4/2: Photos from the Street Party in the Castro

I was dee-lighted to see a street closure in the Castro on Saturday. I was sure it was to celebrate the death of the pope. He, after all, can be held accountable for millions of AIDS infections in his condemnation of condoms. Or perhaps his decades of homo-hating.

Something spontaneous was in order.

But alas, the purpose of the demonstration was something far more mundane that the long awaited death of the pontiff. It was to protest the anti-working class Muni fare increase. Fair enough, that is good enough reason for a protest.

But since this was a long standing issue, unlike the death of the miserable John Paul II, why were there no signs demanding a halt to the increased fare rise? As a result many people in the neighborhood had no idea what the hell was going on. Since I was hoping that the death of the pope was being proclaimed to the faithless, I scurried up the street to see what the commotion was. After I stayed for a while, disappointed that the popes death was passing without a peep, I wandered into the video store, where I overheard several conversations of people trying to figure out what the demo was about. For the first two, I interjected myself into these strangers conversations and informed them it was about the rotten Muni fare increase. But after that, I decided to stop.

The protest organizers did not have signs and leaflets and this led to an insular quality, I think, in the demo.

So, my advice to Reclaim the Streets is to have readable banners with coherent demands and have a leaflet with a few fact about the increase and what do do about it.

It seems simple enough, so I wonder why such a basic political organizing tool as a banner and leaflets weren't made?

My partner and I stumbled upon this demo/party and didn't know what the hell it was--I mean, we knew it was fun, but we didn't know if there even was a message to the gathering.

although it wasn't too clear what the message of this street party was, a huge point of reclaim the streets in general is to just have a street party because they are our streets, and need to be used for more positive, less polluting, fun events/activities! i do think though...that the message should have atleast been slightly more clear.

there where no signs stating our demands but there was plenty of lit being passed out sry you never obtained one and sometimes you just need to have a street party