the panhandle bandshell and the death of fun.
A few months ago, a fantastic project, the Panhandle Bandshell, was installed in the Panhandle here.. It’s made of recycled water bottles, car hoods, and computer parts, and it makes me smile every time I run, bike or drive by it.. The idea of it is to be a kind of community performance space — something to bring the neighborhood together with music.. That’s kind of nice. I’ve stopped by a few times now, and seen a few small performances here and there. Nothing too huge and spectacular, usually just a few people playing to a crowd of about a dozen or so people. It was funded by a generous grant by the SF Department of the Environment and the Black Rock Arts Foundation, of which I’m a happy sponsor.
I love community art — here in Hayes Valley, we were blessed with the temple for a few months in 2005.. I was sad when that went away, but now we have a funny little mini golf course… It’s little things like these that me smile. I really want to upholster a tree stump one of these days.
Anyway — so, the panhandle bandshell failed to get an extension on its permit, so on September 15th, it’s coming down. Neighbors complain that it’s never really used that much, except as a homeless sleep shelter. Um.. grrrr. This kind of thinking infuriates me — I mean, the bandshell did not create our homeless problem here in SF — that’s a completely different issue. But yah — it’s not used THAT much, so the noise complaint is kind of moot, but that said, let’s give it a chance at least during the REAL SF Summer (which everyone knows is September-October)..
WTF is up with these people and their assault on fun? Halloween is canceled in the Castro this year (ok, in all fairness the fun was killed by lame people, and not by the administrators).. At least they haven’t messed with Bay2Breakers (yet). But the Panhandle Bandshell seems like the exact kind of good, clean, community, musical fun that we should be promoting, no?
Anyway… as for what to do about this, I’m not quite sure. The extension was already denied on Thursday, so I guess I’ll be going this weekend to check out a few shows before it’s gone. Chicken John is running for mayor, and if his fundraiser is any sign, I think he understands the promotion of fun and art in this city. I think Gavin has done a pretty good job, but I’ll have to look into things more before I make a decision.
Argh. Stop making my fun city less fun you not fun people.
[Found at sfist]
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