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This is Why San Francisco is Such a Magical Place

Updated: Nov 02, 2015 10:48
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San Francisco is a special place. A place where we never leave the house without layers. Where it’s normal to call in sick to work because it’s finally 80 degrees and you want to drink a beer in the park. A place where most adults have costume boxes and where we regularly dance in the streets because our sports teams keep winning everything.

San Francisco is a magical place. We run into friends and acquaintances no matter where we go. And we make local heroes out of people who’d be locked up anywhere else, people like Emperor Norton and Frank Chu. We see people walk around in bondage gear, or in nothing at all and think “Yup, that’s my city.” And when we hear “Nobody’s got it better than us,” we really believe it.

San Francisco is place for people who don’t belong anywhere else. When war tore apart Latin America in the 70s and 80s, we said “Come to San Francisco.” When queer people around the country needed a place to be safe, we said “San Francisco is your home”. When artists, and tech nerds, and musicians, and freaks, needed a place to be themselves we said “You belong in San Francisco.”

But we live in a heartbreaking place too. A place where 98 year old ladies are served with eviction notices and legendary music venues are shut down because the new neighbors think it’s too loud. We live in a place where there are nearly 10,000 homeless people and we have to walk the streets worried about stepping in human waste and needles. We live in a place where our city officials are so blatantly corrupt that it’s really, truly, honestly not funny. It’s so not funny it hurts.

But most importantly we live in a place full of people who believe they can make a difference. Who look at the world around them and say, “we can do better!” Who really, truly, honestly care about the city they live in and want to see it shine.

WE are the people who make noise when our neighbors are evicted. WE are the ones who organize and march on city hall to save our neighborhoods. WE are the ones who stand up to challenge the mayor when no one else will. And WE are the ones who say this is our goddamn city, and we’re not going anywhere!

sf city hall protest

photo from D. Boyer Photography

Your city needs you right now. It’s in danger of losing everything that makes it wonderful, and all you have to do to save this glorious place is care…and vote.

There is a coalition of candidates fighting for you and for San Francisco. We’ve joined together in a movement called “1-2-3 to Replace Ed Lee”. By working together and using ranked choice voting there actually is a chance that we can get Ed Lee out of office.

So on election day vote Stuart Schuffman, Amy Weiss, and Francisco Herrera, in any order, for the office of mayor. This is your chance to do something for San Francisco. Just think about how much she’s done for you.


 Getting one of these shirts here:

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Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, is a travel writer, poet, TV host, activist, and general shit-stirrer. His website BrokeAssStuart.com is one of the most influential arts & culture sites in the San Francisco Bay Area and his freelance writing has been featured in Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveler, The Bold Italic, Geek.com and too many other outlets to remember. His weekly column, Broke-Ass City, appears every other Thursday in the San Francisco Examiner. Stuart’s writing has been translated into four languages. In 2011 Stuart created and hosted the travel show Young, Broke, and Beautiful on IFC and in 2015 he ran for Mayor of San Francisco and got nearly 20k votes.

He's been called "an Underground legend": SF Chronicle, "an SF cult hero":SF Bay Guardian, and "the chief of cheap": Time Out New York.