Media Coverage of San Francisco Occupy Anniversary Actions

Below is some independent media coverage of Occupy Anniversary actions in San Francisco (with a couple on NYC Wall St) followed by a sampling of the extensive corporate media coverage of the planned afternoon events.

INDEPENDENT MEDIA
As Occupy San Francisco Marks its One-Year Anniversary, Anti-Foreclosure Actions Abound
The Pacifica Evening News
http://pacificaeveningnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/as-occupy-san-francisco-marks-its-one.html

Banks Threaten Elderly Veterans With Foreclosure
New America Media, News Report, Viji Sundaram
http://newamericamedia.org/2012/09/elderly-veterans-fight-home-foreclosures.php

It’s Alive! Occupy Actions Across the Country Show the Movement’s Impact

Here’s our on-the-ground reporting from the East and West coasts.

AlterNet / By Sarah Jaffe, Alyssa Figueroa

http://www.alternet.org/activism/its-alive-occupy-actions-across-country-show-movements-impact

Occupy San Francisco One Year Anniversary
CNN Ireprot
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-843017

 

Occupy Wall Street 1-year Anniversary

by Liz Highleyman
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/09/18/18721913.php

 

Occupy San Francisco One Year Anniversary

by D. Boyer
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/09/18/18721946.php

Occupy’s 1st Anniversary Was a Party with Politics in San Francisco
Peter M., Indybay
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/09/18/18721873.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/09/18/18721894.php

Rally demands banks stop foreclosing on veterans
by: MARILYN BECHTEL
http://peoplesworld.org/rally-demands-banks-stop-foreclosing-on-veterans/

 

#StrikeDebt: Occupy morphs into debt resistance movement

by Jerome Roos, ROARMAG.org
http://roarmag.org/2012/09/occupy-strike-debt-resistance-operations-manual/

 

NYC S17: Celebration and Disruption, Mission Accomplished.

http://www.nicholasmirzoeff.com/O2012/2012/09/18/s17-celebration-and-disruption-mission-accomplished/


Occupy Bernal: Occupy at the local level
By Jen Chien, KALW
http://www.kalw.org/post/occupy-bernal-occupy-local-level

Occupy Your Victories; Occupy Wall Street’s First Anniversary
TomDispatch.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-solnit/occupy-wall-street-anniversary_b_1889956.html

 

How Do You Measure a Dream?

by Marina Sitrin

http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/how-do-you-measure-a-dream

 

One Year Anniversary of Occupy, San Francisco

YouTube video by Thomas Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIQlFQihLD8

Occupy Celebrates Birthday, Forges Ahead

By Judith Scherr, Inter Press Service

http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/09/occupy-celebrates-birthday-forges-ahead

CORPORATE MEDIA

Occupy protesters take to streets to mark movement’s anniversary

KTVU News

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local/occupy-protesters-take-streets-mark-movements-anni/nSDR6/http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/occupy-protesters-march-through-downtown-sf-on/vd5fS/

http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/occupy-march-through-sf-marking-anniversary-loud/vd5pN/


Occupy SF Protesters Mark 1st Anniversary Of Movement

CBS News

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/09/17/occupy-sf-protesters-mark-1st-anniversary-of-movement/
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7422030n

 

Occupy Gathers in San Francisco on Anniversary

Activists gathered in front of the Wells Fargo building in SF’s Financial District

NBC News

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Occupy-Gathers-in-San-Francisco-on-Anniversary-170120506.html


Occupy SF marks anniversary with peaceful rallies

The Associated Press

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/17/4827445/occupy-sf-celebrates-first-year.html


Occupy protesters celebrate in S.F.

