Sunday 7-29-18 9:30 AM-3 PM Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides Gruff Growlings from the Red Church, Questionable Anecdotes from the FNB Chowline & Flashbacks to March 1990 and May 2010

Streams at freakradio.org and broadcasts at 101.3 FM

RECENT EVENTS
  • Snarls and secrets from the hungry at the Red Church meal
  • Mysterious Manager Martin Bernal Awards Keith McHenry $50
  • Fears, Follies, & Fundamentals from the Food Not Bombs Lick Smackers

FLASHBACKS
  • March 1990 Kitchenquest activists demand action at the Board of Supervisors 
  • May 9, 2010 Show includes 
    +++ ACLU Canvassers driven away from Trader Jo’s parking lot by security thugs. +++ Dennis Peron Denouncing “Tax and Regulate Marijuana” Initiative                 +++ Reflections on May 1, 2010 the Dancing Parade                                                 +++ Marijuana Relegalization Policy Project                                                                      +++ Curbhugger Chris & Others on the May 1 “Riot”                                                     +++ FBI Grilling Arrestee at SCPD?                                                                                     +++ Robert “Blindbear” Facer’s Tent Temple                                                                     +++  James on Capitola Trader Jo’s Harassment for Petition Circulating                   +++ Drum Circle Dispersement

This show archives in the near future at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html

“Lost Shows” Archives have been repaired and restocked.  Recent shows can now be found there.


Leave your comments and questions at 831-423-4833.  

 

Tonight 7-26-18 at 6 PM Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides on Free Radio Santa Cruz at 101.3 FM, Updates from Amber of Berkeley, and the Red Church Refugees

  • The Stalling of the 7th Day Adventist RV/Car Camp”’
  • Don’t Bury the Library Activists Press Forward
  • Update from Berkeley:  Amber Whitson Still Van Dwelling Up North
  • More from Louden Nelson’s Closed Bathrooms
  • Voices from the Red Church Chow Line
  • Backtalking Cynthia Berger On the Latest in the Rent Control Struggle

The show will archive in the near future under Lost Shows on the HUFF website at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html.   Look for Latest Show – 7/26/2018  Thursday, July 26, 2018 – Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides.

HUFF Assesses the Battle of the Bathrooms, the autumn Rent Control struggle, and Connecting with Homeless Civil Rights Struggles in Other Cities Wednesday July 25 2018. 11 AM Sub Rosa 703 Pacific

HUFF [Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom] will meet Wednesday, 7-25 11 AM at the Sub Rosa next to the Bike Church. 

Agenda Prospects:

                 +++ Amazed L.A. Authorities Discover Homeless Have Bowels Too: https://la.curbed.com/2018/7/23/17595360/homeless-public-bathrooms-mobile-pit-stop-program

                   +++ Fighting Back Against the RV Crackdown in San Diego: http://www.cbs8.com/story/38712315/homeless-rally-against-rv-parking-restrictions  (VIDEO)
                   +++ Portland Police Ramp Up Homeless Busts: https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2018/06/portland_homeless_accounted_fo.html
                +++ Santa Cruz Business Bosses Mobilize Against Renters: http://sccbusinesscouncil.com/business-council-membership-unanimously-votes-to-oppose-rent-control/
                     

  •   Support the Downtown Santa Cruz Bathroom Task Force, Food Not Bombs,  the Warming Center’s 24 Hour Storage Program, HUFF, Conscience and Action, Monterey County Homeless Advocates, and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
  •  Check out Homeless Outside in Santa Cruz  on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/HomelessOutsideSantaCruz/ for updates.
  •   Read Updates and Post Them on Santa Cruz Indymedia at https://www.indybay.org/santa-cruz/
  •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
  •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future.

7-22-18 9:30 AM-3 PM Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides Part 2 of Tuesday’s “Toilet Time!” Tabling at Louden Nelson Park, Food Not Bombs Fans Fulminate< A Poetry Pause from Berkeley, Red Church Rumblings, and HUFF Howlings on Housing Hot Air

Streams at freakradio.org and broadcasts at 101.3 FM

RECENT EVENTS
  • More Toilet Talk from Tuesday’s “Reopen the Bathrooms, Damn It!” protest at Laurel Park
  • Discrimination DosieDoe Reports from Ismael, Nahzehrah, and others in the Food Not Bombs Community
  • Peppery Warnings from PushBack Pat Colby.
  • Katzenjammer Keith McHenry Updates the FNB Struggle in Florida, Sacramento, and elsewhere.
  • Advance Peek at Poetry Pick-me-up’s from Berkeley’s Julia Vinograd
  • Dreamcatcher, the Pleich Report, Shadowman, Saddened Steve, and other accounts from Red ChurchLand
  • Justiceseeker Jim “Lay it Out” Elisse on Housing Hot Air at City Council and Encompass’s Section 8 Mismanagement
  • Articles and attitudes as ever

STILL MORE ALERTS FROM JUBILATION JULIE & BATHROBESPIERRE ROBERT

This show archives in the near future at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html

“Lost Shows” Archives have been repaired and restocked.  Recent shows can now be found there.


