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Prop 8 tapes ruling appealed
Mission test results
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Rufus Rules
The
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Serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities since 1971
Vol. 50 • No. 29 • July 16-22, 2020
Harvey Milk Plaza elevator project moves forward by Matthew S. Bajko Screengrab via Zoom
Clockwise from top left, Michelle Maine, Vincent Pan, Phelicia Jones, and Keith Baraka talked about racial justice and election issues during an Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club virtual meeting Monday.
Activists discuss sustaining quest for racial justice by John Ferrannini
A
t a virtual meeting of the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club July 13, a panel of activists discussed how people can sustain this moment of advocacy on behalf of the Black community with an eye toward the November elections. The panel was moderated by Keith Baraka, a gay, Black man who is a vice chair of the San Francisco County Democratic Party Central Committee. It included Phelicia Jones, founder of Wealth and Disparities in the Black community; Vincent Pan, the co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action; and Michelle Maine, the communications director of Swing Left San Francisco.
‘Black people fare far worse’
Jones said she has been an “all-around community person” since she was 15 years old. Born in San Francisco and raised in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, Jones is the founder of Wealth and Disparities in the Black community, which began as a way to look at differences between Black Americans and others in the areas of housing, health, employment, and mass incarceration. “Don’t take this as discriminatory, because that’s not my intention, but Black people fare far worse than immigrants in San Francisco,” Jones said. “They have been studying Black people in San Francisco for 55 years. There have been three reports in 55 years and Black San Franciscans are doing worse than we were before.” So-called urban renewal schemes in the midto-late 20th century destroyed many Black communities in American cities by building freeways and exercising eminent domain in heavily Black neighborhoods. In San Francisco, redevelopment in the Western Addition’s Fillmore district, rising rents, and gentrification have contributed to an exodus of the city’s Black population, which were from 13% in 1970 to less than 6% in 2010. Jones said that while San Francisco is a very liberal city, there is a lot of covert racism. Despite committees and reports discussing disparities between Black people and other San Franciscans, there hasn’t been enough concrete action, Jones said. See page 8 >>
T
he determination by San Francisco’s planning department that Harvey Milk Plaza in the city’s LGBTQ Castro district is historically important and eligible for listing on the California Register of Historical Resources should not impact the proposed elevator project for the Castro Muni Station. The city’s public works department is planning to install a new elevator in the middle of the plaza to provide better access to the underground subway station from the street for individuals who use wheelchairs and others with mobility issues. It is working in conjunction with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on the project. As the B.A.R. reported in December, a seethrough glass structure for a three-stop elevator is to be built in a sunken terraced portion of the plaza that is currently fenced off and inaccessible to the public. It will include space for a fourth stop providing direct access to Market Street that could be added at a later date when funding for it is secured. The $9 million elevator project is part of an estimated $15 million retrofit for the plaza that will include replacing the existing lighting fixtures
Courtesy TreanorHL
Looking west at Harvey Milk Plaza from Castro Street
and removing the red bricks for sparkle grain integral color concrete that matches the paving installed when the sidewalks along Castro Street were widened. The plaza project will also widen a segment of the sidewalk fronting Market Street headed toward Collingwood Street.
SF queer-owned bar Jolene’s faces lawsuit, demands for change by John Ferrannini
J
olene’s Bar and Restaurant in the Mission district is embroiled in twin controversies – a lawsuit from one former owner, and anonymous allegations of employee mistreatment, manipulation, racism, and cover-ups of alleged sexual assaults. Jolene’s opened in 2018 at 2700 16th Street by Jolene Linsangan, her then-partner Ashleigh Wilson, and Shannon Amitin. Wilson and Amitin have since left day-to-day bar operations and told the Bay Area Reporter in separate interviews July 14 that they have been trying to get their names removed from the liquor license for some time. Wilson told the B.A.R. that she is currently involved in litigation against Linsangan, who is listed in the filing as Alicia Linsangan. Indeed, Wilson filed suit against Linsangan April 3, according to San Francisco County Superior Court records. The lawsuit, which also names Linsangan’s mother, the LLC that does business as Jolene’s, and 10 anonymous individuals among the 13 defendants, alleges nine counts of damages including breach of contract, slander and libel, false light, false imprisonment, and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. According to the complaint filed by Wilson’s attorneys, “Linsangan regularly berated Wilson,
Courtesy Facebook
Queer-owned bar Jolene’s is embroiled in twin controversies.
accusing her of not assisting with the business or providing anything of value, and regularly did so in front of others,” despite the fact that Wilson did much of the work to help the bar get a liquor license. Shortly after the bar opened, the complaint says, Linsangan cornered Wilson inside of their office “for approximately 10 minutes, which felt like an eternity to Wilson.” “During the time Wilson was trapped, she
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was pleading with Linsangan to let her go, and she feared for her safety and avidly wanted to escape,” the complaint states. “Wilson, in desperation, called for help from co-manager Amitin, who was on the premises. ... When Amitin responded, Linsangan backed down and let Wilson escape.” “Wilson made several efforts to negotiate her exit” after the bar was cited by the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for serving alcohol after 2 a.m. and her interest in the bar was signed over to Linsangan’s mother. As part of that agreement, Linsagnan promised to remove Wilson from the liquor license, the complaint states, however, this was not done and therefore constitutes a breach of contract. Written and spoken statements by Linsangan making untrue statements about Wilson constitute libel and slander, respectively, the complaint states, which caused Wilson to “experience a loss of reputation and community as a result.” “Defendant stated and published information or material that showed Wilson in a false light, including that she was untrustworthy, a cheat, a thief, an extortionist, a bad business partner etc.,” the complaint states. “This was highly offensive to Wilson.” See page 6 >>