Cracking Randy Shaw

I think I’ve cracked the complexity that is Randy Shaw.

As you all know, my first interview with Randy didn’t go too well. I couldn’t handle his short answers, or wrap my head around his long resume of activism successes and resident criticisms. I also felt like an imposition on the many projects he’s busy with, especially because he was just back from two weeks vacation. And if you met Randy, you would see that he’s not a very warm person; he’s all business. Exactly why he made a point to recruit me for Beyond Chron while I was trying to interview him. Randy felt important, powerful, and capable in his office.

And so, I was both frightened (he didn’t show much remorse for the suicide of his opponent) of Randy, and stressed over how I would write about a man that seemed a mystery to me. Like a lawyer or politician, he almost seemed inhuman. He was not a talking heart, but a talking mind, a talking text book–so opposite of most people in the Tenderloin who are empathetic souls. Which brings me to my next point…

Maybe that’s why many Tenderloin residents distrust Randy. Even though he works for a non-profit, has devoted 30 years to tenant rights, and writes endlessly about the TL’s progress when so many news outlets only cite crime, the people of the Tenderloin see a talking mind, when they wear their hearts on their sleeves. They look at his activism and find it disgusting–a bragging list for Shaw. They count the Tenderloin Housing Clinic’s many buildings, and name Shaw a “property pimp.” They read Beyond Chron and tag it as a blog for all of his opinions. They laugh at his Uptown Tenderloin Museum, finding little optimism that tourists will find the TL charming, calling it a ploy for gentrification.

And I bought it. I talked to a few people, and couldn’t help but feel a bit of the same angst. I love the Tenderloin. I defend it. Imagine what comes to mind when you hear one man has been profiting off it’s low income residents and welfare funds, and claims himself “progressive.” I am a journalist, and I’ve become so attached to these talking hearts, being a sucker for story telling and human nature. But I’ve been blindsided by it. I wasn’t looking at the facts, and the facts all point to Randy Shaw making visible improvements to the Tenderloin neighborhood despite defamatory comments online and on the streets (as I’m realizing, most aren’t credible).

So who is Randy Shaw?

He’s a man that’s pragmatic, sometimes comes off as cocky, and assertive. He gets up, and sits down at his computer, scanning the documents scattered around him as he mumbles something about me writing for Beyond Chron before dismissing me to continue his work he’s already started (while I’m still in his presence). He takes on media coverage, traffic and pedestrian safety, tenant issues, historical preservation, and neighborhood lighting. What so many of the people he serves don’t know is; why?

Although he’s not very good at expressing it, it’s because he deeply cares about the Tenderloin; in love with it’s beautiful, old buildings (so much that he’s making a museum for it and has b&w photos of them all over his office) and committed to it’s close-knit community–even in the adversity of criticism. His strong belief that certain measures will help or harm the Tenderloin make him seem opinionated and abrasive, but he is sincere when he believes that Twitter’s Mid-Market arrival or the loss of certain businesses will benefit the Tenderloin.

Randy Shaw is an activist, and a good one at that.

Thank you everyone for your feedback last class. For pushing me to talk to more officials, find sources who will give names, and use more objective language. I am leaving the character of Randy that lends itself, and the facts about his work in the story, and throwing the rest out. You’ll find a new story Monday.

Miss Connie’s Last Stand

Miss Connie’s Last Stand

The monthly meeting of the Mission Police station is in full swing. Twenty residents, ranging vastly in age, volume, and number of pre-meeting cookies consumed, pose their questions and concerns to police captain, Robert Moser.

One voice breaks the buzz as a middle-aged woman with dark hair and a thick east coast accent berates Moser for the problem of homelessness. “I don’t understand why you don’t just drive a paddy wagon down the street and throw them in the back!” she screetches, pointing a finger to emphasize her point.

In the very last row, perched atop a folding stool, Connie Ramirez Weber leans over to the person sitting next to her. “I hate when she does that,” she whispers conspiratorially, adding” She drives me crazy every meeting.”

Weber, 91, has some context behind her commentary. She’s been to every community meeting in The Mission since she moved to the neighborhood from North Beach in 1931. “I think I’ve just about met every captain,” she says leaning heavily on the umbrella she uses for a cane. She pulls back her raincoat sleeve to reveal a watch with the SFPD logo on it’s face, “One of the officers gave this to me a few years back,” she says proudly.

