Food Not Bombs Faces New Eviction Threat

I received the e-mail below from Keith McHenry two hours ago and spoke with him by phone a few minutes ago. He asked me to post it.

He also asked everyone to spread the word and show support at tomorrow's noon-4 PM meal.

I'll be playing his interview on Thursday night at 6 PM on Free Radio which will be archived at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html



FOOD NOT BOMBS MEAL RECEIVES TWO DAY EVICTION NOTICE BY PROPERTY SPECULATORS

Food Not Bombs volunteers and those eating with us could be arrested and our equipment stolen by the property speculators on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 5 PM.

Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs is facing eviction again after having provided meals every day with the community for over 670 days of the pandemic.

Food Not Bombs called developer Owen Lawlor about our being forced to move our meal to the vacant lot he owns at 440 Front Street when we were given only three days notice from the city to make way for the Soquel Creek Treated Sewer project on Laurel Street.

We offered to pay him rent and add his company as additional insured to our liability policy while we worked to find a new location. We made it clear that we had been seeking a more permanent location for our daily meal since we were forced out of the lot next to Taco Bell with only one day’s notice. He was friendly and seemed open to working with us but instead his lawyers sent a threatening letter demanding we move in two days.

We had come to realize that to sustain our daily meal we had to place a shipping container on site to hold our equipment since packing and unpacking all our materials and food into our van was leading to volunteer burnout.

Food Not Bombs is not a charity but is dedicated to taking nonviolent direct action to change society so no one has to live on the streets or eat at a soup kitchen and as such require a public location where we can have as much impact as possible to communicate with people about the need to redirect military spending towards healthcare, education and other social services. This requires a location that is accessible and visible.

Property speculator, Owen Lawlor and his associates are destroying our community with the aid of city officials, building a slew of luxury condominium projects. At the same time his projects are driving out many of our favorite local business like India Joze.

This destruction of Santa Cruz is directly connected to the billions of dollars that are flooding into local military contractors like Google, Facebook and dozens of other AI and software developers whose employees can afford to invest in high-priced properties. This is forcing an increase in the rents often forcing local people to become homeless.

Please contact Owen Lawlor at 831-457-1331 to express your displeasure with his lack of community cooperation.

Email the city council to at citycouncil [at] cityofsantacruz.com

Please contact us for support at 575-770-3377