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Beautiful Jan 18 SF Peace March
On an unusually warm, very clear sunny day, in San Francisco, January 18, 2003, people of all ages and colors slowly moved up Market Street, starting at 10:30 a.m. on a grand peace march that was estimated at 350,000.
On an unusually warm, very clear sunny day, in San Francisco, January 18, 2003, people of all ages and colors slowly moved up Market Street, starting at 10:30 a.m. on a grand peace march that was estimated at 350,000.
I would like to emphasize that ALL age groups were in attendance and people of ALL colors were also there in great numbers. We have NO generation gap or ethnic gap in the peace movement.
The labor contingent included the longshore workers, the ILWU; a teachers' union delegation from Los Angeles, a flight attendant's delegation, the hospital workers' SEIU 250, the gay/lesbian labor organization Pride at Work, the Operating Engineer's union and members of various other labor unions and their supporters.
The National Lawyers Guild was there to remind us of how to defend ourselves in this fascist era against the fascist "Patriot" Act and the Gestapo Homeland Security, and the need to restore the Bill of Rights.
The ambience was very serene and determined. The imagination of the artists provided for a wide variety of signs and costumes and the musicians entertained all with their Fiddlers for Peace group, drum corps in the African, Asian, Native American and European traditions, and many a capella singers who led us all in various songs. I had the pleasure of accompanying one man who did a beautiful rendition of "All we are saying is give peace a chance" repeatedly a capella or accompanied by his tambourine or on his flute.
At the Civic Center, we were entertained by the still gorgeous voice of Joan Baez, and later by the popular Bonnie Raitt. The speakers included Green Party President of the Board of Supervisors Matt Gonzalez, United Farmworker vice-president, Dolores Huerta, actor Martin Sheen and many others.
The fabulous literature tables guaranteed that this writer came home with little money and lots of fabulous books and magazines.
Brother Martin certainly must have loved San Francisco's peace parade in his honor as we all experienced a sense of community that is rare in our profit-maximizing society. I hope he enjoyed our rendition of "Happy Birthday" to him for his 74th birthday this month.
As late as 4 p.m., when the sun finally fell below the warming level, the Civic Center was still filled with thousands of people enjoying our peace community.
I would like to emphasize that ALL age groups were in attendance and people of ALL colors were also there in great numbers. We have NO generation gap or ethnic gap in the peace movement.
The labor contingent included the longshore workers, the ILWU; a teachers' union delegation from Los Angeles, a flight attendant's delegation, the hospital workers' SEIU 250, the gay/lesbian labor organization Pride at Work, the Operating Engineer's union and members of various other labor unions and their supporters.
The National Lawyers Guild was there to remind us of how to defend ourselves in this fascist era against the fascist "Patriot" Act and the Gestapo Homeland Security, and the need to restore the Bill of Rights.
The ambience was very serene and determined. The imagination of the artists provided for a wide variety of signs and costumes and the musicians entertained all with their Fiddlers for Peace group, drum corps in the African, Asian, Native American and European traditions, and many a capella singers who led us all in various songs. I had the pleasure of accompanying one man who did a beautiful rendition of "All we are saying is give peace a chance" repeatedly a capella or accompanied by his tambourine or on his flute.
At the Civic Center, we were entertained by the still gorgeous voice of Joan Baez, and later by the popular Bonnie Raitt. The speakers included Green Party President of the Board of Supervisors Matt Gonzalez, United Farmworker vice-president, Dolores Huerta, actor Martin Sheen and many others.
The fabulous literature tables guaranteed that this writer came home with little money and lots of fabulous books and magazines.
Brother Martin certainly must have loved San Francisco's peace parade in his honor as we all experienced a sense of community that is rare in our profit-maximizing society. I hope he enjoyed our rendition of "Happy Birthday" to him for his 74th birthday this month.
As late as 4 p.m., when the sun finally fell below the warming level, the Civic Center was still filled with thousands of people enjoying our peace community.
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Thank you for the wonderful report. I will share the union activity with others in the Labor Party in Florida.
In old St. Augustine, Florida more than 200 folks came out for peace, too. It's a hard right extremely oppressive area and they got a much needed dose of the peace movement being covered up by the media. Most people were shocked and thrilled to see us. They honked to show their approval.
Peace!
