I’ve been staying on Fell St. right across the street from the Hayes Valley Farm. It’s being demolished to make way for condos. Over the last couple of weeks people had been occupying the land in protest of the intended development. They made signs, had rallys, and were hanging out there to bring awareness to what was going on. 

Around 2am the other night I was woken up by shouting so I went to my window to see what was going on. It was dark so I couldn’t see exactly what was going on but there were around 40 cops with flashlights yelling for everybody to “get down” and “don’t move”. Then a woman’s voice would come over the loudspeaker telling everyone to “collect their things and vacate the premises immediately”.

I was gonna go down and take pictures but it creeped me out too much. Maybe it was because I had just started reading 1984, but I had nightmares that night. 

Over the next few days there were always around 40 cops around the park and some of the street was blocked off with cars and police tape. I asked this guy, “What do you think about everything that’s been going on with the farm?”

“It’s hard to say, it’s a great greenspace and provides a great meeting place for the community. I also know housing is really expensive and this is supposed to create more housing opportunities for people. What kind of people, I don’t know. I’ve been looking for work for some time now and I don’t have $250,000 lying around to buy one of these up and coming condos. With all this development it seems like there have been some social and economic repercussions that haven’t been completely thought out yet.”