Last year, we saw signs of Minneapolis and Seattle burning, in order to make way for smart city infrastructure.
A text the artists received on their phone from their former downstairs neighbor in San Francisco:
“San Francisco is a filthy mess. …But, Wonderful to hear about you two… enjoying a better quality of life. I’m at work but will watch your videos as soon as I get a chance. SF is not at all what it was. The vagrants and drug users are ruling this city. And as a Paramedic, I see it all. All the nitty gritty. All of it. Homes and cars are broken into daily… assaults and overdoses happen all the time. Streets are filthy and you should see some of the hotels that were used for shelter in place. They are DISGUSTING!! Ruined. I bought a house in Colorado in May… I’m renting it out now but I also have a boyfriend in Colorado so I go back often to visit and stay with him. I’m planning my escape. Just need to find another job. It will hardly pay me half of what I make now but my quality of life will be a million times better. So sad…. but the state of this place has me at my wits end. Stay in touch friend. Glad you’re well. Btw, there were 4 vacant apts in our building, forever… now the building is full and everyone seems half my age. However, I finally got a parking space for $250/month. And we also got one washer and one dryer in the garage. My bike was stolen out of the garage last year and we constantly have people trying to break into the building. The pits.”
Watch this video about the economic impact in San Francisco in the Age of Covid:
I imagine what he’s describing in San Francisco is happening to cities all over but because SF is 95% renters it seems more obvious.
This is actually a financial breakdown of how the tech industry are not going to bail out San Francisco until they have the advantage to purchase properties – especially multi unit rentals – for pennies on the dollar. Mayor Greed will keep demanding lockdowns until landlords are forced to sell. This will make it so Big Tech can turn around and rent to their employees. So the employee paychecks will have their rents taken out off the top. This is a reinvention of “company-owned towns” like we saw in the early 20th century. This economic warfare is a playbook out of the First Industrial Revolution. Clearly if you’re a homeowner in SF or are a high income earner – even if you’re a renter – you’re probably not affected by this directly. But because of the Mayors deliberate neglect of everything in the city, quality of life is collapsing and forcing people to leave which will in turn reduce the value of privately owned homes, perhaps. As a designer I would have chosen a different graphic and title for this video because the video is succinct and actually kind of boring because it’s nothing but a numbers crunching statement, but this content creator obviously isn’t very creative. But he is smart. Despite this guys nuts and bolts delivery of what basically amounts to a fire sale, I still feel this video is the very best video out there to illustrate housing warfare:
Click to play Julie’s short audio:
Because this audio was done live, you may appreciate some comments that were made:
Veronica writes: “Exactly, I grew up in an area which still has some of those factory towns, post industrial revolution. The workers homes are stacked and ‘the boss/master’ lived in the big house on the hill in view, but removed. Same formula. No different than the factory workers during the industrial revolution.”
Veronica writes: “Wow, this is eye opening and one aspect of all of this I did not consider fully. Very Black Mirror! Life imitating art, or art imitating life? You are a great resource as always. I share widely and will try to support where/when I can as you are one of our truth tellers.”
Sandra writes: “Patrick King from Alberta Canada was issued a $1,200 ticket for cv rules of over 10 people gathering, asked for proof of the virus and they don’t have any – anywhere in the world, of course bc it was a ruse. This can be used here. They were hoping we would go along with it for at least 13 years but this bit if info can help us.”
Support the artists:
- Become a patron: www.patreon.com/bookofours
- Join Rokfin: www.rokfin.com/bookofours
- Make a donation: www.paypal.me/bookofours
- Make a donation on cashapp: $bookofours
- Follow the artists on YouTube: www.youtube.com/bookofours
- Follow the artists on Rumble: https://rumble.com/vjvpi7-marketing-death.html
- Follow the artists on Facebook: www.facebook.com/bookofoursmedia
- Follow the artists on Instagram: bookofoursart
- Follow the artists on Twitter: @bookofoursjulie @bookofoursjp
- To contact the artists, email them directly at info@book-of-ours.com