Perhaps you’ve seen John Ratliff, formerly a prolific journalist, at 16th and Mission streets, feeding the pigeons. Maybe you’ve come across his Daily Rag, which he still writes with keen self-awareness. Maybe you read our story by Julio Marcial about this enigmatic street dweller.
School of the Arts students Kylie Villavicencio, Ashley Escobar, Queenie Li, Sarah Jones, Phoebe Milvy-Soloff and Christian Figueroa set out to capture Ratliff’s story in film:
Someone please do an intervention on his pigeon-feeding. He might find feeding birds therapeutic, but he, with his 10-pound bag of rice, creates a health issue and a public nuisance. And, feeding pigeons is illegal.
He didn’t share his story. He had other people giving their interpretation of ‘his story’. IF we truly want to honor people it should be in their voice, with their full consent. What he considers his true ‘accomplishments’ can be declared by him alone. I
Please don’t feed the pigeons. Let’s have some respect for the community and our avian friends.
http://sfpublicworks.org