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Indybay Feature
Redevelopment Planning Land Grab In Hunters Point, a Gentrification Plan
WE NEED TO MOBLIZE THE COMMUNITY NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!
Redevelopment planning land grab of Shipyard and all BVHP
Tell Redevelopment how you feel Tuesday, Dec. 2, 4pm, City Hall Room 416
by Maurice Campbell and Barbara George
The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is making a move to grab the whole neighborhood – the Hunters Point Shipyard and nearly all of Bay View Hunters Point!
While tracking efforts to ram through the agreement for Lennar to develop the Shipyard, we discovered Redevelopment’s hush-hush plot to gentrify practically all of BVHP. Instead of continuing to pursue its longstanding plan to create a new project area, Redevelopment is quietly proposing to annex the rest of Bay View Hunters Point to the existing Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area through a simple-to-pass amendment. That way, the Redevelopment Commission can pass it quietly without full public notice and review.
At the next meeting of the Redevelopment Commission on Tuesday, Dec. 2, the community is urged to come out in force, because both of these issues affect our future very seriously. Comment on both the neighborhood takeover “amendment” and the Lennar Disposition and Development Agreement (the DDA) for the Shipyard. The meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in City Hall Room 416.
Ask the commissioners to postpone their vote on the Lennar agreement - the DDA - until the community has had its say. Many questions have been raised by community groups that have not been answered.
In addition, call the Board of Supervisors today and ask them to hold an informational hearing before any vote by Redevelopment. The Redevelopment Agency, the City Attorney and Lennar should come before the supervisors and answer the community’s questions.
Two Redevelopment plans — neither benefits BVHP residents
The general outline of Redevelopment’s plan for the Shipyard has been known for a while, but the devil is in the details. That’s why it is so important for the Supervisors to review it. What BVHP residents want most — business development providing long-term jobs for local residents — may be delayed for years. Upscale housing is the main focus for Redevelopment and Lennar, but business is what generates jobs, not expensive homes that many people in the community can’t afford.
Now this new annexation amendment of the Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area appears intended to clear away the low-income Black population that has lived alongside the Shipyard for 60 years — with the goal of increasing the future value of Lennar’s housing.
Neither of these projects helps the people who live here.
Redevelopment’s ‘amendment’ to gentrify BVHP
The proposed San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Plan Amendment, dated Nov. 4, 2003, would add 1,600 acres to the existing 137-acre Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area. It would encompass all the public and low-income housing near the Shipyard, most other residential areas, the entire Third Street corridor and other sections of the neighborhood all the way to Bayshore Boulevard and the freeway (see map).
The Black population in San Francisco has dropped from over 14 percent to less than 6 percent in this city. Bay View Hunters Point remains the city’s largest predominantly Black neighborhood. In Redevelopment’s brochure showing how the agency expects the neighborhood to look in the future, all the people in the pictures look White.
What Redevelopment did by creating the Western Addition Project Area, bulldozing thousands of Black homes and hundreds of Black-owned businesses - wiping out most of the Black population and even renaming the neighborhood known worldwide as the Fillmore – must not happen again! We need to make it clear to the powers that be that we will not be moved.
Let the Redevelopment Commission know on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 4 p.m. in City Hall Room 416 that you don’t want any rushed decisions for acceptance of either the annexation amendment or the DDA. You want time for review, and you want the Board of Supervisors involved. Don’t be swayed by special interests that want you to support their get-rich-quick schemes.
Redevelopment wants to lock in Lennar
Redevelopment’s proposed agreement to put Lennar Corp. in charge of the first phase of development of the Shipyard is called the Disposition and Development Agreement, or DDA. The DDA describes the obligations of the developer, the City and the Navy, covering such topics as toxic cleanup, employment opportunities and Lennar’s profits. It sets up the “horizontal” development - roads and utilities infrastructure - and includes decisions on open space, housing density and community facilities.
The current lame duck administration is pressuring residents to approve it without seriously examining it. The DDA is an enormously complicated document, over 1,000 pages, but the mayor wanted the Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) to approve it in “30 days.”
Some of us who are on the CAC objected that many of the listed attachments weren’t attached and other information that was promised has not been delivered. The community must know what the Redevelopment Commission is being asked to sign, and it’s our responsibility as the CAC to find out.
We divided into subcommittees to look at different pieces of the DDA, and we held more than 26 meetings in the last month - because Redevelopment is in such a hurry! We’ve spent over 60 days reviewing it and recommending changes and additions, including community comments like “Not enough of the community was notified,” “Rush to judgment,” “Not getting answers from Redevelopment,” “Not seeing a very important document from Redevelopment until 6pm 11/24/03, the time of our final meeting.”
The Redevelopment staff has described the CAC’s recommendations, breaking them down as either 1) acceptable to Redevelopment, 2) acceptable to the developer or 3) other — not acceptable or requires further discussion.
What’s the rush?
What’s the big hurry to sign an agreement with Lennar? Redevelopment is acting as if Lennar is doing us a big favor by coming here. The reality is that the Shipyard is some the world’s most valuable real estate, and Lennar, America’s largest home builder, has earned a terrible reputation by, among other travesties, building new homes on its own toxic dump in Florida.
Redevelopment wants to use the DDA, along with the existing ENA, the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement, to lock in Lennar as Master Developer for the Shipyard. The Exclusive Negotiating Agreement comes up for review by the Board of Supervisors in December. By postponing Redevelopment approval of the DDA until then, we can examine the entire relationship with Lennar.
No transfer, no development until Shipyard is clean
Many obstacles must be cleared out of the way before work can be started on developing the Shipyard. Most important is Proposition P. Prop P is the ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by 87 percent of San Francisco voters in 2000 prohibiting any development of the Shipyard until all toxic contamination, including all traces of radioactivity, has been cleaned up and removed.
In addition, there can be no transfer of any parcel of Shipyard land to the city from the Navy because the Conveyance Agreement between the City and County of San Francisco, the community and the Navy has not been signed. The Navy is eager to transfer Parcel A, where Lennar wants to build 1,600 houses, and Parcel B, but neither is clean yet.
The regulators — the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), the DTSC (California Department of Toxic Substance Control) and the Water Resource Board - have not yet signed off on a FOST (Finding Of Suitability for Transfer) for Parcel A. And the Record of Decision on Parcel B just recently went through its five-year review, which drew community comments that must be answered, and a lot of cleanup work remains to be done on Parcel B.
Whether you’re buying a car, a home or a cell phone plan, you don’t want to cave in to the high pressure salesperson and regret it later. This is no time to cave in to the pressure to give up the Shipyard and all of Bay View Hunters Point.
Although this is happening in the midst of the holidays and everybody’s busy, this is the time to take a stand. Give the children a gift they can be proud of — a community for all the people who live here, not a gentrified community for somebody else.
For more information, read “Arrested Development” by Lisa Davis in the Nov. 19 SF Weekly at http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2003-11-19/feature.html/1/index.html. The DDA can be found at http://www.hunterspointshipyard.com/dda.html.
Maurice Campbell is the convener of the Community First Coalition and is a member of the Hunters Point RAB (Restoration Advisory Board) that advises the Navy and the Hunters Point CAC (Community Advisory Committee) that advises the city. Barbara George is executive director of Women’s Energy Matters and a community activist. Email Maurice at mecsoft [at] pacbell.net.
By Sebastian Robles and Chris Finn
Just discovered plans show that Bayview Hunters Point is slated for redevelopment - Fillmore/ Western Addition style. Four housing complexes are already slated for destruction. So are another 14 around the City.
Activists have already been fighting hard against the shipyard development scheme, where Willie Brown is pushing hard to give exclusive rights of the best real estate to Lennar in the last month before he leaves office.
This is small potatoes compared to what the Redevelopment Agency has in store. Their Plan Amendments, dated November 4, 2003, seeks to expand the Redevelopment Agency’s control over more than ten times the area now subject to their control. Over ten thousand African Americans have already been driven out of the City during the more recent development boom. The plans under way, if allowed to carry through, will redevelop and gentrify the remainder of the community out of town.
A Crucial Election
This year, the votes of Bayview Hunters Point and the African American population in the City will be crucial in determining the outcome of the runoff election and thus the landscape of San Francisco politics for years to come. But now liberal and progressive San Francisco voters in general may also have in their hands the decision whether African Americans will continue to live in San Francisco.
As happened with the construction of ‘low-income’ housing in other parts of the City, housing complexes will be destroyed to make way for new ones. The people currently living in them will obviously have to find somewhere else to live. A few might be able to eventually move back, but the majority of the housing will be market rate housing, with state law mandating that all new housing not be subject to rent control.
When the Third Street Light Rail is finished, if politics continues as normal, rather than helping to develop the existing community, “re-development” of the 3rd Street corridor will bring further gentrification, pushing out African American homeowners, tenants and small businesses in a similar fashion to what happened in the Fillmore District a few decades ago.
This election represents a stark choice. Gavin Newsom represents someone who will not only continue the policies of development and big business, but become more blatant in moving the local political machine further to the right. Not being as smart as Willie, and having the arrogance that comes with having everything handed to him directly by big money interests, he won’t feel the need to toss the community any bones to keep their favor.
Matt Gonzalez is not beholden to and has consistently been a solid vote against those interests and types of policies. This election is not just about the candidates, but about who will be represented in City politics once the new mayor is sworn in and whether these policies will continue or be reversed.
Getting Ready to Settle an Old Battle
The issues affecting Bayview Hunters Point have been ongoing for decades, but have intensified in the last eight years at the hands of a strong organized political machine working in the interests of developers and other big businesses and speculators. After fighting development and gentrification battles for the last eight years, the community is eager to see a candidate that is willing to stand up to the local machine for working class people and communities of color.
Around 100 activists and members of the community turned out November 16 for the opening of the Gonzalez campaign office in Bayview Hunters Point to speak about the changes necessary and what it would take to make them. This was not one of those well-funded offices of a candidate just paying people to be there. There were no politicians from the local political machine. There were no champagne or other extravagances of a campaign backed by big money. The space was donated by members of the community and was packed full with local activists and residents discussing with Matt the important issues affecting their neighborhoods.
Many of these activists and residents had voted for Angela Alioto the first time around, seeing her as a civil rights and anti-discrimination attorney running against Gavin Newsom and the Willie Brown machine. Now that the runoff is Gonzalez vs. Newsom, many of Angela’s and others’ supporters are lining up behind Matt.
Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the San Francisco Bayview, cites Gonzalez’ willingness to represent African Americans and poor folks when he was a public defender for ten years. Matt even went to jail when he challenged a judge who wasn’t giving a client a fair trial. The charges were later dropped. “Who else would stand up for poor black folks like that?”
Clear Differences
African Americans can easily list the major issues affecting them in the City – unemployment, economic development, environmental justice, health issues, lack of and privatization of services, police reform, education, reparations, gentrification, redevelopment, and plenty others. These issues are interrelated and are often tied to decisions made in the mayor’s office for the benefit of developers, contractors, and big business interests at the expense of the community.
