Juan and Maria Aguillón

Born in: El Salvador
Current Neighborhood: On the border of San Francisco and Daly City
Ages: 57 and 67 years old

When and why did you make San Francisco your home?

We arrived to San Francisco in the mid-1980’s to escape the civil war in our native country, El Salvador. Since then, Juan has been working in different jobs — car washer, janitor, food prep, dishwasher and other such work.

How long have you called the Mission your home?
We lived in the Mission District for 17 years. Two years ago, we were evicted from our apartment after fighting the eviction for more than three years.

What is your current living situation?
We now live in a small room on the edge of San Francisco, right on the border of Daly City. We have no formal lease, plus we are now paying more than they were paying for our Mission apartment, which was a bigger space.

Are you at risk of displacement?

Right now we are not at risk of displacement, but we want to come back to the Mission because we’ve lost our sense of community. Also, our medical and social services are now far away.

Why does the Mission need affordable housing for seniors?
The Mission District offers many services for seniors, such as senior centers, where we can meet our friends and find culturally relevant staff who understand our needs. Also, our hospital and medical services are located in the Mission, and there are more options for public transportation and access to jobs.

Please share our elders story and sign our petition for affordable senior homes at 1296 Shotwell in San Francisco’s Mission District
http://medasf.org/get-involved/support-housing-for-our-vulnerable-mission-seniors/

#NoDAPL

San Francisco.  On Thursday, September 7, 2016, a press conference in solidarity with the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Nations will be held at the Army Corp of Engineers San Francisco office. The group will meet at 1455 Market Street, from 10am-11am. The Standing Rock Sioux Nation is suing the US Army Corp of Engineers in the US District Court in Washington, D.C., demanding that the pipeline permit be rescinded, that the engineers withdraw their nationwide permitting process as it applies to the pipeline, and for the environmental impacts to be properly reviewed. The court will hear the case on Friday, September 8, 2016.

SFC Sunflower Alliance “We stand with the courageous Standing Rock Sioux as they struggle to prevent further devastation of their precious natural resources and sacred sites by the Dakota Access Pipeline project.  We are saddened and outraged by this environmental injustice perpetrated by the Army Corps of Engineers, and call upon them to immediately revoke permits for the pipeline project.   The Dakota Access Pipeline is a national disgrace of the greatest proportions; the indigenous land and water defenders opposing it are real American heroes.”

Background information:  In 2014 Energy Transfer Partners and Dakota Access planned a 1,168 mile long oil pipeline that will carry crude oil from Bakken oil fields of North Dakota to Illinois (via South Dakota and Iowa) where it will link with another pipeline to terminals along the Gulf of Mexico. The US Army Corps of Engineers along with these oil companies is attempting to “fast track” this project without proper legal consultation with tribes, inadequate archaeological and anthropological studies nor proper environmental review. Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge announced it will also invest in this pipeline as well. Dakota Access plans to run pipelines under the Missouri River in three places. Those areas directly threaten the drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux and the Cheyenne River Sioux nations, as well as the 18 million people who depend on the Missouri River for water, such as ranchers, farmers and city dwellers.

This press conference has been organized by NoDAPL Solidarity SF. We are a local Environmental Justice and Climate Justice activist group responding to a call from our sisters and brothers at the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp and Sioux Nations. Our organizing committee includes Indian People Organizing for Change, Idle No More SF Bay, the Chinese Progressive Association, PODER, and Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth.

For more information, contact Teresa Almaguer at 415-431-4210 or tere@podersf.org.

Supervisor Eric Mar will honor PODER founder, Leticia Alcantar, at an Earth Day reception at City Hall. The reception, co-sponsored with the Surfrider Foundation and the Sierra Club – Bay/SF Chapter, will take place on April 27, 2016 at City Hall, Room 284, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm..

The reception will honor environmental champions in District 1 who are working in the areas of community gardens, green schools, and organizing for environmental and climate justice.

The reception will be an opportunity to enjoy the “Message in a Bottle” art exhibit sponsored by the Surfrider Foundation. The exhibit, which will be on display throughout May in Supervisor Mar’s office, is a collaboration of local artists and environmentalists that seek to inform and highlight the various threats that our oceans currently face.

Please RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/788724087937822/.

For more information, please email raquel.redondiez@sfgov.org.

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) is considering allowing REDD programs into California’s already-flawed cap and trade program. Take action today against international forest offsets and REDD in California by taking one minute to send a letter to the ARB.

We need real solutions for reducing emissions and preventing deforestation, not false solutions like REDD! Click here to send a letter today.