Tag: Lennar

Lennar and their fleet of consultants are calling the Bayview Affordable Housing Initiative a “poison pill.” The irony here shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

San Francisco was built lot by lot by local builders with local workers – some with experience, some in training. That’s how we’ll renovate our solid existing homes and commercial buildings in Bayview Hunters Point and build new ones.

Prop G is not about development – it’s about land banking for the future. Lennar will sell off its affordable housing obligations to nonprofits, then hold out to maximize its return.

Short term exposures to particles can, within hours or days, aggravate lung disease, cause asthma attacks and acute bronchitis and increase susceptibility to respiratory infections.

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.

Carpenters, community members, union organizers and human rights activists packed Hearing Room 263 at City Hall on Feb. 28 to testify to the Board of Supervisors in support of a lawsuit that 27 Black and Latino carpenters have filed against AIMCO (American Investment and Management Co.) for acts of sabotage, race-baiting and extortion at construction sites in Bayview Hunters Point. AIMCO was granted $73 million in revenue bond financing by the city to repair four subsidized housing complexes in Hunters Point – Bayview, Shoreview, All Hallows and LaSalle – even after the city had to sue the corporation in 2003 for damages it refused to repair.

“What Mayor Newsom, Lennar and its surrogates wanted me to do was leave the community exposed, and they hoped that this whole issue of their poisoning our babies and community would go with me.”

Efforts to “dirty transfer” uncleaned shipyard parcels as proposed in the conceptual plan and the June 2008 ballot measure represent a direct violation of a city ordinance.

Despite Lennar’s claims that grading was completed in September in 2007, community air monitors continue to document elevations in asbestos levels.

Now that we know how that negligence has endangered an upscale white neighborhood in Florida, will anyone in Hunters Point stand up in Lennar’s defense?

George D. Porter dedicated his career to the International Longshoremen’s Workers Union Local 34. He died in the care of his loving family on the morning of Feb. 19, 1992. His immediate cause of death was dehydration. His final cause of death was pulmonary asbestosis.

The resolution does not compel any action but calls upon the city to halt construction, order health assessments and communicate these reports to the district and the public.

It would be a liability to accelerate the transfer of a federal Superfund site from the National Priority List with the data gaps that exist in the characterization of this property. The city admits it cannot clean up the Shipyard’s radiation-contaminated sites, which comprise the bulk of Parcels D and E. Parcel F, the Shipyard’s underwater region, has not been adequately studied.

On Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, Mayor Gavin Newsom claimed “the CDC and the California Department of Public Health agree with the San Francisco Department of Public Health that there was no significant health risk created by the grading activities at the shipyard.”

“The police say to us all the time that they can’t do their jobs because we won’t talk and tell on someone. Well, we ARE telling on PG&E … so now we tell them it’s your turn. Do your job! Do it now!”

Nevertheless, recent news articles have discussed plans to speed up the pace of the cleanup and possible use of the Shipyard to house a new 49ers stadium.

Turning to Lennar’s recent activities, Sumchai’s politics came into focus. “We have to fight to control this property. We have to be stakeholders at the table of what goes on in the development of not only this property but other properties throughout southeast San Francisco.

When Daniel Landry attended the City Attorney’s latest gang injunction press conference on June 21, little did he know how it would turn out. As a local who grew up in the Fillmore (aka Western Addition), Landry wanted to ensure that some community representation took place. “Someone needed to be there to give it some balance,” said Landry. “When the gang injunction came down on Oakdale, I wasn’t able to be there. This time I wanted to be way ahead in terms of addressing the issue.”

“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.”

I found out that Lennar pays for the studies conducted by the SFDPH. Dr. Bhatia told me that there is nothing wrong with the air or the dust and that people couldn’t possibly be experiencing health care problems.