gentrification

The L.A. Basin is filled with empty McMansions. I hear there are also lots of big empty homes in Seattle, Vancouver, San Diego and the space-strapped San Francisco Bay Area as well. They're like fields left fallow, although they're not getting more fertile over time. These homes are investments from wealthy foreigners, predominantly from China and Russia, although from anywhere in the world where the wealthy know their riches could be seized in a political upheaval at any time.

During the 2014 holiday season, Margaret Cho was in San Francisco helping raise funds for youth services. (Photos by Gerard Livernois)"It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only $53 annually on the victims of poverty." -- Dr.

By Denise Sullivan"People who don't live here don't get it," says singer-songwriter and guitarist Tom Heyman. "Everyone I know is waiting for the other shoe to drop, all the time. All my renter friends, me and my wife, we live in constant fear."One of thousands of musicians who migrated to the West Coast in search of better weather and better fortune in the music business, Heyman arrived to San Francisco in January of 1998 and slid in easily to the local guitar and roots music scene headquartered at the Makeout Room on 22nd and Mission Streets.

Mayor Total Sell-Out-by Denise SullivanMayor Ed Lee issued his annual State of the City report from the shame and pity that is his San Francisco last Thursday, and while it might look good on paper,

Have you ever been caught tapping a friend’s phone calls? Called out for the exploitative maltreatment your employees? Are you a multi-billionaire prone to going through the pockets of black youth in the hopes of finding marijuana?
Consider talking about your concern for the environment, particularly the effects of climate change. Leading governments, corporations, and political figures under fire for civil and human rights violations are giving it a whirl.
Greening Injustice