Cassidy Friedman's blog

Occupy Oakland Shuts Down the City

2011-11-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

With picket lines forming around banks, thousands marching to shut down the port - and then the inevitable vandalism by the .001 of the 99 percent - there was simply too much action happening in Oakland this week for Stories Matter Media to pass it up.

This video, unlike many others blanketing the Web, tells the story of the people who have been affected by foreclosures rather than pandering to our lowest common denominator tastes that want only to see the firebombs, masked crusaders hammering down storefront windows, and violent confrontations with cops.

As storytellers, we chose to go deep with a few protesters rather than cast a wide net in an effort to cover all the events of the day.

The Making of a Great Teacher

2011-10-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

A closer look at some of the top teachers at Gateway Public Schools was well overdue.

The teaching model of the public charter High School in San Francisco has long since been nationally renowned -- small class sizes, emphasis on college prep and a comprehensive out-of-class tutoring program that helps students get ahead. That model helped attract an oversized pool of families to apply for spots in its middle school, which opened in fall.

But less known are the idiosyncrasies of the school's outstanding teaching staff. In this video, four teachers describe the arc of their career as educators, the challenges and uncertainties they faced along the way and the success stories that ultimately came of them. We see how even the best teachers were once rookies, at times overwhelmed or out-of-place, and how their own learning curves instilled unique teaching styles and passion to work with children.

SMM Captures Unforgettable Multimedia Experience at JCC

2011-09-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

SMM is proud to have been selected by the Foundation for Jewish Culture to capture the sensational multimedia musical performance of Monajat held this weekend at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center.

Monajat, an evening of Middle Eastern musical poetry, inaugurates the New Jewish Culture Network, an initiative to create and deliver outstanding Jewish music and other art forms to audiences in the U.S. and beyond.

For those who could not attend, FJC hopes to release the video of the performance in its entirety, and plans to integrate the footage into a fundraising video very soon.

Here are a couple sneak peeks:

A School Development Team's Video Postcard

2011-08-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

Previously, they might have mailed parents a Thank You postcard.

But after The Development Team at The Hamlin School partnered with Stories Matter Media, they were able to present parents who had helped raise millions of dollars for the school with something they had never seen before -- a video thanking them for their generous contributions and support.

This video shows that all messaging once considered the exclusive domain of the printed word, can now be expressed through video. And, when done right, with even greater impact.

A Small Sample Goes A long Way

2011-04-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

Fania Davis knew she had a story.

Actually, the director and co-founder of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth Director can name hundreds of students in Oakland public schools whose downward spirals her organization is credited with turning around. And thanks to a recent study measuring RJOY's progress, Davis now has the stats to prove her organization is a powerful tool for preventing violence in one of the world's most crime-ridden cities and improving academic standards in its schools.

RJOY hired Stories Matter Media to make the case for RJOY, which according to its mission, seeks to "fundamentally shift the way we respond to youthful wrongdoing from punitive approaches that inflict more harm to restorative approaches that repair it."

We took a small sampling of success stories -- two students; Jasmine King, a wannabe gang-banger in middle school and Eric Myles, a high-schooler who never thought he'd survive adolescence. The reshaping of their lives through restorative justice puts a pair of human faces on the statistics: an 82 percent drop in suspensions, zero expulsions, a dramatic uptick in test scores, and perfect teacher retention, while restorative justice was implemented.

Davis has already presented the video in an appeal for donations at the Rotary Club. She has begun circulating the video online to raise funds and to educate the public about RJOY. She will also be able to embed the video on RJOY's site and link the video in grant applications.

2011-03-24T17:38:00.001-07:00

After we produced a micro-documentary for New America Media on Restorative Justice in Oakland, which ran March 24, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth hired Stories Matter Media to produce an informational video on how the alternative model is being applied in Alameda County's juvenile courts and schools across Oakland.

Shoots are complete. Editing is already underway. Stay tuned to our blog to see the final video!

Micro-Documentary: Expelling Expulsion

2011-03-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

Can Restorative Justice Save Struggling Oakland Schools?

Two decades after schools across the United States stepped up expulsions and began doubling suspensions, so-called “zero tolerance” policies have failed to make good on a promise to stem misbehavior and reduce violence in schools, according to researchers at UC Berkeley School of Law. But research into alternative policies is virtually non-existent.

Pacific News Service hired Stories Matter Media producer Cassidy Friedman to cover the ongoing battle Oakland is waging to usher in an alternative discipline model called Restorative Justice.

Hamlin Student Wins NASA Space Contest

2011-02-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed there's a lot of winning cropping up in this blog. That says a lot about the quality of education at The Hamlin School, which I produced both this video, and one lower down the page, for. But I suspect there are many, many stories like this going unnoticed.

Too few reporters are on the street. And not enough schools are hiring journalists to dig up their stories.

Here's a tidbit from NASA for any science wonks who might be interested in the particulars of the contest:

"Kids in Micro-g" is a student experiment design challenge geared toward grades 5-8. Its purpose is to give students a hands-on opportunity to design an experiment or simple demonstration that could be performed both in the classroom and aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The winning experiments will have observably different results when the experiments are performed in the "1-gravity" or "1-g" environment of the classroom, compared to when the experiments are performed by Astronauts in the "Micro-g" environment (one-millionth of 1-g) environment of the ISS. The apparatus for the demonstration must be constructed using materials from a materials tool kit provided to the astronauts on board the ISS. The tool kit consists of materials commonly found in the classroom and used for science demonstrations.

The experiment demonstration must take no more than 30 minutes to set up, run and take down.

Experiment proposals should be limited to no more than 7 pages in length in either Microsoft Word or PowerPoint format or a Word or PowerPoint file converted to PDF format. A font size of no smaller than 11 point (the size of this type) should be used. Hardcopy experiment proposals submitted by postal mail should provide text and graphics on one side only, for a submission length of no more than 7 total sheets. All experiment proposals should include photographic documentation of the proposed experiment in its fully set up configuration, as part of the 7 page total document length.

The following details must be contained in the experiment proposal:
1) Subject of the experimental investigation
2) Hypothesis of the expected outcome in the classroom and onboard the International Space Station (ISS)
3) StepbyStep experiment procedure, to be written for use by the ISS Astronauts. The procedure must include the following information:
a. Experiment assembly and set up instructions (only using items from the Kids In Microg materials list)
b. Instructions for running the experiment
c. Instructions for experiment take down
d. Instructions for data gathering and recording during the experiment run
e. Instructions for data analysis
4) Conclusions:
a. Observed from experiment runs in the class room
b. Expected results from the experiment when conducted onboard the ISS
5) Observed inclassroom time for actual experiment setup, experiment run and experiment take down,
using the exact stepbystep procedures provided in 3) above.
6) References used for experiment development

Hamlin Student Wins San Francisco Film Festival Essay Contest

2011-02-16T15:53:00.000-08:00

When Ciara's English teacher, Rose Helm, first began coaching Ciara's writing two years ago, she immediately recognized a scion scribe.

What neither knew was how profoundly Ciara's writing would influence an outside audience. Ciara not only won this year's San Francisco Film Society's essay contest. She deeply moved all three judges and became a role model for students across the Bay Area by donating her $300 Grand Prize reward to charity.