Justin Berton, Kevin Fagan and Michael Cabanatuan, SF Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Occupy-protesters-snarl-traffic-streetcars-3872516.php


Hundreds celebrate the birthday of Occupy in San Francisco

Thomas Pendergast, Examiner

http://www.examiner.com/article/hundreds-celebrate-the-birthday-of-occupy-san-francisco


 

On anniversary, Occupy takes stock of movement

By Doug Oakley, Oakland Tribune

http://www.mercurynews.com/occupy/ci_21567917/anniversary-occupy-takes-stock-movement

Arrests mark Occupy anniversary

by Rick Hampson, USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012/09/17/arrests-mark-occupy-anniversary/57797548/1?csp=34news

Occupy Bernal Participates in National Home Defenders League

At our Saturday, July 28, 2012 joint general assembly, Occupy Bernal/SF ACCE/Occupy Noe agreed to generate support for Wells Fargo Bank (WFB) foreclosure fighter Steve Boudreaux of Atlanta, GA.

He is in foreclosure, and fighting, with the support of his community, to keep his home.

Two of us are attending the first convening of the new National Home Defenders League in Minneapolis, MN on August 7-8, 2012. Our fellow organizations from around the country are all fighting foreclosures. Let’s show them that our organizations believe in solidarity. Hopefully, after that national meeting, we will have a nationwide organization capable or fighting the banks county-wide.

Here’s where to sign the petition, and Steve’s story, Steve’s story continued and more info on Steve’s campaign.

Action: Stop Nationstar From Foreclosing On Our Neighbors

Update: Nationstar has postponed the foreclosure auctions of Daniel Pociernicki and Sherrell Fennell-Murphy due to our action alert. Now we just have to keep the pressure up on Nationstar to provide affordable loan modifications.


STOP Nationstar Mortgage from stealing the homes of Daniel Pociernicki and Sherrell Fennell-Murphy!

Call/Email Today!
Nationstar Mortgage recently purchased all home loans from Aurora Loan Services, a company with a shoddy record in its dealings with homeowners. Thanks to your emails and phone calls, the company recently postponed the foreclosure auction of Mike Doyle’s home. We’d hoped that the pressure you put on Nationstar would send a message that they needed to get to the bottom of Aurora’s shady practices. Instead, Nationstar has decided to schedule foreclosure auctions this Thursday on the homes of two Bernal Heights neighbors and former Aurora Loan Services customers. We have to stop them

Sheryl Fennell-Murphy submitted loan modification paperwork to Aurora Loan Services multiple times. Each time, she was told that the paperwork had not been received. Daniel Pociernicki has made several applications for a loan modification but has been denied each time, despite evidence of predatory lending. Now that Nationstar Mortgage is in charge of Aurora loans, these are exactly the sorts of cases they should want to address.  Instead, they are plowing full speed ahead with potential sale dates. In response, Sheryl, Daniel, and other former Aurora customers Vivian Richardson, Denise Collins and Mike Doyle, have come together to organize for justice. They are asking for your support and your solidarity.

Please take action with three steps to save Sheryl and Daniel’s home:

1) Send this email right now to Nationstar’s CEO Jay Bray and Vice President of Foreclosure Ramie Baker

To: jay.bray@nationstarmail.com, ramie.baker@nationstarmail.com
Cc: action@occupybernal.org
Subject: Postpone Auction of Sheryl Fennell-Murphy (Loan #0123509200) at 400 Alemany #5, and Daniel Pociernicki (Loan # 600060586) at 324 Bocana St.

Dear Nationstar Mortgage staff,

Please take IMMEDIATE action to postpone the auctions, of Sheryl Fennell-Murphy (Loan #0123509200) at 400 Alemany #5, and Daniel Pociernicki (Loan # 600060586) at 324 Bocana St., San Francisco.

Now that Nationstar has acquired mortgages from Aurora Loan Services, you are responsible for addressing the serious deficiencies in their dealings with homeowners.

Sheryl submitted paperwork for her loan modification several times, yet Aurora staff repeatedly told her the paperwork had not been submitted. Meanwhile, Aurora rejected Daniel’s applications several times despite evidence of predatory lending.

These are exactly the types of problems we would hope Nationstar would want to address. Instead, we are outraged that you would plow full speed ahead to auction off homes without the proper review.