The two candidates differ strongly. Newsom has been supported throughout his career by oil money from the Getty family. He was appointed to the Board of Supervisors by Brown to add diversity – the Board apparently didn’t have any straight white rich men on it at the time. Newsom has since been a reliable vote for the local Willie Brown machine, voting in favor of big business and developers.
He recently targeted the poor and the homeless with his Prop M, which takes welfare money away from homeless people, without guaranteeing them any services – basically filling the City’s budget holes with money taken from the poorest people of the City. Gonzalez passed an amendment, which was signed into law, guaranteeing these people get the services they were promised.
Gonzalez initially ran against and defeated the candidate handpicked by Brown in a landslide victory. He voted against the big business settlement which Newsom supported, which cost the City over $100 million. He has since been a reliable vote favoring working class issues and the neighborhoods.
According to the Examiner, “Gonzalez said he would work to make loans accessible to minority business owners, preserve affordable housing and force the closure of the two area power plants. He said his work on raising the minimum wage reminded him of fighting for justice as a public defender, and that the community can have confidence in police only if they are held accountable.”
The Light Rail project on 3rd Street is a major issue for the community. As with the past history of contracting and job promises for the community, African American contractors are not involved in the construction project. Neighborhood activists demonstrated to force contractors to hire locally, but local workers were laid off soon after the protests stopped.
Newsom Is Worse Than The Past
Newsom’s position on these issues? Maybe he’ll try to make a nice speech or tell you it’s all in a position paper, or that he doesn’t have time to detail his whole position, but he’s chosen as his head campaign consultant, Eric Jaye, who has run several campaigns that ran completely counter to the interests of the community.
Jaye ran the campaign for another Brown development project – getting the Mills corporation exclusive bargaining rights for the Pier 27-31 development project. He also ran Brown’s Prop A, getting San Francisco voters to approve a $1.6 billion bond to rebuild the Hetch Hetchy infrastructure – when only about half of that was needed, resulting in around $800,000 in slush funds paid for by San Francisco residents. Jaye also managed the failed campaign to elect Andrew Lee to the Board of Supervisors. Lee is one of the recent controversial Brown patronage appointments to the Public Utilities Commission.
The African American community knows the importance of commission appointments, something the new Mayor will have control over. The Redevelopment Commission is a case where all seven commissioners are appointed by the Mayor. This is the commission which oversees the decisions regarding the Hunters Point shipyard and has entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Lennar Corporation in a process that triggered another FBI investigation into contracting schemes.
Despite Federal law mandating that the Navy clean the site and turn it over to the City once it was decommissioned, the City did nothing to push the Navy to do so. Local activists organized in 2000, 26 years after the shipyard closed, to get Prop P on the ballot mandating that the Navy follow through with the clean-up, winning overwhelmingly. Transfer to the City is not supposed to take place until the entire shipyard has been determined to be clean and safe which is slated to take another five years.
Brown is pushing the Commission to approve granting transfer of the prime section of the shipyard property to Lennar before he leaves office in January. Newsom, as part of the local Democratic Party machine, will continue these politics if elected Mayor. The planned amendment to the shipyard Redevelopment area would put the rest of Bayview Hunters Point under the control of the Redevelopment Commission and the Planning Commission, where Brown won’t tolerate even one vote of dissension.
Gonzalez supports increasing pressure on the Navy and utilizing City resources to implement Prop P. He should also push to stop the ramming through of the DDA, the agreement which would hand over the prime sections of the property to Lennar before the cleaning and approval process is complete.
The community is fighting for community control over what happens to the shipyard property. Although Lennar wants to develop housing, something which is in demand in the City, this type of development brings no jobs to the area and increases the fears of the residents of housing developments nearby who fear eviction. The ‘low-cost’ housing will be beyond what community members can afford, extending the base for gentrification. Four of the housing complexes in Bayview Hunters Point are slated for destruction. Statements by Gonzalez that housing needs to be protected and that working class families and communities of color need to be able to live in the City resonate strongly with residents.
Gonzalez’ platform addresses many of the issues facing African Americans: measures to facilitate economic development (low-cost credit for small businesses through a municipal/community bank), a policy of bringing Black contractors to the table, a “local hiring” policy and ownership of land and underground through a type of a land trust paid for by the city along the lines of the proposal for low income housing.
Economic Development and Jobs
Gonzalez has pushed the idea of a municipal bank that would provide low-cost credit to small businesses and for the construction of low-income housing. This runs counter to the long history of redlining and denial of credit to African Americans.
The community wants to anchor local businesses within the City/African American community to prevent big chain invasions and provide viable alternatives. One of Gonzalez’ platform issues is to give communities more control over limiting expansion of big chain stores into communities, which then price out smaller community merchants and businesses.
Gonzalez’ office originated Proposition L, raising the minimum wage from $6.75 per hour to $8.50, which was passed overwhelmingly by the voters on November 4 and will benefit thousands of African Americans, Latinos, women and youth. Newsom did not endorse Proposition L until the last minute when he saw it was well ahead in the polls, and most of his employees at his more than a dozen businesses are paid minimum wages. While Gonzalez favors jobs at union wages, Newsom – who recently stated he is “proud” of San Francisco as a Union town – did not allow his own employees to organize a union and opposes the right to a card check.
Gonzalez wants to diversify the economy to create lasting well-paid jobs for the various communities. He calls for increasing the resources allocated to improving conditions for small businesses, which are more likely to provide stable employment for community members. He also differs with Newsom about what type of business tax structure the City should have. Gonzalez favors a gross receipts tax, which only taxes big businesses once they make over $800,000, instead of a payroll tax, which inhibits job creation.
Environmental Justice
Now that the Mirant corporation that acquired the Potrero Hill power plant from PG&E has gone under and given up its attempt to retrofit its polluting plant, the road is open for the City to acquire the land, close down the old generator and replace it with an environmentally sound public power alternative. Newsom is reluctant to speak on the issue and in the past has opposed the plant’s closure.
The other old, polluting plant owned by PG&E in Hunters Point is also the focus of opposition by neighborhood activists, environmentalists and many parents who are concerned with health care issues for their children.
At every step of the way Newsom has opposed public power – the only possible scenario under which a community decision making process and both production of clean energy and environmental justice could be achieved. Gonzalez supports public power and has a record of advocating for environmental justice. His preference is to support the development of alternative energy sources.
Bayview Hunters Point is an ideal place, because of its sunny weather, for solar panels and alternative forms of energy production. Neighborhood activists are interested in the City promoting or providing credit to install them in new buildings as well as existent housing. Gonzalez promotes this; Newsom has not spoken about it.
Health Care
This issue is intimately linked to the environmental disaster created by the waste (including nuclear waste) left by the Navy, the polluting power plants and the sewage disposal on the coast of Hunters Point and the lack of jobs and the concomitant lack of health insurance. The health care crisis in Bayview Hunters Point is reflected by its having one of the highest rates in the country of breast cancer and asthma and other pulmonary diseases and illnesses associated with pollution.
While the City is on record for its desire to provide health care for all San Franciscans, the political machine in power, of which Gavin Newsom is an integral part, has done nothing to implement such a goal. Hunters Point is also badly in need of an emergency room, screening clinics and a system of preventive medicine.
Police Reform
While community members celebrated the victory of Proposition H granting police reform, Newsom opposed it. Recent incidents at Thurmond Marshall, where a teacher was physically assaulted by police officers and the recent invasion of the neighborhood by cops hurting innocent bystanders only highlight the importance of police reform for the neighborhood.
Proposition H, diminishing the power of the Mayor to appoint members of the Police Commission and giving the Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC) some more teeth to bring charges against police abuse, passed overwhelmingly in Bayview Hunters Point and other predominantly African American neighborhoods. Gonzalez is one of the co-sponsors of Prop H. Newsom opposed it, campaigned against it, and counts on the endorsement of the POA (Police Officers Association), the strongest opponent of any and all police reform. Newsom limited himself to requesting more economic and technical resources for the SFPD with no mention of reforming it.
Education
Many residents of Bayview Hunters Point favor smaller schools as a way to individualize education, to allow students to excel and to help students avoid violence and the gang lifestyle. Many residents mention repeatedly the need of the neighborhood for more schools, elementary, middle and high schools. They prioritize the need for an additional high school as Thurgood Marshall is overwhelmed and receives students from all over town.
Many residents favor a high school to the East of 3rd Street. Gonzalez is in favor of smaller schools, including a new neighborhood school in Bayview Hunters Point. He is also in favor of integrating the various schools and colleges in the City to ensure all residents receive the education they need to get jobs and lay a foundation for sustainable economic development.
The Bayview Hunters Point Reparation Act
In 2000, the Bayview Hunters Point Reparations Act was put on the ballot proposing a fund administered by an elected neighborhood council to provide jobs and economic development for the neighborhood.
The political machine, including Newsom, opposed the measure, which received 70,000 votes citywide and which passed overwhelmingly in Bayview Hunters Point and other African American, Latino and working class neighborhoods and communities of color. Matt Gonzalez supported the initiative.
Backing A Winner – But Can He Win? Can WE Win?
Some voters want to vote for the candidate they believe will win. Some see Newsom as unbeatable, since he’s backed by the local machine and millions of dollars.
Newsom has been campaigning for two years though, with the support of the machine and those millions, and still hasn’t been able to get ahead in the polls.
The latest polls, which have been successful in predicting winners in mayoral races throughout the country, have shown Matt beating Newsom, and winning by a large margin among voters who were undecided or voted for other candidates in the November election. And Gonzalez’ campaign is still gaining ground.
In the November election, Gonzalez was relatively unknown compared to the other candidates. As more people focus on Matt as the opponent to the local machine and status quo politics, he keeps climbing in the polls.
Newsom is backed by big money, with most of his donors giving the maximum donations. Matt refuses to accept corporate donations and is still edging ahead of Newsom. The votes of Alioto, Ammiano and Leal supporters in the African American community would further increase Gonzalez’ lead.
To The Polls for the Survival of Our Communities!
Every community in this City needs to look at the mirror of their future in Bayview Hunters Point. What is at stake there is at stake everywhere, even if not with its acuteness and sharp contradictions.
Millions of dollars are being spent to ensure Newsom wins and big business keeps its ability to control San Francisco politics at the expense of working people and people of color. It’s still a dead heat, and getting the community out to vote will be the determining factor.
Unfortunately, San Francisco has a history of flawed elections. One of the better-known examples was the election for Propositions D and F for the building of the mall and new 49ers stadium.
The local political machine promised jobs for the community and retail locations in the new shopping mall, which never materialized. Campaign precinct captains were caught voting more than once using other peoples’ identities. Even dead people voted.
Residents reported their homes being barraged with fake voter registration documents, showing that someone had illegally used their addresses to register non-existent voters.
Reports from some residents along Third Street indicate the same is happening again in this election.
