Home of Oldest Black Bookstore in U.S. Sold at Foreclosure Auction
On Sunday, June 16, 2013, forty supporters of the oldest black bookstore in the U.S. went to church to pray that speculators who purchased the building at a foreclosure auction will sell it to a non-profit investment group at a small profit so that the bookstore can remain open in San Francisco’s Fillmore neighborhood. The new owners have ordered an eviction of the bookstore and residents of the building for as soon as June 18, 2013.
About twenty supporters entered the church mass at 11:00am at St. Nicholas Church, 5200 Diamond Heights Blvd (between Duncan Street and Safira Lane) to pray for the bookstore. One of the new property owners is a deacon at the church. The bookstore’s supporters silently held images of St. Nicholas that stated “Pray the Sweis’ Do the Right Thing: Save Marcus Books” during the service, while the rest of those attending stood outside the church handing flyers the congregation.
Founded in 1960, in a building that once housed the jazz club Jimbo’s Bop City and was saved from the redevelopment bulldozers in the Fillmore neighborhood, Marcus Bookstore has long served the African-American community in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bookstore owners and building residents Gregory and Karen Johnson took out a loan in 2006 to pay expenses. During the economic downturn, payments on their predatory loan ballooned to more than $10,000 a month. Then came bankruptcy and eventually a bank foreclosure auction that sold the property to speculators.
According to the San Francisco Examiner, Westside Community Services has offered to pay the new owners, Nishan and Suhaila Sweis of South San Francisco, $1.64 million for the building, which would be a profit of $50,000 or 3 percent, but the Sweises are apparently holding out for $3.2 million.
A number of organizations and individuals have declared their support of Marcus Bookstore, including Westside Community Services, Supervisor London Breed, NAACP, John Coltrane Church, Code Pink, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and others.
ACCE is the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and is a network of dozens of community based organizations across California working in 14 different Counties to raise the voice of low income, immigrant and working families across the state for better jobs, schools, healthcare and housing. In San Francisco, ACCE Chapters work in the city’s lowest income communities to bring accountable and transparent investment back to their communities to achieve these goals. For more information visit www.calorganize.org.
Update: Nine housing justice activists staged a “magical, transformational intervention” of the San Francisco Employee Retirement System (SFERS) Retirement Board meeting on June 12, 2013, in which masked players impersonated the Retirement Board Commissioners and explained why they had a change of heart, then passed two motions to engage banks like Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase on their illegal, predatory, and discriminatory lending practices according to the long-standing SFERS social investment policy.
The nonviolent protest took place at the time that has been reserved for public comment for the past 20 years until the public comment period was moved to the end at the last SFERS Retirement Board meeting in May, requiring those wanting to make public comment to wait through three to four hours of deliberations before getting a chance to speak. SFERS Executive Director Jay Huish had also canceled, for no other reason than his “discretion”, a May 29th Special Meeting to discuss the motions on discriminatory bank lending requested by SFERS Commissioner Malia Cohen, who also serves on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
The San Francisco Employee Retirement System (SFERS) Retirement Board is refusing to debate two motions regarding investments in banks engaged in discriminatory lending. For the sixth month, Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters and their supporters from the vast majority of SFERS current and retired employee organizations will demand that the Retirement Board consider these motions to urge the banks to halt their predatory lending practices and to stop evicting our neighbors from their homes and make it right for those who have already been evicted.
What: SFERS Retirement Board Meeting on Predatory Bank Investments When: 1:30pm on Wednesday, June 12 (go immediately to sign in and stand in line at the door to get a seat — no protest in front of the building this time) Where: 30 Van Ness Avenue, 3rd floor, near Market Street, San Francisco Petition: https://tinyurl.com/crt5kga
SFERS Commissioner Herb Meiberger introduced the motions at the April 10, 2013, SFERS Retirement Board meeting with overwhelming support from current and retired city employees served by the retirement system (read Commissioner Meiberger’s remarks about the meeting here).
