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Indybay Feature
Bike Party to Shut Down BP Station in San Francisco
Friday a group of bikers blocked entrances at a BP owned ARCO gas station at Fell and Divisadero in San Francisco. The demonstrators were protesting the environmental outrage in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a dangerous bike lane that is perennially blocked by cars lining up to enter the station.
San Francisco, June 11-The message is clear at the ARCO gas station at the corner of Fell and Divisadero streets in San Francisco: $2.99. That once extravagant price for a gallon of gas is now considered cheap, and continually draws heavily oil addicted drivers in need of a quick fix.
In doing so, the drivers’ vehicles habitually sit in the bicycle lane that runs down Fell Street while awaiting entrance to the mainline pumps. This in turn forces bikers into the race car traffic roaring up Fell, and injuries to two wheelers are consequently also habitual.
But that message changed today when dozens of protesters blocked the two entrances off Fell into the station. They filled the entrances with potted plants, blocked them with their bodies, with banners, with a bike powered sound system whose beats inspired dancing and whooping and carried their message to the neighborhood and beyond.
John Marc was holding one end of a banner reading “More Green, Less Wash” across one of the station entrances. “We’ve been trying to get the city to close these entrances for years,” he told me. “There have been countless bike accidents here.”
Marc pointed out one of the action’s organizers, Joshua Hart. I walked across the station grounds towards him, passing people holding signs that said “Health and Safety Before Profit”, and “Today the Gulf, Tomorrow the Bay.”
“We’re sickened with the loss of life in the Gulf,” Joshua told me. “And that BP is still in charge. They’re ordering the media to keep away from suffering animals so people won’t see them. It’s the same as what they do in Afghanistan so we don’t see the suffering people there.
Of the ARCO site he said, “This station is a particular thorn in our side. It’s along the only level route between here and downtown for bikers. We’ve been pleading with the city to close the Fell entrances for 10 years. But they just pass the buck. The don’t want to be seen as anti-car.”
“It’s not car versus bike. It’s about choices in getting where you want to go.
“Don’t boycott BP/ARCO. Boycott oil. Otherwise we’re just perpetuating the problem. We need to get off oil. Cars are the number one source of greenhouse emissions in California. They’re also the number one killer of children in the state.
“People are talking about coming here every Friday. Unless we stand up, nothing is going to change.”
When I asked Joshua if the police had been around, he pointed out four men he said were plainclothes cops standing in the back of the station with one uniformed officer sporting a three foot billy club.
I made my way back to the blocked off entrances. Cars were still going into the station, but they had to come and go from the Divisadero Street entrances.
Back along Fell I asked a woman holding a sign towards passing motorists why she was there. “I want to inform people,” she answered. “To make them aware there are solutions: solar, wind. We don’t need these corporations.” When I asked her name she said I could call her Cody.
I walked up to the bike powered music scene. A guy with a mike was rapping out the action’s messages. Just past that site the largest of the banners stretched across the first entrance off Fell into the station. Big letters spelled out “CLOSED FOR TOTAL RE THINK.”
In doing so, the drivers’ vehicles habitually sit in the bicycle lane that runs down Fell Street while awaiting entrance to the mainline pumps. This in turn forces bikers into the race car traffic roaring up Fell, and injuries to two wheelers are consequently also habitual.
But that message changed today when dozens of protesters blocked the two entrances off Fell into the station. They filled the entrances with potted plants, blocked them with their bodies, with banners, with a bike powered sound system whose beats inspired dancing and whooping and carried their message to the neighborhood and beyond.
John Marc was holding one end of a banner reading “More Green, Less Wash” across one of the station entrances. “We’ve been trying to get the city to close these entrances for years,” he told me. “There have been countless bike accidents here.”
Marc pointed out one of the action’s organizers, Joshua Hart. I walked across the station grounds towards him, passing people holding signs that said “Health and Safety Before Profit”, and “Today the Gulf, Tomorrow the Bay.”
“We’re sickened with the loss of life in the Gulf,” Joshua told me. “And that BP is still in charge. They’re ordering the media to keep away from suffering animals so people won’t see them. It’s the same as what they do in Afghanistan so we don’t see the suffering people there.
Of the ARCO site he said, “This station is a particular thorn in our side. It’s along the only level route between here and downtown for bikers. We’ve been pleading with the city to close the Fell entrances for 10 years. But they just pass the buck. The don’t want to be seen as anti-car.”
“It’s not car versus bike. It’s about choices in getting where you want to go.