People are being paid to gather signatures for absentee ballots from homeless residents who are not even registered. Some told us they were told just to sign the form so that the signature gatherer could get paid – it didn’t matter whether they were really registered or not. It’s no surprise that Newsom’s campaign manager states that this race will depend largely on absentee ballots.
This isn’t just about voting for a candidate - it’s about voting to end the local machine politics. It’s about fighting for working class people and communities of color to be able to stay in the City.
We know what happened to the African American community in the Fillmore/ Western Addition; we know we lost thousands of families more in the more recent development boom. We’ve been fighting these politics for decades, and especially the last eight years.
We cannot afford the luxury not to show up on December 9. Let’s fill the polling places with lines of progressives, people of color, immigrants, labor and young voters and fill the voting machines to the hilt with the votes in solidarity with Bayview Hunters Point and with the African American community and for a progressive left Mayor.
http://www.sf-frontlines.com
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/11/1662197.php
http://www.sfbayview.com/112603/redevelopment112603.shtml
http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/sfra_page.asp?id=5151
Tell Redevelopment how you feel Tuesday, Dec. 2, 4pm, City Hall Room 416
by Maurice Campbell and Barbara George
The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is making a move to grab the whole neighborhood – the Hunters Point Shipyard and nearly all of Bay View Hunters Point!
While tracking efforts to ram through the agreement for Lennar to develop the Shipyard, we discovered Redevelopment’s hush-hush plot to gentrify practically all of BVHP. Instead of continuing to pursue its longstanding plan to create a new project area, Redevelopment is quietly proposing to annex the rest of Bay View Hunters Point to the existing Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area through a simple-to-pass amendment. That way, the Redevelopment Commission can pass it quietly without full public notice and review.
At the next meeting of the Redevelopment Commission on Tuesday, Dec. 2, the community is urged to come out in force, because both of these issues affect our future very seriously. Comment on both the neighborhood takeover “amendment” and the Lennar Disposition and Development Agreement (the DDA) for the Shipyard. The meeting will be held at 4 p.m. in City Hall Room 416.
Ask the commissioners to postpone their vote on the Lennar agreement - the DDA - until the community has had its say. Many questions have been raised by community groups that have not been answered.
In addition, call the Board of Supervisors today and ask them to hold an informational hearing before any vote by Redevelopment. The Redevelopment Agency, the City Attorney and Lennar should come before the supervisors and answer the community’s questions.
Two Redevelopment plans — neither benefits BVHP residents
The general outline of Redevelopment’s plan for the Shipyard has been known for a while, but the devil is in the details. That’s why it is so important for the Supervisors to review it. What BVHP residents want most — business development providing long-term jobs for local residents — may be delayed for years. Upscale housing is the main focus for Redevelopment and Lennar, but business is what generates jobs, not expensive homes that many people in the community can’t afford.
Now this new annexation amendment of the Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area appears intended to clear away the low-income Black population that has lived alongside the Shipyard for 60 years — with the goal of increasing the future value of Lennar’s housing.
Neither of these projects helps the people who live here.
Redevelopment’s ‘amendment’ to gentrify BVHP
The proposed San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Plan Amendment, dated Nov. 4, 2003, would add 1,600 acres to the existing 137-acre Hunters Point Redevelopment Project Area. It would encompass all the public and low-income housing near the Shipyard, most other residential areas, the entire Third Street corridor and other sections of the neighborhood all the way to Bayshore Boulevard and the freeway (see map).
The Black population in San Francisco has dropped from over 14 percent to less than 6 percent in this city. Bay View Hunters Point remains the city’s largest predominantly Black neighborhood. In Redevelopment’s brochure showing how the agency expects the neighborhood to look in the future, all the people in the pictures look White.
What Redevelopment did by creating the Western Addition Project Area, bulldozing thousands of Black homes and hundreds of Black-owned businesses - wiping out most of the Black population and even renaming the neighborhood known worldwide as the Fillmore – must not happen again! We need to make it clear to the powers that be that we will not be moved.
Let the Redevelopment Commission know on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 4 p.m. in City Hall Room 416 that you don’t want any rushed decisions for acceptance of either the annexation amendment or the DDA. You want time for review, and you want the Board of Supervisors involved. Don’t be swayed by special interests that want you to support their get-rich-quick schemes.
Redevelopment wants to lock in Lennar
Redevelopment’s proposed agreement to put Lennar Corp. in charge of the first phase of development of the Shipyard is called the Disposition and Development Agreement, or DDA. The DDA describes the obligations of the developer, the City and the Navy, covering such topics as toxic cleanup, employment opportunities and Lennar’s profits. It sets up the “horizontal” development - roads and utilities infrastructure - and includes decisions on open space, housing density and community facilities.
The current lame duck administration is pressuring residents to approve it without seriously examining it. The DDA is an enormously complicated document, over 1,000 pages, but the mayor wanted the Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) to approve it in “30 days.”
Some of us who are on the CAC objected that many of the listed attachments weren’t attached and other information that was promised has not been delivered. The community must know what the Redevelopment Commission is being asked to sign, and it’s our responsibility as the CAC to find out.
We divided into subcommittees to look at different pieces of the DDA, and we held more than 26 meetings in the last month - because Redevelopment is in such a hurry! We’ve spent over 60 days reviewing it and recommending changes and additions, including community comments like “Not enough of the community was notified,” “Rush to judgment,” “Not getting answers from Redevelopment,” “Not seeing a very important document from Redevelopment until 6pm 11/24/03, the time of our final meeting.”
The Redevelopment staff has described the CAC’s recommendations, breaking them down as either 1) acceptable to Redevelopment, 2) acceptable to the developer or 3) other — not acceptable or requires further discussion.
What’s the rush?
What’s the big hurry to sign an agreement with Lennar? Redevelopment is acting as if Lennar is doing us a big favor by coming here. The reality is that the Shipyard is some the world’s most valuable real estate, and Lennar, America’s largest home builder, has earned a terrible reputation by, among other travesties, building new homes on its own toxic dump in Florida.
Redevelopment wants to use the DDA, along with the existing ENA, the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement, to lock in Lennar as Master Developer for the Shipyard. The Exclusive Negotiating Agreement comes up for review by the Board of Supervisors in December. By postponing Redevelopment approval of the DDA until then, we can examine the entire relationship with Lennar.
No transfer, no development until Shipyard is clean
Many obstacles must be cleared out of the way before work can be started on developing the Shipyard. Most important is Proposition P. Prop P is the ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by 87 percent of San Francisco voters in 2000 prohibiting any development of the Shipyard until all toxic contamination, including all traces of radioactivity, has been cleaned up and removed.
In addition, there can be no transfer of any parcel of Shipyard land to the city from the Navy because the Conveyance Agreement between the City and County of San Francisco, the community and the Navy has not been signed. The Navy is eager to transfer Parcel A, where Lennar wants to build 1,600 houses, and Parcel B, but neither is clean yet.
The regulators — the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), the DTSC (California Department of Toxic Substance Control) and the Water Resource Board - have not yet signed off on a FOST (Finding Of Suitability for Transfer) for Parcel A. And the Record of Decision on Parcel B just recently went through its five-year review, which drew community comments that must be answered, and a lot of cleanup work remains to be done on Parcel B.
Whether you’re buying a car, a home or a cell phone plan, you don’t want to cave in to the high pressure salesperson and regret it later. This is no time to cave in to the pressure to give up the Shipyard and all of Bay View Hunters Point.
Although this is happening in the midst of the holidays and everybody’s busy, this is the time to take a stand. Give the children a gift they can be proud of — a community for all the people who live here, not a gentrified community for somebody else.
For more information, read “Arrested Development” by Lisa Davis in the Nov. 19 SF Weekly at http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2003-11-19/feature.html/1/index.html. The DDA can be found at http://www.hunterspointshipyard.com/dda.html.
Maurice Campbell is the convener of the Community First Coalition and is a member of the Hunters Point RAB (Restoration Advisory Board) that advises the Navy and the Hunters Point CAC (Community Advisory Committee) that advises the city. Barbara George is executive director of Women’s Energy Matters and a community activist. Email Maurice at mecsoft [at] pacbell.net.
By Sebastian Robles and Chris Finn
Just discovered plans show that Bayview Hunters Point is slated for redevelopment - Fillmore/ Western Addition style. Four housing complexes are already slated for destruction. So are another 14 around the City.
Activists have already been fighting hard against the shipyard development scheme, where Willie Brown is pushing hard to give exclusive rights of the best real estate to Lennar in the last month before he leaves office.
This is small potatoes compared to what the Redevelopment Agency has in store. Their Plan Amendments, dated November 4, 2003, seeks to expand the Redevelopment Agency’s control over more than ten times the area now subject to their control. Over ten thousand African Americans have already been driven out of the City during the more recent development boom. The plans under way, if allowed to carry through, will redevelop and gentrify the remainder of the community out of town.
A Crucial Election
This year, the votes of Bayview Hunters Point and the African American population in the City will be crucial in determining the outcome of the runoff election and thus the landscape of San Francisco politics for years to come. But now liberal and progressive San Francisco voters in general may also have in their hands the decision whether African Americans will continue to live in San Francisco.
As happened with the construction of ‘low-income’ housing in other parts of the City, housing complexes will be destroyed to make way for new ones. The people currently living in them will obviously have to find somewhere else to live. A few might be able to eventually move back, but the majority of the housing will be market rate housing, with state law mandating that all new housing not be subject to rent control.
When the Third Street Light Rail is finished, if politics continues as normal, rather than helping to develop the existing community, “re-development” of the 3rd Street corridor will bring further gentrification, pushing out African American homeowners, tenants and small businesses in a similar fashion to what happened in the Fillmore District a few decades ago.
This election represents a stark choice. Gavin Newsom represents someone who will not only continue the policies of development and big business, but become more blatant in moving the local political machine further to the right. Not being as smart as Willie, and having the arrogance that comes with having everything handed to him directly by big money interests, he won’t feel the need to toss the community any bones to keep their favor.
Matt Gonzalez is not beholden to and has consistently been a solid vote against those interests and types of policies. This election is not just about the candidates, but about who will be represented in City politics once the new mayor is sworn in and whether these policies will continue or be reversed.
Getting Ready to Settle an Old Battle
The issues affecting Bayview Hunters Point have been ongoing for decades, but have intensified in the last eight years at the hands of a strong organized political machine working in the interests of developers and other big businesses and speculators. After fighting development and gentrification battles for the last eight years, the community is eager to see a candidate that is willing to stand up to the local machine for working class people and communities of color.
Around 100 activists and members of the community turned out November 16 for the opening of the Gonzalez campaign office in Bayview Hunters Point to speak about the changes necessary and what it would take to make them. This was not one of those well-funded offices of a candidate just paying people to be there. There were no politicians from the local political machine. There were no champagne or other extravagances of a campaign backed by big money. The space was donated by members of the community and was packed full with local activists and residents discussing with Matt the important issues affecting their neighborhoods.
Many of these activists and residents had voted for Angela Alioto the first time around, seeing her as a civil rights and anti-discrimination attorney running against Gavin Newsom and the Willie Brown machine. Now that the runoff is Gonzalez vs. Newsom, many of Angela’s and others’ supporters are lining up behind Matt.
Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the San Francisco Bayview, cites Gonzalez’ willingness to represent African Americans and poor folks when he was a public defender for ten years. Matt even went to jail when he challenged a judge who wasn’t giving a client a fair trial. The charges were later dropped. “Who else would stand up for poor black folks like that?”
Clear Differences
African Americans can easily list the major issues affecting them in the City – unemployment, economic development, environmental justice, health issues, lack of and privatization of services, police reform, education, reparations, gentrification, redevelopment, and plenty others. These issues are interrelated and are often tied to decisions made in the mayor’s office for the benefit of developers, contractors, and big business interests at the expense of the community.
The two candidates differ strongly. Newsom has been supported throughout his career by oil money from the Getty family. He was appointed to the Board of Supervisors by Brown to add diversity – the Board apparently didn’t have any straight white rich men on it at the time. Newsom has since been a reliable vote for the local Willie Brown machine, voting in favor of big business and developers.
He recently targeted the poor and the homeless with his Prop M, which takes welfare money away from homeless people, without guaranteeing them any services – basically filling the City’s budget holes with money taken from the poorest people of the City. Gonzalez passed an amendment, which was signed into law, guaranteeing these people get the services they were promised.
Gonzalez initially ran against and defeated the candidate handpicked by Brown in a landslide victory. He voted against the big business settlement which Newsom supported, which cost the City over $100 million. He has since been a reliable vote favoring working class issues and the neighborhoods.
According to the Examiner, “Gonzalez said he would work to make loans accessible to minority business owners, preserve affordable housing and force the closure of the two area power plants. He said his work on raising the minimum wage reminded him of fighting for justice as a public defender, and that the community can have confidence in police only if they are held accountable.”
The Light Rail project on 3rd Street is a major issue for the community. As with the past history of contracting and job promises for the community, African American contractors are not involved in the construction project. Neighborhood activists demonstrated to force contractors to hire locally, but local workers were laid off soon after the protests stopped.
Newsom Is Worse Than The Past
Newsom’s position on these issues? Maybe he’ll try to make a nice speech or tell you it’s all in a position paper, or that he doesn’t have time to detail his whole position, but he’s chosen as his head campaign consultant, Eric Jaye, who has run several campaigns that ran completely counter to the interests of the community.
Jaye ran the campaign for another Brown development project – getting the Mills corporation exclusive bargaining rights for the Pier 27-31 development project. He also ran Brown’s Prop A, getting San Francisco voters to approve a $1.6 billion bond to rebuild the Hetch Hetchy infrastructure – when only about half of that was needed, resulting in around $800,000 in slush funds paid for by San Francisco residents. Jaye also managed the failed campaign to elect Andrew Lee to the Board of Supervisors. Lee is one of the recent controversial Brown patronage appointments to the Public Utilities Commission.
The African American community knows the importance of commission appointments, something the new Mayor will have control over. The Redevelopment Commission is a case where all seven commissioners are appointed by the Mayor. This is the commission which oversees the decisions regarding the Hunters Point shipyard and has entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Lennar Corporation in a process that triggered another FBI investigation into contracting schemes.
Despite Federal law mandating that the Navy clean the site and turn it over to the City once it was decommissioned, the City did nothing to push the Navy to do so. Local activists organized in 2000, 26 years after the shipyard closed, to get Prop P on the ballot mandating that the Navy follow through with the clean-up, winning overwhelmingly. Transfer to the City is not supposed to take place until the entire shipyard has been determined to be clean and safe which is slated to take another five years.
Brown is pushing the Commission to approve granting transfer of the prime section of the shipyard property to Lennar before he leaves office in January. Newsom, as part of the local Democratic Party machine, will continue these politics if elected Mayor. The planned amendment to the shipyard Redevelopment area would put the rest of Bayview Hunters Point under the control of the Redevelopment Commission and the Planning Commission, where Brown won’t tolerate even one vote of dissension.
Gonzalez supports increasing pressure on the Navy and utilizing City resources to implement Prop P. He should also push to stop the ramming through of the DDA, the agreement which would hand over the prime sections of the property to Lennar before the cleaning and approval process is complete.
The community is fighting for community control over what happens to the shipyard property. Although Lennar wants to develop housing, something which is in demand in the City, this type of development brings no jobs to the area and increases the fears of the residents of housing developments nearby who fear eviction. The ‘low-cost’ housing will be beyond what community members can afford, extending the base for gentrification. Four of the housing complexes in Bayview Hunters Point are slated for destruction. Statements by Gonzalez that housing needs to be protected and that working class families and communities of color need to be able to live in the City resonate strongly with residents.
Gonzalez’ platform addresses many of the issues facing African Americans: measures to facilitate economic development (low-cost credit for small businesses through a municipal/community bank), a policy of bringing Black contractors to the table, a “local hiring” policy and ownership of land and underground through a type of a land trust paid for by the city along the lines of the proposal for low income housing.
Economic Development and Jobs
Gonzalez has pushed the idea of a municipal bank that would provide low-cost credit to small businesses and for the construction of low-income housing. This runs counter to the long history of redlining and denial of credit to African Americans.
The community wants to anchor local businesses within the City/African American community to prevent big chain invasions and provide viable alternatives. One of Gonzalez’ platform issues is to give communities more control over limiting expansion of big chain stores into communities, which then price out smaller community merchants and businesses.
Gonzalez’ office originated Proposition L, raising the minimum wage from $6.75 per hour to $8.50, which was passed overwhelmingly by the voters on November 4 and will benefit thousands of African Americans, Latinos, women and youth. Newsom did not endorse Proposition L until the last minute when he saw it was well ahead in the polls, and most of his employees at his more than a dozen businesses are paid minimum wages. While Gonzalez favors jobs at union wages, Newsom – who recently stated he is “proud” of San Francisco as a Union town – did not allow his own employees to organize a union and opposes the right to a card check.
Gonzalez wants to diversify the economy to create lasting well-paid jobs for the various communities. He calls for increasing the resources allocated to improving conditions for small businesses, which are more likely to provide stable employment for community members. He also differs with Newsom about what type of business tax structure the City should have. Gonzalez favors a gross receipts tax, which only taxes big businesses once they make over $800,000, instead of a payroll tax, which inhibits job creation.
Environmental Justice
Now that the Mirant corporation that acquired the Potrero Hill power plant from PG&E has gone under and given up its attempt to retrofit its polluting plant, the road is open for the City to acquire the land, close down the old generator and replace it with an environmentally sound public power alternative. Newsom is reluctant to speak on the issue and in the past has opposed the plant’s closure.
The other old, polluting plant owned by PG&E in Hunters Point is also the focus of opposition by neighborhood activists, environmentalists and many parents who are concerned with health care issues for their children.
At every step of the way Newsom has opposed public power – the only possible scenario under which a community decision making process and both production of clean energy and environmental justice could be achieved. Gonzalez supports public power and has a record of advocating for environmental justice. His preference is to support the development of alternative energy sources.
Bayview Hunters Point is an ideal place, because of its sunny weather, for solar panels and alternative forms of energy production. Neighborhood activists are interested in the City promoting or providing credit to install them in new buildings as well as existent housing. Gonzalez promotes this; Newsom has not spoken about it.
Health Care
This issue is intimately linked to the environmental disaster created by the waste (including nuclear waste) left by the Navy, the polluting power plants and the sewage disposal on the coast of Hunters Point and the lack of jobs and the concomitant lack of health insurance. The health care crisis in Bayview Hunters Point is reflected by its having one of the highest rates in the country of breast cancer and asthma and other pulmonary diseases and illnesses associated with pollution.
While the City is on record for its desire to provide health care for all San Franciscans, the political machine in power, of which Gavin Newsom is an integral part, has done nothing to implement such a goal. Hunters Point is also badly in need of an emergency room, screening clinics and a system of preventive medicine.
Police Reform
While community members celebrated the victory of Proposition H granting police reform, Newsom opposed it. Recent incidents at Thurmond Marshall, where a teacher was physically assaulted by police officers and the recent invasion of the neighborhood by cops hurting innocent bystanders only highlight the importance of police reform for the neighborhood.
Proposition H, diminishing the power of the Mayor to appoint members of the Police Commission and giving the Office of Citizen Complaints (OCC) some more teeth to bring charges against police abuse, passed overwhelmingly in Bayview Hunters Point and other predominantly African American neighborhoods. Gonzalez is one of the co-sponsors of Prop H. Newsom opposed it, campaigned against it, and counts on the endorsement of the POA (Police Officers Association), the strongest opponent of any and all police reform. Newsom limited himself to requesting more economic and technical resources for the SFPD with no mention of reforming it.
Education
Many residents of Bayview Hunters Point favor smaller schools as a way to individualize education, to allow students to excel and to help students avoid violence and the gang lifestyle. Many residents mention repeatedly the need of the neighborhood for more schools, elementary, middle and high schools. They prioritize the need for an additional high school as Thurgood Marshall is overwhelmed and receives students from all over town.
Many residents favor a high school to the East of 3rd Street. Gonzalez is in favor of smaller schools, including a new neighborhood school in Bayview Hunters Point. He is also in favor of integrating the various schools and colleges in the City to ensure all residents receive the education they need to get jobs and lay a foundation for sustainable economic development.
The Bayview Hunters Point Reparation Act
In 2000, the Bayview Hunters Point Reparations Act was put on the ballot proposing a fund administered by an elected neighborhood council to provide jobs and economic development for the neighborhood.
The political machine, including Newsom, opposed the measure, which received 70,000 votes citywide and which passed overwhelmingly in Bayview Hunters Point and other African American, Latino and working class neighborhoods and communities of color. Matt Gonzalez supported the initiative.
Backing A Winner – But Can He Win? Can WE Win?
Some voters want to vote for the candidate they believe will win. Some see Newsom as unbeatable, since he’s backed by the local machine and millions of dollars.
Newsom has been campaigning for two years though, with the support of the machine and those millions, and still hasn’t been able to get ahead in the polls.
The latest polls, which have been successful in predicting winners in mayoral races throughout the country, have shown Matt beating Newsom, and winning by a large margin among voters who were undecided or voted for other candidates in the November election. And Gonzalez’ campaign is still gaining ground.
In the November election, Gonzalez was relatively unknown compared to the other candidates. As more people focus on Matt as the opponent to the local machine and status quo politics, he keeps climbing in the polls.
Newsom is backed by big money, with most of his donors giving the maximum donations. Matt refuses to accept corporate donations and is still edging ahead of Newsom. The votes of Alioto, Ammiano and Leal supporters in the African American community would further increase Gonzalez’ lead.
To The Polls for the Survival of Our Communities!
Every community in this City needs to look at the mirror of their future in Bayview Hunters Point. What is at stake there is at stake everywhere, even if not with its acuteness and sharp contradictions.