Leave your comments and questions at 831-423-4833.  

Tonight 7-19-18 at 6 PM Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides on Free Radio Santa Cruz at 101.3 FM, Reports from Amber of Berkeley, Seniors at Louden Nelson–the Battle for Open Bathrooms–and Brent Adams’ Survival-Storage Update

  • Update from Berkeley:  Amber Whitson Holding Ground in Berkeley for RV Dwellers
  • Lavatory-Challenged Seniors and Locals  Larry, Beverly, and Carrie Ann Give the Bathroom Blues at the Tuesday “Open the Bathrooms” Tabling at Louden Nelson.
  • Brent Adams on the Storage Struggle and Other Homeless Updates
  • Sacramento Court Throws Out The Anti-Panhandling Ordinance
  • Interviews and Music from Laurel Park Protest Petitioning for Reopening of the Louden Nelson Bathrooms

The show will archive in the near future under Lost Shows on the HUFF website at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html.  
Look for Latest Show – 7/12/2018  Thursday, July 19, 2018 – Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides.

7-15-18 9:30 AM-3 PM Berkeley’s Amber and Santa Cruz’s Brent Plus Street Scowling and a Long Flashback from April 18, 2010 with HUFF and Travelin’ Tom Noddy on resisting the Street Performer Crackdown

Streams at freakradio.org and broadcasts at 101.3 FM

RECENT EVENTS
  • Voices Sunny and Shady from Food Not Bombs Chowdown
  • Battlehardened Brent on Storage, Shelter, and Sleepstruggle
  • Vehicular Voice Amber on the roadweary RV Residents
FLASHBACK FROM April 18, 2010
  • Aftermath of Beggarbacker Becky Johnson’s Sinister Sidewalk Singalong Trial
  • Travelin’ Tom Noddy Chronicles the History of Street Performer Resistance to Official Crackdowns

ALERTS FROM JUBILATION JULIE & BATHROBESPIERRE ROBERT

This show archives in the near future at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html

Leave your comments and questions at 831-423-4833

Pee & Poo Protest: Reopen Essential Bathrooms for the Public and the Poor : Tuesday, July 17 1:30 PM Louden Nelson Center/Laurel Park

While San Lorenzo Park bathrooms have finally been opened after sustained protest, Louden Nelson bathrooms remain closed to the poor unless they can prove to the satisfaction of the staff there that they are “part of a program” there–something that has never been required in the decades long history of the Center.

Alarmed visitors have suggested this results in discriminatory action against poor people, particularly impacting the most needy–those outside without shelter, the disabled, and the elderly.

The closure prompted the local ACLU (never the most forthcoming in opposing anti-homeless measures) to publicly denounce the bathroom and other recently-instituted abusive policies there (like the iron fence, new “unattended property” rules, and roaming “security” guards). And to move its meetings to the Resource Center for Nonviolence.

See “ACLU Statement of Opposition to Anti-Homeless Measures at Louden Nelson Center and Park” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/06/09/18815564.php

Absurdly and abusively, an elderly woman forced to pee outside because denied access prompted six police officers to arrive.

See http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20180530/louden-nelson-center-another-santa-cruz-public-bathroom-under-lock.

(For those unable to access this article, see the comment following this story for its full text.) Go to https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/07/14/18816456.php?show_comments=1#18816457 .

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom) voted to begin tabling at Louden Nelson to maintain the focus on the original focus of Conscience and Action’s first series of protests.

Our goal: to sample public opinion, determine Louden Nelson exclusionary policy in action, gather signatures opposing the closing of the Louden Nelson bathrooms, and alert the community to the situation and possible alternative solutions…

We’ll be tabling at 1:30 PM Tuesday July 17th in back of the Louden Nelson Center (and registering voters as well). Anyone interested can join us.

Recently, after four delays, Parks and Recreation finally forwarded a mass of e-mails, which I’m beginning to go through to determine what the justification (other than prejudice and gentrification) is for closing the bathrooms.