Gateway High School: Lisa' Story

2011-02-16T14:50:00.000-08:00

This piece I recently produced for Gateway High School, a school that graduates nearly all of its students -- many of whom are from families that fall below the poverty line, many of whom have learning disabilities.

Lisa Geronimo, Class '11, explains how teachers at Gateway High School drew her into leadership roles, forcing her to cultivate strengths neither she nor her family knew she had.

Produced by Cassidy Friedman at Stories Matter Media.

Self-Reflection for Conflict Professionals Intensive (SCPI)

2010-10-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

When the most heated moments a conflict professional deals with arise-- when everyone in the room is yelling, crying and engaged in emotional warfare -- what is the conflict professional feeling?

Conventional wisdom is: "It doesn't matter; the mediator is there to do a job; not to get emotionally involved in THEIR (and NOT his or her) dispute."

But, according to the Center for Understanding in Conflict, which is at the cutting edge of developing self-reflection practices for conflict professionals, acknowledging one's own emotional reactions is essential to being a good mediator.

I produced this video, which documents a class the Center has been teaching conflict professionals, which addresses methods for working with their emotional responses to benefit the clients ... and to save their own sanity.

Feedback From SCPI Participants:

"What beautiful and genuine inspiration! "

Suzan Barrie Aiken
Collaborative Attorney and Mediator

"It is really incredible. It is wonderful and beautiful. I feel incredibly fortunate to be with you in SCPI and I realize how much I miss our time together."

Caryn Espo

"Wow - the video is amazing!"

Catherine Conner
Mediator/Collaborative Attorney

"I love how powerful the video is for communicating what SCIPI is about and I'm awed by Cassidy's talent in pulling it all together!!!"

Marissa Wertheimer
Mediator, Trainer

"Inspiring! My thanks to all of you for this unique and meaningful experience."

Judy Barber
Family Mediator
Family Money Consultants, LLC

"Brilliant...Cassidy did a fantastic job of capturing the essence of SCIPI."

Peter Renkow
Mediator

2010: THE CASE TO SUPPORT GATEWAY HIGH SCHOOL

2010-09-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

This is a video I recently produced for Gateway High School, a tuition-free public charter school that last year sent nearly 100 percent of its graduating students on to college.

According to the school, "By combining a rigorous curriculum with the personal support possible in small classes, Gateway enables each student to capitalize on his or her unique talents and capabilities."

Marin's Organic Farms Wilt Under Labor Laws

2010-06-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

By Cassidy Friedman
For Bay Citizen

As a teenager, Dave Retsky was just about the last kid an organic farmer would want to hire. The son of a Hollywood doctor, Retsky admits he was a tad lazy and knew next to nothing about organic farming before he began his first internship. Now he owns County Line Harvest, one of the top organic farms in Petaluma, in Sonoma County.

“Where else was I going to learn the trade but as an apprentice?” said Retsky.

“You’ve got no skills. You’ve got no work ethic. Now I own a farm, and those experiences I had were invaluable.”

Retsky’s own enterprise has been aided by intern labor, as have about half of Marin’s 56 organic farms. Every year, interns weed, hand-wash and sell their produce at farmers markets. Such unpaid and work-trade programs have fueled the organics movement since the Bay Area’s first certified organic farms sprung up in the 1970s in Bolinas.

But this spring, state labor inspectors stumbled upon the internships and determined that they violate state and federal labor law. Organic farming internships dried up, with disastrous consequences for farmers like Retsky and would-be farmers working for them.

Marin County’s organic farms are grappling with the new order. Internships must meet a six-point test that has been in place since the 1938 federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Farm interns must be supervised by an accredited school and cannot displace a regular employee. The internship must also benefit the student more than the employer.

Until now, state inspectors hadn’t scrutinized farming internships in the North Bay, but they carried out a high-profile action in Pescadero in 2008. An inspector tagged Blue House Organic Farm, which had three interns, with 14 violations of minimum wage and insurance laws. But they did not identify them as part of an internship program.

Then they did a routine inspection of County Line this past February. Although it did not cite the internship program, it rattled farmers. Local farmers say it may be the first time labor inspectors targeted agriculture in the North Bay.

“I think that Marin County for the most part has been the beneficiary of being tucked away in an unobtrusive part of the state,” said Carl Borden, associate counsel for the California Farm Bureau Federation. “I’ve done many, many seminars for conventional growers, and this has never been an issue. The people who work for larger farms, their workers expected to get paid.”

“I was really surprised,” said Eric Rood, of the Department of Labor Standards Enforcement. “None of that was even on our radar until that week.”

Farmers demanded clarification of the law at an April 1 meeting with the state, which Rood attended. Although the labor inspectors had conducted extensive educational outreach throughout the state to warn other industries about illegal internships, the meeting marked the first time both state labor officials and organic farmers openly discussed internships on farms.

“We can’t afford to make a living producing these commodities unless we use this type of labor,” one farmer told Borden. “If I had to pay these people, I’d be out of business,” another said.

Marin’s organic farming economy suddenly seemed less sustainable. Farmers deleted internship postings. Interns were hired on the books or dismissed, and applicants were turned away. At smaller farms, spouses hopped on tractors. Retsky closed his Marin Farmers Market stand, which interns had run.

The boom in illegal internships parallels the exploding organics movement. One web site lists organic farming internships at 1,667 farms and attracts 10,000 visitors yearly. States with large organic farming sectors, including New York and Washington, are rethinking labor laws that many consider outdated. California may be the latest to come to the table.

“There’s probably not a program that can have an apprenticeship relationship replace labor,” said David Lewis, who directs the UC Cooperative Extension in Marin. “But there should be some sort of situation where we can grow the next farmer. That’s what has taken the biggest hit. It’s the opportunity for these folks to really make it work on a small scale (and) to teach the next generation of farmers.”

Video: The Battle For An Accurate Census In SF

2010-03-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

by Cassidy Friedman
(published on SF Appeal and New America Media)

The census may be, on any given day, the best way to compare huge swaths of society - say, blacks to whites, Oakland's population to San Francisco's or children to seniors.

But just now, as census forms arrive in the mail, there's only one social comparison that matters. And the census is way out of its depth to handle it.

Who will answer the census and who will neglect those 10 questions, essential for deciding how many millions in federal funds come to California over the next decade?

The answers can't be found at the regional census bureau, but insights were available at the Centro del Pueblo in the Mission District on Friday. All 13 nonprofits spearheading outreach to the city's hard to count populations were on hand, each with roots in a separate neighborhood, its team of a different skin color, and speaking a different language. Their goal over the next six weeks: to reach 60,000 households of an estimated 100,000 residents who were not counted in the 2000 census.

Lofty, sure, but what is impressive is how studiously these nonprofits are going about courting their targets. Blacks in Bayview, Latinos in Excelsior and Philippinos in SoMA each have their own reasons for not trusting the federal government. Each requires a tailored stump speech delivered in a certain way from a person they might be inclined to trust before they'll show grandma has been living under the sofa or count their undocumented friend crashing in the basement.

Considering that swaying one resident could mean an additional $3000 for San Francisco, canvassers are unafraid to hit the same house twice, even three times.