My family ate near the town on the way home. We didn't have any of our peace stuff on us, but out of the blue, the waiter put "peace ya'll " on our check. LOL We gave her a Big tip :)
In old St. Augustine, Florida more than 200 folks came out for peace, too. It's a hard right extremely oppressive area and they got a much needed dose of the peace movement being covered up by the media. Most people were shocked and thrilled to see us. They honked to show their approval.
Peace!
My family ate near the town on the way home. We didn't have any of our peace stuff on us, but out of the blue, the waiter put "peace ya'll " on our check. LOL We gave her a Big tip :)
I think the thing that most inspired me was not the funny or clever signs but the placards of the different groups that marched together--in addition to the ones Peacenik mentioned I wanted to mention the letter carriers' union and the various churches of all denominations. That made me proud--that's how you know this is "real."
No one really expected the major news channel to show massive coverage of yesterday's peace marches all over the country, and in particular the SF march. However, you would hope that local news channels would have had something to say... I am in the Central Coast region in Santa Cruz, where we get the KION news, which did have some coverage.
However, the most watched local news channel is "The KSBW Channel". Even though large numbers of locals from the central coast attended the march, they showed about 2 seconds of aerial footage of Civic Centre, saying that "more than 10,000" attended the SF march....
Now, we know the (corporate) media plays the numbers game, but this really was beyond reason.. I e-mailed the News Director at newsdirector [at] theksbwchannel.com, and reproduce the text below. I hope that anyone who did catch that 11PM report last night and is outraged, just like myself will do the same (By the way: "Coverage you can count on" is their tag line):
Dear News Director,
I am amazed and appalled by your coverage of the Peace March in San Francisco on this evening's 11PM news broadcast. Not only did you show no more than a few seconds of footage, you even thought it necessary to comment that "more than 10,000 people" attended. Even CNN - certainly not a local news channel - quoted numbers ranging from 50,000 - 200,000.
Surely you realize that large amounts of your viewers in the Central Coast attended the March. From Santa Cruz alone five buses transported locals to the march, and that did not even include those - like my wife and I - who came by private transportation. Such inaccuracy in reporting and ignoring news events taking place, or affecting locals in your own region is misleading, and distorts the truth.
"Coverage you can count on"? Not quite. You've lost a viewer.
Jay Thoden van Velzen, Santa Cruz
However, the most watched local news channel is "The KSBW Channel". Even though large numbers of locals from the central coast attended the march, they showed about 2 seconds of aerial footage of Civic Centre, saying that "more than 10,000" attended the SF march....
Now, we know the (corporate) media plays the numbers game, but this really was beyond reason.. I e-mailed the News Director at newsdirector [at] theksbwchannel.com, and reproduce the text below. I hope that anyone who did catch that 11PM report last night and is outraged, just like myself will do the same (By the way: "Coverage you can count on" is their tag line):
Dear News Director,
I am amazed and appalled by your coverage of the Peace March in San Francisco on this evening's 11PM news broadcast. Not only did you show no more than a few seconds of footage, you even thought it necessary to comment that "more than 10,000 people" attended. Even CNN - certainly not a local news channel - quoted numbers ranging from 50,000 - 200,000.
Surely you realize that large amounts of your viewers in the Central Coast attended the March. From Santa Cruz alone five buses transported locals to the march, and that did not even include those - like my wife and I - who came by private transportation. Such inaccuracy in reporting and ignoring news events taking place, or affecting locals in your own region is misleading, and distorts the truth.
"Coverage you can count on"? Not quite. You've lost a viewer.
Jay Thoden van Velzen, Santa Cruz
As much as I like the idea of media independent of corporate control, the author of this piece does no service to the credibility of independent journalists by estimating the crowd size at 350,000. Estimates of crowd sizes will have some error, but basic counting should get you reasonably close to the truth.
(I've added comments to the report ``Crowd Size in San Francisco January 18,'' which makes a couple of unrealistic assumptions.)
Consider first, how many people could fit on Market St. between Embarcadero and the Civic Center: 20-40 people across (look at some photos to see if this seems reasonable), with perhaps an average of 5-10 feet between each row of marchers (probably an underestimate), for a length of 1.5 miles = 7500 ft. That comes to roughly 1000 rows of people x 30 people per row, or 30,000 between the starting point and the Civic center. Well, this estimate _might_ be off by a factor of 2, but I doubt it. The first of the marchers reached the Civic Center while there were still a few thousand people left at the Embarcadero, so maybe another 5,000-10,000 could be added. As I see it, 70,000 maximum. A full factor of 5 smaller than estimated in this report.