Again, I urge you to act to postpone the auction of Sheryl and Daniel’s homes. Once you have done so, please offer them, along with former Aurora Loan Services customers Vivian Richardson, Denise Collins and Mike Doyle, a fair deal for a loan modification on terms that are sustainable.This is an URGENT request, as the auctions are scheduled for Thursday, July 19, so please respond right away to postpone the auction.

Sincerely,

your name here­

2) Call these Nationstar Mortgage staff members with the message below.

Contact: Jay Bray, CEO and President, 469-549-3337

Ramie Baker, Vice President of Foreclosure  469-549-2272

Tell them (or leave a message):

“Please take IMMEDIATE action to postpone the auctions, of Sheryl Fennell-Murphy (Loan #0123509200) at 400 Alemany #5, and Daniel Pociernicki (Loan # 600060586) at 324 Bocana St., San Francisco. Now that Nationstar has acquired mortgages from Aurora Loan Services, you are responsible for addressing the serious deficiencies in their dealings with homeowners.

Sheryl submitted paperwork for her loan modification several times, yet Aurora staff repeatedly told her the paperwork had not been submitted. Meanwhile, Aurora rejected Daniel’s applications several times despite evidence of predatory lending. These are exactly the types of problems we would hope Nationstar would want to address. Instead, we are outraged that you would plow full speed ahead to auction off homes without the proper review.

Again, I urge you to act to postpone the auction of Sheryl and Daniel’s homes. Once you have done so, please offer them, along with former Aurora Loan Services customers Vivian Richardson, Denise Collins and Mike Doyle, a fair deal for a loan modification on terms that are sustainable.

This is an URGENT request, as the auctions are scheduled for Thursday, July 19, so please respond right away to postpone the auction.”

3) If there is no resolution to Sheryl and Daniel’s cases, join us to protest:

  • POSTPONED: Occupy the Auction Action, 1:45 PM, Thursday, July 19, San Francisco City Hall steps (Van Ness side) Please bring a whistle or other noisemaker and earplugs if you have them.


Stop Banks From Evicting the 99%!

Wells Fargo plans to auction Sheryl Fennell-Murphy and Daniel Pociernicki’s homes on July 19 despite:

  • San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ unanimous vote for a moratorium on foreclosures until the state legislature enacts a Homeowner Bill of Rights
  • The Mayor’s request for a “pause” until the state legislature enacts a Homeowner Bill of Rights
  • California State Attorney General Kamala Harris’ request for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to suspend foreclosure activity
  • The California legislature passing the Homeowner Bill of Rights, now awaiting the Governor’s signature or veto
  • The report from San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting that shows that 84% of a sample of San Francisco foreclosures contain at least one legal violation


This action alert brought to you by Occupy Bernal (www.occupybernal.org), ACCE ( www.calorganize.org), and other supportive organizations coordinated within the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions campaign ( www.occupytheauctions.org).

Phone Banking: Occupy Bernal negotiates on behalf of homeowners

We are phone banking on Wednesday. July 18, from 6-9 p.m. at ACCE, 1717 17th Street in order to identify more homeowners who have loans with Wells Fargo who would like to participate in the negotiations Wells Fargo is having with Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe and ACCE.

Please come and help out. There will be a limited amount of Pizza and salad.
Please let Deborah G. know if you’ll come. (415) 550 1030

Below is the letter we are using to reach homeowners with Wells Fargo loans.

If you are a homeowner with a Wells Fargo loan and want to be part of the negotiations, please read the letter below for the qualifying information you’ll need to have, then contact  us to see if it will be possible to be included in this round of negotiations.  Please see the letter below for the appropriate contact information.


July 2012 WELLS FARGO will negotiate with homeowners

Dear Neighbor and Homeowner,

After more than six months of struggle: emails, phone calls, requests for modifications, protests at the auction of our neighbors’ homes, a unanimous resolutions from the San Francisco Board of supervisors and most recently, the passage of the HOME OWNERS BILL OF RIGHTS by the California Legislature, WELLS FARGO has entered a negotiation process with representatives of Occupy Bernal, ACCE and Occupy Noe.