Background:
Current and retired city employees, Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters, and supporters from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe, and the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions Campaign provided important testimony about the illegal, predatory, and discriminatory practices of banks like Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America at meeting of the San Francisco Employee Retirement System Retirement Board on January 9, February 13, March 13, April 10, and May 8, 2013.
At each meeting, the group asked the Retirement Board to uphold its fiduciary responsibility to investigate the illegal, predatory, and discriminatory practices of the banks, to request that the banks stop these practices, to sponsor shareholder resolutions if they don’t stop, and some asked the banks to divest from the banks’ stocks if the shareholder resolutions do not succeed. Some of the Commissioners responded favorably to the public comment testimony.
A number of organizations have declared their support of the motions including organizations representing most of the members of the SFERS retirement system:
The San Francisco Employee Retirement Systems (SFERS) handles investments for pension funds for current and retired San Francisco city employees. SFERS has policies that include “Social Investment Procedures” adopted at the SFERS Retirement Board meeting of September 27, 1988, which requires the SFERS Retirement Board when making investments in stocks, mutual funds, and so on, to consider:
“Community Relations: the relationship of the corporation to the communities in which it operates shall be maintained as a good corporate citizen through observing proper environmental standards, supporting the local economic, social and cultural climate, conducting acquisitions and reorganizations to minimize adverse effects and not discriminate in making loans or writing insurance.” (emphasis added by Occupy the Auctions)
A record number of San Francisco City and County employees, as well as others residents of San Francisco and beyond, are facing mortgage loan defaults, foreclosures, and evictions (an estimated 12,000 foreclosures in San Francisco between 2008 and 2011). Many have already lost their homes.
Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America are the market leaders in foreclosures and related evictions here in San Francisco and statewide. These banks engaged in illegal, predatory, and discriminatory practices by putting African-American and Latino borrowers into higher-cost, subprime loans than white borrowers. In fact, in July 2012, Wells Fargo agreed to pay what ended up as $234.3 million to settle a United States Department of Justice lawsuit for its discriminatory mortgage lending practices affecting more than 30,000 borrowers, including those banking at the Bayview Wells Fargo branch.
Billions of dollars in mortgage lender settlements with government agencies and other parties have to date not managed to solve the mortgage lending crisis, making mortgage lenders and servicers a potential medium-term and long-term investment risk. Illegal, predatory, and discriminatory foreclosures harm all homeowners, erode the property tax base, and cost local governments, hurting the standard of living of retirees and all working people.
Wells Fargo is #1 in San Francisco foreclosures. San Francisco’s Mayor and Board of Supervisors have unanimously requested a halt to foreclosures and related evictions, especially since San Francisco Assessor-Recorder’s report showing that 84% of foreclosures have at least one legal violation and due to Wells’ $234.3 million settlement with the United States Department of Justice paid in response to allegations of racial discrimination in providing mortgage loans in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point and other neighborhoods.
Wells Fargo’s “waterfall” model, along with similar policies from other lenders, ensures that the bank can squeeze the most money possible from homeowners struggling to make payments while finally discarding them like trash if the bank can’t make a profit on every single loan. Running a mortgage loan business means assuming risks, especially after receiving billions in bailout funds from the taxpayers, many of whom are Wells’ mortgage loan borrowers.
The San Francisco Employee Retirement System (SFERS) Retirement Board is debating two motions regarding investments in banks engaged in discriminatory lending.
What: SFERS Retirement Board Meeting on Predatory Bank Investments When: 1:00pm on Wednesday, April 10 (go immediately to sign in and stand in line at the door to get a seat — no protest in front of the building this time) Where: 30 Van Ness Avenue, 3rd floor, near Market Street, San Francisco RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/508497745864874 Petition: https://tinyurl.com/crt5kga
SFERS Commissioner Herb Meiberger introduced the motions at the April 10, 2013, SFERS Retirement Board meeting with overwhelming support from current and retired city employees served by the retirement system (read Commissioner Meiberger’s remarks about the meeting here).