While the predominantly black Bayview was the most undercounted section of the city during the last census, Latinos also have their hands full, facing a fully lobby of Hispanic pastors advocating boycotting the census.

This video details the subtle but important ways the battle for an accurate count changes shape from one neighborhood to the next.

New Tool Could Enable California's Journalists To Report Better Than Ever -- If They Use It

2010-03-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

by Cassidy Friedman
SF Appeal

March 3, 2010 8:00 AM

Despite the many innovations of San Francisco 2010, a lot of public data is still hard to access, siloed within individual city departments and time-consuming to unearth. Some feel that as a result of this lack of transparency, politicians too often set policies without worrying the public might contest their assumptions about the community - like if hot spots of poor health have access to hospitals. Meanwhile, traditional and new media reporters are hobbled in their ability to inform citizens as thoroughly as they could, not simply because of the much-ballyhooed cutbacks in mainstream news orgs, but because California's data - that driver of policies and lifeblood of journalism - is hard as hell to get at.

"How we get privately held data and publicly held data is very painstaking," said Denise Gammal, vice president for strategy and organizational learning at Bay Area United Way. "There hasn't been a great source that's readily available and easy to use for a wider audience."

A new statewide community data-mapping Web site called Healthy City California, slated to launch Wednesday, hopes to change all that.

How to use Healthy City California from Cassidy Friedman on Vimeo.

HCC plans to deliver the motherlode of data sets, kind of like if Google insinuated itself into mainstream culture as the one-stop shop for Web searches. By plugging nearly 1,000 variables into a single user-friendly mapping system - more than any other community research site - San Franciscans will start to see the "big picture," HCC Director John Kim claims. How, for example, unemployment correlates with diabetes, poverty, mental illness, the location of liquor stores or educational attainment.

But, just as Google's success is measured by its millions of users, whether HCC excels will be determined by you - the Web-savvy computer user - and how much you supply and use the data.

Concerns also stew around HCC's size and the wide scope of its ambition. "Trying to be all things to all men" could send users back to their hometown mapping systems which, if not as comprehensive, still may be simpler to understand, said Steve Spiker, director of research and technology at Urban Strategies Council, a nonprofit in the East Bay.

So while Urban Strategies is partnering up with HCC, it will reserve some of its data for a local program tailored for only Alameda County, which Spiker expects will attract more local users.

Another free data site service called CityLab, which UC Berkeley's journalism school launched in August, is designed primarily for reporters in small news bureaus. "It's something that the news industry needs," said Susan Rasky, a senior lecturer at the journalism school who supervises CityLab.

While HCC has achieved considerable success with nonprofits in its home turf of Los Angeles County, how the platform will fare at mapping out the entire state remains unclear. The Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, another data-mapping organization, started in Los Angeles County with a more modest goal -- to promote equity in housing and banking across California. It went statewide, then collapsed after the Center's head faculty member retired and grants dried up - although it's not clear in what order, according to UCLA spokesperson Minne Ho.

But with HCC's aim to be all things for all community research, HCC appeals to the widest cross section of researchers. In the Bay Area nonprofits of all ilk are eagerly anticipating its arrival.

Christian Gonzalez-Rivera, research manager at Greenlining Institute, a multi-issue organization in the East Bay, said if HCC becomes popular, "it has the potential to be very big."

"All the different tools that policy people use, they are not very user-friendly," Gonzalez-Rivera said. "Interspersing these things on a map will very clearly show people these are the things that are affecting you."

If cramming so much data into a single program is unrealistic, we'll know soon enough. HCC will face its first test shortly after its launch when it attempts to undo the most entrenched under-reporting of community data in our nation's history: the census.

In an unprecedented effort, nonprofits across California will coordinate their outreach during the census by plotting their door-to-door wanderings on HCC's map. As weak spots - neighborhoods that fail to respond to the census - light up on the map, outreach workers will discover where their work is cut out for them. If it works, the system could save Californians millions of dollars in federal funding over the next decade.

How Healthy City California will coordinate San Francisco's census outreach from Cassidy Friedman on Vimeo.

How Healthy City California expects to coordinate San Francisco's census outreach

For the few journalists who know about HCC's existence (it's hardly been publicized), it's a call to dust off all those deep-diving projects that editors deflected to the bottom of their budgets and start digging again.

I only discovered HCC by stumbling into an unreleased version of the site. "You thought, 'I hit the jackpot, the treasure trove'?," Gammal guessed.

Within 10 minutes of visiting the site I'd nailed down my story, mapped out every trouble area for census outreach in San Francisco. It would have taken a week to do that on my own.

"As (journalists), like all of us (nonprofit researchers), go through belt-tightening and do more with less people and tighter resources, it's going to help with getting data, accuracy and the ease of use," Gammal, who regularly helps reporters find data, told me. "And a real key in journalism, is the value of how you can present data. This allows you to present visuals that are compelling rather than having to spend five hours yourself pulling it into a design program."

Behind the ambitious project is a public policy organization, the Advancement Project, which is backed by roughly $1.5 million from the California Endowment and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. That funding has helped the project to expand from a smaller scale project, which started in Los Angeles County in 2002.

Since then, Healthy City has contributed to an upheaval in public policy-making as people logging in from 40,000 different computers each year (according to the most recent count) have challenged political decisions and forced elected officials to concede millions of dollars to higher need districts, John Kim, HCC's director, said.

Healthy City California In Action from Cassidy Friedman on Vimeo.

Healthy City California In Action In LA

"What we want to do with Healthy City, overall is we want to help families find services," Kim said. "So we actually have compiled the largest database of nonprofits and community services for LA County. And when we launch the statewide system ... you'll actually see the largest research database in the state. "

When HCC goes live today, it's hoped that it will give community organizers, journalists and motivated citizens in California something they've never had: a vehicle on the Web that's as practical for spotting trends in California's communities as Google is for finding a hot cup of coffee.

And by making that information free, HCC may enable countless other cash-strapped journalists and community organizers to find the answers they've been looking for.

Sign up here to participate in a Healthy City Webinar today from 10-11:30 AM PT, future opportunities to learn how to use the site are here.

Bay Area News Project Editor's Meet And Greet: The New Breadline

2010-03-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

Cassidy Friedman
SF Appeal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/sets/72157623504906886/show/

When Jonathan Weber took the job of editor-in-chief of the Bay Area News Project a few weeks ago, 200 resumes lay waiting for him. I'm sure that some of the more than one hundred job-starved journalists crammed into the "meet Jonathan Weber" event held Wednesday night at the World Affairs Council had resumes on that pile -- I know mine's there -- and there was more naked desperation in that room than at a match.com gathering.

Weber's only getting around to answering his applicants now, sifting through them to find 15 hires, half of whom will be reporting for the news org. Those 7.5 people will be a mix of junior and senior reporters, covering enterprise, big stories, daily news, traditional civic beats, cops and courts, environment and healthcare.

He admits it's impossible to truly cover all those beats with such a small staff and that some reporters will have to wear multiple hats, but that he hopes to triple their numbers over the next four years.

Other staff will be editors who are "outwardly focused," coordinating paid contributors, bloggers, and citizen journalists, while editing 40-50 stories per week. A third group will focus on delivery, "productizing" the news through Web and mobile. Weber is also setting aside a "significant budget" for freelancers. And he'll hire some paid interns.

