Tag: Bayview Hunters Point

With love, light and mic, Mother Brown’s loves up the Bayview Hunters Point community. For years Mother Brown’s has been delivering free delicious homemade food to anyone who is hungry, accompanied often by the tunes of Maestro Curtis and San Francisco’s First Family of Song, the Curtis Family Cnotes – body and soul nourishment.

The ongoing reveal of the life-threatening contaminants plaguing the residents of the Bayview Hunters Point community was further enhanced by a recent virtual tour by Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai and Dr. Mark Alexander imparting first-hand knowledge to attendees, including first-year UCSF medical students. Information focused on the toxic elements adding weight to the body burden as revealed by the biomonitoring program testing being done within the community.

Getting counted in the census might seem trivial, especially when faced with systemic obstacles, financial instability and the lack of essential resources. In the Black community, there is more to getting counted than it seems: the question of why Black people should get counted travels deep through generations dating back to the 1700s.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to Ms. Verlie Mae Pickens, who is well known and a leader in the Bayview community, celebrated her 104th birthday on June 11, 2020. The COVID-19 forced postponement of the yearly celebration of her birthday, normally a large festive party and dinner to honor Ms. Pickens.

CANCELLED Due to Bad Air: PROTEST TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 11 AM If research suggests a direct link between air pollution and death from COVID-19, shouldn’t this league of kneeholders be held accountable for failing to address long-term environmental injustice in Bayview Hunters Point?

Just released by Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton is a report from the Human Rights Commission (HRC) quantifying the intention to redirect funding from the police department into the African-American community, with recommendations heard directly from community members, particularly those most impacted by systemic racism, through a process facilitated by the San Francisco Human Rights Commission.

“We’re just tired and fed up with people calling 911 for non-emergencies. Any action with law enforcement can get Black people and people of color killed. And that abuse has to stop.” – San Francisco District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton

“Thanks to you guys, I got to eat today. I didn’t know where I was going to sleep tonight. The park is comfortable and quiet, and we don’t have no drama. It’s peaceful. This community right here, we’re great. I feel real safe.”

The California Environmental Protection Agency’s CalEnviroScreen confirmed that Bayview Hunters Point is one of the communities in the state most vulnerable to pollution, due to environmental, health and socio-economic disparities.

What happens when an unselfish Black woman steps up to the plate? San Francisco Mayor London Breed didn’t play politics with our lives, but instead built a coalition with other communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area to initiate the first shelter in place order in the USA.

Like a deep tissue abscess, landfill systems will not promote “healing” until they are excavated and removed. All Hunters Point residents and workers screened to date by HP Biomonitoring have chemicals detected in toxic concentrations.

On Feb. 27, 2020, in front of a crowd of over 300 people at Brava Theater, San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju took his oath of office and pledged his service to the community as part of the annual Black History Month Celebration of the Public Defender’s Office.

As San Franciscans rang in the new year, the civil gang injunctions plaguing the Mission, Bayview Hunters Point, Visitation Valley and the Fillmore-Western Addition for more than a decade finally came to an end.

To fight the growing housing crisis and preserve the soul and character of the Bayview neighborhood, we must pass Proposition A on the November ballot. Prop A will allow long-time residents to stay in the neighborhood they love.

In response to community demands, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has just sent a letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors stating that the air pollution that would be caused by the India Basin Mixed Use Development Project “is unacceptable.”

Remember the many years Marie Harrison owned the back page of the Bay View? She defined what “speaking truth to power” means. With headlines like “We’ve always survived your whip and your noose” and observations like “Voter education isn’t just somebody educating the voters; it’s the voters educating the people they elect,” as we carry on without her, we must infuse every fight with her courage.

Driving the environmental health movement in southeast San Francisco is a clear sense of urgency and duty to protect current and future generations from an avalanche of toxic chemicals linked to cardiopulmonary diseases, cancers, neurological and immune diseases, behavioral disorders, birth defects and infant mortality rates. The investigative team included myself and pioneering community scientist Raymond Tompkins. Offering academic leadership were San Francisco State University chemistry professor Dr. Peter Palmer and UCSF School of Medicine Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Carol Miller, MD. Dr. Kim Hooper of the State of California Toxic Laboratories assisted in submission of the proposal.

One photo in particular caught my attention. It’s simplicity and composition stand out when viewed from the eye of the photographer…a man dedicated to his work and loyal to his purpose as a longshore worker. Taken in the mid 1960’s, it depicts an isolated freighter ship offshore from a pier at the Hunters Point Shipyard. I call it “View from the Shipyard.” I don’t know why that cargo ship was so important it became the centerpiece of a technicolor photo. My Dad was probably the shipping clerk responsible for accounting its cargo.

Dedicated to ensuring the historic Fillmore neighborhood has an economic and cultural anchor to call its own, District Five Supervisor Vallie Brown and a group of nonprofit and African American community leaders have initiated a collaborative campaign to reactivate the Fillmore Heritage Center. Beginning Nov. 5, the collaborative is offering live music, community events, and housing and financial empowerment workshops at the former Yoshi’s site.

As a young Black woman, entering this exciting role as the editor of this legacy paper, my hope is to be surrounded by the support of a community that is just as present as they are passionate. The Bay View needs your passion and I need your presence – so next week please join us for refreshments and dialogue. With the hope of including as many of us in the conversation as possible, I’ve set up the event on Wednesday, Nov. 21, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the Bayview Linda Brooks-Burton Branch Library meeting room, 5075 Third St. That’s the day before Thanksgiving.