Humanity Through Education
(1 of 6)
Bad Rap
(2 of 6)
Save the Berkeley Post Office
(3 of 6)
The Hills Conservation Network
(4 of 6)
George Davis
(5 of 6)
The Wigg Party
(6 of 6)
Humanity Through Education
CAUSE: Educating the public about the treatment of animals used in the entertainment business, with the ultimate goal of spurring a national consumer boycott.
CRED: The organization was instrumental in getting Circus Vargas to stop using animals in its performances.
CURRENT CRUSADE: Convincing Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, its biggest adversary, to stop using animals.
humanitythrougheducation.com
Bad Rap
CAUSE: Protecting the lives and reputations of pit bulls, which the group argues have gotten, well, a bad rap.
CRED: When NFL quarterback Michael Vick was convicted of illegal dogfighting, the feds contacted Bad Rap to figure out what to do with the victimized pit bulls.
CURRENT CRUSADE: Educating owners on how to navigate renting with a dog and helping shelters adopt out pit bulls.
badrap.org
Save the Berkeley Post Office
CAUSE: The small picture: stopping the USPS from selling Berkeley’s historic main post office building. The big picture: preventing the privatization of the Postal Service.
CRED: Over the summer, the group formed an Occupy-style tent city in front of the post office that lasted for weeks. It has also launched a letter-writing campaign, and its members appear regularly at Berkeley city council meetings.
CURRENT CRUSADE: Scrutinizing the Postal service’s real estate agents to try to catch any procedural violations—and attracting media attention (here ya go, guys!).
savethebpg.com
The Hills Conservation Network
CAUSE: Preventing clear-cutting—especially of nonnative trees, namely eucalyptus—as a means of fire mitigation.
CRED: HCN sued the east Bay regional Park District three years ago for what it alleged was a botched environmental impact report—ultimately forcing the district to redraft parts of the review.
CURRENT CRUSADE: Challenging UC Berkeley’s plan to cut down nonnative trees in Strawberry and Claremont Canyons.
hillsconservationnetwork.org
George Davis
CAUSE: Fighting for the right to “nonsexual social nakedness” and an end to San Francisco’s nudity ban.
CRED: Since being arrested for indecent exposure after a naked yoga incident at Fisherman’s Wharf back in 2004, Davis has become well known in the local pro-nudity community. In 2007, he campaigned (in the buff) for mayor, finishing with 0.45 percent of the vote.
CURRENT CRUSADE: Running against Scott Weiner, architect of the nudity ban, for District 8 supervisor. “My job is not to win,” says Davis. “it’s to see that he loses.”
The Wigg Party
CAUSE: Improving the neighborhood surrounding the Wiggle bike route via advocacy and community building.
CRED: Has organized several neighborhood community-building events.
CURRENT CRUSADE: Advocating for, among other things, the Idaho stop law (in which bike traffic treats stop signs as yields and red lights as stop signs) and creating a (very) local currency: Wigg Bucks.
wiggparty.org
Originally published in the December issue of San Francisco magazine.
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