Tag: The Black

Where is the anti-graffiti task force when ya need them?

Friends have noticed a new swath of red graffiti on the sidewalk on Newport Avenue. Calling the graffiti removal squad! There’s a job for you – or anyone else with a little compassion and heart.

And we had thought that the series of community forums and all that attention on the “bums” and homeless in general had brought the community together, and that the harsh rhetoric and actions around the original “don’t feed” sticker had died down.

Guess not! Someone (maybe the Black?) wants to keep all this going, all the hatred, all the discourse, all the intolerance, all the conflict, all this crap – for that is what it is – going, and going.

We’ve been told by friends and foes alike – “Give it a rest!”

Well, we call on whoever is stirring the pot – “Hey you! You give it a rest!”

Getting in my car to drive to OB to protest The Black’s “Don’t Feed our Bums” mentality, my mind said to me: “Hey, nobody will as much as give us remnants of picketers from another day the time of day.”

But when I walked down Bacon and hit the corner where it intersects with Newport Avenue and saw all the people and picket signs …

by Steve A/ Special to the OB Rag / June 22, 2010

During the seventies, (from 1970 to 1980), I was one of the co-owners of The Black.

As of late, via the evening news (I no longer reside in the area), I have been made aware that there has been considerable discussion regarding the homeless or bums in O.B. and that The Black is smack in the middle of a controversy and possibly even on the wrong side of the fence in the matter.

Yeah, ouch! We really did touch a nerve with our posts and coverage about the anti-homeless sticker and merchandise the Black is selling in OB, and our subsequent call for a temporary boycott of The Black. Our posts and the coverage by local media have created a major story about this community.

The story went national on last Saturday, June 19th, what with the 10News story and the front-page article on the Union-Tribune / signonsandiego .

The battle and controversy raging in Ocean Beach over a hateful sticker against the community’s homeless has just intensified.

On one side, The Black – the source of the stickers of intolerance – has just now begun selling T-shirts with the well-known image carrying the the message “don’t feed our bums.”

On the other side, organizers of the Boycott The Black effort are gearing up with a petition and plans to picket the old-time head shop on Newport.

Ken Anderson, co-manager of The Black told me on Monday, June 14, that he would consider taking the stickers off the shelf if he was presented with a petition with a hundred names asking him to do that. However, apparently in a new move to cash in – literally – with this anti-homeless sentiment, Anderson is now selling shirts with the hate logo.

I just got off the phone with Ken Anderson, one of the co-managers of The Black. He has worked on Newport Ave for 18 years and has seen everything. He is the one who ordered the new, controversial anti-homeless stickers that say “Welcome to Ocean Beach. Please don’t feed our bums,” with a graphic of a 1930’s hobo and dog.

The Black, the iconic head shop that has been a mainstay in Ocean Beach “since 1969” – has entered the Dark Side – get it? The Black on the Dark Side. Their sale of the anti-homeless stickers – is stirring up the community. The Black used to be the only place where you would find items of the counter-culture, smoking instruments, sandals, incense, weird, psychedelic posters, … you name it – if hippies wanted it they could find it there.

Our roving reporter has discovered the source of the ‘don’t feed the bums’ stickers that have mysteriously appeared on municipal signs and a couple local store windows lately around OB: The Black headshop on Newport Ave.