Oakland Pride Welcomes Families: September 4

In a cheering voice, “Who’s got pride? Oakland Does!!” At this point in pride season, some of us may be all prided out! But I am sure you can squeeze a little more out for our brothers and sisters on Oak-town. Mike Enders

Organizers are preparing Oakland’s second annual LGBTQ Pride festival, hoping to draw families and collect money for establishing a community center in the city.

This year’s Oakland Pride will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, September 4. The Labor Day weekend festival takes place at 19th and Franklin streets in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. (BART riders should exit at the 19th Street station).

The event will feature four stages with over 75 performers, including headliners Jennifer Holliday, from the cast of the original Dreamgirls, and disco legend Thelma Houston (“Don’t Leave Me This Way”). Admission is $10, or $5 for seniors and youth 12 and under. More at B.A.R.

Sit-Lie Ordinance Useless, Says SF Police; I Don’t Like Looking at Ugly Things, Says Accidental Bear

As much as I don’t like having to step over people sitting or lying on the sidewalk while being hit on for my spare change, the sit-lie ordinance isn’t making a damn difference, says SF Police. This is just a band-aid on the bloody wound. Like when it is tourist season and the SF politicians sweep the streets of the homeless. The fundamental problem is, homeless defined means no home, they have no where else to go. In order to make this sit-lie ordinance work, we need to fix the homeless problem. On a side note neighborhoods lack outdoor seating and benches for use when Sir Sun decided to make an appearance. Sit-lie is slammed by homeless advocates who see the ordinance as “a loss of civil liberties and an attack on all homeless people.~AB

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CBS 5 reports:
After months of training, officers began enforcing the law in March, but at a bimonthly CompStat meeting involving some of the Police Department’s top brass Wednesday, police Lt. Belinda Kerr from the Park Station acknowledged that the law has not done much to change behavior in the area.
There has been “a prolific amount of arrests, citations and warnings … but I haven’t seen that it’s done a whole lot,” Kerr said.
She said the transients will often get up when they see officers drive by in their patrol cars, but “unfortunately are getting up and going around the block and then sitting down again.”

PSA: Speeding Kills Bears; SF, CA Castro District

New sign spotted in San Francisco CA, Castro district. I have a feeling there is a message to read between the lines here about the use of the drug speed that runs rampant in our community; no scene left untouch, even Bears