Management-wise, they've just hired Brian Kelley as the chief technology officer (and announced it via twitter, how 3.0).

During Q & A, older journalists' questions showed anxiety that they wouldn't be hired because they were too old and not tech-savvy enough. Many younger reporters' remarks seemed designed to demonstrate that they're Very Serious About Journalism, betraying a lack of experience.

As for partnerships, you already know that the New York Times is in -- starting in June, BANP will produce two of pages twice/week for the Bay Area edition. And KQED is out, after "discussions (that) did not result in an agreement." AWKward.

While temporarily housed in space provided by a law firm at 555 Mission, BANP is looking for permanent digs somewhere downtown. The $5 million initiative, now under his direction (and allegedly no longer that of its principal funder, Warren Hellman), is slated to launch in late spring of this year. It's also hoping to lock down a permanent name that doesn't ruffle the feathers of the 200 locally-based news organizations with San Francisco in their name.

Slideshow from the event: Steve Rhodes

Local Business Feature: Ocean Beach Barra Brothers Jiu-Jitsu

2010-01-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

Ocean Beach Barra Brothers Jiu-Jitsu from Cassidy Friedman on Vimeo

Jiu-jitsu has become a way of life for dozens of residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, thanks to a new dojo opened in 2009 by Jiu-Jitsu master and living legend Carlos Sapao Ban.

Here, students learn to defend themselves, lead a healthy life, build strength and gain confidence.

With his life spent under the tutelage of the Gracie family and after winning multiple world titles, Ban has joined the San Francisco community, where he has begun sharing his brand of Jiu-Jitsu with an eager crowd.

His beach-side dojo, located at 710 La Playa Street in San Francisco's Outter Richmond District, has quickly blossomed into a community institution since it opened in late 2009.

Here, everyone is welcome and the first class is always free.

Learn more at barrabrothersacademy.com.

Scarcity of Nonprofits in Neediest Communities Will Hinder 2010 Census

2010-01-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

New America Media, News feature/, Cassidy Friedman, Posted: Jan 01, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO – California is counting on its nonprofits for outreach in the 2010 Census. But a widespread shortage of community-based organizations in the state’s poorest communities, which have historically been toughest to count, could spark undercounts even in cities that appear best equipped to tackle census outreach, organizers say.

“This is a big, big challenge,” said Ted Wang, a census consultant with Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, which is coordinating private sector funding for outreach in California. “Neighborhoods that have the least amount of infrastructure often are the ones that are the most difficult to count.”

San Francisco is a case in point. No county in California has spent anywhere near the city’s $570,000 investment on outreach, according to city officials. San Francisco is also home to 2,879 public charity nonprofits – more per capita than any other county in the state, public records show. But an investigation by New America Media found that despite these achievements, in Bay View-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley, neighborhoods where the response rates to the 2000 Census were lowest and the need for outreach in 2010 is arguably greatest, there are disproportionately few nonprofits and very little capacity to do outreach.

The city’s solution – to fund outside nonprofits that serve a wider area to go door-to-door in the two neighborhoods – won’t achieve the same results as using native nonprofits, said Sharen Hewitt, executive director of the Community Leadership Academy and Emergency Response Project (C.L.A.E.R.), based in Visitacion Valley. Hewitt believes such organizations may “fall short on making people feel comfortable opening their doors.”

If so, this “funding gap” may contribute to a repeat of the 2000 census, when the city was undercounted by 100,000, resulting in a loss of more than $300 million in federal funding, according to a 2007 study.

If the same pattern repeats across the state, California residents could lose billions of federal dollars for vital services over the next decade.

IMPACTS ON THE CENSUS

When San Francisco announced earlier this year that it had $300,000 to fund a nonprofit census-outreach collaborative, the city encouraged organizations in Bay View and Visitacion Valley to apply.

“We were looking for people that knew the population and the population trusted,” said Adrienne Pon, executive director of the city’s Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs.

City officials hoped to fund a team of nonprofits that were already regularly engaged with the same hard-to-count residents they would be targeting for the census.

In 2000, those demographics included the many public housing residents who complained they never received a census questionnaire or whose addresses were missing from the US Census Bureau master list. Homeless people, non-English speakers, undocumented immigrants and young adults also ranked high on the list.

But those demographics are changing in subtle ways that only a native nonprofit can detect, Hewitt said.

After a competitive process, a selection committee composed of grant makers and foundation representatives hired a collaborative of 13 nonprofits, including New America Media, to conduct census outreach.

None of the 13 nonprofits are headquartered in Bay View-Hunters Point or Visitacion Valley. The organizations do, however, clearly meet other funding criteria, and four of the organizations serve large swaths of the city, which include the southeastern neighborhoods.

The few “obvious good matches” in both Bay View and Visitacion Valley were stretched to capacity and declined to apply, said Pon.

Hewitt argues outreach was inadequate, despite what city officials call a “rigorous” outreach campaign, which included a well-attended workshop and public notices. Although CLAER met the eligibility criteria, the nonprofit was never consulted about the existence of funding, she said.

N’Tanya Lee, director of Coleman Advocates – one of the census grant recipients - admits being based outside the neighborhoods puts the collaborative at a disadvantage.

“Many community members … don’t trust the services (and) because they’re not indigenous community institutions they’re often not culturally relevant,” Lee said.

Statewide Trend

The lack of nonprofits in San Francisco’s southeast corner reflects a statewide trend of nonprofits falling outside highest need areas, according Dr. Carol J. Silverman, a researcher at UC Berkeley and author of a recent study of San Francisco’s nonprofit sector.

Nonprofits tend to clamor around hubs for civic institutions, for example, San Francisco’s downtown, said Silverman.

But Bay View Hunters Point faces its own challenges, Lee said.

Census outreach did not draw “the same kind of zeal or participation at any level” from Bay View’s predominantly African American population as it did from nonprofits based elsewhere in the city, according to Angelo King, chairman of the Bay View-Hunters Point Project Area Committee.

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, once the area’s principal employer, lured tens of thousands of African Americans to San Francisco in the 1940s and 1950s. Since the shipyard shuttered in the 1970s, San Francisco has experienced “a more significant decline in the African American population than anywhere in the country,” Lee said.

“And with that decline has come a decline in the strength of our community institutions, our political institutions, our agencies, the leadership in the community – so many people have left to the East Bay and other parts of the country that there just isn’t the same capacity in the community to serve its own interests and to serve its own needs,” Lee said.

Million of Dollars are at Stake

California cut nearly all outreach funding for Census 2010 after shelling out nearly $25 million for the 2000 census, although the philanthropic sector responded by filling in some of the gaps in public funding, contributing almost $8 million in California, including more than $700,000 to the Bay Area, Wang estimated. Meanwhile, the US Census Bureau does not compensate nonprofits doing outreach. The decline in outreach resources since the 2000 census means the success of San Francisco’s nonprofit collaborative will be crucial to the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Said Lee, “Millions of dollars are at stake that could be coming to these communities that they’re not accessing now because of this historic undercount.”