“Don’t boycott BP/ARCO. Boycott oil. Otherwise we’re just perpetuating the problem. We need to get off oil. Cars are the number one source of greenhouse emissions in California. They’re also the number one killer of children in the state.
“People are talking about coming here every Friday. Unless we stand up, nothing is going to change.”
When I asked Joshua if the police had been around, he pointed out four men he said were plainclothes cops standing in the back of the station with one uniformed officer sporting a three foot billy club.
I made my way back to the blocked off entrances. Cars were still going into the station, but they had to come and go from the Divisadero Street entrances.
Back along Fell I asked a woman holding a sign towards passing motorists why she was there. “I want to inform people,” she answered. “To make them aware there are solutions: solar, wind. We don’t need these corporations.” When I asked her name she said I could call her Cody.
I walked up to the bike powered music scene. A guy with a mike was rapping out the action’s messages. Just past that site the largest of the banners stretched across the first entrance off Fell into the station. Big letters spelled out “CLOSED FOR TOTAL RE THINK.”
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Is it some kind of toxic crap or what? No one seems to know.
The name is Corexit. There are less toxic ones they have not used yet... Plenty of articles on it. Google it.
It'll slow traffic, we can carve out bike lanes in both directions, and cars will no longer be able to block the bike lane. Simple.
Micheal wrote;
“Don’t boycott BP/ARCO. Boycott oil. Otherwise we’re just perpetuating the problem."
Agree and disagree. Yes, oil addiction is the greater overall problem. However, the current disaster in the Gulf is the direct result of negligence on the part on ONE corporation, namely British Petroleum. Just as the Valdez spill was the fault of Exxon. We need to send a strong message to BP that they cannot get away with this behavior and expect to remain in business.
Following such severe incidents of negligence on the part of BP, sending the message that BP is unwelcome in the U.S. is of the upmost importance. Let us not go easy on them (like Obama will) because they are a foreign corporation. Check into the WTO free trade agreements to understand why foreign corporations operating in the U.S. have more legal rights than U.S. residents and ecosystems! Nothing against the British (Hey, i still love London dry gin and fish and chips!!), but BP really needs to pull out of the U.S.
BP's filling stations, warehouses, rigs and other material assets should be turned over to the ownership of the coastal Parish governments of Louisiana (and other Gulf states) who can document they were most severely effected on their coastline by the BP spill. The locals in the Parishes can profit from the remaining wells as they see fit, or shut the deep sea wells down altogether if they so desire. Of course corruption and bribery as in the MMS can happen in local governments, though in this case the community has more recourse as the local governments can be easier reached than the federal (non) regulators of the MMS who would rather snort coke together with BP execs than bother to regulate them!!
The jobs on the BP rigs have now negatively effected the coastal fishing jobs, so now we can trade off a few deep sea oil rig jobs for a cleaner and safer ecosystem, then maybe the fishing industry will be restored over time. Remind ourselves that the oil rig jobs now came at the expense of the fishing jobs, NOT the other way around!!
Please do NOT make the mistake of feeling sorry for BP, or getting worried that they will file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy due to lack of clean-up funds and the loss of stock value, the BP workers will find other jobs (as the unemployed fishing workers will need to!).
As far as BP CEO Mr. Tony "Want My Life Back" Hayward goes, he should be criminally prosecuted locally and federally for negligence. Maybe take him out to the bayous and ask the gators when his life should be returned to him??
The BP spill is a direct result of cutting corners for safety to increase short term profit. So BP shareholders can be included as responsible, and if their stock tumbles down below the basement, that is another form of justice. They are just a non-living corporation! Since when do people feel more compassion for non-living corporate entities than the birds, fish and people effected by their greed induced negligence!!
As occurred in other incidents of corporate bankruptcy (see Maxxam Pacific Lumber bankruptcy), the people most effected often don't get their money in time and become creditors. So the 20 billion escrow account as proposed by Obama is more smoke and mirrors from a government unable to bite the corporate hand that feeds their campaign chest.
Therefore any biting back against BP is going to need to come from people (and a few hungry gators!!), and the most effective way to bite back against BP's criminal acts is a long term boycott, and maybe a few improvised "BP station shutdowns" throughout the U.S. The boycott needs to be focused against BP specifically, not spread out as a general boycott against oil. People can brainstorm and work for other options outside of oil, though the immediate message needs to be strongest against BP until we can see some results!!
BTW - As expected by my spirit guides, a "spirit fatwa" will be issued against BP CEO Mr. Tony "Want My Life Back" Hayward. Oh, you'll get your life back in due time Mr. Tony Hayward, though you may discover that your life isn't the same as before, nor will it ever be. You are a disgrace to the British people, Mr. Tony Hayward!!
