Tag: Bayview Hunters Point

The Black population in San Francisco drastically declined when urban renewal, Redevelopment and the gentrification of the Fillmore/Western Addition started in the ‘60s, bulldozed the hearts of African Americans, many forced to move out of the City.

KQED’s mobile film unit follows James Baldwin in the spring of 1963 as he’s driven around San Francisco to meet with the Black community and discover “the real situation of Negroes in the city, as opposed to the image San Francisco would like to present.”

Assemblymember Hill today unveiled legislation that attacks local hiring by banning state-funded construction in any city with a local hiring law, even shutting down Bay Area projects that residents of his own district work on.

Preliminary numbers from the 2010 Census put the remaining African American population for the city of San Francisco at around 3.9 percent! How did we get to this point? Why are we leaving this city in such droves? Why isn’t City Hall doing more to stop the mass exodus of African Americans from this city? Join the discussion on ‘The State of Black San Francisco’ – screening of ‘Straight Outta Hunters Point’ and panel discussions – at the Bayview Opera House, 4705 Third St., SF, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2-5 p.m., child care provided.

Bayview Hunters Point is a community not exempt from poverty, violence, racism, police terrorism, gentrification, institutionalized ignorance, displacement and demonizing media coverage. With the Tough House Project, founder Jamal James Modica hopes to give this community a voice.

With unemployment at its highest in decades and 41 percent more San Franciscans requesting assistance feeding themselves and their families this year, out-of-work residents convened at City Hall to ask Mayor Newsom to sign the local hiring law that a super-majority of the Board of Supervisors passed last week.

The Bayview Library is a second home for the children and all the people of Bayview Hunters Point. Now the City wants to replace it with a new building, but who will build it? Low bidder on the project was Liberty Builders, located a block from the library and owned by Bay View publisher Willie Ratcliff, who is trusted to hire from the community. But the City just snatched the contract from Liberty and gave it to KCK Builders, a white contractor with no Black participation. Will the community allow KCK to build the library?

The question Bayview residents should be asking themselves is what’s more important, pensions or schools? After-school programs for kids or pensions? Parks or pensions? Health services for seniors or pensions? Join Jeff Adachi and the SF Bay View newspaper in voting YES on Prop B.

Labor unions and community activists in the Bay Area and beyond have a responsibility to condemn the received view of police violence and to demand a modicum of justice for Oscar Grant. They can do so by responding to the call by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 to unite on Saturday, Oct. 23, at Oakland City Hall in support of “jail for killer cops.”

Two big Texas oil companies are spending piles of money to kill California’s fast-growing clean energy economy and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that economy has already created. Big Oil is claiming to want to protect us and save jobs in our communities.

SFUSD announced, “Willie Brown Jr. Academic College Preparatory School is closing by the end of school year 2010-2011 in order to rebuild a state of the art facility.” Parent Daphina Marshall commented, “I don’t see where they are going to get the funds to rebuild.”

Many scientists are looking at the role caesarian sections and early induction of labor is having on the rising incidence of preterm births in our country. Recent evidence suggests that infant mortality in Black women is linked to a low incidence of breast feeding.

Nationally acclaimed scientist Wilma Subra says, “The EIR failed to evaluate and assess the cumulative impacts of exposure to children, adults and the environment as a result of exposure to all of the chemicals present at the site.” Declared Vivien Donahue, “San Francisco is not a Green City for the environment; it is green for the money they want to give to these developers.” “We are opposed to the EIR. The shipyard needs to be cleaned up, not covered up. It is too toxic!” said Esselene Stancil, 78. Showdown at Board of Supervisors Tuesday, July 13, 3pm, City Hall Room 250. Be there!

A survey sent in April of 2008 by the Union of Concerned Scientists to 5,419 EPA scientists reports that 900 scientists say the White House watered down documents regarding climate change and inserted industry language into EPA power plant regulations and that scientific advisory panel conclusions about toxic chemicals went unheeded.

In 2001 I founded the Radiological Subcommittee of the Hunters Point Shipyard. I became obsessed by the potential for one of the worst toxic environmental impacts to the human cell being realized with this development project on a federal Superfund site: Small radioactive particles called radionuclides becoming airborne on dust and breathed into the lungs and circulatory system of children.

“We’re trying to get in. Some people don’t want us in.” That’s the message Willie Ratcliff took from the bullet that crashed through our bedroom window at 1:45 a.m. on Thursday, May 13. Ratcliff has a hunch it was fired by someone trying to scare him out of competing to build the new Bayview Library. Someone must be scared that Black power is about to break the 12-year lockout of Blacks from construction in San Francisco. Black power does not bow to a bullet.

Davey D interviews Minister Christopher Muhammad, leader of the Stop Lennar Action Movement, on Hard Knock Radio about Lennar's latest mischief-making. Tell the SF Board of Supervisors to tell Lennar 'No guns at community meetings' Tuesday, April 20, 2 p.m., SF City Hall Room 250. Pack the Supervisors' Chambers as they vote on a resolution condemning Lennar.

The new Bayview Library must be built by the people it serves. No more exclusion of Blacks as with Third Street Light Rail. Bay View publisher Willie Ratcliff's company, Liberty Builders, is competing to build it with a team of top Black construction professionals committed to hiring from the community. Come to the Bay Area Black Builders meeting Saturday, April 10, 12 noon, at 1099 Sunnydale, Vis Valley, San Francisco.

On Feb. 18, Lennar sent an armed operative to a town hall meeting hosted by the Stop Lennar Action Movement (SLAM), featuring Wilma Subra, a world renowned scientist who was brought to San Francisco by the Environmental Protection Agency. A former police officer, the man had NO permit to carry the weapon, signed in under a false name, was taking pictures of the crowd and refused to provide correct information. RALLY MONDAY, APRIL 12, 9:30 A.M., STEPS OF SF CITY HALL! Hearing follows. Demand justice!

By the 1980s, the largest population of African Americans in the state of California owned homes, property and businesses in the Bayview Hunters Point district of San Francisco. Now, the BVHP Redevelopment Project threatens to deprive them of their land, historical legacy and culture, fulfilling the United Nations definition of a government sponsored genocidal campaign.