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San Francisco Pride 2013
OUTRIGHT LIBERTARIANS AT SAN FRANCISCO PRIDE 2013
Once again, Outright Libertarians, the non-profit Libertarian outreach to the LGBT community, will host a booth at San Francisco Pride. Outright and LPSF volunteers will staff the booth, distribute literature, entice visitors to take the World’s Smallest Political Quiz, and talk to whoever will listen about how Libertarianism brings individual liberty and economic prosperity. Stop by and get informational brochures, funny buttons, and stickers. Ask us questions. Say hello.
Liberty Anyone?
WHAT YOU COULD DO TO PROMOTE LIBERTY
What secret sauce could be used to entice San Francisco voters to try libertarianism? Libertarians consider this a challenging recipe, since the City is a bastion of progressive politics. However, as a third party, forever battling the Twin Goliaths, we are no stranger to challenge.
Therefore, LPSF is continuing the outreach campaign started in earnest last November, as well as the deployment of activists to Town Halls and Board of Supervisor meetings to face City leaders on subject such as Plan Bay Area, the City budget, and gun control. We continue to staff booths, attend events, and promote other libertarian individuals and groups.
We are hoping to convince a larger portion of our electorate that protecting individual liberties and bringing prosperity via private resourcefulness will produce better results than keeping so many so tied to the whims of government largess. The Big Government paradigm fed to the populace can only result in eventual total dependence. We are confident that Libertarians are not the only folks figuring this out! Given the tremendous increase in voters who indicate “No Party Preference,” it would appear to us that the strength of the Twin Goliaths might be waning.
To better acquaint the general public with the benefits of libertarianism, we need you to help us. Please consider attending one of our monthly meetings or after-meeting socials (click Meetings on our Main Menu for information); join our Discussion List and give us your input and ideas (click Discussion List on the banner above); e-mail us to receive more information about libertarianism or the Libertarian Party (click Contact Us); support our efforts by contributing to our newly established Activity Fund (click Contact Us for where to send your donation); and/or join us as a Member (click Join/Renew on the banner to fill out a membership application).
If you are already a member of another Bay Area small-government group, advise us of your efforts. Coalitions are force multipliers!
Nanny of the Month Award
On Free Cell Phones and the New San Francisco Budget
The Libertarian Party of San Francisco takes economics and individual liberty seriously; therefore we reserve our Nanny of the Month Award for individuals or programs that truly defy both. California’s expansion of the Lifeline Assistance program into distribution of “free” cell phones, and San Francisco’s enthusiastic welcome of this escalation, are this month’s winners.
Would the poor and the homeless want cell phones to “find housing, employment and to reconnect with family”* -- of course! Are the cell pones “free” -- of course not. A monthly fee collected from each paying telephone customer underwrites the costs incurred by the cell phone vendor. This underwriting tax also pays for the “free” or discounted landline and Internet services that have been in existence for a number of years. The economics of increasingly taking from Peter to pay Paul is not seen by Libertarians as a sustainable economic model.
Additionally, Peter forks over this hard-earned cash to Paul involuntarily, not at all like the donations to charity he may or may not choose to make. Libertarians would say the involuntary donation is an infringement of Peter’s individual rights.
Here are two good quotes on the subject: “One can become a leader only if one is supported by an ideology which makes other people tractable and accommodating.” Ludwig von Mises, The Role of Ideas http://mises.org/humanaction/chap9sec3.asp “The trouble with a budget is that it's hard to fill up one hole without digging another.” Dan Bennett http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Dan+Bennett/1/index.html
Now, speaking of economic models, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has scheduled some Town Halls so the general public can weigh in on the City budget he has submitted. For a list of Town Halls, please click “Bay Area Events” on our Main Menu, or go to
http://www.sfmayor.org/index.aspx?recordid=285&page=934
Countercultural Entrepreneurial Renaissance vs. Big Government Gentrification
It would be a real shame for it to be replaced by some sterile purveyor of expensive luggage. But according to a piece in the Uptown Almanac, that just may happen. The bookstore, which has been there 25 years and was paying $4500 a month in rent, was first told the rent would be increased to $6000/month and is now being asked to pay $8000 in the face of competing interest from a deep-pocketed chain retailer formerly known as Liz Claiborne Inc., which wants the space for its Jack Spade brand of men's bags, accessories, and apparel. Unlike many of those who commented on the article, I don't blame the landlord. If he/she is asking $8000 a month for the bookstore to stay, then obviously Jack Spade is willing to pay at least that much. The $2000/month difference between $6000 and $8000 is $24,000 a year. As I asked in a version of this comment posted on Uptown Almanac, would you take a $24,000 a year pay cut in exchange for keeping your neighborhood funkier and less commercialized, if the workload for you was going to be essentially the same either way? If you would, and you have the kind of money where you can afford to make $24,000/year less than you otherwise could, in dedication to your aesthetic sense of beauty, justice, and so on, then we may have an easy solution to this problem. Just buy $24,000 in Adobe Books gift certificates for Christmas this year, and promise them you'll do the same next year in perpetuity or until the economy crashes and rents come down. But in all likelihood you don't have the money to do that, and wouldn't do it if you did. If you would do it, that might well be why you *can't* do it -- because you haven't lived a money-accumulating lifestyle that would enable you to step in with such a gesture. Nothing wrong with that, but it may mean that from the landlord's perspective you're all talk and no walk if you're asking him/her to make the sacrifice. The real problem here is that efforts to save businesses like Adobe Books under the present arrangement are basically fighting against the law of supply and demand and against market incentives, which is like trying to keep water from flowing downhill...
Read more: Countercultural Entrepreneurial Renaissance vs. Big Government Gentrification Plan Bay Area Update
What are Unelected Folks Serving YOU Here!?
Plan Bay Area is a blueprint developed by the Association of Bay Area Government s (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), designed to implement high population density areas along public transit corridors, ensure income diversity in these high-population areas, and implement strict environmental restriction to decrease Bay Area levels of particulates and other pollutants. For more information on Plan Bay Area, see lpsf.org article, Plan Bay Area: Vision or Micromanagement, Bay Are Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights website http://www.bayarealiberty.com/libertyblog/ , or One Bay Area website http://onebayarea.org
Plan Bay Area will release the Draft Plan Bay Area on March 22, 2013, and will start the public comment period which will extend until May 16, 2013. Comments will be accepted on the Draft Plan as well as on the companion Draft Environmental Impact Report to be released on March 29, 2013.
ABAG and MTC are “slated to adopt Plan Bay Area and the companion Environmental impact Report in June 2013.” Unless, of course, voters who do not buy into this plan change that slated adoption.
There are multiple ways to submit your public comments on Draft Plan Bay Area and on Draft Environmental Impact Report: Make your oral comment at one of the public hearings Submit your comment via e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Provide your comment on the online forum, Plan Bay Area Town Hall (on the One Bay Area website once the Draft Plan is released) Send your comment via snail mail to MTC, Plan Bay Area Public Comment, 101 8th Street, Oakland, CA 94607
Check the One Bay Area Website for dates, times, and locations of the public meetings. The San Francisco meeting will take place on April 11, 2013, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm Whitcomb Hotel, 1231 Market St, San Francisco.
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Walking into Adobe Books, an old-fashioned neighborhood bookseller located down the street from me in the Mission at 3166 16th Street, feels like walking into a time warp. It's one of a dwindling number of stores in the area with a real bohemian look and feel to it.