![_Golden State Warriors Officially Moving To San Francisco [Updated]](http://sfist.com/assets_c/2012/05/SFArena_Rendering-thumb-250x250-715954.jpg)
Where Have All the Fliers Gone?
We read Steven Jones' article in this week's Bay Guardian over the handbill debate in the Mission with interest and not just because it brings up a great debate or because of the usual Bay Guardian hilarity, but because as we were walking around Valencia Street, we noticed that there was nary a flier to be found. Not a call for ending U.S. Imperialism, not a bill for some DJ we've never heard of, nor an announcement for a Trotsky Teach-In. What we saw as we were walking around were completely bare streetlights and unpostered walls.
Where have all the fliers gone? Long time pasting.
According to the story, there's some dude who has been taking it upon himself to clean up the neighborhood by going around and tearing off all the fliers and handbills that have been taped onto walls, barricades, and streetlights. The dude, Gideon Kramer, is backed up by both state and local laws banning the posting of fliers. In fact, in 1999, the Board of Supes passed a measure that seriously raised fines for doing so. The measure also included a bunch of provisions, which would allow them to be posted, but nobody seemed to follow them. As a result, a lot of people and organizations have been hit with thousands of dollars in fines for postering things everywhere.
On the other hand, people who post things up on streetlights and any other assorted things in the Mission do so to advertise their wares. Viral marketing at it's most organic and basic, a form of advertising that goes way back to Flintstones times. But, as the Bay Guardian article points out, it's mainly political groups like ANSWER or the International Workers Party who are bearing the brunt of the crack down. Both of them have been hit with thousand of dollars worth of fines, not because they were caught putting the fliers up but because it was generally assumed by the cops that fliers calling for the ending of U.S. Imperialism with a big huge ANSWER logo on it could have only been put up by someone from ANSWER. This makes the whole thing a freedom of speech issue and that's what makes the whole thing kind of juicy-- it's freedom of speech vs. freedom of people to keep their neighborhoods clean. Or, as Jones puts it in his usual understated way, "those trying to stop war and those trying to combat blight." Oh, Gideon Kramer, don't you want to bring the troops home now?
But wait, there's more!
The Bay Guardian points out there's an even larger issue to all of this, one just beyond ending the war. And that is gentrification. See, clean streets equals gentrification equals displacement of the poor and the working class which equals Suzy and Biff Yuppie trying to order mojitos at the 500 Club. And all because somebody doesn't like seeing fliers about learning the Socialist Response to Suri Cruise. This, of course, makes perfect sense because as we all know, poor people hate living in clean neighborhoods. We all know they love living in run-down neighborhoods with graffiti and litter everywhere. After all, why do they only live in those kind of neighborhoods?
No wait, that doesn't make any sense. We think what the article means is that clean neighborhoods increase property values which increases housing costs and makes things too expensive for poor people to stay in the neighborhood. Which means that in order to help all the poor and working class people in the city, we should strive to make this city as dirty and messy as possible. Screw trashcans and throwing garbage away, leave it on the streets! Do it for the poor!
No wait, that doesn't make sense either. Hmmm...maybe it's a gentrification issue because clean streets make a neighborhood less gritty and white hipster types lose serious hipster street cred for living in clean neighborhoods. Maybe that's it.
Either way, Jones says the gentrification bit is a serious issue and all the people he talked to, mainly members of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, agreed with him. Which, to us, is a little like saying everyone loves "Popozao" because everyone he talked to in the Kevin Federline 4eva Fan Club loves it, but whatever.
As to us, how do we think about our new, scrubbed down neighborhood? Well, it's kind of like our apartment. We can vacuum and occasionally dust and do the dishes, but all it accomplishes is making our messiness a little bit more organized. Or, to put it another way, we were so busy trying to make it through the phalanx of baseheads and avoiding hypodermic needles that it took us awhile to notice the lack of fliers.