Feature Archives

A sticker carrying imagery encouraging violence against houseless people and drug addicted people was recently found on a crosswalk button in downtown Santa Cruz. The sticker reads "Street Cleaner: Santa Cruz Meth Head Cleansing Project – Santa Cruz" and is marked with the hashtag #131stickers. It depicts a silhouette of a skinny person wearing a backpack, with a cigarette in their mouth, an open hand stretched out, and a “Tweaker” flag hanging out of the backpack. Laid over the image of this person are the crosshairs of a telescopic rifle sight.

On March 10, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and other housing activists kicked off the campaign in the Bay Area for the Affordable Housing Act — a proposed ballot initiative that that will give cities and counties the power to adopt rent control measures necessary to address California's housing affordability crisis by repealing the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. For the November 2018 ballot, the deadline for collection of 585,000 signatures statewide is May.

After a decline during the Great Recession, bottled water sales are back and bigger than ever — even eclipsing soda sales for the first time in 2016. But people buying bottled water might not be aware that it’s nearly 2,000 times more expensive than tap water and four times more expensive than regular-grade gasoline. In its latest report on the impacts of the bottled water industry, Food & Water Watch looks at the industry’s predatory marketing, the extraction of communities’ water resources, and the powerhouse lobbying of bottled water corporations.

Bob M writes: In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas shooting, the high school students at that school and across the country are calling for a walkout on March 24 and again on April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting in 1999. The students are calling for national leaders to listen to them, but as of yet they do not have demands other than getting AR-15s "out of the hands of people who should not have them." Many radicals still hold strong to the important point that de-arming must start with the cops and military, and not take away self-defense from oppressed communities.

Maria Anderson is one of many tenants facing eviction from eight units in two apartment buildings at 2661 and 2651 Fresno Street in Capitola. The buildings were sold to a house flipper registered in Morgan Hill. The buyer — Charity Homes, LLC — is owned by John Francisco Paiva who, according to a 2014 press release from the San Jose Real Estate Investment Club, is a former executive with Cisco Systems and has acted as the full time president of Charity Rehabbers, LLC since 2013. Soon after the purchase cleared, each apartment in the two buildings received 60-day eviction notices.

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty released a report, Tent City USA: The Growth of America’s Homeless Encampments and How Communities are Responding, reviewing the rapid growth of homeless people living in tents across the United States over the past decade, as measured by documentation in media reports. Research showed a 1,342 percent increase in homeless encampments reported between 2007 and 2017, with at least one encampment reported in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. As encampments become increasingly common, local governments have enacted laws to prohibit living in tents.

Frances Moore, affectionately known by those around her as Aunti Frances, is a beloved Black disabled activist, elder, Black Panther and community leader who has lived in North Oakland/South Berkeley her entire life. She now faces a no-fault eviction at the hands of Natalia Morphy and Morphy’s parents, who are exploiting a notorious loophole in Oakland renter protections for their own personal gain. The attempts to evict Aunti Frances signal that Oakland’s redevelopment is moving forward without care and consideration for its longtime residents and community members. A court support breakfast rally will be held on Wednesday, February 21.