We now have the opportunity to represent more Wells Fargo loan holders. This process allows Occupy Bernal and ACCE negotiators to advocate for your home, and makes a fair settlement of your situation more likely. Please join your neighbors in waging a unified and well planned struggle to achieve homeowner justice.

To be part of these negotiations—and any potential settlement– Wells Fargo demands and Occupy Bernal and/or ACCE agrees to deliver:

  1. PROPERTY IDENTIFICATION: Name, address, phone number, loan number and email.
  2. FINANCIAL PACKAGE—Complete and up-do-date. Please check with OB or Ed Donaldson for completeness.
  3. SIGNED 3rd PARTY AUTHORIZATION, specifically naming any SF ACCE, Occupy Bernal or Occupy Noe negotiators.

If you have a Wells Fargo loan, this is an overdue and important opportunity to get real satisfaction. And be assured: no modifications, or other payments will be finalized without your full knowledge and consent.

To join this negotiation process, call or email:

  • Buck B. (415) 385-0389 BuckB@devinegong.com
  • Deborah G. (415) 550-1030 dgerson646@gmail.com

How to Talk to the Press

HOW TO USE THE MEDIA TO HELP YOU WIN ON YOUR ISSUE, FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FELLOW FORECLOSURE FIGHTERS

July 17, 2012

By Buck Bagot, for Occupy Bernal, SF ACCE and Occupy Noe

HOW #1

• You may be nervous speaking with the press, just like if you are speaking with an elected official or their staff, or a lender. Everyone is. Don’t show it if you can avoid it. Be prepared.

• You may worry that you are not smart, well informed or expert enough to speak with the press. You are. You are an expert. Lord knows you know more about your issues than any person interviewing you from the press! But don’t be over confident or cocky.

• Oh no! What happens if they ask you a question for which you don’t have the answer? Tell the truth – you don’t know the answer. Ask if you can get back to them with an answer. Not knowing the answer to a question is a gift. It permits you to show the person that you are not a glib, BSing know-it-all. And it gives you the opportunity to get back to them and continue to build a relationship.

• If you don’t want to answer a question, don’t.

• One way to answer a question you don’t like is to give the answer to a question you do like. In other words, within reason, keep making your main points no matter what they ask you.

• Both you and the media have strong self-interest in covering your story. They need to cover something – it might as well be you, your story, your organization and your issue.

• Of course, always keep your guard up – never trust the press, unless and until the reporter has earned your respect over time – like in any relationship.

• But – most reporters are at least liberal if not progressive.  While remaining alert and wary, try to give them a way to cover your side of the issue. Even a negative reporter has the responsibility to at least provide both sides of the issue.

WHY

• The media can be one of your/our most powerful weapons. Any relationship with a member of the media is extremely valuable. Try to use any contact with the press to begin what may become ongoing relationships. Take them very, very seriously.

• The media is one of the most powerful weapons we have. It’s a way to way to get your story out more broadly; influence your targets – the people who have the ability to grant your demands; impress powerful allies who have the power to help you win; get your demands – what you want – out to the general public; and let other people in foreclosure know that they are not alone, and that the best things they can do to save their homes is become a foreclosure fighter ans fight back, collectively.

• Make sure to get their full contact information.

• Let a leader or organizer from your organization know about any contact with the press. Review with others how you can use the contact to help you and your fellow foreclosure fighters win.

HOW #2

• Decide what you want to tell the press before they speak with you. Write down an outline. Make sure you tell them what you want them to learn.

• Prepare a short rap on who you and your family are/personal; your situation; and what you need from the Bank to resolve your situation.

• You want a new loan from the Bank that both pays them back and keeps you and your family in your home, affordably.

• You take some personal responsibility for being in foreclosure, but the Bank has even more responsibility, and they won’t admit and take that responsibility.

• The Bank made promises they didn’t keep. They were and are “predatory” lenders. They preyed on people desperate for credit, most of them people of color. Give examples.