Background:
Current and retired city employees, Foreclosure and Eviction Fighters, and supporters from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe, and the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions Campaign provided important testimony about the illegal, predatory, and discriminatory practices of banks like Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America at meeting of the San Francisco Employee Retirement System Retirement Board on January 9, February 13, March 13, and April 10, 2013.
At each meeting, the group asked the Retirement Board to uphold its fiduciary responsibility to investigate the illegal, predatory, and discriminatory practices of the banks, to request that the banks stop these practices, to sponsor shareholder resolutions if they don’t stop, and some asked the banks to divest from the banks’ stocks if the shareholder resolutions do not succeed. Some of the Commissioners responded favorably to the public comment testimony.
A number of organizations have declared their support of the motions including organizations representing most of the members of the SFERS retirement system:
The San Francisco Employee Retirement Systems (SFERS) handles investments for pension funds for current and retired San Francisco city employees. SFERS has policies that include “Social Investment Procedures” adopted at the SFERS Retirement Board meeting of September 27, 1988, which requires the SFERS Retirement Board when making investments in stocks, mutual funds, and so on, to consider:
“Community Relations: the relationship of the corporation to the communities in which it operates shall be maintained as a good corporate citizen through observing proper environmental standards, supporting the local economic, social and cultural climate, conducting acquisitions and reorganizations to minimize adverse effects and not discriminate in making loans or writing insurance.” (emphasis added by Occupy the Auctions)
A record number of San Francisco City and County employees, as well as others residents of San Francisco and beyond, are facing mortgage loan defaults, foreclosures, and evictions (an estimated 12,000 foreclosures in San Francisco between 2008 and 2011). Many have already lost their homes.
Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America are the market leaders in foreclosures and related evictions here in San Francisco and statewide. These banks engaged in illegal, predatory, and discriminatory practices by putting African-American and Latino borrowers into higher-cost, subprime loans than white borrowers. In fact, in July 2012, Wells Fargo agreed to pay what ended up as $234.3 million to settle a United States Department of Justice lawsuit for its discriminatory mortgage lending practices affecting more than 30,000 borrowers, including those banking at the Bayview Wells Fargo branch.
Billions of dollars in mortgage lender settlements with government agencies and other parties have to date not managed to solve the mortgage lending crisis, making mortgage lenders and servicers a potential medium-term and long-term investment risk. Illegal, predatory, and discriminatory foreclosures harm all homeowners, erode the property tax base, and cost local governments, hurting the standard of living of retirees and all working people.
Wells Fargo is #1 in San Francisco foreclosures. San Francisco’s Mayor and Board of Supervisors have unanimously requested a halt to foreclosures and related evictions, especially since San Francisco Assessor-Recorder’s report showing that 84% of foreclosures have at least one legal violation and due to Wells’ $234.3 million settlement with the United States Department of Justice paid in response to allegations of racial discrimination in providing mortgage loans in San Francisco’s Bayview-Hunters Point and other neighborhoods.
Wells Fargo’s “waterfall” model, along with similar policies from other lenders, ensures that the bank can squeeze the most money possible from homeowners struggling to make payments while finally discarding them like trash if the bank can’t make a profit on every single loan. Running a mortgage loan business means assuming risks, especially after receiving billions in bailout funds from the taxpayers, many of whom are Wells’ mortgage loan borrowers.
The Occupy Wells Fargo Vigil to Stop Evictions on April 26, 2013, took place at the Wells Fargo History Museum at 420 Montgomery Street in San Francisco.
Today, we got more pictures of Wells Fargo employees and their cronies. See if you know any of them and tell them not to cross our picket line for housing justice.
Wells Fargo apparently works with a firm called Shetler Security for most of its security guards. Some of them have been taking notes on our protest activities as well as photos and videos. Today, they called the police and you can see a video below of what transpired.
We continue to demand that Wells Fargo stop foreclosing on and evicting our neighbors with their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory loans.
We look forward to continuing the vigils this week and ongoing until Wells Fargo stops their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory foreclosures and evictions of folks like our neighbors Manuela Alvarez, Peter Fairfield and Linnea Sweet, and disabled senior Bernetta Adolph.
