DefendTheBulb writes: In Solidarity with People whose homes are threatened, In Honor of unpermitted public Art, In Defense of spaces free and wild everywhere, To Keep the Albany Bulb Natural and unlandscaped, To Preserve Habitat for Birds, Insects, and other migratory Animals, including Humans, We Declare the Bulb an Autonomous Zone , a space where Art and Music continue to flourish, where People assemble Freely, where Dogs run unleashed, and where long-term Residents can continue to maintain and improve their Homesteads.

We Declare the Bulb an Autonomous Zone , a space where Art and Music continue to flourish, where People assemble Freely, where Dogs run unleashed, and where long-term Residents can continue to maintain and improve their Homesteads. Come and create this place with us. So many things can happen here, as they have for decades-- concerts, feasts, workshops, classes, theater, art projects, plant walks, treasure hunts, home building, and anything else one can manifest.

This declaration is a direct response to one of the last homes at the Bulb being destroyed by bulldozers. We are committed to defending the remaining homes and keeping the Bulb free and wild forever. We welcome all walks of life to share in the enjoyment of this unique and magical space. We will converge nightly for a potluck at the stone structure by the beach at 7pm and hope you will join us!

May 19: The Last Stand Camp Out and Eviction Defense of the Albany Bulb

Nightly Potlucks: Every night 7pm Pot luck Autonomous Abany Bulb Zone

Read More with Photos | Lockdown Defends the Bulb! More Support Needed | Pot luck at the Bulb Declaration of Autonomous Zone (5/15) | Re-occupation of the Albany Bulb (5/14) | Last Stand for the Albany Bulb?!

Previous Coverage: Eviction of Albany Bulb Begins

On May 5, sign language interpreters who work at Purple Communications in Oakland went on a one-day unfair labor practice strike in Oakland. They were joined in the strike by workers in San Diego; Denver, Colorado; and Tempe, Arizona. The strike focused on the unfair manner in which the company changed the terms of employee health coverage. “This is about safety and health care,” said Carol Day, a veteran ASL interpreter who was picketing and handing out leaflets in downtown Oakland.

Members of ASL Interpreters United, an affiliate of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521, carried picket signs outside unionized Purple work sites, declaring the interpreters were “stronger together.” Only a handful of union-covered workers showed up intending to work at the four sites. In some locations, strike participation was close to 100 percent.

Read More | FCC to fine Purple Communications $11.9 million, company sought fraudulent reimbursements

On the afternoon of April 30, Eviction Free San Francisco joined the tenants from 741 Ellis Street in the Tenderloin district in an emergency rally in the courtyard of their apartment building. With the help of the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, the tenants called this action to demand that their new landlord, Ty Durekas, Senior Advisor of OnCare, immediately withdraw his eviction notices.

Because 741 Ellis Street was constructed after 1979, its apartments are not rent controlled. Durekas is evicting five low-income families from their homes of the last 12 years, choosing to stop accepting their Section 8 housing vouchers and giving them 90 days to vacate. Ironically, Durekas’ company OnCare is a company providing internet support services to child care providers while he is trying to put children out onto the street.

Read More | Eviction Free San Francisco

The private buses that shuttle tech workers to and from offices outside of San Francisco currently pay nothing for the use of Muni bus stops. The private shuttles block public buses from using the bus stops and have come to symbolize the increasing hegemony of San Francisco, complete with unaffordable rents and rampant evictions. In protest, demonstrators have repeatedly blocked the buses. The City's response to protesters' objections has been to propose that the Google buses start paying a fee of $1 per stop in a limited number of bus stops.

On May 1, however, a coalition of environmental, labor, and tenants' rights groups filed suit in San Francisco, declaring that the City's "Commuter Bus Program," aka the "Google Bus Giveaway," is illegal and should be set aside. The suit contends that it is against state law for private buses to use the public bus stops. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are The Coalition for Fair, Legal, and Environmental Transit; Sara Shortt of the tenants rights group Housing Rights Committee; and Alysabeth Alexander Vice President of Politics for SEIU 1021. Defendants include the City and County of San Francisco; Mayor Ed Lee; the SF Board of Supervisors; Muni; and Google, Apple and Genentech.

"We know that these buses are having a devastating impact on our neighborhoods," said Sara Shortt," driving up rents and evictions of long-time SF residents. We've protested in the streets and taken our plea to City Hall to no avail. We hope to finally receive justice in a court of law."

