Strawberries anyone!
FARMERS SELLING PRODUCE ON 3RD STREET ON SATURDAYS (7/18/06)
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It does say Farmers Market but there were no farmers and there was no produce as one sees at the better Farmers Market in San Francisco at the U.N. Plaza and the other better sites. There was one table where some baskets of strawberries were sold for a $1 a basket and I bought two.
On another table there were some greens, a few plums, potatoes, and a few odd vegetables all coming from some garden but not from a small farm. I looked around and there were just a handful of people and they too were dancing and listening to music. I saw one table where a woman was all prepared to show folks how to cook but no one was interested and the woman was smiling to herself and waiting for an audience but as I said that was it. She and her shadow and more shadows as they passed by her ignoring her. Perhaps the only aspect of this exercise in futility of this Farmers Market was the music and the band that goes by the name of The Hawk Johnson Band. I must say the trio belted out some good music. The few inebriated dancers had all the elements to take them to a higher place and the music as least made them feel good. In the midst of this circus I saw my good friend Minerva Dunn she was out to gather signatures for the impending ballot against San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. We need 21,000 signatures but so far have 19,000 with 4 weeks to go. I guess the fruits of her labor will pay off. I am against SF Redevelopment Agency and especially Eminent Domain. In the Interim this Farmers Market and some outreach done by Arc Ecology wasting over $285,000 a year and some other mostly White Community Based Organizations are busy concerned about mostly people of color. They are concerned about talking about toxic hot spots, what people eat, what they cook, health issues and in attempting to address these issues not one meaningful community meeting has been held. It is always the same crooks wasting money pretending that they care for the constituents of the Bayview Hunters Point. What a freaking joke! Shardha from San Francisco Environment came to me and asked me how come I could not see her waving to me. Well I am like that - I see what I see and at the time of her waving I was guarding some material that Minerva had left me to guard while she took care of some other business. I thought she would be back soon and was getting worried because of the delay and was happy when she arrived to move away and attend to some urgent business on a Saturday. In the meantime I was looking and trying to see what was unfolding before my eyes. The Farmers Market was there - the traffic was lacking but low and behold I saw two members of the Islam of Nation and Shardha told me that they were providing security. What a fine idea I thought. More money for security. San Francisco has the money to pay the band and that is fine. They have the money to pay for security and that is great. They even tried to pay the farmers but the farmers had it because they could not sell their produce and they could not give it away. I know for sure over $200,000 has gone into this project to entice folks to come and buy fruits and produce - to cook and eat right. I know Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) and Girls 2000 stand to again from grants and this project. If the youth benefit from some small stipends it is good but we should see the goals of the Farmers Market attained. I have pondered over this and so far the mission objective has fallen by the way side and into the compost pit. White Folks are funny because they always think they can come into the neighborhood and use the population. Remember on 3rd Street on a Saturday there is some traffic but no one was around this Market not even with the good music. What brought me to the site was the music. It was nice to meet the band leader and my good friend Shardha that worked hard to make this project and the grants available. I had a talk with Gail Myers she is the Project Director and I hope to meet her one of these days to find out more about this failed venture. Gail lives in Oakland and has little interaction with the community and those that really matter. Here we go again the blind leading the blind on some important matter that should matter to the community. LEJ and Girls 2000 do not represent the community in toto they are on the fringe and dubious in nature when it comes to project and more to SFE funding. |
The banner.
Folks enjoying Hawk Johnson's music.
The Hawk Johnson Band.
