RECLAIM THE STREETS



This was a great protest that moved about the Castro and Mission on Saturday. They set out to reclaim the streets and actually held Castro Street between 18th and Market for a couple of hours with dj's, dancing, a game of soccer, men on stilts, sidewalk chalking, water guns, and people on various forms of skates. They did not have a permit. The crowd was mixed, though it was mostly white and various stripes of anarchist, with some folks I would describe as art hippies.

The problems: The purpose of the march was to oppose the fee increase for MUNI (San Francisco Municipal Railway), but it wasn't clear to anyone but those involved in the march itself. I heard at least 6 or 7 onlookers wondering out loud what the march and activity was all about. A serious movement against the fee hike would have made that clear.

Also, some of the protesters directed their animosity at MUNI bus drivers. When someone stuck a sticker on the front of a bus waiting for the crowd to pass, the driver honked startling the protester. She and a few other folks yelled some explitives and stuck their middle fingers into the air. There were other strange confrontations with the buses themselves. The most politically effective movement against the fee hike would be in solidarity with the MUNI workers, particularly the drivers.

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I have to say I've been bitching a lot about both MUNI and music. So it was good to be part of something that included both great music and a cause, although a somewhat confused and hidden cause, that I believed in.

See more off my photos here.