From any perspective other than the robust prosperity of the 1%, San Francisco is a city in crisis. In the past five years, reported evictions have increased 54.7 percent. The number of homeless children has doubled since 2007. A recent study compiling data through 2013 reports that black people are 7.1 times more likely to be arrested in San Francisco than white people, 11 times more likely to be booked into jail and 10.3 times more likely to be convicted. Meanwhile tech millionaires are newly minted in droves and housing prices skyrocket.
As politicians and the media glamorize the transformation of working class neighborhoods into trendy high-income housing, it’s important to hear voices from the other side of the barricades. In his new collection of poetry and prose Cool Don’t Live Here No More: A Letter to San Francisco writer/activist Tony Robles addresses contemporary urban realities head on. Published by independent small press Ithuriel’s Spear, the book is a defiant affirmation of one man’s refusal to buckle under to capital.