Mr. Tony Hayward, my prayer to the spirits is that they send you endless nightmares of oil soaked birds, the angels of the Gulf whose wings you so carelessly soiled for your short term profit from cutting corners. The flapping of soiled wings of the Gulf's angels will be inside of your head for all eternity, at least until you leave the physical realm. There is the beginnings of justice!!
Mr. Tony Hayward, once the spirits get into your dreams, you will be reconsidering your earlier statement of wanting your life back. You will only be looking forward to the ending of the ceaseless nightmares!!
Sweet dreams, Mr. Tony Hayward!!
“Don’t boycott BP/ARCO. Boycott oil. Otherwise we’re just perpetuating the problem."
Agree and disagree. Yes, oil addiction is the greater overall problem. However, the current disaster in the Gulf is the direct result of negligence on the part on ONE corporation, namely British Petroleum. Just as the Valdez spill was the fault of Exxon. We need to send a strong message to BP that they cannot get away with this behavior and expect to remain in business.
Following such severe incidents of negligence on the part of BP, sending the message that BP is unwelcome in the U.S. is of the upmost importance. Let us not go easy on them (like Obama will) because they are a foreign corporation. Check into the WTO free trade agreements to understand why foreign corporations operating in the U.S. have more legal rights than U.S. residents and ecosystems! Nothing against the British (Hey, i still love London dry gin and fish and chips!!), but BP really needs to pull out of the U.S.
BP's filling stations, warehouses, rigs and other material assets should be turned over to the ownership of the coastal Parish governments of Louisiana (and other Gulf states) who can document they were most severely effected on their coastline by the BP spill. The locals in the Parishes can profit from the remaining wells as they see fit, or shut the deep sea wells down altogether if they so desire. Of course corruption and bribery as in the MMS can happen in local governments, though in this case the community has more recourse as the local governments can be easier reached than the federal (non) regulators of the MMS who would rather snort coke together with BP execs than bother to regulate them!!
The jobs on the BP rigs have now negatively effected the coastal fishing jobs, so now we can trade off a few deep sea oil rig jobs for a cleaner and safer ecosystem, then maybe the fishing industry will be restored over time. Remind ourselves that the oil rig jobs now came at the expense of the fishing jobs, NOT the other way around!!
Please do NOT make the mistake of feeling sorry for BP, or getting worried that they will file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy due to lack of clean-up funds and the loss of stock value, the BP workers will find other jobs (as the unemployed fishing workers will need to!).
As far as BP CEO Mr. Tony "Want My Life Back" Hayward goes, he should be criminally prosecuted locally and federally for negligence. Maybe take him out to the bayous and ask the gators when his life should be returned to him??
The BP spill is a direct result of cutting corners for safety to increase short term profit. So BP shareholders can be included as responsible, and if their stock tumbles down below the basement, that is another form of justice. They are just a non-living corporation! Since when do people feel more compassion for non-living corporate entities than the birds, fish and people effected by their greed induced negligence!!
As occurred in other incidents of corporate bankruptcy (see Maxxam Pacific Lumber bankruptcy), the people most effected often don't get their money in time and become creditors. So the 20 billion escrow account as proposed by Obama is more smoke and mirrors from a government unable to bite the corporate hand that feeds their campaign chest.
Therefore any biting back against BP is going to need to come from people (and a few hungry gators!!), and the most effective way to bite back against BP's criminal acts is a long term boycott, and maybe a few improvised "BP station shutdowns" throughout the U.S. The boycott needs to be focused against BP specifically, not spread out as a general boycott against oil. People can brainstorm and work for other options outside of oil, though the immediate message needs to be strongest against BP until we can see some results!!
BTW - As expected by my spirit guides, a "spirit fatwa" will be issued against BP CEO Mr. Tony "Want My Life Back" Hayward. Oh, you'll get your life back in due time Mr. Tony Hayward, though you may discover that your life isn't the same as before, nor will it ever be. You are a disgrace to the British people, Mr. Tony Hayward!!
Mr. Tony Hayward, my prayer to the spirits is that they send you endless nightmares of oil soaked birds, the angels of the Gulf whose wings you so carelessly soiled for your short term profit from cutting corners. The flapping of soiled wings of the Gulf's angels will be inside of your head for all eternity, at least until you leave the physical realm. There is the beginnings of justice!!
Mr. Tony Hayward, once the spirits get into your dreams, you will be reconsidering your earlier statement of wanting your life back. You will only be looking forward to the ending of the ceaseless nightmares!!
Sweet dreams, Mr. Tony Hayward!!
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