We will be updating throughout the day. If you’ve read the top, jump to the new material below. By 2 p.m. today, a variety of counter-protests against a right-wing rally called Patriot Prayer arrived in the Mission District. One, a dance party at Dolores Park, drew upwards of 300 people. More than 500 people marched from Alamo Square, where Patriot...
Update: Saturday’s Patriot Prayer Freedom Rally at Crissy Field has been canceled by its organizers. Instead, the group will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. Saturday at Alamo Square Park in the Western Addition. The Loved Up counter-rally will be held as scheduled. Neighbors and denizens of Dolores Park said Thursday that they are torn on how to effectively protest...
All month, the phrase “Queers Hate Techies” has taken up residence in the window gallery at Artists’ Television Access (ATA) on Valencia and 21st. The words are printed on balloons, inscribed on a banner and written on stickers pasted to the glass. It’s one of the radical activist group Gay Shame’s well-known anti-gentrification slogans; they have used it in graffiti and...
In a demonstration of solidarity with worker and immigrant rights activists around the nation, protesters streamed onto Market Street and into Civic Center Plaza on Monday to mark May Day, also known as International Workers Day. Locally, it was also pronounced a Day Without Immigrants to protest federal immigration policies. Thousands marched down Market Street, according to police estimates, and hundreds...
When a dozen or so tenant rights advocates arrived on the doorstep of the San Francisco Association of Realtors on Thursday morning carrying signs and a megaphone, one immediately clashed at the door with a member of the association with each pushing the other until a staffer was able to pull the door shut. “This is private property!” the man...
April is sexual assault awareness month, and for the 12th consecutive year, community members will be gathering at the Women’s Building at 3543 18th St. this Saturday to raise awareness of rape and sexual violence. The annual Walk Against Rape is organized by San Francisco Women Against Rape, a volunteer-based rape counseling center that provides crisis services including a 24-hour hotline and medical, legal...
The Mission’s Episcopal Church of St. John’s the Evangelist on Wednesday joined a number of churches in the San Francisco area and beyond in vowing to protect their immigrant community from deportation. “We’ve given sanctuary to many over the years,” said father Richard Smith, St. John’s vicar, to a group of some 50 community members gathered in front of two...
A Mission District coalition of activist organizations calling itself the “Coalición Primero de Mayo,” or the May 1 Coalition marked Presidents’ Day by announcing its plans for another Day Without Immigrants on May 1. The day will also include a march. The coalition called on supporters to resist by not attending work, going to work, or doing any shopping. ...
Mission District organizations and residents were out at airport on Saturday and Sunday to protest President Donald Trump’s ban on immigration. One prominent Mission organization was the Arab Resource and Organizing Center at 522 Valencia St. We’re working on a round-up of immigration assistance. If you or your organization plans to hold any events to keep residents informed, please let us know and we will...
Mission activists Nancy Pili Hernandez and Karen Topakian were released from jail on Thursday after being arrested and charged for climbing a construction crane in the nation’s capital to protest President Donald Trump. “As cold or uncomfortable as it might have been, those things are unimportant when it comes to the risk that democracy is facing,” Topakian said in a...
Mission activist, youth worker and muralist Nancy Pili Hernandez is one of seven protesters who were arrested on Wednesday after climbing a 270-foot crane in the nation’s capital as an act of peaceful defiance against the country’s new Administration. “We are hoping that people are looking up today and seeing that the resistance is strong although the opposition in front...
At the StoreFrontLab on Shotwell Street Friday, the floor was strewn with protest posters and banners, and neighbors sat together at long tables creating still more of them. The community space has a history of planning events centered on social justice and activism. Jacob Palmer, a curator there, said the space had hosted several sign-making events in preparation for protests...
Workers at San Francisco General Hospital protested the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act in front of their workplace Friday, saying rolling back the program would impact both patients and workers’ ability to care for them. On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump promised repeatedly to overturn the health care program enacted by his predecessor, and on Friday, he...
City College students in the Mission District joined a nationwide day of action on Thursday making it clear that City College will welcome all students, regardless of their status. Protesters were there “to let the Trump administration know that we are going to defend the right to public education for everyone who comes through our doors,” said Tim Killikelly,one of the organizers. As...
A group of some 40 community members, activists, friends and family of police shooting victim Alex Nieto on Tuesday gathered around a makeshift memorial on a slope leading up Bernal Hill – a tarp strewn over a pile of rocks. A photo of Nieto smiling was imprinted on the tarp. That memorial will soon be replaced with a bench marking...
