What social movements need: the walking tour

You're most welcome to join a FREE walking tour that surveys 200 years of social movements in San Francisco on the way to arguing that the land itself--or more public policy-wise, the annual rent of land--is the lever of power that injures or blesses marginalized demographics.

Whether it was the Native American excluded from historic lands, the Queer community despised and reviled in the presence of self-described Normals, the Black Panthers targeted for seeking security in the self-same geography as Euro-Americans, anti-war protesters questioning US imperialism in Viet Nam and Iraq, or housing rights advocates challenging market-rate construction, the underlying (literally!) issue was (and is!) who asks for the location rent for use of the territory of the United States?

The walk summits at St. Mary's Square where San Francisco's BIG IDEA --dating back to 1879--is presented. That's when the City by the Bay bayed the unwholesome notion that private parties rightfully demand to be paid location rent for use of America. Rather, a short, doughty San Francisco journalist argued, society should only recognize private title to the Earth if the annual economic value of land, determined parcel by parcel, is paid to society.

The economic consequence would be that those who would exclude others by attitude would nevertheless have to materially compensate all humanity--in the Biblical turn of phrase "whether bond or free, Jew or Gentile, male or female"--for their forgone use of that portion of planet Earth.