Millions of dollars are being spent to ensure Newsom wins and big business keeps its ability to control San Francisco politics at the expense of working people and people of color. It’s still a dead heat, and getting the community out to vote will be the determining factor.
Unfortunately, San Francisco has a history of flawed elections. One of the better-known examples was the election for Propositions D and F for the building of the mall and new 49ers stadium.
The local political machine promised jobs for the community and retail locations in the new shopping mall, which never materialized. Campaign precinct captains were caught voting more than once using other peoples’ identities. Even dead people voted.
Residents reported their homes being barraged with fake voter registration documents, showing that someone had illegally used their addresses to register non-existent voters.
Reports from some residents along Third Street indicate the same is happening again in this election.
People are being paid to gather signatures for absentee ballots from homeless residents who are not even registered. Some told us they were told just to sign the form so that the signature gatherer could get paid – it didn’t matter whether they were really registered or not. It’s no surprise that Newsom’s campaign manager states that this race will depend largely on absentee ballots.
This isn’t just about voting for a candidate - it’s about voting to end the local machine politics. It’s about fighting for working class people and communities of color to be able to stay in the City.
We know what happened to the African American community in the Fillmore/ Western Addition; we know we lost thousands of families more in the more recent development boom. We’ve been fighting these politics for decades, and especially the last eight years.
We cannot afford the luxury not to show up on December 9. Let’s fill the polling places with lines of progressives, people of color, immigrants, labor and young voters and fill the voting machines to the hilt with the votes in solidarity with Bayview Hunters Point and with the African American community and for a progressive left Mayor.
http://www.sf-frontlines.com
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/11/1662197.php
http://www.sfbayview.com/112603/redevelopment112603.shtml
http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/sfra_page.asp?id=5151
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Redevelopment and Lennar won't answer the Community questions
by Lynne Brown Thursday November 27, 2003 at 05:59 PM
l_brown123 [at] hotmail.com
This was given to the CAC it hasn't been answered yet after being formally received by the CAC. Maybe the answers should be provided in writing by the SFRA and Lennar,since this has been bypassed, it is now approaching 90 days. At this rate the answers will not be revelant if it is delayed any longer, these are not trival isuues and are due a complete and timely response.
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COMMUNITY FIRST COALITION
PO Box 885111
San Francisco, CA 94188
l_brown123 [at] yahoo.com
August 25, 2003
TO: Citizens Advisory Board Executive Committee
FROM: Lynne Brown, Convener
We are very concerned that the CAC Executive Committee has been asked by Lennar to approve an inappropriately rushed schedule for endorsement of the Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA). The DDA will be a lengthy and highly technical document that will govern the relationship between Lennar, the Redevelopment Agency, and the community for many years, at least through buildout of the first phase of Shipyard redevelopment. The details of this document will ultimately determine whether Shipyard redevelopment enhances economic opportunities and quality of life for existing Bayview-Hunters Point residents and businesses or displaces us. As primary stakeholders, we must insist of a process of genuine and comprehensive public review of the DDA.
In our estimate, a minimum of 90 days of review time must be scheduled before the CAC considers approval of the DDA. The schedule must accommodate the full membership of the CAC and the general public by providing for workshops and other opportunities to analyze and evaluate the DDA that the Agency and Lennar will be proposing.
We have already expressed concerns (7/22/03 letter from Arc Ecology to the Redevelopment Commission is attached) about the Term Sheet, including the interplay between the DDA and the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement, Lennar’s and the Agency’s respective rates of return and obligations, and the community benefits process. Technical details of the DDA will determine the extent to which Lennar and the Redevelopment Agency have addressed our issues. Approving the accelerated schedule for consideration of the DDA would deprive us of the opportunity to provide the CAC, the Agency, and Lennar with informed feedback.
To assist our participation in the process of Shipyard redevelopment, we are asking you to formally request the Redevelopment Agency to provide the full CAC and the public with answers to the following questions:
· What is the schedule for review and adoption of the DDA that Agency staff is recommending?
· What is the projected schedule for approval of the Conveyance Agreement?
· What is the expected schedule regarding the development of a concurred Finding Of Suitability to Transfer (FOST) for Parcel A? What is the schedule for publication of the HRA and assessment of the methane barrier breach?
· What other approvals (e.g., environmental review) will be presented to the CAC and the Agency for concurrent consideration with the DDA?
We propose that the Executive Board invite regulators involved with the Shipyard (US Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Toxic Substances Control, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the Air Resources Board) and the Navy to make a presentation to enable the CAC and the public to better understand the relationship between the DDA and cleanup issues.
We would also appreciate your asking the Agency to provide the CAC and the public with the following financial information:
· Total expenditures, by year and general line item category, for the Shipyard Project Area;
· Revenues contributed to the Agency by Lennar;
· Revenues loaned to or provided from other sources; and
· Agency payments or reimbursements to Lennar.
In addition, we respectfully request the Mayor's Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee to consider a motion at their next meeting urging Lennar/BVHP Partners to disclose publicly the names of all individuals and organizations, excepting officers and direct employees of Lennar/BVHP Partners, to whom they have made payments or contributions, or delivered by any means considerations of value, whether directly or through third parties, including contributions to public officials and candidates for public office, since initiating efforts to obtain exclusive negotiating rights and a disposition and development agreement for the Hunters Point Shipyard redevelopment project.
Finally, we would like you to add to the agenda of the next CAC meeting a discussion clarifying the jurisdiction of the Project Area Committee; in particular, whether they have any formal advisory responsibilities with respect to redevelopment of the Shipyard.
Thank you for your consideration. Please contact us if we can answer any questions or otherwise be of assistance.
Attachment
ATTACHMENT
Arc Ecology
833 Market Street ¨ San Francisco, California 94103
phone: 415 495 1786 ¨ fax: 415 495 1787 ¨ e-mail: evebach [at] mindspring.com
July 22, 2003
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Commission
San Francisco Redevelopment Agency
770 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94102
RE: Hunters Point Shipyard Term Sheet
Dear Commissioners:
We are submitting the following comments on the proposed Term Sheet for Hunters Point Shipyard on behalf of the Community First Coalition. We hope you will take them into account as you consider the Term Sheet and as you move forward.
Yours truly,
/S/
Eve Bach
Staff Economist/Planner
Cc: Maurice Campbell
Lynne Brown
Marcia Rosen, Director
Don Capobres
Erwin R. Tanjuaquio, Secretary
Hunters Point Development
FBI probe focuses on bayfront property proposals
2 projects involved mayor's pal Charlie Walker
By Chuck Finnie and Lance Williams
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF, Aug 11, 1999
More recently, according to authoritative information obtained by The Examiner, the FBI demanded that a city agency turn over records related to Lennar Homes, a subsidiary of Lennar Corp. of Florida, which won Redevelopment Commission approval in March to build housing on the 500-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
The Port industrial park proposal and the shipyard redevelopment project both involved controversial city trucker Charlie Walker, a friend, political supporter and former law client of Mayor Brown. Walker is a focus of the FBI city contracting probe.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/990811/0811probe.html
When a Florida development firm, Lennar Corp., began assembling a team last year for a bid on the rights to another piece of the southeast Bayfront, the 500-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, it also turned to Walker. As its local jobs broker — a firm that would be charged with ensuring people from the Bayview were hired to work on the project — Lennar retained the Bayview Hunters Point Builders Exchange, another of Walker's companies.
Joe Petrillo, a lawyer for Lennar, said the developer wanted to get better connected to the people in the neighborhood.
Walker also brought connections — not only to Brown, but also to the then-Redevelopment Commission President Lynette Sweet, treasurer of Walker's nonprofit.
On March 30, when the commission selected a developer for the shipyard, Sweet voted to give the contract to Lennar, joining three other commissioners on a 4-3 vote to reject a consultant's recommendation that the project go to another firm.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/990627/0627walker.html
Lennar steals Hunters Point deal
San Francisco's redevelopment agency gave development rights for Hunters Point Naval Shipyard to a team led by Lennar Corp. -- abandoning the recommendation of an outside consultant. The Lennar team, which is also redeveloping Mare Island in Vallejo, won a 7-0 vote and beat out Catellus Corp. and the consultant's pick, Forest City Enterprises. The agency said Lennar had done a better job mustering community support and was the best off financially
Source: http://www.amcity.com/sanfrancisco/stories/1999/03/29/daily15.html
--
Current Status of CA Base Reuse: Hunters Point Naval Annex http://www.cedar.ca.gov/military/current_reuse/hunterpt.htm
A report is prepared by: California Trade and Commerce Agency Office of Business Development - February 1999
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The City of San Francisco has retained Peat Marwick to analyze three development proposals for the 500-acre former Hunter's Point Naval Annex (BRAC 1991). Three development groups were chosen to implement the City's reuse plan from among those that responded to an RFQ in 1998. The Plan includes a master-planned, waterfront community of residential, commercial mixed-use and light industrial uses. The three successful respondents include Forest City Development, Lennar/BVHP Partners/ Mariposa Management/Luster Group and the Catellus Development Corporation/WDG Ventures, Inc.
Upon receipt of Peat Marwick's recommendations and following a public hearing, the Redevelopment Agency Commission is expected to make a final decision on March 23, 1999.
Source: http://www.cedar.ca.gov/military/bc_news/99mar/story8.htm
Related Links:
Lennar Corp. -
#5 at Builder 100
Profile - Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN)
FBI probe focuses on bayfront property proposals
2 projects involved mayor's pal Charlie Walker
By Chuck Finnie and Lance Williams
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF, Aug 11, 1999
More recently, according to authoritative information obtained by The Examiner, the FBI demanded that a city agency turn over records related to Lennar Homes, a subsidiary of Lennar Corp. of Florida, which won Redevelopment Commission approval in March to build housing on the 500-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
The Port industrial park proposal and the shipyard redevelopment project both involved controversial city trucker Charlie Walker, a friend, political supporter and former law client of Mayor Brown. Walker is a focus of the FBI city contracting probe.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/990811/0811probe.html
When a Florida development firm, Lennar Corp., began assembling a team last year for a bid on the rights to another piece of the southeast Bayfront, the 500-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, it also turned to Walker. As its local jobs broker — a firm that would be charged with ensuring people from the Bayview were hired to work on the project — Lennar retained the Bayview Hunters Point Builders Exchange, another of Walker's companies.
Joe Petrillo, a lawyer for Lennar, said the developer wanted to get better connected to the people in the neighborhood.
Walker also brought connections — not only to Brown, but also to the then-Redevelopment Commission President Lynette Sweet, treasurer of Walker's nonprofit.
