I'm one of those people: I submit that throwing a brick through the back of a bus window is ethically superior to voting or circulating a petition. Please skim my comment history.
Voting
Circulating a petition
Doing nothing
Throwing a brick through a bus window
Sending death threats
Spraypainting "[ethnicity] GO HOME" on someone's house
Leaving a burning cross on their lawn
Quote from OA
"...one in ten mortgages was foreclosed in San Pablo. At the same time San Francisco’s rate of foreclosure was a mere 2 percent."
Those rates are huge! At the worst of the recession, we hit about one per 300 in the UK, and that was considered bad enough for urgent action to support arrears and find ways for people to restructure their debt.