Erica Sandberg 舊金山的神奇女俠@EricaJSandberg
My very strange experience at Manny’s last night
“You can't report about the event tonight,” said Manny Yekutiel, leaning close to me. “You agree, right?
I was seated in the front, laptop open, ready to take notes. The panel discussion, “Exploring Possibilities for the Westfield Mall, held at Manny’s Cafe, was to be an hour-long discussion about ideas for the now empty space.
Ned Segal @nedsegal, SF’s Chief of Housing & Economic Development, and Lisa Huang, design director at @gensler_design, were set to speak. I was expecting, “well, we can do this and we can do that, what are your thoughts,” kind of thing, so I settled in.
Tickets were $15, anyone could join, and the room was full. I’d been to many events at the space and reported about the majority.
Nowhere on the event page was there a stipulation that people couldn’t share what they heard with the public, either with their friends, on social media, or in traditional media.
Manny stared into my eyes. “You agree, right? Right?”
I didn’t say anything. This had never happened before. “So no one can discuss or write about what we hear?,” I asked, completely baffled. “This is not a press event so you can’t report about it,” he repeated.
I closed my laptop.
So I sat there, and listened. Nothing earth shattering, the same information that had already been shared online and in various stories. If I were to write an article, it would be little more than, “The building is for sale, all reasonable ideas are being entertained but it’s up to the buyer. the end.”
But now… why the secrecy?