Michelle Yeung, a community advocate for the lead agency in the collaborative, Chinese for Affirmative Action, said the group is creating a plan to compensate for a lack of nonprofits based in the southeast. That strategy entails networking with their members, local service providers, and asking other familiar faces in the communities to assist them in going door to door.

Frisco Veterans Parade Turnout Among US Cities Lowest...Again

2009-11-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

Year after year after year, I've watched as people replace the three magic words with various saccharine substitutes: "Support the troops. Bring them home", "dissent is patriotic," - none of it feels like real affection to most of the roughly 50,000 who served and now live in San Francisco.

At Sunday's San Francisco Veterans Day Parade, just a few hundred casual onlookers showed up. That much is typical, has been ever since the Vietnam War. But what chilled me in reading SF Chronicle reporter Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera's event coverage was how only a 23-year-old ROTC volunteer Martinez interviewed expressed any regret at the low turnout.

According to parade chairman and Veterans Affairs Commission president Wallace Levin, one of the reasons behind the crowd-free parade is this city's cynicism about the military.

A decade ago, he says he hoped to confront a lack of "patriotism" in the city, maybe change some minds. But by coaching himself to see the bigger picture - that America is great because of dissenting cities like San Francisco - he's come to terms with the lack of affection in this city.

While shooting this video, however, I discovered that factors besides our "cynicism" might have been responsible for the low turnout, much of it related to the advance publicity of the event.

The Chronicle, in its advance brief on the event, reported the wrong time for the parade, which resulted in droves of people showing up at 1 p.m. for an 11 a.m. march, parade director Renie Champagne said.

Add to that that broadcast publicity was sparser this year, as at least one radio station dropped its sponsorship due to a lack of funding.

But the greatest publicity failure was online. Beyond a blog or two, there wasn't anything, presumably because Champagne was accustomed to mailing out press releases to the traditional media. "That's all that the public gets," he said.

The veterans sourced in the Chronicle's coverage of the parade, many of them older, either seemed wistfully trapped in the past - recalling vivid memories of triumph after WWII - or discounted the 2009 public's lack of appreciation. The parade marshal was even quoted as saying this year's parade was the best he could remember. Maybe he even meant it.

But beneath the code of silence, most vets in this city are secretly grieving over this. Purple Heart Navy legend Renie Champagne is one of them. He's directed the city's parade 59 years. After choosing his words carefully during an hour-long interview in his living room, the floodgates opened when we broached the concept of defending freedom. His eyes welled up. He went quiet. He looked me in the eyes, as if pleading, for the first time in the interview.

Operation Hey Mackey: Flashmob Protests Whole Foods' CEO in Oakland Branch

2009-09-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

Feeling conservatives had "usurped" the limelight in the debate over healthcare reform through a series of high profile stunts and remarks, advocates of reform staged a goofy counter-attack, forming a flash mob Sept. 26 in an Oakland Whole Foods in response to the CEO's recent Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he argued healthcare is not an intrinsic right.

At 6:11 p.m., 35 protesters, who had been fake-shopping the aisles of the green foods giant, convened at the middle of the store, and launched into singing "Hey Mackey, you're a swine," some shouting it into a megaphone and others dancing a choreographed jig as a live orchestra blared from all directions.

One of the market's security guards, visibly overwhelmed, questioned the group and eventually police were called, but no complaints have been filed. Seeing the store had no plans to interfere, the performers completed two renditions, then leisurely filed out through an entrance to stage a continued demonstration on the sidewalk.

The market's manager declined comment. An employee at the customer service desk griped that the group was likely ill-informed about CEO John Mackey's stance on healthcare. He suggested the large turnout had more to do with the ease of arranging protests through social networking Web sites than anything pithy.

The presumably liberal audience was otherwise receptive. One or two shoppers joined the action. Even employees struggled to hide their amusement by the outburst.

There were some extreme reactions.

One patron who was shocked to discover Mackey's stance on healthcare reform left the store vowing to join the nationwide boycott of Whole Foods. Another shopper argued that despite his stance on healthcare reform, the Whole Foods founder should be commended for helping improve the country's diet by offering a health foods alternative that has contributed to keeping Americans out of the hospital.

Organizers dubbed the event a wild success, but admitted the true test -- whether wind of the event travels beyond the liberal Bay Area -- had yet to come.

Cameras: Matt Dibble, Regan Brashear, Adelaide Chen, Cassidy Friedman, Jamie Lejeune
Editors: Cassidy Friedman, Jamie Lejeune
(Media organizations wishing to obtain a clip of this video, contact video journalist Cassidy Friedman at cassidyfriedman@gmail.com or 415.717.1485)

NEWS: SFJFF shows "Rachel"

2009-07-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

Booing and hissing between spastic applause like children at a carnival, the Castro Theatre turned into a peanut gallery. The festival's executive director Peter Stein more than once asked the audience to listen to one another respectfully, to which the overwhelming majority of attendees hurled back a deafening bedlam of approval, drowning out the director's voice.

As Rachel's mother, Cindy Corrie, put it during the Q & A, the battle raging in the theater had less to do with herself, her daughter or the film than with pre-existing differences of opinion within the Jewish community. Forget whether the film was any good. This audience had already made up its mind some time between 1948 and when the curtains opened.

NEWS: Vote for Pablo campaign reveals what Giants fans are made of

2009-07-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

The final spot on the 2009 All-Star National team was a no-go for Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval.

But in the final stages of the vote, more fans went on the internet to have their say than ever before. The San Francisco baseball team's fans surprised even themselves when some voted hundreds of times (there was no limit), and others caste thousands of votes.

The lead switched hands between Shane Victorino and Sandoval a half-dozen times during the course of this week's vote, driving some fans to drink, one to vote so much his wife threw a shoe at him, and still others to harass their friends to caste more votes. Even Mayor Gavin Newsom plugged for Sandoval.

This video captures the stress, glory and failure of how it all went down.

NEWS: China Town residents fight off eviction

2009-07-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

Seventeen Chinese American families who won a pitched battle in June with their landlord, San Francisco City College, to remain in their apartment building was one of the greatest tenant success stories in San Francisco history - a no-bullshit instance where David beats Goliath. And yet all the tenants had to say about their triumph was (translated from Cantonese) "this is really convenient."

After shooting a couple hours of video footage at the grand opening at Columbus Street Cooperative, I figured I had a disaster on my hands. I'd captured a zillion soundbytes from the city's top hand shakers, who had turned out in droves to effuse about the historical moment, condemning SFCC with clenched fists in the air and applauding the tenants for bucking the system that wanted them out of the city - with a helping hand from the San Francisco Community Land Trust, which bought the building and reshaped it into a permanently-affordable resident-owned cooperative.

But when the tenants spoke, any emotion they harbored seemed to get lost in translation. I shared a somber moment with my co-shooter, Jamie Lejeune: "The only good stuff I'm getting is coming from the mouth of politicians. Arghh!," I said.

"Same here," he said.

I probed the building up several flights of stairs and entered the apartment of a disabled elderly woman sagging in her wheelchair, able to watch the ceremony only by peering down through her dining room window. Using the building manager as an interpreter, I asked questions to elicit a gut reaction.

