Eviction protest turns ugly in San Francisco when resident removes banner
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It was neighbor versus neighbor at a San Francisco apartment building on Thursday. A protest over the eviction of a longtime elderly resident got ugly.
Protesters entered an empty building that was under construction, went up to the third floor, got on the roof and jumped the roof onto the building where they claim that 100-year-old Iris Canada is being evicted.
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The tenants' group then dropped a 21-foot banner over the ledge to raise awareness of the issue.
Now, it got interesting because one of the people that lived there got fed up with the protesters and took the banner away.
They were struggling for some time and that tenant ended up tossing the banner off the roof.
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The tenants want to convert the building into condos and say that Canada hasn't lived there in years.
Thursday's demonstration sure got people's attention. "There is a National Renter's Day of Action today. Actions are occurring across the country and across California protesting outrageous evictions and rent hikes that renters are going through. And this case is one of the worst imaginable," tenant rights advocate Dean Preston said.
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Canada was at home while this was all going on. She had been hospitalized for a while and her family has been saying that she's not the same.
Meanwhile, as part of this larger protest, demonstrators took over the intersection at Haight and Fillmore, interrupting traffic and the flow of buses.
That has since ended and everything seems peaceful in the area.
