#Gentrification: Some Montreal Moments
#Gentrification: when the Greek-immigrant barber you used to go to whenever you were visiting/living in Montreal, and who said he’d been cutting hair in the same spot for 50 years … Continue reading
Unbearable Displacements
It was hard for me to comprehend, given the increasingly sanitized streets of most North American cities, the commonplace magnitude of street art in Athens during my recent trip to … Continue reading
The Art of Remembering, Which Is Also the Art of Seeing This World of Pain and Love
Too many people avert their eyes to the pain of this world. As a friend of mine pointed out the other day, it’s a “natural” response; pain hurts, so people … Continue reading
Gravediggers for Capitalism
It’s another beautiful day in my neighborhood, San Francisco’s Mission. And as usual, there are many unneighborly new neighbors moving in — likely too many of them using Move Loot, … Continue reading
Fight for the City: Exploring Our Own Sites of Building
Admittedly, my perspective is skewed. I live smack-dab on a pivotal corner in San Francisco’s “hottest” neighborhood, the Mission. The city itself is tilting toward a “rich-whites only” enclave, serviced … Continue reading
Things I Hate about San Francisco’s Gentrification, Take Two a Year Later
One year ago, in August-September 2013, in a perverse experiment in trying to capture capitalism’s rampage on the streets of San Francisco, I created a “Twitter” poem: 140 lines of … Continue reading
Adding Layers to Street Art’s Message
I’m visiting my sister in Madison, Wisconsin, a town with a long tradition of progressive politics, which people wear proudly — and even in excess — on buttons, bumperstickers, yard … Continue reading
Free City Radio Interview on Anti-Gentrification Struggles in the Bay Area
Listen to an interview with anarchist writer, organizer and activist Cindy Milstein reflecting on current anti-gentrification struggles taking place in the Bay Area. This interview details both the gentrification-driven violence … Continue reading
Ghost Stories from SF: Art Mirrors Life
One can’t always judge a social struggle by its art. Indeed, oftentimes, such cultural production far outstrips the substance of the resistance it’s supposedly in cahoots with, and worse, has … Continue reading
Things I Hate about San Francisco’s Gentrification: A Love Poem
Below you’ll find, first, a lengthy first-person prologue exploring the loss and grief many of us are experiencing — at accelerated paces — as our communities, cities, and loved ones … Continue reading
Outside the Circle 