On March 30, when the commission selected a developer for the shipyard, Sweet voted to give the contract to Lennar, joining three other commissioners on a 4-3 vote to reject a consultant's recommendation that the project go to another firm.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/990627/0627walker.html
Lennar steals Hunters Point deal
San Francisco's redevelopment agency gave development rights for Hunters Point Naval Shipyard to a team led by Lennar Corp. -- abandoning the recommendation of an outside consultant. The Lennar team, which is also redeveloping Mare Island in Vallejo, won a 7-0 vote and beat out Catellus Corp. and the consultant's pick, Forest City Enterprises. The agency said Lennar had done a better job mustering community support and was the best off financially
Source: http://www.amcity.com/sanfrancisco/stories/1999/03/29/daily15.html
--
Current Status of CA Base Reuse: Hunters Point Naval Annex http://www.cedar.ca.gov/military/current_reuse/hunterpt.htm
A report is prepared by: California Trade and Commerce Agency Office of Business Development - February 1999
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The City of San Francisco has retained Peat Marwick to analyze three development proposals for the 500-acre former Hunter's Point Naval Annex (BRAC 1991). Three development groups were chosen to implement the City's reuse plan from among those that responded to an RFQ in 1998. The Plan includes a master-planned, waterfront community of residential, commercial mixed-use and light industrial uses. The three successful respondents include Forest City Development, Lennar/BVHP Partners/ Mariposa Management/Luster Group and the Catellus Development Corporation/WDG Ventures, Inc.
Upon receipt of Peat Marwick's recommendations and following a public hearing, the Redevelopment Agency Commission is expected to make a final decision on March 23, 1999.
Source: http://www.cedar.ca.gov/military/bc_news/99mar/story8.htm
Related Links:
Lennar Corp. -
#5 at Builder 100
Profile - Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN)
Election Fraud
by Brasscheck Thursday November 27, 2003 at 07:25 PM
L_Brownatyahoo.com 415-285-8225 24 Harbor Road
Effective August 1, 2002:
The domain name brasscheck.com
and all intellectual property contained on web sites under brasscheck.com
has become the property of the First Amendment Defense Trust
which is solely responsible for its contents.
Investigation into Allegations of Organized Fraud
in the June 1997 Stadium Bond Election in San Francisco
Exclusive Internet report
Read the evidence and
decide for yourself
This web site has been on the case since June 5, 1997
If you are a witness or if you would like
regular updates on the case write to us
Brief Summary of the San Francisco case
Web Site Overview
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This site is dedicated to the memory of Dolores Evans, polling place supervisor and an active and generous member of the Bayview-Hunters Point community, who died in a suspicious fire - along with five children - just days before she was to have been interviewed by a private investigator about this case.
In a highly uncharacteristic act, Mayor Willie Brown personally visited Evans' public housing apartment the day after the fire pointing out flaws in the building's construction to news cameras. The Fire Deparment ruled out foul play - before they had completed their investigation.
Bystanders say that help was slow in coming. "A man whose name was not released by authorities but was identified by neighbors as Henry Redmond was reportedly seen calmly leaving the apartment at 132 West Point Road minutes before it ignited." "None of the victims were able to escape the apartment even though their access to the fire escape was unobstructed."
The final police version of events as reported by the Examiner makes little sense. Redmond's claim that he sought help was contradicted by numerous eye witnesses. Evans' role as a polling place supervisor in the most suspect election in recent San Francisco history was never reported by the local media.
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Over 15,000 San Francisco voters have signed the petition calling for a new election in the face of a total news media blackout
Here's what the local media refers to
as a "thorough investitgation"
The city's two "newspapers," the Chronicle and the Examiner published headlines declaring there was "no fraud" just days after the election before the matter had even been investigated.
California Secretary of State Bill Jones issued a report debunking fraud allegations that had been drafted in part by the City Attorney of San Francisco Louise Renne at the same time she was defending the mayor against a lawsuit alleging fraud in the stadium election.
The San Francisco District Attorney, an ardent supporter of the stadium deal, chose to give the "Yes of D & F" precinct captain who was caught voting twice under an assumed name (a felony), a slap on the wrist.
The San Francisco judge who refused to hear a civil lawsuit against the city on the allegations then ordered the Department of Elections to reject a petition signed by over 15,000 citizens seeking to hold a referendum to overturn the results of the stadium election.
Learn how the local San Francisco news media has participated in suppressing information about this story. Less than 1% of what appears on this site has been reported to the public.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Latest
In a letter dated May 17, 2001, then Acting Director of the San Francisco Department of Elections, Dr. Phillip Sanches-Paris alleged, in the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, "a series of misdeeds and potentially criminal acts in the city's Department of Elections." The letter was addressed to City Attorney Louise Renne and was entitled "Re: Second Request for Outside Counsel due to City Attorney's Conflict of Interest"
The City Attorney responded by investigating Dr. Sanches-Paris. The local press acted confused and specifically did not publish the text of his allegations though the letter appeared on numerous web sites including this one. The mainstream press acount: Effect of lost S.F. ballots on last November's election downplayed - Business as usual in Scam Francisco.
'Investigators' hired by City Attorney Louise Renne have declared that Dr. Paris' assertions do not merit further investigation.
As a result of threats made by Dale Minami of the law firm of Minami, Lew & Tamaki on behalf of Christiane Hayashi and Jennifer Novak, the original text of the Sanches-Paris letter - a letter from a public official to a public official about a matter of public interest - has been removed from this web site. In the absense of anyone stepping foreward to assist in defending against these threats, the Trustees of the First Amendment Defense Trust have regretfully decided to remove the letter so that we can use the limited resources to continue reporting news that 'mainstream' news outlets will not.
We agree with many election fraud investigators, including University of Virginia Professor Larry J. Sabato (author of "The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics"), who have stated that it is institutionalized incompetence and mismanagement that makes election fraud possible and so widespread in the United States.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 18, 2001 - Ronnie Davis, Willie Brown pal and operator of sercret public housing polling places, is in hot water again. This time federal auditors say $18,000,000 in public funds he had control of as head of San Francisco public housing cannot be accounted for
Full text of the indictment
March 23, 2001 - Ronnie Davis, who opened secret polling places with HUD money on behalf of the 49er stadium campaign, indicted for theft and fraud by an Ohio Grand Jury. Davis is a close friend and ally of San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.
This is the second major player in the election fraud story to be indicted on serious corruption charges, the first being Eddie DeBartolo who bankrolled the campagin. Details on the Ronnie Davis indictment. Note: the last San Francisco Public Housing official to receive attention like this was Jim Jones of Jonestown infamy, who coincidentally (or not) was implicated in an election fraud scheme that benefited Willie Brown.
November 2, 1999 - The official response to election fraud in San Francisco as quoted in today's Wall Street Journal:
"Despite worries about the possibility of voter fraud in San Francisco elections, city officials can do little more than hope for the best when it comes to protecting the ballot box."
This statement, which appeared in the the San Francisco Chronicle, sums up the situation perfectly. In the total absense of enforcement of election laws by the SFPD, DA Terrence Hallinan, Secretary of State Bill Jones, and the San Francisco judiciary, "hope" is the only thing protecting San Francisco's ballot boxes. The problem is clear. The only question now is what are San Franciscans going to do about it.
October 25, 1999 - Your pre-season guide to this year's election fraud, provided, remarkably enough, by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Get ready for a strong sense of deja vu: fraudulent registrations organized by Brown allies; DA Hallinan sits on the evidence; Secretary of State Bill Jones feigns concern, does nothing. Both papers do their best to not discuss the fraud in the 1997 stadium election or the long history of election fraud in the city. Information about ongoing citizen efforts to prevent election fraud in San Francisco, including poll watching in this election, is, characteristically, not provided.
October 23, 1999
October 25, 1999
October 18, 1999 - The Bay View/Hunter's Point Pay Off: Here's what turned up recently in the Examiner - like everything else in San Francisco "journalism", a day late and a dollar short. Or in this case two and a half years after even the greenest reporter could have dug it out of the public record:
"Walker led voter-turnout efforts in Hunters Point for the mayor's 49ers football stadium initiative, which was narrowly approved in 1997."
Three days after the vote, on June 6, 1997, Brown told Redevelopment Director Jim Morales to give $100,000 to the (Walker's) Third Street firm, city documents show..."
"Mayor Willie Brown's office can't seem to get mayoral friend Charlie Walker to show that a corporation he founded was legally entitled to receive a $100,000 city grant..." - Examiner story
October 15, 1999 - Nearly ten years after he arrived in San Francisco to babysit Edward DeBartolo's son, the felon Eddie Jr, and one year after he left town, the San Francisco news media finally discovers the pre-49er career of Carmen Policy: top mob lawyer between New York and Chicago.
"... he certainly defended the best-known Mafioso, at a time when the mobsters were bombing and shooting each other to death with unprecedented regularity." - SF Weekly Story
"Policy" is mob slang for numbers, a form of illegal betting, not an Italian surname. It would be interesting to trace how Policy got his name.
October 27, 1998 -Twenty two years of citizen protest against election fraud in San Francisco.
October 24, 1998 - A petition with the signatures of 15,000+ San Francisco voters calling for a new stadium vote is presented to the Elections Department (only 10,500 signatures are required to put it on the ballot.) Naomi Nishioka, acting director of the Department of Elections, says she will ignore the petition.
October 7, 1998DeBartolo pleads guilt to felony in Louisiana bribery and political corruption case. Official San Francisco expresses its sympathy for the "ordeal" he suffered.
August 19, 1998 - The San Franciso Weekly becomes the first locally published paper to report on the connections between TURF founder Thomas Mayfield, Willie Brown, and the employment of drug dealers by the San Francisco Housing Authority more than one year after this web site raised the question.
August 12, 1998 - The San Francisco Weekly reports details on some of the criminals, crack dealers, and violent offenders who have been hired by San Francisco Public Housing since Willie Brown was elected mayor.
Several of these men have ties to TURF, an organization which participated in the 49er "get out the vote" campaign and served as "official" poll observers. TURF members were also employed by the Election Department during this same election. Note: Under Germane Wong, the records of the names of the people who transported ballot boxes the night of the 49er election were destroyed.
July 3, 1998 - Without comment, a three-judge panel headed by presiding Judge Gary Strankman upholds the ban against the Committee to Stop the Giveaway's petition. Over 10,000 San Franciscans (population approx. 700,000) have signed it. Here is a statement from the Voting Integrity Project.
June 28, 1998 - The investigation of Ronnie Davis on fraud and corruption charges by the FBI and HUD for his activities as COO of Cleveland Public Hosuing has been completed and a Grand Jury will be convening this coming week to hear testimony. Davis, handpicked by Willie Brown to head SF's Public Housing Authority, worked with the mayor's office to set up early, secret polling places on behalf of the 49er campaign.
June 21, 1998 - Mayor Brown is leading a behind-the-scenes campaign to derail State Senator Kopp's bill to regulate early polling places. Coincidentally, today's Sunday paper has an article on the effect of Brown's budget on San Francisco's most vulnerable citizens.
June 19, 1998 - San Francisco Superior Court Judge Raymond Williamson officially bars the Department of Elections from accepting the petitions of San Franciscans seeking to overturn the June '97 49er stadium election. Without examining any of the evidence, the judge calls the petition's claims "flat out untruths." Judge Williamson retired shortly after issuing this decision.