• The Bank has no concern at all for their “customers” like you who suffer catastrophe – like your injuries and surgeries.

• In your story, tell how you and your family ought back even before meeting OB/SF ACCE/ You got a nonprofit loan counselor. You contacted Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

• If it applied to you – and if it didn’t, mention the other foreclosure fighters you have met – many folks are ashamed of being in foreclosure. They never ask for help, and they lose their homes. You asked for help. You demanded a fair deal. You joined – and helped found – Occupy Noe. Now you and your families are “foreclosure fighters.” Your fighting to save your home, with other people in foreclosure and your neighbors. And your helping other people in foreclosure come out of the shadows, fight back, and save your homes.

• When you convince B of A to give you a fair, affordable deal, it will help not only you and your family, but thousands of other families in the same fix.

• You have learned a lot. You’ve met scores of other foreclosure fighters, and neighbors. You’ve helped lead negotiations with your and other lenders; worked with the Mayor’s office, the Board of Supervisors, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. You’ve even learned to be a press spokesperson (pause for the to chuckler!).

• At the end of any contact with the media, thank them. Repeat what you want them to report on/quote. Ask them if and when the item will run. Ask them if they require any additional information. Get it to them, and fast. Track if your item appears. Send them a thank you note.

• In coordination with your organization, always contact them again in the future – personally, not just through a press release – any time your have story that you
want them to cover/that might interest them.

Occupy Bernal Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Ross Rhodes at Sacramento Foreclosure Moratorium Rally

Mainstream media caught on camera our very own Foreclosure and Eviction Fighter Ross Rhodes speaking at a Foreclosure Moratorium Rally in Sacramento on June 25, 2012.

Several other Occupy Bernal members attended the rally and lobbying day in support of the Homeowner Bill of Rights and some facilitated a teach-in on foreclosures and activism.

Links: CBS video    Fox video

Letter to Editor of San Francisco Chronicle About OccuPride and Wells Fargo

Stardust sent this letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, which has not yet been printed:

At the 2012 San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade, thousands cheered the OccuPride occupation of the Wells Fargo Bank float. Forty spirited Occupy activists from Occupy SF, Occupy Bay Area United, ACCE, and Occupy Bernal leapt the barricades to celebrate LGBT freedom and protest bank abuses.

We – LGBT and straight folks of many ethnicities and foreclosure and eviction fighters battling Wells to save their homes – chanted with parade spectators along the parade route to let Wells know what we think about predatory lending and greedy, discriminatory foreclosures that trash vulnerable communities: “Stop foreclosures, save our homes!”, “Happy Pride! Take your money out… of Wells Fargo!”

LGBT liberation pioneers like Harvey Milk refused to sell our rights to the highest corporate bidder. Harvey led the fight for an end to racism and sexism, and against greedy landlords, housing speculators, anti-union bosses, and discriminatory corporations like Coors. We marched in his footsteps, and for his and our demands.

OccuPride led with a demand of the 99%: “Community not commodity!” Wells and the other 1%-ers think they own us, our country, our economy, and our political system. They think we’ll let them throw our neighbors out of our neighborhoods. We let them know loud and clear that we won’t.

How We Work with Foreclosees

Download a Word format of this document

6/13/12

BECOMING A FORECLOSURE FIGHTER
WITH SF ACCE AND/OR OCCUPY BERNAL

GETTING ASSISTANCE BEATING FORECLOSURE, PROPERTY AUCTION, AND
EVICTION

WINNING AN AFFORDABLE LOAN MODIFIICATION

Here’s what we tend to do to help someone in foreclosure – but is still short of property auction or post-auction eviction – who might become foreclosure fighter, if they’re loan is with Wells Fargo. If they are with another bank, SF ACCE may also have the ability to also help them engage in direct negotiations with someone with power at their lender – B of A, Chase, Aurora, for example. SF ACCE has also helped people fight evictions, and reclaim their homes after an eviction. But those fights are not discussed in this memo.

