A roundup of newsworthy items from Justin Herman plaza, the aftermath of the Oakland general strike and, of course, how this all affects the local restaurant industry.
Down on Justin Herman Plaza, members of Occupy San Francisco are getting antsy. There's a growing fear amongst the campers that something might happen in the wake of tomorrow's election. While Occupy Oakland's activities last week took a lot of the spotlight off of the city's local chapter, Mayor Lee has been suspiciously quiet in the last two weeks leading up to the election. We wouldn't be surprised if he was simply waiting for November 8th to roll around to avoid provoking the ire of the 99% prior to the day at the polls. The group is apparently still debating a move to Civic Center plaza and two Occupy SF members ran naked down Market Street on Saturday after SFPD asked them to take down the tarps they put up to guard against this weekend's rain. [CBS5]
Across the street from the main encampment lies One Market restaurant where local restauranteur and general manager of The Tavern at Lark Creek T.J. Jacobberger had dinner the other night. After stepping away from his table for a conversation with a few "lucid protesters", Jacobberger suggests diners who can stand it should take a demonstrator out to a hot meal. Not so much because those folks seem hungry, but because it might be a nice way to foster communication with the occupiers who may not have the most easily accessible message. [InsideScoop]
Speaking of occupying restaurants, a group of 30 protesters gathered outside of a private party at the French Laundry in Yountville on Friday. The private party may or may not have included a group of Chase Bank officials — sources won't confirm the rumored reason for the protest — but at least one person from the dinner did come outside to hand out cookies to the Occupy demonstrators. [PressDemocrat] via [InsideScoop]
Over in Oakland, embedded reporter, cartoonist and friend of SFist Susie Cagle was among those arrested after Wednesday's general strike devolved in to chaos. Despite her prominently displayed press pass, Cagle ended up spending 14 hours being processed between two Oakland jails. Further complicating Oakland PD's tone-deaf mishandling of the Occupy situation in general, Cagle now reports that OPD has explained they don't recognize web-based reporters of any kind. [Susie Cagle] [ABC7]
Meanwhile, former Oakland PD Chief Anthony Batts has also spoken out about the Occupy movement in the East Bay. Repeating some good advice given to him by former president Bill Clinton, Batts told ABC7, "You can never conquer issues through force. It always has to be with diplomacy, and I think the first thing we have to do is to be diplomatic." Batts resigned from the department on October 11th. [ABC7]