Folks who want to check through these documents on their own can go to https://cityofsantacruz.sharefile.com/share/view/1751d6623671456d
http://huffsantacruz.org

Tonight 7-12-18 at 6 PM Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides on Free Radio Santa Cruz at 101.3 FM, Victory in San Lorenzo Park: Bathrooms ReOpen, Cornerstone Carol Denney Updates from Berkeley, Red Church Chatterings

Update/Victory:  San Lorenzo Bathrooms open; Louden Nelson bathrooms still closed to the public, but protest tabling planned for Tuesday 1:30 PM July 17 where the park meets the porch.

  • Stake-Out Steve C. notes Costco Cop harassing homeless passing through, and other tales from the Red Church chow line.
  • Berkeley writer and activist Carol Denney updates us on the wanderings of the RV refugees.
  • Pretentious ponderings of Bathrobespierre Robert

The show will archive in the near future under Lost Shows on the HUFF website at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html.   Look for Latest Show – 7/12/2018  Thursday, July 12, 2018 – Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides.

TODAY: HUFF celebrates Conscience-and-Action San Lorenzo Bathroom Victory, Plots Louden Nelson Bathroom Liberation- Wednesday July 11 2018. 11 AM Sub Rosa 703 Pacific

HUFF [Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom] will meet Wednesday, 7-11 11 AM at the Sub Rosa next to the Bike Church. 

Agenda Prospects:

                 +++ Bakersfield Snapshot:  https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/local-woman-who-helps-homeless-now-facing-homelessness-herself
                   +++ Fighting the Criminal Jacket: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/07/09/18816397.php

                   +++  Tips for San Jose Strugglers:  https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/8xclpr/i_live_in_east_san_jose_ca_and_i_may_be_homeless/
                +++ Making the Hospital Homeless-jackers Pay:  https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/apxla-hospital-to-pay-550k-in-homeless-patient-dumping-case/
                     

  •   Support the Warming Center, Food Not Bombs,  HUFF, Conscience and Action, and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
  •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
  •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future.

Santa Cruz City Manager Refuses to Reopen Louden Nelson/San Lorenzo Park Bathrooms

Closed as part of a broader campaign targeting unhoused folks outside, the bathrooms at Louden Nelson Center, San Lorenzo Park, and City Hall remained locked and/or closed to the general public. City Manager Martin Bernal ducked an invitation to explain at a gathering a week ago. He then met the next day with Conscience-and-Action [C&A] activists and rejected suggestions to reopen the bathrooms or immediately provide additional accessible portapotties.
BUREAUCRATIC BARRICADING AT ONE PROTEST LED TO ANOTHER
Confronted with an earlier protest outside her office three weeks ago, Carol Scurich, interim Director of Parks and Recreation, rejected demands to reopen the Louden Nelson bathrooms. She promised to provide full documentation justifying the closings (vandalism, drug use, “offensive behavior”). Weeks later, she, her underlings, and her superiors had still not provided that documentation.

In response, C & A activists showed up with food, placards, literature, and chants at City Hall at high noon on Thursday, June 28th.

LOW BLOWS BY THE LOUDEN NELSON LAVATORY LORDS
Louden Nelson supervisors have not only closed its bathrooms to anyone not using its “programs” but instituted a detailed set of rules for its premises, which it now terms “a cafe”. These include proper “personal hygiene, attire, and food consumption” and a ban against “leaving personal property unattended”. In addition, uniformed Ranger and 1st Alarm security thugs now patrol the area, and the entire adjacent park is fenced off.

All of this has been done with no public or community process.

On June 29th at an hour long meeting, C & A activists asked Bernal what damage or other problems prompted the closing of six restrooms. Bernal told us he would “look into” the matter, consider opening up more portapotties, a list of reasons why the bathrooms were closed, and several other vague prospects. But he did not mention that he was leaving the next day on a vacation. Meanwhile, City officials delayed any final action on a Public Records Act seeking the chronology of incidents and decisions around the bathroom closures. The request was made over a month ago and has now been delayed three times.

THE BATHROOM BACKGROUND
Visitor’s bathrooms at Cafe Gratitude and Pizza My Heart, previously funded by the city and open to the public, are now open only to customers with a discouraging sign on the door prominently displayed. Only Bookshop Santa Cruz, Main Public Library, Metro Transit Center, the Locust and Soquel St. Garages have bathroom access and only during the day for the general public. Two portapotties on Cedar St., and one at Laurel and Front allow for 24 hour use, but are not available to many disabled people. Those using them have complained they are dirty, ill-lit, and frequently locked.