A. Help them get hooked up with a nonprofit HUD-certified counselor, who can:

1) submit their loan modification request, once the counselor has a 3 rd party
authorization, and some financial info;

2) engage in conversation with the lender to help them get a modification;

3) help them figure out if they have the income to qualify to a loan modification with their current income; need to increase his income, or need a principal reduction to modify; and

4) help them get their auction date postponed, find out if it actually is postponed, and until when.

I have attached my roster which has the contact names and info at the two nonprofit counselors we use – MEDA and SFHDC – as well as some other useful folks. MEDA recently told Grace that they are no longer accepting clients, but Ed Donaldson at SFHDC available. MEDA has bilingual staff.

B. Help them into “escalated” review under the WF CEO’s office. Up until now, that has virtually guaranteed that WF will postpone their auctions date/s until the end of that review, although we often don’t find out that one has been postponed until the day before or even the morning of. Getting them connected with Pelosi’s Office and her staffer Alex Lazar should do get them into this escalated process, as well as get him a single point of staff contact in the CEO’s office. This assistance also requires a 3rd party authorization form, for Pelosi’s Office and becoming a counseling client.

C. Help them get onto the Mayor’s Office/staffer Jeff Buckley’s list of cases which he is pursuing individually with the lenders. This assistance also requires a 3rd party authorization form for the Mayor’s Office, and becoming a counseling client.

I have attached 3rd party authorization forms for SFHDC, Pelosi and the Mayor. This form authorizes a 3rd party to engage in conversation with the lender about his modification request, and their case in general. Someone who receives 3 rd party authorization has no power to make decisions on a loan modification request. The foreclosee reserves that right entirely for themselves.

D. Help them get into an ongoing conversation with that single point of contact at Wells Fargo.

E. If and when they receive a trustee’s notice of property auction, in addition to helping them get it postponed and/or blocking it, we need to help them track when it is scheduled to occur.

A lender carries out a property auction through a trustee. The trustee is required to make only a single public notice, with the SF Recorder/Assessor’s Office, of an auction date – the first date when they can carry out an auction. They are not required to report any subsequent changes in that date. OB and SF ACCE have paid for access to a data base that purports to report rescheduled auctions, but sometimes it is faulty and/or takes a few days to report the new date. Even a verbal statement by a lender’s staff person that they have postponed the auction date is sometimes not accurate. The best way that we have found to track an auction date is through the phone number and/or website contained in the trustees notice of the initial auction date.

F. Finally, how do you see if the foreclosee will become/help a person become a foreclosure fighter?

Becoming a foreclosure fighter helps a person: 1) save their own home in foreclosure, AND 2) win reforms and ideally permanent structural changes in the current predatory, unfair and largely racist foreclosure system. We aren’t counselors. We are leaders in fighting organizations. With our current power, we can’t help everyone who is in foreclosure. We can help individual foreclosees, if they fight. We can only win the complete restructuring of the foreclosure system by organizing and building the power to win on individual cases, and reforms of the foreclosure system – like a moratorium, or the postponement of auctions or evictions, or the reoccupation of homes form which folks have been evicted. It is only by fighting with power that we can change the entire foreclosure system into one that is fair, just and non-discriminatory.

We can only win if the people in foreclosure step up and fight for themselves, and other people in the same fix that they are in. We must help them become leaders in the fight. And it is only by them become the face and voice of the fight to end the foreclosure crisis that the lenders, the public, and potential allies like the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor will ever understand who is being hurt by foreclosure, and what it is doing to our communities.

So, sadly, we must pick and choose with whom we will work. We will work with them if they fight, and become active members in and leaders of our organizations. In developing foreclosees into foreclosure fighters, we are not hurting their ability to win their individual cases. Only 13% of the foreclosees who work with an SF HUD certified nonprofit counselor “escape” foreclosure by attaining a loan modification or some other settlement. The counselors tell foreclosees that they will increases their chances of winning if they: 1) fight back, and 2) join an organization like Occupy Bernal and SF ACCE. Lenders pay at least some attention to foreclosure fighters because they want them – and their organizations – to go away! As you can see, the small changes we have won, and the process above, has helped individual foreclosees help themselves.

