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Gandhi Statue
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Neighborhood: Embarcadero1 Ferry Building
Ferry Building parking lot
San Francisco, CA 94199
1 review for Gandhi Statue
This statue and it's controversy was recently brought to my attention by my Spanish teacher. He was part of a group that was protesting it's horrible location in San Francisco as an insult to the memory of Gandhi.
Said location is: the parking lot behind the Ferry Building - surrounded by the Ferry loading dock (so the commuters can enjoy/ignore it daily), the really really ugly brown wood building next to that, and Sinbad's! (that tourist trap restaurant on the Embarcadero that gets all of 2 stars from Yelpers!)
http://www.yelp.com/bi...
I was like, "Damn! I've taken the ferry, I've been to the ferry building to eat and to the farmers market (even last week!), and I've never even seen this statue." I guess I took an interest because I just made my first trip to India, including his house. I'm far from Mr. Political Activist. The only things I ever protest are withholding of sex or dessert. But snooper that I am, I thought "I'm going to look into it."
I went and checked it out. The statue looks nice in person, but he's right, it's pretty embarrassing. On farmers market days you could walk right through there and not even see the statue because it's surrounded by tents. And check out the photo I uploaded, Cort furniture truck and all!
But it gets worse!
The statue was given to the city in 1988 by the Gandhi Memorial International Foundation, "a controversial non-profit organization run by Yogesh K. Gandhi," who Gandhi family members claim was a "scam artist" and the White House called "clearly disreputable" when he asked to visit. Then in the 1990's Yogesh then was the subject of an investigation, and the US Dept of Justice charged him with tax evasion, mail and wire fraud and perjury. The Foundation continued for a few years but then ran into more legal troubles as they found out Yogesh still had his hands in things.
So sadly, this statue that is supposed to remind us of a great man and his message of resistance through non-violence, is tainted by the greed of individuals, and our gullible city government that accepted this in the first place.
Wow, what a dilemma.
What would be best is we get a legitimate Gandhi statue (or even the existing one and just replace the plaque) moved to a nicer spot in the city where it can be enjoyed.