Specifically, he denies that:
The city set up secret polling places
Electioneering and campaigning for the stadium was subsidized by municipal funds
The secrecy of the ballot process was compromised
An account of these infractions as well as many others others has been publicly available since June 17, 1997, yet no official from the City of San Francisco or the State of California has bothered to contact any of the eye witnesses or examine the documentary evidence.
Now available: A video of public hearings in which witnesses came forward testifying to the above as well as shocking footage of the San Francico Department of Elections on election night.
The local media continues their iron clad policy of failing to disclose the evidence in the case.
June 9, 1998 - The DeBartolo Family, owners of the 49ers, sues grassroots citizens group to block their petition gathering efforts to overturn the stadium election.
May 11, 1998 - Petition to overturn the stadium election hits the streets of San Francisco.
April 27, 1998 - Recently uncovered documents cast doubt on the integrity of Secretary of State Bill Jones' January report on the June election.
March 16, 1998 - The Baltimore Sun reports that the FBI has targeted the Public Housing Authorities of New Orleans, Baltimore, and San Francisco for special investigations. Suspicion of widespread fraud, corruption, and misuse of federal funds are cited as the causes.
March 3, 1998 - The FBI is actively investigating members of TURF for cocaine dealing in city housing projects. Mayor Brown and the "Yes of D & F" campaign made extensive use of the TURF organization, an association of ex-felons, drawing on it for both campaign and election night workers.
Since becoming mayor, Brown has arranged for hundreds of thousands of dollars in city contracts for the group. Acting Housing Authority Director Ronnie Davis, who invited TURF members into city housing projects as temporary employees, is the same individual who arranged for the illegal and early polling places in the Bayview-Hunters Point projects.
Sources:
FBI Probes Drug Sales In Projects Members of Brown's S.F. youth patrol among targets
Housing chief calls voter data "irrelevant'
Mayor's aide tapped tenants for 49er votes
January 27, 1998 - District Attorney Terence Hallinan, long time ally of Mayor Brown and an ardent supporter of the stadium ballot measure, declares "legal" the secret polling places opened by operatives from the mayor's office on behalf of the "Yes on D & F" campaign based on a 24 hour investigation. Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Several months back, DA Hallinan declined to press felony charges against "Yes on D &F" precint captain John Griffin who was caught voting twice, once under an assumed name, in the stadium election.
As established in public testimony before the Board of Supervisors on October 29, 1997, the polling places in question:
- Were opened without public notice
- Were concealed from voters who called the Department of Elections to ask about early voting options
- Were known only to the "Yes of D & F" campaign and
- Were advertised at a "Yes of D & F" rally in Bayview/Hunters Point the weekend before the election at which Mayor Brown appeared
Election fraud in San Francisco?
The Mayor* denies it
The Department of Elections won't let the public see the records
The District Attorney Terence Hallinan let off the one person who was caught with just a slap on the wrist
The Board of Supervisors don't care
The City Attorney sees no problem
"Danny" Lungren*, California Attorney General and Edward DeBartolo's old college buddy, has "no comment"
The Secretary of State's* investigation moved at a leisurely pace and its final report was disappointingly superficial.
* These individuals are known to have received campaign contributions from the gambling industry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video about this case now available
The Cast of Chactacters
Exhibits
The Local News Blackout
News
January 26, 1998 - Nearly eight months after the election, the California Secretary of States releases a disappointingly superficial and poorly informed report on irregularities in the June election.
January 26, 1998 - Details about the ongoing, and as yet unreported, coverup in the Department of Elections.
January 12, 1998 - An Examiner editorial acknowledges that aspects of the June election merit investigation. The Chronicle, Northern California's largest circulation paper, continues to fail to take the story seriously.
December 28 - The Examiner finally reports that Mayor Brown's office was directly involved in the opening of "secret" pro stadiun-only polling places in Bayview/Hunters Point.
Documentation regarding these polls, their illegality, and the fact they were opened by city government operatives and paid for with federal housing funds was presented on this web site on June 24, 1997
December 9 - The California Secretary of State issues a statement calling San Francisco's conduct during the June election illegal. The Examiner puts the news on its front page. The Chronicle doesn't report it.
A complete discussion of the illegality of the ballots used by the city for the stadium election was presented on this web site on July 13, 1997
December 3, 1997 - Lawsuit filed by the Voting Integrity Project and local activist Doug Comstock to overturn the results of the stadium election
The publishers of the Chronicle bury this news in their back pages. Meanwhile, it's a front page story in the San Francisco Examiner and the San Jose Mercury and mentioned in an article in Time Magazine.
December 1, 1997 - Edward DeBartolo resigns as chairman of the 49ers. The reason? He was caught in a federal probe into political corruption in Louisiana.
Visitors to this web site knew this was a possibility months ago.
October 29, 1997 - The Chronicle and Examiner report that Director of Elections Wong ignored the Secretary of State's warning about early polling places.
The text of Secretary of State Bill Jone's memo regarding early polling places was posted to this site on June 24, 1997.
October 26, 1997 - The Examiner finally hints at the extent and seriousness of the polling place irregularities.
Documentation of these irregularties was presented in full detail on this web site on June 17, 1997
AP and CNN pick up the story and do what the local San Francisco papers still won't do as of May 15, 1998: give people the address to this web site - August 31, 1997
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brief Summary of the San Francisco case
Web Site Overview
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background and Analysis
* Obvious signs: Why the 49er stadium election merits investigation
* The cast of characters
* The gambling connection
* The real Bayview-Hunters Point vs. the media image: the key to understanding the scam
* Random pointers: municipal bonds, stadiums, and organized crime
* How modern cities respond to official corruption.Three cases studies: Chicago, Hong Kong, and San Francisco
* Everything old is new again: San Francisco 1907
brasscheck.com/stadium/
by Brasscheck Thursday November 27, 2003 at 07:25 PM
L_Brownatyahoo.com 415-285-8225 24 Harbor Road
Effective August 1, 2002:
The domain name brasscheck.com
and all intellectual property contained on web sites under brasscheck.com
has become the property of the First Amendment Defense Trust
which is solely responsible for its contents.
Investigation into Allegations of Organized Fraud
in the June 1997 Stadium Bond Election in San Francisco
Exclusive Internet report
Read the evidence and
decide for yourself
This web site has been on the case since June 5, 1997
If you are a witness or if you would like
regular updates on the case write to us
Brief Summary of the San Francisco case
Web Site Overview
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This site is dedicated to the memory of Dolores Evans, polling place supervisor and an active and generous member of the Bayview-Hunters Point community, who died in a suspicious fire - along with five children - just days before she was to have been interviewed by a private investigator about this case.
In a highly uncharacteristic act, Mayor Willie Brown personally visited Evans' public housing apartment the day after the fire pointing out flaws in the building's construction to news cameras. The Fire Deparment ruled out foul play - before they had completed their investigation.
Bystanders say that help was slow in coming. "A man whose name was not released by authorities but was identified by neighbors as Henry Redmond was reportedly seen calmly leaving the apartment at 132 West Point Road minutes before it ignited." "None of the victims were able to escape the apartment even though their access to the fire escape was unobstructed."
The final police version of events as reported by the Examiner makes little sense. Redmond's claim that he sought help was contradicted by numerous eye witnesses. Evans' role as a polling place supervisor in the most suspect election in recent San Francisco history was never reported by the local media.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Over 15,000 San Francisco voters have signed the petition calling for a new election in the face of a total news media blackout
Here's what the local media refers to
as a "thorough investitgation"
The city's two "newspapers," the Chronicle and the Examiner published headlines declaring there was "no fraud" just days after the election before the matter had even been investigated.
California Secretary of State Bill Jones issued a report debunking fraud allegations that had been drafted in part by the City Attorney of San Francisco Louise Renne at the same time she was defending the mayor against a lawsuit alleging fraud in the stadium election.
The San Francisco District Attorney, an ardent supporter of the stadium deal, chose to give the "Yes of D & F" precinct captain who was caught voting twice under an assumed name (a felony), a slap on the wrist.
The San Francisco judge who refused to hear a civil lawsuit against the city on the allegations then ordered the Department of Elections to reject a petition signed by over 15,000 citizens seeking to hold a referendum to overturn the results of the stadium election.
Learn how the local San Francisco news media has participated in suppressing information about this story. Less than 1% of what appears on this site has been reported to the public.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Latest
In a letter dated May 17, 2001, then Acting Director of the San Francisco Department of Elections, Dr. Phillip Sanches-Paris alleged, in the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, "a series of misdeeds and potentially criminal acts in the city's Department of Elections." The letter was addressed to City Attorney Louise Renne and was entitled "Re: Second Request for Outside Counsel due to City Attorney's Conflict of Interest"
The City Attorney responded by investigating Dr. Sanches-Paris. The local press acted confused and specifically did not publish the text of his allegations though the letter appeared on numerous web sites including this one. The mainstream press acount: Effect of lost S.F. ballots on last November's election downplayed - Business as usual in Scam Francisco.
'Investigators' hired by City Attorney Louise Renne have declared that Dr. Paris' assertions do not merit further investigation.
As a result of threats made by Dale Minami of the law firm of Minami, Lew & Tamaki on behalf of Christiane Hayashi and Jennifer Novak, the original text of the Sanches-Paris letter - a letter from a public official to a public official about a matter of public interest - has been removed from this web site. In the absense of anyone stepping foreward to assist in defending against these threats, the Trustees of the First Amendment Defense Trust have regretfully decided to remove the letter so that we can use the limited resources to continue reporting news that 'mainstream' news outlets will not.
We agree with many election fraud investigators, including University of Virginia Professor Larry J. Sabato (author of "The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics"), who have stated that it is institutionalized incompetence and mismanagement that makes election fraud possible and so widespread in the United States.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 18, 2001 - Ronnie Davis, Willie Brown pal and operator of sercret public housing polling places, is in hot water again. This time federal auditors say $18,000,000 in public funds he had control of as head of San Francisco public housing cannot be accounted for
Full text of the indictment
March 23, 2001 - Ronnie Davis, who opened secret polling places with HUD money on behalf of the 49er stadium campaign, indicted for theft and fraud by an Ohio Grand Jury. Davis is a close friend and ally of San Francisco mayor Willie Brown.
This is the second major player in the election fraud story to be indicted on serious corruption charges, the first being Eddie DeBartolo who bankrolled the campagin. Details on the Ronnie Davis indictment. Note: the last San Francisco Public Housing official to receive attention like this was Jim Jones of Jonestown infamy, who coincidentally (or not) was implicated in an election fraud scheme that benefited Willie Brown.
November 2, 1999 - The official response to election fraud in San Francisco as quoted in today's Wall Street Journal:
"Despite worries about the possibility of voter fraud in San Francisco elections, city officials can do little more than hope for the best when it comes to protecting the ballot box."
This statement, which appeared in the the San Francisco Chronicle, sums up the situation perfectly. In the total absense of enforcement of election laws by the SFPD, DA Terrence Hallinan, Secretary of State Bill Jones, and the San Francisco judiciary, "hope" is the only thing protecting San Francisco's ballot boxes. The problem is clear. The only question now is what are San Franciscans going to do about it.
