Save Bayview parkland! No on SB 792!

by POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights)

Candlestick-Point-State-Park, Save Bayview parkland! No on SB 792!, Local News & Views Add your name and organization to the growing chorus of grassroots and environmental justice organizations — including the Caravan for Justice, Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Chinese Progressive Association, POWER, PODER, La Raza Centro Legal, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Arc Ecology, Greenlining Institute, San Francisco Green Party, San Francisco Bay View newspaper and many more — saying No to California Senate Bill 792, a bill state Sen. Mark Leno introduced that would allow the state of California to sell 42 acres of state parkland on the shoreline at Candlestick Point in Bayview Hunters Point for private condominium development.

SB 792 is headed for hearing in the California Assembly Appropriations Committee very soon. Please sign the petition today to add your support and your organization’s support to this critical campaign that has united the Bayview Hunters Point community and allies around the city and beyond in opposition.

Watch this new No on SB 792 video by Arc Ecology showing the parkland that SB 792 would allow to be sold for condominium development. Then sign the petition by going online to http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/bayview-parkland.

Petition: Save Bayview parkland! No on SB 792!

Target: California State Legislature

Sponsored by: POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights)

No on SB 792 Petition

We, the undersigned, are opposed to SB 792 Tidelands and submerged lands: City and County of San Francisco: Candlestick Point, which authorizes the sale of state parkland currently used by the residents and families of Bayview Hunters Point, for private condominium development.

We are opposing this bill for five core reasons:

1. SB 792 is unnecessary. The lead developer [Lennar] in this project has already been given development authority over more than 700 acres at Candlestick Point and the Hunters Point Shipyard. The 42 additional acres on state parkland are by no means necessary for this project to move forward.

2. SB 792 would be detrimental to Candlestick Point State Park. SB 792 authorizes the sale of nearly one third of the parkland, severely impacting the families of Bayview Hunters Point and San Francisco as a whole. The entire state park is 170 acres that are actively used by hundreds of families and community members daily. Authorizing the sale of 42 of these acres for private condominium development would decimate the functionality of the park, both for recreation and as a habitat for wildlife.

3. SB 792 is fiscally irresponsible. In 1977, the state of California purchased this beautiful waterfront parkland for $10 million, and over the last thirty years the value of the land continues to increase. This land represents a valuable and irreplaceable asset to the state of California and its residents and should not be disposed of.

4. SB 792 is premature and preempts the process for public input and environmental assessment. The Environmental Impact Reports for the proposed development on Candlestick Point and the Hunters Point Shipyard will not be released until the fall of 2009. Therefore there has been not yet been a CEQA assessment of the potential environmental impact of any proposed development in this area, nor has there been a process for public comment on the environmental impact. Prop G, passed by voters in 2008, made absolutely no mention of the potential sale of state parkland for private development. Families directly impacted by the potential sale of this state parkland should be given an opportunity to engage and comment on this proposal before state legislators are being asked to vote on the measure.

5. SB 792 is environmental racism. African American communities are disproportionately impacted by environmental racism in San Francisco. There is a long history of environmental contamination that has affected the health of families in the Bayview neighborhood, including sewage treatment facilities, proximity to freeways and diesel truck routes, and toxic exposure from the now closed Naval Shipyard and PG&E power plant. While there is an abundance of parks and recreation areas in other San Francisco neighborhoods, Candlestick Point is one of the only clean and healthy recreation areas available to Bayview Hunters Point families. Exchanging this parkland for private condominium development would deny African American families equal access to healthy parks and open space.

For these reasons, we urge California legislators to vote NO on SB 792! Preserve equal access to state parkland for all families in San Francisco.

Respectfully,

[Your name and, if applicable, your organization]

Each one teach one

Call or email the members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and urge them to vote No on SB 792. All the information you need to contact them can be found online at http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/newcomframeset.asp?committee=43.

To read the full text of SB 792, visit http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0751-0800/sb_792_bill_20090713_amended_asm_v95.pdf.