Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition Strikes at Zing.com : Indybay

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Indybay Feature

Thu Dec 7 2000

Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition Strikes at Zing.com

Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition
Storms Live/Work Conversion Project

December 7, 2000, San Francisco
Seeks to Expose Legally Suspect Activity & Demand Community Control of Planning Process

"The revolution is on, if you're not resisting, you're collaborating." - Nancy Charraga, small business owner in Mission Around 100 people showed up to protest outside 1800 Bryant St. in San Francisco, a large live/work building that is currently being rented to Zing.com, a dot-com company. The Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition is seeking to expose illegal conversions of live/work space to all office use. Our calls to Zing.com to find out if employees are living at 1800 Bryant have been so far ignored. Zing.com is also the full owner of a subsidiary dot-com, eframes.com. With the focus on illegal live/work conversions, the rally addressed the bigger picture of class warfare being waged against low-income and minority communities in San Francisco by developers and dot-com interests. An open mike allowed protesters and supporters a chance to voice their opinions, normally kept silent by corporate media. Nancy Charraga, a small business owner in the Mission, talked about the Zapatistas and the concept of community control of community resources. She also said that in the last 6 months, 5 businesses located near her on 24th and Mission have gone out of business. Larry Lattimore, who is currently homeless and living in the vicinity of 5th and Market, talked about wages and the insecurity of life under capitalism: "It is just a little bit better than slavery. It takes every bit of effort to break even, so you're still in the hole." He said that there is plenty of work, but almost no fair wages. Another man who is currently living in his car talked about losing his job at a company which has been in San Francisco for 20 years, but is going out of business after their rent was raised from $6,000/month to $20,000/month. Speakers also represented the Day Laborer's Union, highlighting that while Zing.com and other dot-coms are illegally taking over valuable space, the union has been searching for office space for 10 years. Union reps also spoke about ending INS intervention in the workplace, and talked about the AFL-CIO's recent general amnesty for all human beings, regardless of citizenship or legal status. Protesters at 1800 Bryant blockaded all entrances to the building, surrounded by household items such as mattresses, televisions and toilets. Supporters marched around the building, which is entirely vacant on the ground floor, pounding on windows and demanding an end to illegal dot-colonization. Zing.com employees watched from the roof of the building as the crowd encouraged them to "jump! jump! jump!" In an interesting twist, an unidentified property owner had to come out of the building and confront the crowd in order to sign citizen's arrest warrants for each protester blockading the building. The protesters insisted that the police officers "arrest him!" but the officer in charge indicated that he did not have jurisdiction to do so. Protected by a wall of police, the stone-faced and beret-sporting rich bastard went from door to door, confirming that he would sign warrants for every protester. This unidentified individual would not engage in any dialogue with the community protesters and supporters. Twelve protesters were arrested. The protest ended on an upbeat, with an encouragement from MAC to get out the vote in run-off elections, "regardless of how we feel about electoral politics." MAC hopes that progressive supervisors could pass Prop. L-type legislation. For Immediate Release: December 7, 2000 (Official MAC Press Release) December 7, 2000 - Members of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC) performed civil disobedience at the site of a live/work loft suspected of being illegally converted to all office use. MAC blocked doorway entrances to 1800 Bryant St. and a large rally in support of the action gathered on the sidewalk around the building. MAC members and allies set up a living room/party atmosphere -- with furniture, music and food -- to highlight the loss of housing stock to the community caused by these conversions. "They excuse the live/work projects, which are inappropriate to the neighborhood to begin with, by defending them as housing," one member said, "and then they allow this 'housing' to be taken away and turned into offices. That's going too far." The rally highlights two of MAC's long-standing core demands: stop the illegal conversion of property to house information technology offices, and institute a community planning process to decide appropriate use of neighborhood buildings. The Planning Department has allowed live/work loft space to be converted to offices for high-tech companies, which takes housing units away from the market. Meanwhile, day laborers, immigrants, families, youth and artists fall victim to soaring housing costs created by the gentrifying force of these companies. The result is people being turned out onto the streets while computers reside in the housing stock. The type of office use being brought in through this process is regarded in the community as banned both by live/work conversion regulations and by zoning regulations covering the Northeast Mission Industrial Zone. Using fraudulent loopholes, they also escape the citywide limits on new office space set by 1986's Prop M. The Planning Department is sanctioning these conversions throughout the Mission, Potrero and South of Market neighborhoods, and ignoring their responsibility to enforce the City's planning laws. This added disaster for San Francisco results from the dismissal of community input into the Planning Department's decisions and process. The havoc this short-sighted, irresponsible planning wreaks upon the neighborhood underscores the necessity for the community to take control of deciding which zoning schemes and uses are appropriate for the area. It also makes evident the need for the Board of Supervisors to fully legislate, and perhaps even enhance, the controls proposed by Proposition L. The imbalance of access to resources are highlighted by the example of the Day Labor Program, which has been searching for 10 years for a simple property with utilities to house their program and has been bid out of every opportunity. "We've had our success thwarted at every level," says the program's director Renee Saucedo. "And here's these internet companies that waltz into the neighborhood and having zoning laws changed and others broken to accomodate their space needs." Partial List of Other Live/Work Buildings Being Used As Office Space Mission District: 2600 19th St., 1114 - 1120 Folsom St. South of Market: 575 Harrison St., 1488 Harrison St., 1233 Howard St., 249 Shipley St., 370 7th St., 580 Howard St. Potrero: 1207 Indiana St., 1409 Indiana St., 1001 Mariposa St., 1020 Mariposa St., 208 Pennsylvania St., 690 Pennsylvania St., 1011 23rd St.	Click on image for larger picture.
	Day Laborers Union
	Signing arrest warrants, all in a day's work.
	Protesters pound on windows as arrests are made.





	The safety of being elevated above the people.
	Police busy at work, protecting the rich.


	Food Not Bombs supporting the protest.