," who by and large are so mentally unstable as to not even know how to collect General Assistance in the first place.

Lennar Corporation
(Accepted by "Stuart A. Miller, CEO")
Nominated by: Queer Anti-Displacement Coalition
The City has selected Lennar Corporation to redevelop the largest remaining piece open land in San Francisco, the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The City selected Lennar through a no-bid process and has not required Lennar to provide any guarantees for affordable housing, open space, or local employment. Instead, the recently approved Prop G encourages 25 percent affordable housing (versus the 28 percent required for Mission Bay and 30 percent required for Treasure Island). Prop G repeals the former requirement that 50 percent of the jobs be targeted to San Francisco residents. Further, Prop G does not require a certain percentage of land to be set aside for open space, opens the way for General Fund dollars to be used, and specifically taps into other city funds. Lennar has also been criticized for unsafe worker conditions and greatly contributing to health problems of residents in the neighboring Bayview.

Landlord Attorney Karen Uchiyama
(Accepted by "Karen Uchiyama")
Nominated by: St. Peter's Housing Committee
Karen Uchiyama is one of the most unethical and vindictive landlord attorneys in San Francisco. She is responsible for hundreds of eviction notices. Uchiyama often targets immigrant tenants and families, using their immigration status against them. She uses tactics that even other landlord attorneys would consider "low".

Lower Polk Neighbors
Nominated by: Gay Shame
Lower Polk Neighbors is allegedly an organization striving for neighborhood "beautification" and "cleanliness", but is actually a pro-gentrification attack squad that works with the police to rid neighborhood streets and businesses of "undesirables," i.e. hookers, hustlers, drug addicts, homeless people, trannies, needle exchange services, working class queers and other social deviants. Lower Polk Neighbors claims to be open to all, but primarily consists of wealthy property and business owners, slumlords, developers, bureaucrats, robber barons, police officers and vigilante social purists.

SF Redevelopment Agency
Nominated by: Queer Anti-Displacement Coalition
RA colludes with real estate developers and SFPD and uses tax payer money to kick out communities, buy up property, and fill store fronts with art studios. Once the art studios make the neighborhood palatable, the art spaces become salons, shoe stores, pasta houses, coffee shops, and other institutions of yuppie decay. Examples of RA's work are Hayes Valley (blacks were the target), Polk (queers were the target), Mid-Market (poor were the target).

Mission Housing Development Corp
Nominated by: Gay Shame
Mission Housing's charter is to provide housing for the poor, but they discriminate against the same people they are supposed to serve. An example of this is the multi-year bedbug infestation of the Altamont Hotel. Mission's response to the infestation was to send letters to clients telling them to bath more frequently, but bedbugs live in mattresses and wood, not on people! Mission even ordered the social workers serving the Altamont to keep the infestation quiet so visiting nurses would not refuse to serve the Altamont.

Link Video of June 14th Get Out the Word Event!