After more than a decade of largely uninterrupted meeting attendance, Weber says that this meeting, February 27, will be her last. Though she says an officer usually drives home from the meetings, the commute on foot from her apartment on Shotwell Avenue has gotten to be too much in her old age. “I hope somebody takes over when I quit,” she chuckles.

The officers on the beat take notice of Weber; officer Matthew Friedman calls her “A great person who has a lot of history living in The Mission District”.

“It was so nice, this Mission,” Weber reminisces, thinking of her first impression of the neighborhood. She moved to the Mission with her family during World War two, and later worked for Mission High School doing security work for 18 years. Weber has seen the ebb and flow of the neighborhood’s population over time.

“After the war it started going down, then it started picking up, and now there are a lot of young people,” she says.

She also speaks to the problem of crime in the neighborhood. The neighborhood she says has “gotten a little better about guns, I guess they moved somewhere else!”

This is ironic considering the stabbing that occurred on Julian Street a few blocks away from Shot well, a subject discussed at length at the meeting.

Still Weber says in spite of the “troubling” crimes she loves The Mission and San Francisco. Though this will likely be her last appearance at the community meeting she still plans to “watch carefully over the block.”

Japantown and the Fillmore Stay Together

It took me three weeks but after waiting to attend the Redistricting Task Force Meeting on March 17, at the Ella Hutch Community Center, I can honestly say it was worth the wait.

It was an honor to not only witness nihonmachiROOTS come out victorious but a whole district.

Prior to March 12, Task Force placed the northern District 5 boundary through Japantown, meaning important institutions like the Japanese Community Youth Council (JCYC) and Chibi-Chan Preschool would not officially be a part of the area anymore. Instead it would be a part of District 2, which includes the Marina and Pacific Heights.

In January, Task Force actually placed the boundary across Geary, which separated all of Japantown from the Fillmore and Western Addition. Even parts of the Fillmore like the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center would have been separated from the community as well.

nihonmachiROOTs, members of Booker T. and residents from all over District 5 fought at meetings and sent their concerns to Task Force until they changed their mind.

March 12, an updated pre-proposed map was created that included all of the community’s demands for the northern boundary.

I had interviewed the boys hours before the update was made. They had hope in their community and felt that Task Force would respond positively, which they did.

The meeting was over an hour of appreciative two-minute testimonies. Majority of the audience stood in line just so they could thank Task Force for not splitting up their original community.

It was beautiful and moving watching the Japanese American and African American community stress how important it was for their groups to stay together. Both have been through major displacement in their own communities, faced discrimination and endured so much change and yet they fought side by side to make sure neither community fell through the District 5 cracks.

I am really happy that I got to be a part of a happy process. I wanted more than anything to see this district come out triumphant. After everything they have been through, it is inspirational that Japantown and the Fillmore fought to stay together and ultimately won.

You really can’t ask for a better ending than that.

Complex Randy Shaw

Sorry Randy if you’re reading this. Forgot to mention this blog is also a place for students to talk about our stories and get advice.

I’m writing my profile on Randy Shaw. If you don’t know him, he’s a big deal in my ‘hood, the Tenderloin.

Remember when Daley talked about Newsom’s “care not cash” bill? The one that takes welfare money and puts it straight to rent for homeless? That was first thought up by Shaw and his non-profit Tenderloin Housing Clinic. He got permission from the city to do it on a small scale for his tenants, then the idea was drafted and passed on a city-wide scale.

Shaw is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) landlord in the TL. He has about 2,000 tenants. He is in the works of creating a Tenderloin historical museum, and critics SF news and politics in a blog he created called Beyond Chron.

Let’s just say Randy isn’t an easy man to write about, for many reasons… let’s do a list, shall we?

1. He’s accomplished a lot. So much to include in the this profile. He’s worked on many Props and tenant rights in SF that have been passed, written three books, and founded a blog where he gives much opinion to politics in San Francisco. Did I mention he’s starting a museum? During his interview I was a little overwhelmed with where to even start.