In possible response to recent outrage over the closures, city workers have unlocked the two portapotties previously open only after 10 PM on Cedar St..

PROTEST MESSAGES
The late June “Less Crap, More Crappers” protest drew 15-20 members, sporting signs reading “Right to Pee”, “Open the Damn Bathrooms” “If Not Here, then Where?”, “Toilet Liberator”, “Pay Taxes–Hold Your Pee”, and the brief but succinct “Enough Crap!”

COMMUNITY REPORTS
A number of speakers, many of them homeless, described the humiliating and unsanitary conditions created by the closed bathrooms and locked portapotties. Suggestions ranged from applying for the currently vacant permanent Director of Parks and Rec position, to the more radical idea of presenting staff with human waste cleaned up outside the locked facilities to document the extent of the problem.

Much of protest was captured on a video made by visiting Salinas homeless advocate Wes White at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK7GJ44upIs&feature=youtu.be

Louden Nelson bathrooms remained closed to the general public; San Lorenzo Park bathrooms remain closed and locked to everyone. Portapotties and handwashing …

CITY ADMINISTRATOR BLOCKS BATHROOM USE FOR DISABLED WOMAN
Acting City Administrator/Clerk Bush herself provided sharp focus on the “no bathrooms for the homeless here” policy at City Hall. Several protesters noticed the City Hall Women’s bathroom was open instead of being locked as it had since the Freedom Sleeper protests began in mid-2015.

Pleased to see the City Hall authorities responding uncharacteristically to the obvious needs, I then asked Bush to open Men’s bathroom as well. She archly refused then quickly moved to close the women’s bathroom as well. Though the staff has its own bathrooms inside the building as well, Bush and her worker Anna Brooks added insult to injury. Minutes later they refused to allow a disabled woman access to either the privileged staff bathroom inside the Council offices or the previously public bathroom outside Council chambers. Instead Brooks handed Norse a “helpful” list of open-during-the-day bathrooms blocks away elsewhere in the City. The library’s bathroom across the street was reportedly closed.

POLICE BACK UP BATHROOM BLOCKADE
When a group of people demanded to know the reasons for this discriminatory behavior (against the homeless, the disabled, and the general public), Bush summoned the police. Four cops headed by Sgt. Mark Eveleth appeared in full uniform and weaponry. Eveleth threatened, coaxed, and herded the group outside with his four “back-up” officers standing behind him. When asked, Eveleth declined to offer any assistance in dealing with stressed bladders or irritated colons, instead stating falsely that the same Bush, who had ordered the Women’s bathroom locked minutes before, “had no key”..

NEXT DAY’S MEETING FUTILE
The subsequent meeting with Bathroom Boss Bernal resulted in lots of smooth ducking and weaving, but no commitment to do anything definite other than “look into” providing more of the disabled inaccessible portapotties. Those interested in following the smelly dialogue can review the audio soon on “Latest Shows” under huffsantacruz.org (for July 1 and July 5).

KEEPING UP THE PRESSURE
Proposals at a recent meeting of the C&A group included tabling outside the scene of the criminal bathroom closures–the Louden Nelson Center. There HUFF activists hope to poll community members on their reaction to the “no poo for the poor” policy now in force. Tablers would also monitor and document discriminatory access to the bathrooms and provide an opportunity for folks to voice their views in petition and on the radio.

Contact HUFF at 831-423-4833 if you’re interested or e-mail at rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com.

HUFF’S VIEWS
The views expressed in this article are mine and do not necessarily represent those of others in Conscience and Action. However, the group is pretty much united in demanding that the closed bathrooms be reopened.

HUFF has for decades demanded more bathrooms be made available and began its own “Give a Shit” campaign a year ago protesting Bernal’s closure of the City Hall bathrooms in 2015 apparently designed to drive away the Freedom Sleepers and Survival Sleepers who gathered outside.

HUFF meets Wednesday July 11th at 11 AM at the Sub Rosa Cafe (703 Pacific) to discuss creative ways of raising a stink. Subsequent meetings: July 25, August 8. CONSCIENCE AND ACTION MEETS July 18 and August 1 at the same place

PREVIOUS STORIES
“Open the Bathrooms!” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/06/26/18816025.php
“City of Santa Cruz Confiscates Food Not Bombs Portable Toilet” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/06/18/18815755.php
“Conscience and Action Speak Out at Parks and Rec” at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/06/14/18815686.php
http://huffsantacruz.org