Keep in mind too that at the peak of the demonstration, the Civic Center square was never overflowing. (I was there, walked around the square, and saw no evidence of lingering throngs in the side streets.)
My map shows the square to be roughly 500' x 800', for a total of 400,000 sq feet. Imagine now, how many people you would fit comfortably into a 10' x 10' room (which is a small room). More than 10, but fewer than 20, if people are comfortably hanging out, as they were for Saturday's march. There are 4,000 ``10' x 10' rooms'' in 400,000 sq feet, for a total of probably fewer than 4,000 x 20 = 80,000 people.
I may be leaving out some fraction of people that were staying at sites along the march route, who left before the last of the marchers reached the Civic Center, etc., but I have also been generous in my estimates. (For example, I didn't include the area of the streets in the Civic Center square, which were less-densly populated, and which were included in my 500' x 800' dimensions for it.) On the basis of what I saw, and read about the march, it would be a miracle if there were more tyyhan 100,000 people in attendance.
I think it a wonderful thing that 100,000 people took time out of their lives to get themselves to the Civic Center to make a statement (rather than to merely grumble about it with friends). This is an unprecedented outpouring of civic involvement, given that as of yet, no U. S. soldiers have died in version 2 of the Gulf War. Exaggeration only serves to trivialize the efforts of those of us who organized this event and/or got their butts out there, and leaves all claims of popular sentiment against the pending war subject to dismisal by proponents.
Please keep to the facts, and if you are unsure of what the facts are, please learn how to make credible estimates.
(I've added comments to the report ``Crowd Size in San Francisco January 18,'' which makes a couple of unrealistic assumptions.)
Consider first, how many people could fit on Market St. between Embarcadero and the Civic Center: 20-40 people across (look at some photos to see if this seems reasonable), with perhaps an average of 5-10 feet between each row of marchers (probably an underestimate), for a length of 1.5 miles = 7500 ft. That comes to roughly 1000 rows of people x 30 people per row, or 30,000 between the starting point and the Civic center. Well, this estimate _might_ be off by a factor of 2, but I doubt it. The first of the marchers reached the Civic Center while there were still a few thousand people left at the Embarcadero, so maybe another 5,000-10,000 could be added. As I see it, 70,000 maximum. A full factor of 5 smaller than estimated in this report.
Keep in mind too that at the peak of the demonstration, the Civic Center square was never overflowing. (I was there, walked around the square, and saw no evidence of lingering throngs in the side streets.)
My map shows the square to be roughly 500' x 800', for a total of 400,000 sq feet. Imagine now, how many people you would fit comfortably into a 10' x 10' room (which is a small room). More than 10, but fewer than 20, if people are comfortably hanging out, as they were for Saturday's march. There are 4,000 ``10' x 10' rooms'' in 400,000 sq feet, for a total of probably fewer than 4,000 x 20 = 80,000 people.
I may be leaving out some fraction of people that were staying at sites along the march route, who left before the last of the marchers reached the Civic Center, etc., but I have also been generous in my estimates. (For example, I didn't include the area of the streets in the Civic Center square, which were less-densly populated, and which were included in my 500' x 800' dimensions for it.) On the basis of what I saw, and read about the march, it would be a miracle if there were more tyyhan 100,000 people in attendance.
I think it a wonderful thing that 100,000 people took time out of their lives to get themselves to the Civic Center to make a statement (rather than to merely grumble about it with friends). This is an unprecedented outpouring of civic involvement, given that as of yet, no U. S. soldiers have died in version 2 of the Gulf War. Exaggeration only serves to trivialize the efforts of those of us who organized this event and/or got their butts out there, and leaves all claims of popular sentiment against the pending war subject to dismisal by proponents.
Please keep to the facts, and if you are unsure of what the facts are, please learn how to make credible estimates.
Just to clear the air a little -- speaking as a participant in the main march and "other activities" that day.
