Tag: Bayview Hunters Point

By the late 1940s, after the war, virtually every young Black youth in San Francisco had a chance to attend City College, for free. We now need another generation of K-12 Black students to gain that chance. Now, the challenge for an entire community of Black people is how to ignite the interest of young Blacks to compete for the education they need – as Malcolm X once stated, “by any means necessary.”

Bayview Hunters Point is the LAST BASTION for Black folks! Progress moves on in one of the city’s best climates to live in. There’s so much housing construction taking place, now once an area no one wanted to move to, Bayview is THE place! REMEMBER, Bayview Hunters Point is the LAST BASTION for Black folks to get a piece of the action! Housing in San Francisco has become a heated topic – GREED!

Ah, spring has sprung and here comes GIANTS BASEBALL! As is my yearly ritual, plan to be there at the season HOME OPENER, April 8! Giants vs. Arizona. RARELY do I miss the opportunity to mingle on the field with the players prior to the FIRST PITCH! Since moving to the Bayview and 3-street, it’s so easy to hop the 3RD STREET MUNI T-LINE direct to AT&T Park.

The African American community in San Francisco is angry and upset at the Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH) for its blatantly exclusionary, poorly written and narrowly focused Request for Qualifications (RFQ) document. San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) disqualified without explanation Wings of Eagle. Pack the SF Housing Authority Commission hearing Wednesday, March 13, 4 p.m., City Hall Room 408. Residents from Bayview Hunters Point and the Western Addition will come together to oppose set ownerships by any means necessary.

For students in Bayview Hunters Point, life can be a challenge. There are territories to know not to wander into, there are people out there who don’t want youth to make it, there are temptations everywhere, but through all of this, community organizations by neighborhood residents still emerge. 100% College Prep’s 16th Annual Musical Showcase is next weekend, March 14-16, at Thurgood Marshall High School

Phase One of the boycott, requesting African American meetings and conventions not to come to San Francisco, is in full swing and has garnered the support of at least 10 large associations with potential revenues of approximately $32 million, with more signing on each month. “We want to make it crystal clear,” said San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce President Fred Jordan, “the boycott is on. We will continue to fight for equity for our community and opportunities for African American businesses in San Francisco.”

COME WALK WITH ME – south, across the busy intersection of Third and Williams to Carroll. FINALLY, A COMMUNITY DREAM REALIZED! Groundbreaking Ceremony, Saturday morning, March 1, kicked off the long anticipated building of the NEW DR. GEORGE W. DAVIS Senior Center and Housing to be completed by 2015. The sight and sounds of trucks hauling material, tractors, drilling. Sounds of PROGRESS – JOBS! JOBS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Life continues for some, while many did not make it into 2014. Loved ones lost: MADIBA! MADIBA! BELOVED former South Africa President NELSON MANDELA; GRADY WILKINS, music director of the legendary WHISPERS; SUCCESSFUL Bayview business man MR. DAVE GARRISON; TWO San Francisco ICONS – the FAMOUS HAT LADY, RUTH GARLAND DEWSON and Legendary FILLMORE Master TAILOR and golfer CLYDE HOLLIE.

HO! HO! HO! The holiday season is upon us! Times are good. Folks crowding the malls, spending cash or charging their purchases; some buying on the layaway plan! Where are WE shopping? Are dollars channeled BACK to BLACK businesses on THIRD Street!??? Tough question! I travel through the corridor every day, not impressed at the options where I can spend my money.

The Morongo Band of Mission Indians near Palm Springs continues its tradition of giving as it provides another 11,000 turkeys statewide to help those in need. Five San Francisco groups that help provide the homeless and the less fortunate with a hot meal on Thanksgiving received 1,000 turkeys Friday donated by Morongo. The 1,000 turkeys will help feed an estimated 20,000 people in San Francisco.

As many of you know from experience, or have read before in these pages, the last decade has cut a deadly swath through Black prosperity and the viability of Black businesses in San Francisco. This is coupled with the flight of many of our neighbors, family members and friends out of the City. Yet we hang on, still determined to “make a way out of no way.” We remain, our children remain, and if we work hard enough, diligently enough, we can turn things around so that the next generation has a fighting chance.

As the CEO of United Council of Human Services, I am calling for full support of the homeless beds facility, which will benefit many working-class residents and other homeless citizens of Bayview Hunters Point. A homeless bed facility is essential in the neighborhood with the City’s second largest concentration of homelessness. We need your support in making the 100-bed facility a reality.

The Presidio Trust and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has announced the launch of a pilot program designed to expose more Bay Area residents to the beauty and recreational activities available in the Presidio, most of which is not affected by the federal government shutdown. Free guided hikes, beach trips and events will be offered.

The protest was staged in response to practices permitted by the San Francisco 49ers and the Santa Clara Stadium Authority and executed by Turner Construction and its joint venture partner Devcon Construction, to intentionally and systematically exclude Black and minority contractors from participation on the $1.3 billion Levi’s Stadium project.

Black Mobilization Organization Education Richmond (BMOER) is a Black organization founded in 2007 by Jovanka Beckles to fill the void she saw in Richmond, California, of organized progressive social activism in the Black community. Like most other Black organizations in Richmond, we want more jobs, a better economy and improved health for our community members.

On Sept. 19, Bayview Hunters Point lost a favorite daughter. Linda Brooks Burton, born and raised right here in the neighborhood, served as managing librarian of the Bayview Library for nearly 15 years and, a 30-year veteran of the San Francisco Public Library, was recently put in charge of all six libraries in San Francisco’s southeast sector.

Dr. Willie Ratcliff is publisher of the San Francisco Bay View, one of the leading Black newspapers in the U.S. and a treasured source of left news in the Bay Area. In an interview with Michael Chase and Ragina Johnson, Ratcliff, a longtime resident of the city, reflected on the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and its closure, environmental racism and the changes in the Fillmore neighborhood, a historically Black area known as “Harlem West.”

Beloved Willie B. Kennedy, former San Francisco supervisor, was laid to rest on Friday, July 12, after a momentous Homegoing Service at her church of many years, Jones Memorial United Methodist, located in the heart of San Francisco’s Fillmore Western Addition. Pastor Staci Current officiated. Kennedy passed June 28. During her 89 years, the lady lived an illustrious life!

City College is OPEN and ACCREDITED. These are the words posted by Interim Chancellor Thelma Scott-Skillman on the front page of the college website. With all the recent negative publicity surrounding City College over its threatened loss of accreditation, there is growing concern that it may discourage students from returning to the college.

Black people have largely been locked out of construction work in San Francisco since 1998. That’s a shame, because construction work is a solution to many of the ills in the Black community. Construction wages are high, and when Black contractors have work, they are generally eager to train Black workers regardless of their school, police or prison records.