2. Because he has his hand in a million projects around the Tenderloin and still writes for Beyond Chron, he’s busy. I only got a twenty minute interview with him. To make things worse, between answering questions he repeatedly told me I should contribute stories to Beyond Chron, which is actually not a bad idea by the way, but not what I want to talk about when we only have 20 minutes. I said I would definitely be emailing him or calling him with follow-up questions, but I’m kind of afraid he might not get back to me the fastest.

3. He’s a a very logical person, and not very empathetic. And no I’m not making a judgment on his personality or who he is, I’m just saying as a journalist writing his profile, it makes it very hard to interview him. When asking him questions about why he devotes so much time to TL tenants, he just says “because they had no rights.” Not very quote-worthy, right? All I could think when he answered my questions is that he sounds like a lawyer. And it felt like no matter how I worded my questions, I kept getting answers like this.

4. He’s controversial. He’s been called “emperor” of the TL, “dictator” of the TL, he’s disabled comments on his blog, and even has a tenant (yes, one of his own tenants) who curates website attacking Shaw. So do I ask him about the very things people criticize him for? I don’t want to just bring the heat, and to make him get defensive and give me lawyer-like/politically correct answers. I want him to be able to trust me, and say what he honestly thinks. It’s hard. I’m not trying to make this a fluff piece about his accomplishments and endeavors. At the same time, I don’t want this to be a profile where he defends each one of his biggest criticisms. I want to be fair.

Any advice? (please?) I feel a little over my head with this profile. With organization, conducting interviews, what angle to use, what other sources I should go to, etc…

Carol Magidson and her Zoo

Animal Resource Center, San Francisco Zoo, San Francisco, Calif.

The weather damp and cold as usual in the Sunset today. The zoo looked almost as if it was closed today entering the long driveway. There were about 15 cars in the parking lot with 50 other spots open.

Coming into the interview I didn’t really know what to expect. Because I hadn’t been to the zoo since I was 5-years-old, I had no idea where I was going so I had to roam around a little bit. Even with a map in my hand I couldn’t figure out the place too easily. I finally came up to the animal resource center where my interviewee volunteers at.

I sat with Carol Magidson, 71, who is a volunteer for the children’s zoo, for about 30 minutes at her lunchtime table in the middle of the resource center. Carol is really awesome, we talked about a lot of interesting things from her past and what she does now for the zoo. She took me back to her early years when she was a flight attendant and told me everything about her volunteering.

After the long interview with Carol she showed me around her part of the zoo. I saw a bunch of animals I haven’t seen since I was a kid, it was pretty exciting. I saw an owl, tortoise, hedgehog, snake, possum. My favorite had to be the baby owl. I have never seen an owl with such big eyes, they were glowing.

It was a pretty cool experience. I was telling her I would maybe come back and do some volunteering myself because I like doing little things like that sometimes.

23rd Street, Epicenter of Growing Latino Population in Richmond

Harlem Masters, an African-American who moved to Richmond in 2005, is employed as a crossing guard at the increasingly busy intersection of 23rd Street and Clinton Avenue. “They call this street Little Mexico,” said Masters, as he helped a couple of Latino
children make their way safely across the street.

This part of Richmond was not always known as Little Mexico. In fact, it is a relatively recent phenomenon that highlights just how rapidly the racial and ethnic makeup of the city has changed.

Today, Latinos are the largest ethnic group in Richmond at 39.5 percent of the total population, followed by Caucasians (31.4 percent) and African-Americans (26.6 percent), according to 2010 census figures. Just twelve years ago, however, census numbers told a different story. In 2000, African Americans were the largest racial group in the city at 36.1 percent, followed by Latinos (26.5 percent) and Caucasians (21.4 percent).

Richmond’s burgeoning Latino community has grown around the 23rd Street business district, and rarely has that community been more on display in recent years than at the city’s annual Cinco de Mayo festival.

Not surprisingly, as the annual festival approaches, the 23rd Street Merchants Association is playing a lead organizing role. The association was founded in 2007, when 15 Latino merchants took over planning of the festival. Today, there are more than 300 businesses associated, all with one goal in mind: to make Cinco de Mayo a family-oriented celebration of Latino culture.