"You speak only Chinese. From the sounds of it, you rarely travel outside Chinatown - where all your family and friends live. You can't afford another place in the city," I said. "What would relocating to somewhere else mean for you?"

She mumbled a few words - maybe only half of a really long word -- which the translator turned into an epic: against all odds, I get to hold onto my living situation. The outside world freaks me out. We fought long and hard for this. And we won.

Yeah right. If I had been interviewing the twinkly-eyed interpreter I would have had a banging story.

Ultimately, I did record some color: "We were scared," Mrs. Ru M. Peng, who with her husband and children faced eviction after occupying the same building for 18 years.

LeJeune, himself a member of the cooperative who had lived several years in east Asia, broke it down for me after the shoot, explaining the San Francisco touch-feelyness I've grown accustomed to here doesn't resonate in Chinese culture.

Short of the building burning down halfway through the ceremony, I would never unearth the hidden emotions I knew lay just beneath the surface.

Maybe I'm editorializing a tad here, but I'll argue to the grave I'm not, when I say: Take all this to mean when Mrs. Peng says she's scared, the matron really means she's never been more terrified in her life.

(If the video is down, click on this link)

News: Will San Francisco's Bison Herd Survive The Recession?

2009-07-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

San Francisco's aging bison herd is threatened with extinction. Only five remain after one of the pack was euthanized in April due to disease and old age.

The bison recently returned to a new, $1.2 million dollar improved paddock in Golden Gate Park, but with a shortfall in the city budget that could mean cuts for public safety or programs that serve the poor, the money it would take to repopulate the shrinking herd is more than a little daunting.

Appeal videographer Cassidy Friedman went out to talk to those closest to the historic herd, got a look at the old ladies themselves, but ended up with more questions than answers. Maybe we shouldn't be asking "will they survive the recession?" but "should they?" -- Eve Batey(SF Appeal)

NEWS: Owe The City Money? Working It Off May Be Harder Than You Think

2009-07-02T14:55:00.000-07:00

In some counties, citizens who can't pay off the debts they owe their city end up in county jail. San Francisco's Superior Court, however, has one of the country's most compassionate payment plan programs for debtors who can't immediately pay off their debts to the city. So there's a lot to be proud of.

But while the collections staff will work with you to form a payment plan, there's one form of payment that's come under some fire: the city's community service programs.

Impractically priced, with attached fees and pay rates of $6/hr, these city-funded programs that are supposed to enable the poorest among us to work off their debt by doing community service are doing little good for the people who really need them. In these hard economic times, the poor cannot afford to work double time for half the pay.

And few of the financially hardship-afflicted sign up, according to an administrator at San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, which gets free labor through the city-funded (though how much it costs is unclear: Project 20, which runs work programs for the city, did not respond to this correspondent's phone call) work program.

The work programs may, however, owe their continued existence to a different group of people, ticketed drivers and fined defendants who merely wish to give something back to the city.

I recently asked to meet a Project 20 volunteer and was introduced to Kevin Drew, who sounded ecstatic about the program. Drew, who lives in Marin County, says he can afford to pay off his parking tickets but prefers to spend his weekends making the city a better place to live. It doesn't bother him that he's getting paid $6/hr because he's too wrapped up in the good services he's providing with the good folks at the Bicycle Coalition.

"It's also good for folks who get too many tickets who don't have the money to give a little bit to the general kind of social well being of the city," Drew said. "I got a job. I could really afford it. I just choose not to."

Sam Mendes, Maya Rudolph, and John Krasinski Share Some Laughs and Insight Into "Away We Go"

2009-06-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

Directing Away We Go, Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road) takes one of the biggest leaps of his career: to comedy. Can he pull it off?

After interviewing the director and co-stars John Krasinksi (that loveable geek in the Office) and Maya Rudolph (a UC Santa Cruz alum who plays Michelle Obama in SNL) Bonnie Steiger leaves no lingering doubt about it.

“I’m going to go see it again and whoever doesn’t see it is a damn fool,” Steiger, a San Francisco film critic, exclaims in the interview.

Check out this hysterical interview to see why Steiger’s sure this film will win you over.

...and the full length interview with the co-stars

2009-06-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

John Krasinski (The Office) and Maya Rudolph (plays Michelle Obama on SNL):

The full 4-minute interview with Sam Mendes

2009-06-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Because Bonnie Steiger's interview with Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) was combined into a single video package with an interview of John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, other Web sites only offer a quick snapshot of this full interview.

As promised, here's the full-length version:

Maker Faire: More Than Meets The Playa-Jaded Eye

2009-06-08T13:14:00.000-07:00

"WE'RE DOOMED" reads the user pic for Live Journaler mrneutrongodeon. And in an attitude befitting his avatar, he skewered this year's Maker Faire for having lost its DIY mission to Burning Man hijackers and their wacky, impractical machines.

If you follow this fallacy, the 621 makers who traveled from as far as East Virginia had nothing eye-opening to share. All 75,000-plus members of the audience could have skipped Maker Faire this year, dropped acid and ridden around the playa on an art car - and probably had a better time.

At first glance, "WE'RE DOOMED" seems dead on the money. The loudest, most colorful exhibits - the car shaped like a large cast iron snail, for example - were usually the least likely to play a beneficial role in the real world. They're certainly not the answers to Pres. Barack Obama's call to "Remake America"(which this year's Maker Faire set out to do).

Anyone who strolled about the plein air exhibits without ever dipping into the enclosed areas, where true innovators and idea people were busily at work discussing their latest projects would walk away with the same doomed impression.

Admittedly, I wasn't strongly compelled to approach the booth belonging to Dustin Zuckerman. His props? Not much more than a bucket wrapped in a tool belt, a hammer and a few flyers. And yet Zuckerman's simple idea, to create a tool lending library in Sonoma County, is a DIY project that's sure to spawn more DIY-ing.

I wish I'd known about it before I dumped my life savings at Home Depot.

The best inventions aren't as flashy as they once were, and there's good reason. Innovators do their tinkering online, or recycle old wasteful products into items that serve a social or ecological purpose. Or they rebuild the engine of the Prius, making it capable of running purely on electricity. But guess what? The post-op Prius is a dead ringer, on its shell, for a Prius before CalCars laid a hand on it.

And TechShop saves makers 80 to 90 percent of their development costs, but you've got to look inside their 3D printer (ZPrinter450) to see its tiny final result.

Sure, there was plenty of eye candy - the explosive devices, the cupcake on wheels. But let's not pretend as though the non-burners didn't kick some butt this year. Before you write off this event the way "WE'RE DOOMED" did, check out some of the best stuff in this video.

Hat tip to Brittney Gilbert's Eye on Blogs for bringing mrneutrongodeon's post to our attention .

To see some great photos of this year's Maker Faire, check out Nicole Andrijauskas' blog.

Robert Kenner, Director of Food Inc.: behind the scenes of his new film

2009-05-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

Food Inc., the much anticipated documentary about the food industry is coming to San Francisco theaters June 12 and promises to change the minds of food consumers about how the industry actually works.

Kevin Robinson, of Medium Rare, interviews Director/Producer Robert Kenner about his controversial film (co-produced by Eric Schlosser, author Fast Food Nation) and what changes he hopes to see in the food industry.

