Jeff Webb: Not What You Think

Jeff Webb: Not What You Think

For a while, San Francisco corporate media has delighted in focusing on a webcam that someone has set up at the Seneca Hotel on 6th Street. Television news, the Chronicle, the Examiner have all jumped on this story and somehow fit it into their editorial agenda --- which for some reason, seems to be unilaterally supporting \"redevelopment\" (i.e., gentrification) as the only answer.

Speaking with Indymedia, Jeff Webb feels that his message has been distorted by corporate media. He is personally opposed to gentrification of Market St, police brutality, prejudice against homeless and poor people, and the city\'s corrupt relationship with developers. Problem is, corporate media didn\'t report any of this. What they reported is essentially: \"outraged working citizen demands greater leeway for police\".

More leeway for police is, of course, a critical element for urban gentrification plans. The formula is simple. The biggest opposition to gentrification comes from activist groups, who have fought long and hard against corrupt city policies to build a support network for poor and homeless people, especially around Market St. The media plays up crime, demonizing poor people and fanning the flames of classist, racist prejudice. The outcry gives the police a cover to violate the civil and human rights of poor and homeless people who may or may not be involved in drugs. So, they use the increased policing resources for homeless sweeps and busting food charity groups like Food Not Bombs or arresting working homeless people selling Street Sheet (all of which corporate media ignores). Basically, a rude awakening to poor people: \"You are not welcome here anymore, and we\'re the law, so be out of town by sunset.\" The Chronicle was recently protested for their complicity in this process. The Examiner has also been targeted (more on Examiner).

Once the activist groups and homeless people are gone, there is no more opposition to the plans of rich developers. Gentrification can proceed as normal without the inconvenience of community participation, because the community has been destroyed. This pattern of gentrification has been seen again and again in metropolitan areas across the country, most notably in New York City, where Rudy Giuliani made a mockery of the U.S. Constitution in order to implement his plan for a clean city for rich people only.

Jeff Webb sees and understands this pattern. In fact, he used to be homeless himself. \"I used to sell Street Sheet ... cops are prejudiced against homeless people. At an encampment I stayed at, the cops would come by at 3am and just overturn your stuff.\" For the record, Jeff has no problem with homeless encampments. \"If it is just homeless people, I don\'t care. Drugs don\'t even bother me. It\'s the screaming and noise all night that keeps me awake.\"

One is lead to wonder why there are so many open drug markets in San Francisco while SFPD spends it resources busting Street Sheet and groups that serve free food. Jeff thinks the answer is \"total corruption\". He also points to \"the other Webb,\" referring to Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News, who broke the connection between the CIA and crack-cocaine distribution in California. With the half-hearted prosecution of the Oakland Riders, which is almost totally ignored by local media, his analysis doesn\'t seem that far off the mark.

And Jeff sides with neighborhood activists who are sounding the alarm about the impending gentrification plans. Jeff currently has his eye on the city\'s plan to claim eminent domain on properties in his community. \"They want to hand these properties over to private developers. That\'s illegal. It can only be done for the public good.\"

\"I\'ve lived here for 9 years, I sure as hell don\'t want to lose rent control,\" he says. And the Examiner\'s posterboy for gentrification, Joe O\'Donoghue (rated one of the worst slumlords in San Francisco in a report by Media Alliance), doesn\'t get any respect from Jeff either: \"I don\'t like him. He\'s a money grubber, you can see that.\"

Jeff Webb says he put up his webcam to make a point. He wants to point out that police ignore open drug markets while cracking down on innocent people. Unfortunately, corporate media has its eyes on the prize: a city full of rich people who accept what is fed them, instead of all these pesky progressives and homeless people that they have to walk by each morning on the way to work. \"They did exploit this,\" Jeff concludes about local corporate media. And gentrification? \"It is for rich people, we\'re gonna resist this.\"