Rafael Madrigal, president of the association, was raised in Richmond and recalls being one of only a handful of Latinos in his neighborhood. But now, he said, “23rd Street is the Latino hub of Richmond, like Fruitvale is for Oakland and the Mission is for San Francisco.”

Rochelle Monk from the city manager’s office says the way the association took over the celebration is a “fine example” of how community organizations can take ownership of an event and make it successful. City budget cuts, said Monk, have made it harder to finance events like Cinco de Mayo, and she doubts the celebration would exist at all if it weren’t for community groups like the Merchant’s Association.

Before the association took over the festival, said Monk, Richmond’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations were marred by vandalism. Partiers damaged cars and storefronts, and many of those arrested were not even from Richmond.

Rigoberto Mendoza, owner of “Rigo’s Auto Sales” on 23rd Street and one of the founders of the association, remembers how the Cinco de Mayo celebrations of 8 to 9 years ago would inevitably end with confrontations between festival-goers and police.

That all stopped, said Mendoza, when the 23rd Street Merchant’s Association got involved. “When businessmen from (23rd Street) got in between the community and the police, the relationship improved,” Mendoza said.

Sergio Rios, owner of Bob’s Cleaners on 23rd Street, is also a founding member of the association. He said the merchants decided to start patrolling the streets a couple of days before and after May 5, asking people to behave and keep the festival a family-friendly event.

Judging by the numbers, the association’s efforts have led to not only a safer Cinco de Mayo, but a more popular festival as well. In 2007, the first year Cinco de Mayo was officially organized by the association, roughly 6,000 people attended. By 2011 that
number had reached 100,000 participants.

“We put on the biggest party in the state, and we don’t charge (an entry fee),” Madrigal said.

Although Latino business owners make up a majority in the merchant’s association and on 23rd street, they are not the only members. According to Madrigal, between 30-35 percent of the members are comprised of African-American, Asian and Caucasian business owners.

Yvonne Boswell is an African-American born and raised in Richmond, and the director of “Happy Brown Bear’s Preschool/Daycare” on 23rd Street and Gaynor Avenue, where she’s worked for the past 20 years. Boswell is an association member, and said she has always felt welcome at the meetings, even though she doesn’t speak Spanish.

Hermin Dowe, originally from Jamaica, operates a law firm on San Pablo Ave. A member of the association for the last five years, Dowe said it’s been a place for her to meet a nice group of people from the community and build her business network.

Eloisa F. Martinez, also known as Lilly, was the first to open a Spanish-Speaking beauty salon on 23rd Street, over 20 years ago. When she first came to Richmond there were only a few other businesses owned by Latinos, she said. Today, Martinez said her
business has improved due to growing number of Latinos in the area.

Despite the better business, Martinez is not without her concerns. “What we don’t like is that there are too many prostitutes and there are a few naughty young people that do graffiti,” she said, as she looked at the recently installed windows on her storefront.
Someone had scratched the letters “BLAH” onto each window panel.

Norberto Ruiz, owner of Discolandia and an original association member, shares Martinez’s concerns. “We used to close at 9pm, but now we close the store at 8pm,” said Ruiz. “People are afraid to come out at night because of the danger brought by the
prostitution,” he added.

According to Ruiz, the problem has gotten worse in the past two years. He said he would like to see the police address the prostitution issue more actively, and hopes the 23rd Street Merchants Association can also be involved in solving the problem.

______________________

This article started as “STREET1″ and after a lot of editing and a lot of other calls and interviews, it turned into this… It will be published in the print edition of the Richmond Pulse in a couple of weeks, with its translation in Spanish that I did too…

There is this place….

A Saturday night can mean many things. It could be a night to let loose,spend time with friends, or do the things you have been putting off. For me this is a day I dread the most.

I work at a bar in the North Beach district five days a week. There lies well known bars and restaurants, diverse groups of party goers, and a variety of erotic entertainment such as Larry Flint’s Hustler Club.The people who come out here praise Saturdays. It is as if they are restricted from going out on any other day of the week. The weekend air is loud and full of rowdy muffles and as the night drags on ambulance lights and flash mobs fill my work. Looking out the window and up the street, police can be seen sprinkled at every Broadway corner. Even on a rainy day such as the one we had yesterday party goers prevailed. This is why I dread Saturdays. Once the clock hits 12 I know it isn’t long until I can leave this place.