SF Police supervisors monitored the crowd size all day, with assistance from California Highway Patrol choppers. Both the main event at Civic Center and breakaway activities were under close observation. During demos and other mass events, cops in choppers routinely make crowd estimates that are NOT shared with the media. These crowd estimates are used in planning deployment of forces, and are treated as private information, though they can be heard by monitoring tactical police radio channels. Most of the time, when talking to the media, police spokespeople reduce crowd estimates by at least half so as to minimize the importance of the actions. Same old game. Anyway, if anyone's interested, at the height of the rally & march (around 3 pm) the helicopters were reporting 50,000 at Civic Center and on streets approaching the rally. At about 4:30 pm, while breakaway actions occurred in the financial district, ground commanders were reporting about 250 participants, while helicopters reported about 750. For what it's worth.
Also, without in any way downplaying the significance of the various activities on 1/18, here are a few numbers for crowd-counting geeks to crunch.
Area of Civic Center Plaza: very close to 6 acres (SF block size downtown, close to 3 acres). 6 acres = 261,360 sq ft. (1 acre = 43,560 sq ft).
Classic crowd formula = 3 sq ft per person. 261,360 = 87,120 person capacity at Civic Center. But that assumes the plaza was totally crammed to the gills. Not so. We didn't have any trouble navigating all around. On the other hand, lots of people weren't in the plaza proper.
My unscientific guess: 60,000-70,000. That's a LOT of people. But figures like 250,000, 350,000 -- Get real. A crowd equal to 1/3 or 1/2 of the population of SF city wasn't there.
Let's try for 250,000 next time, though.
SF Police supervisors monitored the crowd size all day, with assistance from California Highway Patrol choppers. Both the main event at Civic Center and breakaway activities were under close observation. During demos and other mass events, cops in choppers routinely make crowd estimates that are NOT shared with the media. These crowd estimates are used in planning deployment of forces, and are treated as private information, though they can be heard by monitoring tactical police radio channels. Most of the time, when talking to the media, police spokespeople reduce crowd estimates by at least half so as to minimize the importance of the actions. Same old game. Anyway, if anyone's interested, at the height of the rally & march (around 3 pm) the helicopters were reporting 50,000 at Civic Center and on streets approaching the rally. At about 4:30 pm, while breakaway actions occurred in the financial district, ground commanders were reporting about 250 participants, while helicopters reported about 750. For what it's worth.
Also, without in any way downplaying the significance of the various activities on 1/18, here are a few numbers for crowd-counting geeks to crunch.
Area of Civic Center Plaza: very close to 6 acres (SF block size downtown, close to 3 acres). 6 acres = 261,360 sq ft. (1 acre = 43,560 sq ft).
Classic crowd formula = 3 sq ft per person. 261,360 = 87,120 person capacity at Civic Center. But that assumes the plaza was totally crammed to the gills. Not so. We didn't have any trouble navigating all around. On the other hand, lots of people weren't in the plaza proper.
My unscientific guess: 60,000-70,000. That's a LOT of people. But figures like 250,000, 350,000 -- Get real. A crowd equal to 1/3 or 1/2 of the population of SF city wasn't there.
Let's try for 250,000 next time, though.
that seems bizarre. I talked to a corporate news woman and she said their guy - who has a lot of experience covering demonstrations - estimated 150k. That's double your figure.
It did fill up the first block streets going off of it - I was there and I'll post pictures if you need them - but it didn't fill up the next streets over (parallel), although the sidewalks were full.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/01/21/BA181371.DTL
Protest numbers don't add up
Police now say 150,000 safe guess
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Protest numbers don't add up
Police now say 150,000 safe guess
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Hey, i went to the rally, it was my first and I saw the DJ sorta near the bathrooms, he was great but i don't know his name-does anyone?
thanks
thanks
does any one know how much money International ANSWER spent putting on the event? as we were approaching the civic center, the people collecting money said that the event cost was 40,000. we were wondering how much was spent on renting the helicopter so pictures could be taken from above? and, was that necessary? people were contributing happily, and if we fund this events, we should all be informed on how International ANSWER is using the funds. don't helicopters run on gasoline? if we are wrong, correct us, if not then we suggest you should use the money that people gladly donate for printing more info, running commercials against the war in the main stream media, creating defense funds for jailed protestors, such as the ones from the black blocs, etc.
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