Tonight: Second 'Pigeon Park' Community Meeting For Upper Haight Seniors

Tonight: Second 'Pigeon Park' Community Meeting For Upper Haight SeniorsPhoto: Camden Avery/Hoodline
Camden Avery
Published on August 23, 2016

After hosting an exploratory meeting for Upper Haight seniors to connect last month, Cosi Fabian is returning for round two tonight at the Park Branch Library. 

The first meeting "went really well," Fabian, a 35-year resident of the Upper Haight, said last week. "There was competition, of course, with the Hillary speech [at the DNC], but that meant that those that came were extremely focused. It's obvious that I'm not the only one that spotted a need, and that it really exists."

She's tentatively putting forth the name 'Pigeon Park' for the group, though she said that's met with some resistance. The name comes from a 1971 sketch by Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia, in which they play old men in the park sitting on a bench and imagining a future where marijuana is legal.

"We're concentrating for now on activities, in the spirit of Wavy Gravy at Woodstock," Fabian told us. "What we have in mind is 'Breakfast In Bed For 400,000.'"

She said that the group would move forward with or without organizational help from the city, but that it would be appreciated. "One can fight the city for everything, or you can just get on with it," she said. "We're the generation that just got on with it."

Fabian believes that while the Haight's pedigree provides an organizing theme for the group, it needn't be the end of the story. "We're about more than the '60s," she said. "[But] I'm proposing a way of using that cliché. If we actually embraced it and embraced it with humor, we might open ourselves to funding. I think the Haight-Ashbury should distinguish itself, you know? It's not just another seniors' endeavor."

This week's meeting starts at 6pm at the library. It will provide an open table for discussion on possible activities to begin offering, including a book club, writing group and storytelling, tai chi, astrology and metaphysics, and more.