SF ACCE has helped foreclosure fighters win loan modifications, even for ones that lenders have evicted from their homes. OB has helped foreclosure fighters win modifications, but so far only for people who had the income to qualify anyway.

We must test the folks that we try to help. Tell them straight up that we can’t “save” them, but we will help them fight back. And that we want them to become foreclosure fighters. Tell them what we mean by that term. Give them opportunities to do so. Invite them to the next meeting of our organizations. Ask and train them to speak to their neighbors; the media; elected officials; and representatives of the lenders. Give them the opportunity to participate in the planning of actions against the lenders, and active roles in those actions.

Attachments: Buck’s roster; 3rd party authorization forms for SFHDC, Mayor and
Pelosi’s Offices.

By Buck Bagot – 415/385-0389 OR BUCKB@DEVINEGONG.COM.

For more information, go to www.occupybernal.org, www.calorganize.org, or
www.occupytheauctions.org.

A family-friendly street party and the Good Neighbor Awards

Video of the Occupy Bernal Fiesta by selene video

Occupy Bernal Media Advisory
For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie B., 415-483-9138, press@occupybernal.org

What: A family-friendly street party and the Good Neighbor Awards.

Where: Andover Street between Cortland and Ellert

When: May 19, 2012 from 1-4 p.m.

Occupy Bernal is proud to have helped prevent the evictions of some of our neighbors! To show appreciation for the hard work and perseverance of Bernal locals, we’re throwing a “foreclosure fighter” fiesta.

In addition to hobnobbing with our neighbors; still in their homes no thanks to the banks:

– the infamous Wild Old Women who regularly shut down the local Bank of America branch to national acclaim are expected

– hear organizer Stardust play oboe in the Occupy Bernal Band

– see Occupy Bernal instigator Beth Stephens and artist/activist Annie Sprinkle hand out the awards to neighbors whose homes are in foreclosure and who are fighting to stop predatory bank practices.

– eat barbecue cooked by foreclosure fighter Tom German

– enjoy a potluck, live music, kids activities, education, silkscreening with Families Occupy San Francisco [ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Families-Occupy-San-Francisco/236531299734365 ], and lots more

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/349658901761052

To sign up for the Occupy Bernal press list and/or obtain photos and video of the event, see http://www.occupybernal.org/press

SF Community Board of Trustees Condemns Wells Fargo

SF Community Board of Trustees condemns Wells Fargo’s predatory lending practices, seeks new Banking Services provider for its money

April 26, 2012

Last night, the SF Community Board of Trustees, condemning its
current provider Wells Fargo Bank, voted to seek a new Banking Services provider for its money, citing that:

  • San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting has announced a first-of-its-kind audit of county land records of homes facing foreclosure.
  • Among the most jarring findings was that 84% of the files audited included legal violations

It also credited community-based organizations like SF ACCE and
Occupy Bernal for fighting to preserve the diversity of their  neighborhoods by defending the predominantly minority homeowners at risk of losing their himes to Wells foreclosure.

Trustee Chris Jackson stated that “Predatory lenders like Wells Fargo must be taught to correct their destructive policies.”

Buck Bagot of Occupy Bernal/SF ACCE thanked the Board for “putting its power – and the public’s money – behind my neighbors who Wells has and is hornswoggling out of their homes.”

AFT Local 2121 President Alisa Messer, whose unions represents Community College faculty, also cited Wells’ penurious student loan policies which charge college students up to 18% interest.

Both Bagot and Messer and members of their organizations participated in effort on April 24, 2012 to convince Wells Fargo shareholders to correct the Bank’s negative policies, but were denied admission to its shareholders meeting despite holding Wells Fargo shares.

The Board joined the SF Board of Supervisors and Mayor Ed Lee in
speaking out against predatory lending policies.