Robinson also digs into why the voices of the opposition are conspicuously absent from the documentary, while the viewer gets plenty of Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser fighting the status quo.

WHERE? Food, Inc. - Embarcadero Center Cinema
WHEN? Starts Friday, June 12. Eric Schlosser, producer and author of Fast Food Nation In Person Sat, June 13 at 4:50 & 7:30pm!
WHAT DO THE CRITICS SAY? - "Filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, the USDA and FDA."

Bronstein cites car sleeper video as example of journalism adapting

2009-05-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

In his blog Bronstein at Large earlier this month, San Francisco Chronicle editor-at-large Phil Bronstein noted this video on the city's homeless as an example of how journalism is adapting. The blog, which Bronstein wrote in response to Sen. John Kerry saying newspapers are endangered, was then re-posted on Huffington Post.

"While it's a piece about homelessness, specifically what might be a growing trend of people living in their cars South of Market, what's most interesting to me is the media start-up circuitry that got it done," Bronstein wrote.

"The video shooter, Cassidy Friedman, is working through something called SanFranciscoIAM, part of a growing operation that's creating -- and even paying for, in some cases -- video journalism via their website assignment desk. You can pitch a story to them or try to snag one that's already on their boards. Skill and the popularity of your video both matter and determine how well you do."

Lindsay Schauer searches for "the perfect job"

2009-05-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

Lindsay Schauer, an excellent Bay Area magazine journalist, recently decided to take a stab at what the San Francisco Chronicle called "the dream job." Applying for the gig, a wine blogging position with Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County, Schauer knew she had a strong resume to rest on.

But the winery asked Schauer, along with her stiff competition, to condense their pitches into a one-minute sound byte.

So, here's the video we came up with...

For more information about the job, check out Winery creates buzz with dream job offer, by Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/28/BU8E17A0ON.DTL"

The Changing Face of Bay Area Fire Art

2009-05-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

Mark Pauline's Survival Research Labs fought for years with the San Francisco Fire Department to keep its place as a fringe artistic institution in the city.

Last fall, after producing 50 explosive shows over the course of nearly three decades, the Godfather of industrial fire art lost that fight and moved to Petaluma -- a city Pauline says won't crack down on him for doing his trade, which consists of building everything from jet-powered rockets to flame tornadoes and stabbing machines, then featuring them at shows across the globe.

Most local industrial fire artists draw the distinction between the relatively benign work they do and what SRL, the periodically law-crossing, original industrial fire art organization has done under the leadership of its swashbuckling director since 1978.

And while industrial fire art is exploding in San Francisco, there may no longer be a place here for SRL, which seems alienated from the city at nearly every level.

SRL's south Mission neighborhood has changed, with lofts replacing industrial spaces and Ferraris replacing work trucks on the street out front. The fire department was threatening a lawsuit against Pauline for driving his forklift with no permit, unless he left the city, he said (Although Pauline says he has documents proving this, the SFFD could not corroborate the claim). And since his rusty soot-covered work den in the Mission, a nook that used to go largely unnoticed by firefighters, is now considered hot real estate, the landlord doubled his rent ... twice.

All these recent developments were enough to bring Pauline to a fast boil.

San Francisco is "not a place for marginal characters anymore," Pauline said. "Basically, in the city of San Francisco, you can't do what I do anymore. The city has changed and the makeup of the city reflects that and the kind of things that can be allowed to happen in the city reflects that."

Although Pauline said the fire department has had it out for him since the mid-90s, the department claims it's played neutral all along. Few top-ranking veterans at the department even recognize his or his company's name.

"They don't care who you are, if you are coming in with some big production company, saying this is how they let us do it somewhere else, they don't care," spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said. "You are going to do it by the books.

"In my personal opinion... his reaction to everything, it's kind of the artistic mentality: everybody's against me. Things change and we have to fight or change with it and he's fought it and he's kind of lost the battle," she added.

The Chronicle's Editor-At-Large Phil Bronstein described Pauline as "one of the most explosively creative people you'll ever meet." He called SRL leaving "a tragedy," and a clear sign that art is leaking out through the city's borders.

Pauline could have made do with less. He could have moved his lab into a less expensive space. He also could have applied for grants, which he refuses to do because he feels that being beholden to another institution could undermine his creative autonomy.

"I think it's quite possible that SRL could continue doing what it's been doing in San Francisco," said Ian Baker, a fire artist for Interpretive Arson in Oakland, who last year considered moving his outfit into the SF. "But you don't want to spend that money on rent. You want to spend the money on hydraulic actuators."

At the heart of Pauline's art is a renegade attitude. Decades ago, he defaced billboards with non-political artistic messages, Bronstein recalled. He's perhaps best known in the city for a Nov. 1995 show tabbed Crime Wave, which he held near the base of the Bay Bridge without seeking permits. The show represented Pauline's retaliation against the fire department for attempts by the department to unjustly restrict future shows in San Francisco, he claimed.

"We did every possible violation we could think of... to make the fire department mad," he said.

No one was injured but Pauline was charged and convicted with intent to injure the public with explosives and intent to injure the public with arson, but he was spared from jail time.

In contrast to Pauline, the new wave of fire artists go out of their way to follow the law and to cultivate positive rapports with the fire department. The Flaming Lotus Girls, for example, test explosive devices in the desert and always get a permit for public exhibitions in Oakland and the city, said a leading member, Caroline "Mills" Miller.

Two years ago, when Ian Baker, of Interpretive Arson, started burning propane as a performance tool at the annual street-level Burning Man Decompression party on Mariposa Street, the fire marshal told him to shut it off - even though Baker had obtained a permit, he said.

Baker put up no protest. Instead, he wants to teach a class to fire fighters on how to enforce fire code, and to explain how his machines work. And he sees his relationship with the fire department improving.

"I feel like the San Francisco fire marshal's office is really coming around in this regard," he said.

Miller, who operates at the Box Shop in Bayview/Hunter's Point, said she also hopes to build stronger ties to law enforcement and the fire department.

"To be honest, we don't really have that much communication with the city," she said. "It's probably to the detriment of both groups."

Times-News announces River of Stone award

2009-05-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

River of Stone' series wins state tourism award
Times-News

"The River of Stone," a Times-News multimedia exploration of the Snake River Canyon, has been honored as the Governor's Take Pride in Idaho media award winner for 2009.

The award, given annually by the Idaho Department of Commerce, recognizes "the Idaho newspaper, magazine, radio or television station that best promotes Idaho tourism, or ... best communicates Idaho's lifestyle, heritage, regional or statewide events and attractions."

The River of Stone chronicles the journey of Times-News staffers through the Snake River Canyon from Milner Dam to Upper Salmon Falls Dam, while exploring the canyon's history, recreation potential, environmental concerns, wildlife, public access and wild land preservation along the way. It appeared in the newspaper last October, with an enhanced multimedia version remaining available at the newspaper's Web site, www.magicvalley.com.

Times-News Editor James G. Wright and the series' principal author, Cassidy Friedman, accepted the award at the Idaho Conference on Recreation and Tourism held at the Sun Valley Inn Thursday.

