Sounds great, right? And get this: it’s to protest the government! Here’s the deal:
In response to Supervisor Scott Wiener’s proposed legislation to set uniform, citywide park closure hours, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club is hosting a sleep-in in Dolores Park the night before the legislation goes before the Board to draw attention to this unnecessary and misguided policy.
San Francisco prides itself on being a place that is welcoming and open to all. Our parks remain one of the City’s greatest public treasures and are spaces of recreation, sport, entertainment, and leisure. This proposed legislation threatens the accessibility and openness of our parks and comes on the heels of a spate of recent policies at City Hall that have sought to regulate public spaces, to police bodies, and to criminalize homelessness. With almost 30% of San Francisco’s homeless population identifying as LGBT, and many living on our streets and in our parks, we know who the real targets of this legislation are. This is yet another attack on the homeless, on queer people, poor people, and people of color, and on our right to exist in public space in our society. The Harvey Milk Club has had enough. Parks are for people and we believe this policy to be another step in the wrong direction for San Francisco.
Join us for a sleep-in in one of the finest parks in Supervisor Wiener’s District, Dolores Park, as we take a stand against the attack on homelessness, the attack on public access to public spaces and the attack on the San Francisco we have come to know and love. Bring a sleeping bag, a protest sign and a piece of your mind.
Starts at 9, and organizers ask that you behave lawfully so as not to “needlessly muddy the waters.” RSVP and invite your friends!
Having parks close at night is not an attack on “the homeless, on queer people, poor people, and people of color.”
If you’re in a park at 3 a.m., you’re looking for trouble, either because you yourself are trying to cause the trouble or because you’re too stupid/reckless to realize that you could be victimized. Nobody is engaging in “recreation, sport, entertainment, and leisure” at that time of night, and it’s just goofy and naive to suggest otherwise.
Incidentally, love the Foucauldian reference to “polic[ing] bodies” in the press release. Obviously somebody has been to enough graduate seminars that s/he has learned how to write about commonplace things in a way that is obscure and confusing.
(Cue the response from Hazbeen, who will now lecture me on urban history and park zoning regulations as a tool of white capitalist patriarchal hegemony and neoliberal privatization movements.)
This. Spot on, blah!
Hahaha. Blah utilizes Foucaldian and now thinks they’re intelligent. Ah, Mondays; despair to many, but bringing hope to some!
*Nobody* goes for walks late at night? I guess I’m nobody.
Can’t go for a walk at night without bypassing the park after midnight?
Please.
you’re jumping to a lot of conclusions
New San Francisco wants those parks closed. Better close ‘em up
Time is Theft
I don’t really think this is another “attack on the homeless, queer, etc.etc…” I see it as more of a fight against people that feel entitled to use SF’s public spaces as their trashcan/bathroom.
SF hasn’t been “welcoming and open to all” since late 2006.
This is BS, to fear the night you were probably born incredibly white. This is always on the agenda. Anyone remember the Matrix Program? Loads of good that did.
“If you’re in a park at 3 a.m., you’re looking for trouble, either because you yourself are trying to cause the trouble or because you’re too stupid/reckless to realize that you could be victimized.”
Way to live in fear ‘blah’.
I would go to this