In San Francisco, it’s no secret who everyone wanted to win in this election. Shortly after Obama’s victory speech last night, people started celebrating in the streets near my house in the Mission. At Valencia and 19th, a big party formed and ran for several hours into the night.
People and kids were cheering, high-fiving, playing music, and having a good time:
Shades of Burning Man: There were happy combinations of alcohol, police, art cars, fireworks, and the Extra Action Marching Band.
(That clip was the tensest situation I saw; after that, the police just moved everyone out of the intersection and watched carefully.)
I yelled “Yes we can!” and was answered “Yes we DID!” Strangers hugged me. I went home at 1 a.m. and the party was still going strong. Not the worst way to celebrate making history.
This election was also big locally, including a tight three-way race for the local district chair, plus dozens of city and state propositions. The one sad point last night was lingering uncertainty over California Prop 8 — to ban same-sex marriage — which looked like it would win. I know people who arranged last minute marriages over the past week as Prop 8 polled strong; they now have horrible uncertainty about their rights and their future. It was a very mixed evening.
(I uploaded several other videos; click here to see them all. More videos and pictures from other people here.)
yes we can!
nice pictures, brendan :)
the castro looked pretty crazy as well, but people were probably super sad about prop 8. i heard the helicopters for a really long time last night, i guess for crowd control.
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