Telegraph Hill Dwellers try to take territory from neighboring political groups

From this week's SF Bay Guardian,

On the evening of April 11, there's a bottleneck at the door of the Tel-Hi Community Center as members of the Telegraph Hill Dwellers try to get in out of the rain. President Brad Willmore has a dozen rebel Russian Hill Neighbors cordoned off in the back of the vestibule with the wet umbrellas.

The Dwellers will be discussing "expanding boundaries" tonight, a plan that someone leaked to a faction from the neighboring hill. After an impromptu huddle of the board for a quick lesson in open democracy, the Neighbors are invited into a room that is filled with more than 50 members of the oldest, most powerful neighborhood organization in the city. The proposed boundaries expand the The Dwellers' territory into three other neighborhood organizations, nearly doubling its domain, coasting across the "flatlands" of the North Beach Neighbors, annexing some Barbary Coast Association territory, and climbing almost to the top of Russian Hill.

Board members in creased slacks and polished shoes -- representing the more youthful, working class contingent of the neighborhood – take over the front of the room beside a large map. Local lawyer Joe Alioto Jr, who's about to become an uncle and rushed here from the delivery room where his sister, Sup. Michela Alioto-Pier, is in labor, explains that as the bylaws stand, this would allow the 50 members who currently live outside the boundaries a chance to vote and serve on the board.

Alioto says the new line was chosen to more accurately reflect the natural valley of the area, and he mentions this has been discussed at the board level for at least 10 years. "No, it hasn't," pipes up another local lawyer, reclined back in his folding chair like a comfortable defendant. It breaks the spell of dutiful attention, and 30-year member Janet Crane asks other veteran members in their khakis and sneakers, "Who is for this? Who actually thinks this is a really good idea?" No hands go up. [more...]

High drama, indeed...