Ryan Kinney tells his Cole Valley story

Topics include his personal journey, how Cole Valley Speaks started, what it’s like being an organizer, and thoughts on where this movement is headed

I published a blog post recently reflecting on my Cole Valley experience and why I have such negative feelings about it. Since then, a support group has started, there’s a dedicated website, a joint statement has been published, and we delivered it to Cole Valley in our first unofficial meeting. We’re trying to meet with them in a more official capacity for problem-solving.

Ryan is a close friend, past classmate of mine (Class of 2008), and an organizer of the Cole Valley Speaks movement. He wanted to share his perspectives for the benefit of anyone that wants to listen.

This is the uncut conversation. Below are hyperlinks to highlights if you don’t want to watch it in full.

• Context of the Cole Valley Speaks movement (0:00)
• Ryan’s background with Cole Valley (2:55)
• Ryan’s journey after graduation from support to opposition regarding Cole Valley (5:06)
• The Class of 2008’s 10 year reunion and associated Facebook group crystalized some ideas that lead to this movement (11:33)
• The lead-up to the blog post and the immediate reactions (18:20)
• When things level-ed up with the support group (21:03)
• When things shifted towards wanting to make positive change, and the making of the joint statement (22:30)
• The making of the organizer group (28:08)
• What it’s been like, trying to talk to Cole Valley administration (33:37)
• Where does the documentary fit into all this? (40:04)
• Is the “bigger picture” more important than changing Cole Valley? (46:45)