The only good part about working on Saturday is the band that plays that night. They are a cool group of guys who help me get through my shift. We run out to the back alley to share cigarettes, laugh when customers make a clear declaration that they are drunk, and talk about about projects we are working on. Eventually they stop playing and I turn on some Chet Baker despite the fact people are being louder than the music. Before they leave though they remind me it is now Sunday and that means its speakeasy time.

Starting at 2 a.m. there is a speakeasy that opens up in the SoMa. The location is known to most but people don’t know that it is a speakeasy at night. There is no clear indication of an entrance except for recognizing the gate structure. Behind the gate stand one person with a clipboard and to get in you have to be on the list or just show up at the right time when a group is being let in. Thankfully my band friends who play at my work get me on the list. Some of them play there Sunday mornings until 6 a.m.

Whats nice about getting to the speakeasy is that its more laid back making your way there. No swarms of people,no loud music, and no police scouting the area. Once inside it is almost humorous to see how much people don’t care about laws or the outside world. This may be coming from the celebratory atmosphere or whatever choice of party favor you choose for the night. Either way the speakeasy is filled with people just hanging out.

Different levels and hallways make the warehouse feel as if you are in a maze. One minute you are following the sound of the jazz band, but you then find yourself at the bar. There is furniture ranging from artistic to antique to very questionable. The people are just having fun and are for the most part extremely friendly. In every room there are  people just chatting away, smoking cigarettes, and drinking. Going into the women’s bathroom is the only definite uncomfortable moment. There is always one toilet disturbingly clogged, more men than women, someone taking a few hits and no paper towels.

It is hard to describe this place fully. So much is going on and as one might assume there are no pictures allowed,ever. They only way to know is to follow the whispers and clues, muster up the energy for a long night, and go!

 

 

 

Progressive Grounds

Like many college students, I like to go to a café to work on my homework.  My reasons may be different from others, but just being in an environment where it seems like everyone else is actually working on something significant motivates me to actually do my work too.  There is this sense of obligation to be productive at a café because you do not want to be that person stealing someone else’s seat only to check your Facebook or watch Youtube videos.  It’s a silly reason, but because of that deterrence I restrain myself from getting distracted and force myself to work on my homework.

San Francisco has a plethora of coffee shops in every district, especially the Mission, but finding that perfect coffee shop that fits all of my needs proves quite difficult.  So what are my needs, you ask?

1. Outlets – I need to charge my computer so it doesn’t die while updating this blog, duh.
2. Free wifi – how am I suppose to blog this blog if I don’t even have access to the Internet?  Not just that, a lot of my work requires some sort of research online, so having wifi is crucial.
3. Good coffee – must be strong, bold and tasty.  I need to be kept awake, so the caffeine must help me with that.
4. Music – I went to Four Barrel once in the Mission and they had some sort of black metal music playing, definitely not studying music.
5. Comfortable seats – I tend to stay at a coffee shop for more than an hour, so my backside would definitely appreciate comfy seats.
6. A space to sit – I used to go to this coffee shop in Japantown called YakiniQ, but recently it’s been impossible to get a seat in there because out of nowhere it got very popular.  It’s too bad because this place had almost everything on this list of demands.
7. Parking – I refuse to pay $6 to park for two hours, so I tend to look for coffee shops with residential parking.

Not a very long list as you can see, but the search for this one coffee shop has been a long and daunting journey…until now! Thanks to this reporting class, I’ve found the perfect little café to do my homework at.  Right in the heart of Bernal Height’s commercial street on Cortland Avenue lies my new go to homework café, Progressive Grounds.  The crowd in Progressive Grounds generally consists of young adults, who like me go there to work on schoolwork or work related work, and locals of Bernal Heights who consider Progressive Grounds their regular local coffee shop.  At Progressive Grounds, I’ve discovered a new technique of finding sources.  I like to sit around for hours on end half working on my homework and half listening into the locals talk about their neighborhood. Sounds crazy, but it worked for me!   I’ve found two of my sources just from being an eavesdropper.

