Fox News, NIMBY, Porn Merchants, and Community Activism
An hour or so ago, I caught the last few minutes of a report on Fox Noise Channel about the reaction in the Mission District neighborhood in San Francisco to the purchase of the State Armory by porn film/website production company kink.com. If one were to listen to the report, and had no knowledge of Fox Noise Channel's politics, one might think that they are ardent champions of community-based grassroots politics, and that they hold to the philosophy that residents of a community should have a voice in what sort of businesses open in their neighborhoods. Of course, we all know that this is not the case. In their slavish devotion to what they define as "market forces," Fox Noise will, 9 times out of 10, back the right of any business, of almost any sort, to conduct its business in any manner, and in any place, it sees fit. In this case, since we are talking about porn (and kinky porn, at that), they've got their dander up, and are all exercised about the rights of the community, community standards, etc. These hypocrites are friends and allies to no authentic community---indeed, they are sworn enemies of all authentic communities in this country and elsewhere.
Background on the story can be found here:
http://www.sfhomeblog.com/2007/01/porn-wins-housing-loses.html
http://www.examiner.com/a-502668~Ken_Garcia__In_upside_down_S_F___porn_is_OK__in_the_Mission__but_housing_isn_t.html?cid=rss-San_Francisco
http://www.sfweekly.com/2004-08-04/news/progressive-failure/
And, thanks to boingboing, here is an entirely different perspective on this story:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/15/sf_chron_columnist_s.html