By Thomas Pendergast
The People of Parkside Sunset
(POPS) tried to start a regular
meeting at the Taraval Police
Station Thursday night, but the
organizers of the meeting and a
guest speaker were shouted down
by neighbors opposed to a proposed
medical cannabis dispensary
(MCD).
Representatives of the
Apothocarium, which currently
runs an MCD in the Castro
District and will be opening another
in the Marina District,
wants to open an MCD at the intersection
of Noriega Street and
32nd Avenue. They were supposed
to give a presentation of
the business model they are considering
but they never got that
far because a packed room of locals
took over the meeting and
shut it down.
“We all have a history with
another MCD that tried to open
up on Taraval Street a couple of
years ago,” said POPS Vice
President, Dallas Udovch. “This
is a different company. It’s not
the same people. … I would like
you to at least hear what he has
to say, give it a fair consideration
and then we can make up our
minds as a community afterwards,
but I do not want a shouting
match here tonight.”
And that was about as much
fair consideration there was for
the rest of the meeting, because a
shouting match quickly ensued.
“If it’s announcements, we
have the right to protest. If it’s
announcements we don’t have to
listen to the announcements!”
said one man wearing glasses
and standing directly across the
room, raising his voice as he
went.
“This is our own community
meeting here,” Udovch responded.
“They’ve kindly asked to do
a presentation. They just want to
show you what they want to present
to the neighborhood. It’s like
any other business. Now, if
you’re against it, that’s fine. This
is not going to be a forum for
shouting. We’re going to be civilized.
We’re going to give their
group a chance to make a presentation.”
“Excuse me sir,” said a woman
nearby. “Do we have the right
to say something that they can
hear from us, whether the community
welcomes them in the
community?”
“Of course,” Udovch said.
“That’s a good point,” said another
man standing near the door.
Most of the crowd broke into
applause at that point.
But the man wearing glasses
started yelling at the top of his
voice.
“Get them out! Get them out!
Get them out!,” he said. “We
don’t have to hear them!”
Then someone asked who was
the person in the crowd there on
behalf of the proposed MCD,
wanting Udovch to point them
out, but he did not respond.
“Don’t give them a chance!
Not even a chance!” the man
with the glasses screamed, as an
uproar and yelling swelled
throughout the room, verging on
pandemonium.
Then they started chanting at
the MCD representative, “Shame
on you! Shame on you! Shame
on you! Shame on you!”
The protestors were asked to
show some respect for the people
who had come to give the presentation.
But the response was negative,
and quickly became heated.
“To invaders we don’t have to
show any respect!” shouted the
man with the glasses. “To enemy
invaders we don’t have to show
any respect, OK?”
“Everyone has a fair voice
here! And you are out of order
here!” Udovch shouted back at
him.
“For invaders there’s no respect.
For invaders, there’s no
fair chance!” the man with the
glasses said emphatically. “This
is our community! They don’t
belong here!”
The yelling and shouting in
the crowd began to drown out
Udovch as he tried to bring some
order to the meeting, but he managed
to calm things down for a
few minutes.
He then tried to have one of
the Apothocarium reps speak, but
the man got only a few sentences
out when he was called “evil”
and told to “make it short.”
The man began talking about
his mother dying because she
took some medicine, but a woman
in the crowd yelled out, “who
cares,” and another man said
“she’ll die anyway.”
That was about as far as the
guest speaker got.
“Can we stop the nonsense
here?” said the man with the
glasses. The he started hysterically
“Get him out! You are
garbage! He’s lying! You’re lying!
You are invaders in our
community! Take him out! Stop
him! “
Eventually, Udovch had to
shut down the monthly meeting,
without tackling other important
business.
Categories: Sunset Beacon, Uncategorized