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Previous Related Indybay Feature: Fighting Back Against the "Tech Takeover": Impact of Tech Industry Protested with Apple, Google, & Yahoo Bus Blockades and Home Demo

Health advocates from the California Brain Tumor Association and Stop Smart Meters! affixed health warning labels on cell phones for sale in Verizon’s Market Street store in San Francisco in defiance of the wireless industry’s legal bullying of cell phone safety ordinances across the nation. Store management removed the labels but did not summon police, possibly out of concern that potential arrests may highlight a health risk the industry would rather keep quiet. Further embarrassing the company, one of its employees stuck one of the labels to his own phone in an apparent act of defiance against his employer’s suppression of health information regarding its products.

In 2011, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a “right to know” law requiring cell phone retailers in the city to issue at the point of sale a fact sheet to each consumer including the World Health Organization classification and the manufacturer’s own language hidden in the phone or manual instructing phone users to keep phones 5/8 inch away from the body at all times when turned on. The Wireless Association (CTIA) sued the city (saying such “forced speech” represented a breach of the company’s First Amendment rights) and withdrew its annual conferences from San Francisco. According to then Mayor Newsom, “their behavior makes me even more concerned as to what they are hiding.” The City did not lose the lawsuit but under the leadership of tech friendly Mayor Lee the Board of Supervisors was coerced into repealing the law, leaving customers in the dark about the health effects of routine cell phone radiation exposure.

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A new report documents, for the first time, widespread pesticide use near California schools, including in Monterey County. Many of the pesticides profiled are used in large amounts and linked to impacts on children’s health and learning. A coalition, which includes Californians for Pesticide Reform and the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, has called for reforms in addressing pesticide use to protect children in Monterey County.

Monterey County had the highest percentage of schoolchildren attending schools located within ¼ mile of the heaviest use of highly hazardous pesticides, according to the California Department of Public Health (DPH) study. More than a quarter (25.1%) of schoolchildren (18,525) in Monterey County attended schools within ¼ mile of the most highly hazardous pesticide use. Over 46% of the county’s schools were located within ¼ mile of the most highly hazardous pesticide use. Monterey County schoolchildren were among the most at risk statewide, with the highest percentage of students (19.5%) near the use of carcinogenic pesticides, the highest percentage of students (22.1%) near the use of reproductive and developmental toxicant pesticides, the highest percentage of students (16.4%) near the use of fumigant pesticides, the highest percentage of students near Toxic Air Contaminants (18%) and the highest percentage of students (24.7%) near the use of pesticides prioritized for assessment and monitoring.

The detailed report Agricultural Pesticide Use Near Public Schools in California was posted to CDPH’s website on Friday afternoon with little fanfare. The rigorous analysis shows that difficult-to-control pesticides, linked to negative impacts on children’s health and learning, are widely used near schoolchildren in fifteen of the state’s counties. This is the first time an analysis of pesticide use near schools has been conducted in California.

Read More | Californians for Pesticide Reform | Monterey Bay Central Labor Council

The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project has released "Ethel's List: The Dirty Thirty," a list of landlords and speculators who have all evicted at least one senior and/or disabled person through the Ellis Act over the last decade. Ethel, an activist and member of Senior and Disability Action, is extremely concerned about her senior community being forced out of their homes. To be senior and/or disabled and to be evicted can cause dire health effects, and at times death. Not only does one lose ones home, but also one's community, social support, and at times access to particular forms of health care.

The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project list has information about tenants being evicted, as well as the companies affiliated with the evictors, including some tech corporations such as Google, BandPage, Adobe Systems Inc., Binnacle Systems, SF REV, Inc., and more. The project has also found that some of these speculators have bought properties at foreclosure auctions, with one currently residing in China.

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A group of seniors, people with disabilities, supporters, and co-sponsors — Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, Senior and Disability Action, Eviction Free San Francisco, POOR Magazine, Gray Panthers of SF, Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, Bill Sorro Housing Program and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment — confronted the San Francisco Association of Realtors on April 22. The group planned to deliver a letter of demands in person, but the Association had posted two SFPD officers in front of their office. A lone representative was sent outside to accept the letter. The activists remained and held a rally and press conference with testimonies from seniors and people with disabilities.

The press release issued by Seniors & Disability Action stated: “Seniors and people with disabilities, hard hit by the eviction crisis, will rally in front of the San Francisco Association of Realtors on Tuesday April 22nd to call for the Association, the city’s real estate lobbying group, to not oppose proposed legislation to the Ellis Act now being proposed in Sacramento as well as putting a moratorium on evictions for seniors and people with disabilities."

"The San Francisco Board of realtors has opposed legislation beneficial to tenants in the past, including any proposals that would expand rent control. San Francisco’s eviction crisis is out of control with a 178% increase in Ellis Act evictions over the last 3 years and the loss of 1000 units of rent controlled units in the last 2 years—10,000 since 1997. Seniors and people with disabilities have had enough.”

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See Also: Ethel's List: Anti-Eviction Mapping Project's List of SF Ellis Act Evictors of Seniors and Disabled