The Bell Riots are about to begin
August 31, 2024 6:45 AM Subscribe
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine accidentally predicted the 2020s by writing about the 1990s. San Francisco Chronicle's Peter Hartlaub revisits the episodes, comparing it to modern-day San Francisco. Bay Area YIMBYs are hosting a Bell Riots event on Labor Day.
Organizer and writer Kelly Hayes reflects with Robyn Maynard and David K. Seitz on the impact these episodes had on their politics: And, while “DS9” certainly had its political limitations and problematic moments, this show was my first exposure to the idea that people who are characterized as terrorists are sometimes the good guys. It was also the first time I had seen a piece of popular fiction portray an occupied people as having the right to lash out violently at their oppressors. The depiction of the Bajoran resistance, their politics, their tactics, and the traumatized afterlife of their struggle gave me a kind of neutral, fictitious space in which to question how people challenging state violence and the violence of empire were depicted in the real world. In that way, I think this show affected my politics, as a 12-year-old making sense of the world, in the same way The Hunger Games affected a lot of the young people that I work with today.
Organizer and writer Kelly Hayes reflects with Robyn Maynard and David K. Seitz on the impact these episodes had on their politics: And, while “DS9” certainly had its political limitations and problematic moments, this show was my first exposure to the idea that people who are characterized as terrorists are sometimes the good guys. It was also the first time I had seen a piece of popular fiction portray an occupied people as having the right to lash out violently at their oppressors. The depiction of the Bajoran resistance, their politics, their tactics, and the traumatized afterlife of their struggle gave me a kind of neutral, fictitious space in which to question how people challenging state violence and the violence of empire were depicted in the real world. In that way, I think this show affected my politics, as a 12-year-old making sense of the world, in the same way The Hunger Games affected a lot of the young people that I work with today.
Sinn Féin really needs to step up the pace on Irish unification
posted by wanderlost at 7:50 AM on August 31 [18 favorites]
posted by wanderlost at 7:50 AM on August 31 [18 favorites]
Huh. The Bay Area YIMBYs whose response to the tenderloin is almost universally "move them out if they can't afford to live here, or just throw 'em all in jail" really got a different message from that episode than I did. Or did they solve everything through a free market and a police state in Star Trek? I haven't watched it for a while.
posted by whm at 8:37 AM on August 31 [3 favorites]
posted by whm at 8:37 AM on August 31 [3 favorites]
The transcript of the Hayes, Maynard, and Seitz conversation is great. Thank you!
There's a lot in there, but Seitz's comment on the public/private partnership depiction of how the Sanctuary Districts operate hit home for me in our era of ever later neoliberal capitalism:
There's a lot in there, but Seitz's comment on the public/private partnership depiction of how the Sanctuary Districts operate hit home for me in our era of ever later neoliberal capitalism:
So, all in all, I think Past Tense is a really powerful illustration, especially through the image of the Sanctuary District, of what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “organized abandonment.”posted by audi alteram partem at 8:53 AM on August 31 [3 favorites]
Honestly Wolfe was a bit too optimistic in writing the sanctuary districts, because as bad as they were portrayed it was at least an organized government response to a problem, unlike today, which just criminalizes homelessness and sends agents of the state to destroy their belongings if they demonstrate the gall to want a place to live
posted by rhymedirective at 8:55 AM on August 31 [12 favorites]
posted by rhymedirective at 8:55 AM on August 31 [12 favorites]
There are lots of parking lots in SF that take up most of a city block, cars lining the sides of every street charged pennies an hour if they’re charged anything at all, and a governor who takes pride in taking away the most meager resources of people who have nothing else and nowhere else to go, and I think about that every time I’m walking around that city. The cruelty is astonishing.
posted by mhoye at 8:56 AM on August 31 [3 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 8:56 AM on August 31 [3 favorites]
"Pennies an hour"? Which part of San Francisco are you taking about and what decade? -- current SF resident
posted by kschang at 10:30 AM on August 31 [1 favorite]
posted by kschang at 10:30 AM on August 31 [1 favorite]
“organized abandonment”
This is reminiscent of the so-called "managed decline" Thatcher had planned for Liverpool after the 1981 riots. According to that linked article they even considered a "partial evacuation" (!). Perhaps that factored into the writers' inspiration for this episode.
