Tag: Sophie Maxwell

Our best chance at a bright future is Bernie Sanders​. We need the courage to vote​ for the best world possible, for the biggest dreams, for the biggest potential shift in government and politics.

Ask any San Franciscans of a certain age about Golden Gate Park, and they will wax on about the days when every museum in the park was free and they could spend a day visiting all of them. Over the years, while still receiving public subsidies, every institution has been privatized and the entry fees raised to ludicrous levels. The latest being the semi-privatized Conservatory of Flowers.

Last night, July 13, the SF Board of Supervisors held a 10-hour hearing on the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for Lennar’s proposed 10,000 unit condominium complex, stadium and green tech development at the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund site and Candlestick Point. The EIR passed with a 8-3 vote.

The exact moment in time has arrived to pull down the veil of the corrupt, ethics depleted political status quo being perpetuated at City Hall via Supervisor Sophenia Maxwell, who represents District 10. Her controllers do not want to see her moved from that seat one second before January 2011. They have a well established relationship and flow with Ms. Maxwell right where she is. Putting the sledge hammer of RECALL to that coup will speak volumes to that power structure.

Due to the toxicity of the land, Lennar is able to acquire land in poor areas, such as the Bayview, for next to nothing. Lennar then develops the area, building market value homes that current residents cannot afford, driving them out of their neighborhood.

“I have several friends who have died from asbestos, died from inhaling asbestos. Don’t let any of these people tell you it’s not toxic. I have complained about all those trucks with all that dust. They bring it through our neighborhood with no cover.”

“We have been living the Lennar nightmare for seven years. We are original owners with perpetual water intrusion. I am trying to organize my neighbors (168 defective homes) and share information in hopes that together we can make a difference ... We are absolutely devastated. I am writing from Novato, California.” — Tamara

“We’re asking for a temporary shut down of the construction at the shipyard, so we can access the levels of exposure from arsenic and lead. And we can’t trust the Health Department under Mitchell Katz to do it.”

“Last week a reading was over 21,000 particulates; 16,000 is an acceptable amount of dust you can breathe.”

“My son is sick and my grandchildren are sick. I could hope that someone would have said ‘Hold it.’ We know that there is environmental racism.”

“Redevelopment destroyed the Western Addition,” said Bayview resident Charlie Walker. “And now they’re destroying Bayview Hunters Point. Black people are not leaving San Francisco – we are being driven out.”

Supervisors, your constituents are furious. They call and email me constantly wondering what we're going to do, what they can do and, most of all, what you're going to do. Your constituents, 33,000 of them, demand justice. It's yours to give.

"Prior plans called for 70 percent of the units to be rentals and 30 percent condominiums to be sold. Now the first phase of construction will feature all condominiums."

Sup. Maxwell reduced the seating on the Asthma Task Force this year as she champions three development projects: the Hunters Point Shipyard, Home Depot and the Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area, all documenting negative unmitigable impacts to human health and the environment.

All that it takes to be branded an urban terrorist evidently is to be a "troublemaker": complaining when sewage backs up into your sink or asserting your rights or defending your community in any way.

After more than 15 years of “cleanup,” the Shipyard is still a toxic mess – and now Lennar is moving forward to build residential housing on the site.

Allowing 604 Hunters Point families to become homeowners is not in Newsom's ethnic cleansing game plan.

"One can only conclude that the real and unstated purpose of this project is to create a bedroom community for the affluent while making weak efforts to prevent dislocation of present residents."

Many of us see, within the Bayview Hunters Point district and without, strategic similarities in the wars being waged in Iraq, in New Orleans and here in our own home town.