The Occupy Wells Fargo Vigil to Stop Evictions on April 24, 2013, took place at the Wells Fargo History Museum at 420 Montgomery Street in San Francisco.
Today, we got lots of pictures of Wells Fargo employees and their cronies. See if you know any of them and tell them not to cross our picket line for housing justice.
We continue to demand that Wells Fargo stop foreclosing on and evicting our neighbors with their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory loans.
We look forward to continuing the vigils this week and ongoing until Wells Fargo stops their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory foreclosures and evictions of folks like our neighbors Manuela Alvarez, Peter Fairfield and Linnea Sweet, and disabled senior Bernetta Adolph.
A protest at the Wells Fargo headquarters at 420 Montgomery Street in San Francisco took place on April 13, 2013, in coordination with a protest earlier the same day at the Wells Fargo Shareholder meeting held in Salt Lake City, Utah. These protests are a special edition of the Occupy Wells Fargo Vigil to Stop Evictions.
More than a dozen protestors from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and other organizations infiltrated the shareholders meeting and told Wells Fargo executives what they thought of their practices regarding predatory, illegal, and discriminatory lending and related foreclosures and evictions. Maria Alvarez, whose family is facing eviction by Wells Fargo, got to tell Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf to his face that he is a liar, then Wells threw the protestors out of the shareholders meeting.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, about one hundred protestors from the ACCE (San Francisco and Oakland), Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe, and the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions campaign held a memorial service in front of the Wells Fargo Headquarters and History Museum at 420 Montgomery Street. A trumpeter named Elaine played taps and Archbishop Franzo King delighted participants with his saxophone stylings. Various spokespeople read out the names of those who have lost their home or their lives to foreclosures and evictions, spoke in solidarity with those protesting in Salt Lake City, and listed off the many families still struggling to save their homes from Wells Fargo. After each name or section, the crowd chanted repeatedly, “Housing Justice, Home Security!”. Finally, Kathy Lipscomb and Merrie Jo Musni delivered some calalilies to Wells Fargo to complete the memorial service.
The Occupy Wells Fargo Vigil to Stop Evictions on April 20, 2013, was a double header — it took place at the Wells Fargo branches at 286 King Street and 490 Brannan Street in San Francisco. Wells Fargo called their corporate security and the police to the protests. Wells Fargo threatened us with a citizen’s arrest, presumably for trespassing, but courteous police officers detained us briefly while writing a police report and released us with a little receipt (no charges or citations).
We continue to demand that Wells Fargo stop foreclosing on and evicting our neighbors with their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory loans.
We look forward to continuing the vigils on an ongoing basis until Wells Fargo stops their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory foreclosures and evictions of folks like our neighbors Manuela Alvarez, Peter Fairfield and Linnea Sweet, and disabled senior Bernetta Adolph.
The Occupy Wells Fargo Vigil to Stop Evictions on April 19, 2013, took place at the Wells Fargo History Museum at 420 Montgomery Street in San Francisco. We continue to demand that Wells Fargo stop foreclosing on and evicting our neighbors with their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory loans.
We look forward to continuing the vigils this week and ongoing until Wells Fargo stops their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory foreclosures and evictions of folks like our neighbors Manuela Alvarez, Peter Fairfield and Linnea Sweet, and disabled senior Bernetta Adolph.
The Occupy Wells Fargo Vigil to Stop Evictions on April 18, 2013, took place at the Wells Fargo History Museum at 420 Montgomery Street in San Francisco. We continue to demand that Wells Fargo stop foreclosing on and evicting our neighbors with their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory loans.
We look forward to continuing the vigils this week and ongoing until Wells Fargo stops their illegal, predatory, or discriminatory foreclosures and evictions of folks like our neighbor Bernetta Adolph, a disabled senior retired Muni employee.
Home of Oldest Black Bookstore in U.S. Sold at Foreclosure Auction