(I've been rewatching DS9 so thanks for the reminder to revisit this two-parter!)
posted by Acey at 10:39 AM on August 31 [1 favorite]
This is reminiscent of the so-called "managed decline" Thatcher had planned for Liverpool after the 1981 riots. According to that linked article they even considered a "partial evacuation" (!). Perhaps that factored into the writers' inspiration for this episode.
(I've been rewatching DS9 so thanks for the reminder to revisit this two-parter!)
posted by Acey at 10:39 AM on August 31 [1 favorite]
According to the sfmta residential parking permits are less than $200 per year, which nets out to about sixty cents per day, or pennies an hour.
I am willing to bet that price has not increased dramatically in decades because your car enjoys much better rent control protections than you do.
posted by mhoye at 10:48 AM on August 31 [7 favorites]
I am willing to bet that price has not increased dramatically in decades because your car enjoys much better rent control protections than you do.
posted by mhoye at 10:48 AM on August 31 [7 favorites]
You haven't seen how FEW streets residential parking permit actually works on. Parking permits are zoned and only works in the zone you live in (address proof required). If you happen to live on an "in between street" where there's no zone, you are f-ed. It doesn't work anywhere near downtown or on major streets, and people in the outer area have garages and generally not need on street parking.
posted by kschang at 11:10 AM on August 31 [3 favorites]
posted by kschang at 11:10 AM on August 31 [3 favorites]
Parking permits are zoned and only works in the zone you live in (address proof required).
Is this supposed to be a downside? Most people store their car where they live most of the time. Restricting parking passes to zones increases the value of the pass because it imposes a degree of exclusivity.
posted by Mitheral at 12:43 PM on August 31
Is this supposed to be a downside? Most people store their car where they live most of the time. Restricting parking passes to zones increases the value of the pass because it imposes a degree of exclusivity.
posted by Mitheral at 12:43 PM on August 31
We still have a few months left, the Irish Reunification of 2024 could still happen
posted by Soliloquy at 1:59 PM on August 31 [4 favorites]
posted by Soliloquy at 1:59 PM on August 31 [4 favorites]
Regarding value for parking it limits the utility, esp. if you happen to live on the BORDER of the zone so your choices are limited (or nonexistent).
posted by kschang at 1:59 PM on August 31
posted by kschang at 1:59 PM on August 31
Respectfully, the problems of people who struggle to find a place to park their car should not become the main substance of this thread, and I apologize for steering it in that direction.
posted by mhoye at 2:15 PM on August 31 [4 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 2:15 PM on August 31 [4 favorites]
> The Bay Area YIMBYs whose response to the tenderloin is almost universally
This is extremely not true. I've personally organized with local YIMBYs to remove anti-homeless architecture. They support and have gone to public comments & planning commission meetings in favor of, and organized legislator influence campaigns for new states laws to help build both social housing and new below-market rate homes.
I'm not sure who you're talking about, but it's not the people I've seen making YIMBY arguments here in the Bay.
posted by jmhodges at 5:24 PM on August 31
This is extremely not true. I've personally organized with local YIMBYs to remove anti-homeless architecture. They support and have gone to public comments & planning commission meetings in favor of, and organized legislator influence campaigns for new states laws to help build both social housing and new below-market rate homes.
I'm not sure who you're talking about, but it's not the people I've seen making YIMBY arguments here in the Bay.
posted by jmhodges at 5:24 PM on August 31
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The charities are:
Hollywood Food Coalition
San Francisco-Marin Food Bank
Probably a better way of celebtating Starfleet values than just cosplaying.
posted by fight or flight at 6:58 AM on August 31 [17 favorites]