(Continue reading the article at the Times-News)

Newly Homeless Turn to Sleeping in Their Cars on Townsend

2009-05-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Word was that a Hooverville of people living in their cars had taken hold on Townsend Street. People, including members of the lower-middle class who’ve hit hard times, had begun filling in empty parking spots. Not to mention, throwing buckets of septic waste onto the tracks, and littering everywhere.

At 6:30 p.m. on a recent Thursday I had spent a full hour milling about on the block, but found only signs of people living in a half-dozen vehicles – deflated tires, windows boarded up with cardboard, and a few stacks of garbage. No signs of life.

After a knocking a few times on the passenger door of an old RV, a groggy face emerged from behind curtains on the upper-deck of the camper – ticked off as hell.

“It’s the middle of the night,” the guy mumbled, before rolling back under his covers. “Come back at a reasonable hour.”

After paying three follow-up visits at various times of day, I have yet to discover when that “reasonable hour” is – or, for that matter, get that man’s story directly from him (He’s only been described to me by his neighbors). The usual rules don’t play when you’ve lost your house, the life you once knew and yet you still manage to work five days a week, his neighbors explained.

(Continue reading the story below the video...)

Robin, a recovered speed addict who moved into her RV on Townsend before the economy slumped, said this year ranks of new homeless started following her lead. From her camper window, she watches a man – her newest neighbor -- wake up each morning in a reclined seat of his maroon sedan, don business attire and, presumably, head to work.

She tells a similar story of another man who now lives in his white van, parked several spots closer to the train terminal. No kids, just single men doing what they can to stay out of shelters.

Thea Chroman, who recently produced a radio story on homelessness in San Francisco for spot.us, said she could find no city data documenting how many more people this year are living in their vehicles than previous years. But not all homeless are showing up in shelters or simply living on the streets, and she’s heard many stories of people taking to their cars.

Calling herself the mayor of Townsend, Robin’s title somehow fits. She cleans up refuse along her patch of sidewalk, eschews any consumption of drugs, and forms coalitions of homeless to route out thieves (her camper was once robbed and she vows it won’t happen again).

She’s proud, too, for the first time since she came off the amphetamines. Seeing herself as luckier than the rest, she’s converted her kitchenette into a soup kitchen.

“It’s going to get a lot worse,” she told me. “And I guess it’s because of the economy.”

Uncovering The Truth About The Mission's Golden Fire Hydrant

2009-04-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

We've all heard the story of the golden fire hydrant in the Mission, the one credited with saving much of of the city from fires resulting from the 1906 earthquake.

A big component of the 1906 earthquake anniversary celebrations is a ceremonial repainting of the hydrant by survivors of that long-ago quake. I was on hand Saturday not just to capture the moment, but to separate the facts from the myth of the Little Giant.

River of Stone wins big in Idaho!

2009-04-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

Great news!

River of Stone, a video/written series on my adventure down the Snake River, has apparently won the Take Pride in Idaho Media Award given by the Idaho Department of Commerce.

I'll be awarded at the commerce department's annual conference in Sun Valley May 5-7.

The Take Pride in Idaho Media Award was given to the director of Napoleon Dynamite in 2005 after he made his cult classic.

This news follows an announcement by the Idaho Press Club that River of Stone also won an IPC award. Which award will be announced soon.

Art vs. Crime: How the Mission's artists are helping neighbors feel safe after episodes of lethal violence

2009-04-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

Discussions of the dichotomous nature of the Mission approach tedium, with shootings in front of valet stands, or the whole delicate flower thing creating enough dramatic tension to launch a thousand newspaper columns.

The organizers of the Mission Arts and Performance Project (MAPP) aren't content to just wring their hands: they're doing what they can to boost the Mission's thriving arts community while acknowledging its more challenging sides with their bi-monthly, multidisciplinary, intercultural event night.

Connecting visual artists, musicians, poets, dancers and poets, MAPP weaves together storefronts, warehouses, studios and homes to form an art walk that seems to turn into a huge multi-block party. Homeowners lay down stages in their living rooms, scraggly artists gussy up and serve hors d'oeuvres.The night of Saturday April 4, MAPP held its bi-monthly multidisciplinary, intercultural event night. Connecting visual artists, musicians, poets, dancers and poets,

Despite State Elimination of Funding, Cesar Chavez Devotees Rally Hard for His Legacy

2009-04-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

Organizing Cesar Chavez Day festivities has never been harder than it was April 4, 2009.
After California established the labor and civil rights leader's March 31 birthday as a paid state holiday in 2000, the following year a parade 15,000-people strong marched along Market Street. Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state has eliminated its entire multi-million dollar budget for supporting the holiday, including $50,000 to the city. The State of California has also decided it won't recommit funding to the Cesar Chavez Club, a statewide learn-through-service after school program in eight of the city's schools.
Organizer Eva Royale, with no cents to spend, relied this year on volunteers -- most of them stoic devotees -- to assemble a parade of only a couple thousand marchers. She's frustrated but, along with a groundswell of supporters who pushed Chavez's birthday to become a state holiday, she's determined to see the state holiday get nationalized under the supportive Obama administration.

Marin Breastfeeding Coalition lands international stage but at home fails to make a ripple

2009-04-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

Breastfeeding organizers across the nation and beyond were jarred and excited by the Marin Breastfeeding Coalition's newest campaign, which involves setting up life-like cardboard cutouts of mothers breastfeeding in crowded public places.
The media descended on the campaign in February and March with equal excitement, and its coverage is leading to the coalition getting more money.
But, at the Marin Farmers Market -- one of the first staging areas -- the public adored the cutouts, as shown in my video at sanfranciscoiam.com. Passersby weren't in the least bit upset by them, nor were their assumptions challenged -- the point of the drill.
Still, because of the praise, the money and the possibility that the idea might travel to a county and state where it could increase awareness about breastfeeding, the campaign's organizers are calling the experiment in advertising a success.

March Critical Mass: Bikers and Bankers

2009-04-01T23:56:00.000-07:00

Here's the opening of a blog I wrote for SFAppeal.com to coincide with a movie I shot of Critical Mass last Friday...

At Critical Mass last Friday, no one got beat up, a relief to the hundreds of riders who rode from the Embarcadero to North Beach to the Mission, then dispersed.

Friday March 27, 2009 Critical Mass from Cassidy Friedman on Vimeo.

But at least one guy may have deserved to be. He grabbed a standing woman's butt through her pants, in plain view of a dozen bicyclists. In disgust, she yelled, "really?! really?!" but the assault went unpunished, the offender rode on past Polk Street disappearing into crowd of cyclists all indifferent or unaware of what just happened in their informal peloton.

Bicyclists who usually ride in fear of getting run over, on Friday, seemed to feel a strength in their ever-growing numbers, tearing down Market Street and splitting up rivers of honking vehicles that ceded them the passage. Respecting the wheeling mob scene as a political protest, the cops guard the rear but they don't interfere.

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Mount Tamalpais' One-Man Welcoming Party

2009-04-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

Mt. Tam Waver was one of the first videos I shot after returning to the Bay a few months ago from Idaho. Three million vehicles have passed this grey-bearded man standing on the side of Panoramic Highway waving and saluting cars, according to county records. But few people know who this icon of Mill Valley is.
I tracked him down in December at his nearby home and got the treat of a lifetime.