The layout at Progressive Grounds is quite unique as well.  There are three different sections, each one with its own distinctive atmosphere.  The front feels like a typical café with the rows of tables and benches laid out on one side of the room and on the other side is the counter where you order your drinks and food.  There’s usually an older gentleman reading his newspaper by the corner where the window is and the rest of the tables are filled up with young adults on their Macs with their headphones on.  The backroom, which you enter through a narrow hallway from the front, is very cozy and has a very tranquil vibe to it with rows of benches on both sides of the walls decorated with colorful throw pillows. This is more of the study room because everyone is on their laptop or reading a book not making a peep.  The backroom is very relaxing, and as an added bonus there are outlets for every table so that way no one has to fight to plug their charger.  From the backroom, you open a glass door that leads to the beautiful three tier back patio.  I could already envision myself in the back patio with my friends chit chatting and eating Mitchell ice cream on a nice summer day, which of course is in September/October in San Francisco.  Oh did I mention, this café serves Mitchell ice cream too? Well, they do! I’m completely going to take advantage of that when the weather permits.

So if you’re looking for a new cafe to study at, then definitely check out Progressive Grounds.  I highly recommend it.

Today in the sunset

Ocean Beach on a good day

I’ve been visiting my neighborhood at least once a week and I’ve had some trouble but I’ve also met some good people along the way. Today maybe wasn’t the best day to explore the beachy side of Sunset because of the dramatic change in the weather since last week. Today was the coldest and windiest day in the neighborhood in a while.

As I was driving back and forth through the parking lot – literally trying to find anyone I could – the wind and hard rain was shifting my car in directions I couldn’t control. I found hope as I saw a woman walking down the crackly sidewalk of the beach. She seemed pretty frightened as I calmly approached her in the wet windy mist that she was walking through. I tried talking to her but she wasn’t interested.

My plans of talking to someone in the upper half of Ocean Beach did fail but I wasn’t giving up. I took a trip up to the beach parking lot on Sloat Boulevard to see if I could find anyone interesting.

As I sat in my car trying to figure out a plan, I see a man in his car peacefully enjoying the sounds of the ocean and reading his book.

Today I met a Ruben Espinoza, 37, resident of Daly City and a part-time teamster. He travels from city to city working with big-rigs.  Jobs come and go for Ruben and most of his gigs are in the city.

“I do the trade shows at the Moscone convention shows,” said Espinoza. “A lot of my work comes and goes.”

I talked to Ruben for about 10 minutes as he sat in his car and me in the pouring rain. I then asked why he was there in his car by himself.

“I come here from time to time. This is when I come – when it’s windy,  I like to see the waves. Sometimes I like to watch the guys surfing. Yesterday I came out here and there we’re two guys wind gliding. It was pretty nice watching them yesterday, it was pretty good.”

It’s interesting for me to see why people are out there. Some people are pretty deep about it and then there are some who just come for the pure pleasure of watching the waves.

J-town Love

It was only a few weeks ago when I had trouble getting people in Japantown to talk to me. I was actually quite defeated and focused most of my energy on the Fillmore.

But I guess you can say I have had a change in heart for the little area.

It is because of this part of District 5 that I will get to complete a meeting story, profile story and most likely a final.

Apparently, looking for sources at the mini mall in J-town was probably the wrong technique.

On Monday I had coffee with three members from nihonmachiROOTS. I interviewed them for my profile and actually made three new friends who are Japantown experts. I told them about how I first struggled to make substantial sources there but they reassured me that it was not me. They just explained that some people are hesitant to talk to new people.

I can definitely agree with that, I was extremely shy at the beginning of the semester. It would take me a good 15 minutes of standing outside before I pushed myself into shops to talk to people.

Other students have asked me how do I get so many sources? Honestly, friends of friends and pushing myself to talk to whoever is there. I usually bring a good friend with me who will say, “Love, just talk to them so we’re not here alllllll day.”

Thanks to Daylight Savings Time I was able to jump on the 22 and walk up to Post Street by myself in the late afternoon. I feel like going by myself, which my strict Filipino mother would hate if she knew, enabled me to relax and explore without feeling rushed to return home for someone else.

But basically, my trip to Japantown was really successful. I learned of other groups who worked in the area I could use as sources. I was introduced to the cutest cafe–YakiniQ Cafe on Post Street. But best of all I started on my profile.

Yes, I believe I have found some love for J-town.