October 25, 1999 - Your pre-season guide to this year's election fraud, provided, remarkably enough, by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Get ready for a strong sense of deja vu: fraudulent registrations organized by Brown allies; DA Hallinan sits on the evidence; Secretary of State Bill Jones feigns concern, does nothing. Both papers do their best to not discuss the fraud in the 1997 stadium election or the long history of election fraud in the city. Information about ongoing citizen efforts to prevent election fraud in San Francisco, including poll watching in this election, is, characteristically, not provided.
October 23, 1999
October 25, 1999
October 18, 1999 - The Bay View/Hunter's Point Pay Off: Here's what turned up recently in the Examiner - like everything else in San Francisco "journalism", a day late and a dollar short. Or in this case two and a half years after even the greenest reporter could have dug it out of the public record:
"Walker led voter-turnout efforts in Hunters Point for the mayor's 49ers football stadium initiative, which was narrowly approved in 1997."
Three days after the vote, on June 6, 1997, Brown told Redevelopment Director Jim Morales to give $100,000 to the (Walker's) Third Street firm, city documents show..."
"Mayor Willie Brown's office can't seem to get mayoral friend Charlie Walker to show that a corporation he founded was legally entitled to receive a $100,000 city grant..." - Examiner story
October 15, 1999 - Nearly ten years after he arrived in San Francisco to babysit Edward DeBartolo's son, the felon Eddie Jr, and one year after he left town, the San Francisco news media finally discovers the pre-49er career of Carmen Policy: top mob lawyer between New York and Chicago.
"... he certainly defended the best-known Mafioso, at a time when the mobsters were bombing and shooting each other to death with unprecedented regularity." - SF Weekly Story
"Policy" is mob slang for numbers, a form of illegal betting, not an Italian surname. It would be interesting to trace how Policy got his name.
October 27, 1998 -Twenty two years of citizen protest against election fraud in San Francisco.
October 24, 1998 - A petition with the signatures of 15,000+ San Francisco voters calling for a new stadium vote is presented to the Elections Department (only 10,500 signatures are required to put it on the ballot.) Naomi Nishioka, acting director of the Department of Elections, says she will ignore the petition.
October 7, 1998DeBartolo pleads guilt to felony in Louisiana bribery and political corruption case. Official San Francisco expresses its sympathy for the "ordeal" he suffered.
August 19, 1998 - The San Franciso Weekly becomes the first locally published paper to report on the connections between TURF founder Thomas Mayfield, Willie Brown, and the employment of drug dealers by the San Francisco Housing Authority more than one year after this web site raised the question.
August 12, 1998 - The San Francisco Weekly reports details on some of the criminals, crack dealers, and violent offenders who have been hired by San Francisco Public Housing since Willie Brown was elected mayor.
Several of these men have ties to TURF, an organization which participated in the 49er "get out the vote" campaign and served as "official" poll observers. TURF members were also employed by the Election Department during this same election. Note: Under Germane Wong, the records of the names of the people who transported ballot boxes the night of the 49er election were destroyed.
July 3, 1998 - Without comment, a three-judge panel headed by presiding Judge Gary Strankman upholds the ban against the Committee to Stop the Giveaway's petition. Over 10,000 San Franciscans (population approx. 700,000) have signed it. Here is a statement from the Voting Integrity Project.
June 28, 1998 - The investigation of Ronnie Davis on fraud and corruption charges by the FBI and HUD for his activities as COO of Cleveland Public Hosuing has been completed and a Grand Jury will be convening this coming week to hear testimony. Davis, handpicked by Willie Brown to head SF's Public Housing Authority, worked with the mayor's office to set up early, secret polling places on behalf of the 49er campaign.
June 21, 1998 - Mayor Brown is leading a behind-the-scenes campaign to derail State Senator Kopp's bill to regulate early polling places. Coincidentally, today's Sunday paper has an article on the effect of Brown's budget on San Francisco's most vulnerable citizens.
June 19, 1998 - San Francisco Superior Court Judge Raymond Williamson officially bars the Department of Elections from accepting the petitions of San Franciscans seeking to overturn the June '97 49er stadium election. Without examining any of the evidence, the judge calls the petition's claims "flat out untruths." Judge Williamson retired shortly after issuing this decision.
Specifically, he denies that:
The city set up secret polling places
Electioneering and campaigning for the stadium was subsidized by municipal funds
The secrecy of the ballot process was compromised
An account of these infractions as well as many others others has been publicly available since June 17, 1997, yet no official from the City of San Francisco or the State of California has bothered to contact any of the eye witnesses or examine the documentary evidence.
Now available: A video of public hearings in which witnesses came forward testifying to the above as well as shocking footage of the San Francico Department of Elections on election night.
The local media continues their iron clad policy of failing to disclose the evidence in the case.
June 9, 1998 - The DeBartolo Family, owners of the 49ers, sues grassroots citizens group to block their petition gathering efforts to overturn the stadium election.
May 11, 1998 - Petition to overturn the stadium election hits the streets of San Francisco.
April 27, 1998 - Recently uncovered documents cast doubt on the integrity of Secretary of State Bill Jones' January report on the June election.
March 16, 1998 - The Baltimore Sun reports that the FBI has targeted the Public Housing Authorities of New Orleans, Baltimore, and San Francisco for special investigations. Suspicion of widespread fraud, corruption, and misuse of federal funds are cited as the causes.
March 3, 1998 - The FBI is actively investigating members of TURF for cocaine dealing in city housing projects. Mayor Brown and the "Yes of D & F" campaign made extensive use of the TURF organization, an association of ex-felons, drawing on it for both campaign and election night workers.
Since becoming mayor, Brown has arranged for hundreds of thousands of dollars in city contracts for the group. Acting Housing Authority Director Ronnie Davis, who invited TURF members into city housing projects as temporary employees, is the same individual who arranged for the illegal and early polling places in the Bayview-Hunters Point projects.
Sources:
FBI Probes Drug Sales In Projects Members of Brown's S.F. youth patrol among targets
Housing chief calls voter data "irrelevant'
Mayor's aide tapped tenants for 49er votes
January 27, 1998 - District Attorney Terence Hallinan, long time ally of Mayor Brown and an ardent supporter of the stadium ballot measure, declares "legal" the secret polling places opened by operatives from the mayor's office on behalf of the "Yes on D & F" campaign based on a 24 hour investigation. Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Several months back, DA Hallinan declined to press felony charges against "Yes on D &F" precint captain John Griffin who was caught voting twice, once under an assumed name, in the stadium election.
As established in public testimony before the Board of Supervisors on October 29, 1997, the polling places in question:
- Were opened without public notice
- Were concealed from voters who called the Department of Elections to ask about early voting options
- Were known only to the "Yes of D & F" campaign and
- Were advertised at a "Yes of D & F" rally in Bayview/Hunters Point the weekend before the election at which Mayor Brown appeared
Election fraud in San Francisco?
The Mayor* denies it
The Department of Elections won't let the public see the records
The District Attorney Terence Hallinan let off the one person who was caught with just a slap on the wrist
The Board of Supervisors don't care
The City Attorney sees no problem
"Danny" Lungren*, California Attorney General and Edward DeBartolo's old college buddy, has "no comment"
The Secretary of State's* investigation moved at a leisurely pace and its final report was disappointingly superficial.
* These individuals are known to have received campaign contributions from the gambling industry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video about this case now available
The Cast of Chactacters
Exhibits
The Local News Blackout
News
January 26, 1998 - Nearly eight months after the election, the California Secretary of States releases a disappointingly superficial and poorly informed report on irregularities in the June election.
January 26, 1998 - Details about the ongoing, and as yet unreported, coverup in the Department of Elections.
January 12, 1998 - An Examiner editorial acknowledges that aspects of the June election merit investigation. The Chronicle, Northern California's largest circulation paper, continues to fail to take the story seriously.
December 28 - The Examiner finally reports that Mayor Brown's office was directly involved in the opening of "secret" pro stadiun-only polling places in Bayview/Hunters Point.
Documentation regarding these polls, their illegality, and the fact they were opened by city government operatives and paid for with federal housing funds was presented on this web site on June 24, 1997
December 9 - The California Secretary of State issues a statement calling San Francisco's conduct during the June election illegal. The Examiner puts the news on its front page. The Chronicle doesn't report it.
A complete discussion of the illegality of the ballots used by the city for the stadium election was presented on this web site on July 13, 1997
December 3, 1997 - Lawsuit filed by the Voting Integrity Project and local activist Doug Comstock to overturn the results of the stadium election
The publishers of the Chronicle bury this news in their back pages. Meanwhile, it's a front page story in the San Francisco Examiner and the San Jose Mercury and mentioned in an article in Time Magazine.
December 1, 1997 - Edward DeBartolo resigns as chairman of the 49ers. The reason? He was caught in a federal probe into political corruption in Louisiana.
Visitors to this web site knew this was a possibility months ago.
October 29, 1997 - The Chronicle and Examiner report that Director of Elections Wong ignored the Secretary of State's warning about early polling places.
The text of Secretary of State Bill Jone's memo regarding early polling places was posted to this site on June 24, 1997.
October 26, 1997 - The Examiner finally hints at the extent and seriousness of the polling place irregularities.
Documentation of these irregularties was presented in full detail on this web site on June 17, 1997
AP and CNN pick up the story and do what the local San Francisco papers still won't do as of May 15, 1998: give people the address to this web site - August 31, 1997
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brief Summary of the San Francisco case
Web Site Overview
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background and Analysis
* Obvious signs: Why the 49er stadium election merits investigation
* The cast of characters
* The gambling connection
* The real Bayview-Hunters Point vs. the media image: the key to understanding the scam
* Random pointers: municipal bonds, stadiums, and organized crime
* How modern cities respond to official corruption.Three cases studies: Chicago, Hong Kong, and San Francisco
* Everything old is new again: San Francisco 1907
brasscheck.com/stadium/
Dumping Sophie
by Lisa Davis Thursday November 27, 2003 at 07:50 PM
L_Brownatyahoo.com 24 Harbor Road
Dumping Sophie
On the heels of Gov. Davis' recall, angry constituents are trying to oust Supervisor Sophie Maxwell
BY LISA DAVIS
lisa.davis [at] sfweekly.com
Anthony Pidgeon
Maxwell: Not long for City Hall?
From the Week of Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Mecklin
Rolling in War Bucks
How the state public employees' retirement system and the politically connected Carlyle Group profit from defense
Matt Smith
Sounds of Silence
ASCAP's legal threats kill a thriving local music scene
Night Crawler
To Hell and Back
There's no way to show all the deviltry from this year's SF Weekly Music Awards gala. But here's a hot peek.
Bay View
A Fine Mess
A monumental sewage eruption shows tenants the downside of living in the Presidio
Dog Bites
You preach/We laugh
In which we come up with our own (slightly cynical) version of Muni's new ad campaign
Letters
Letters to the Editor
Week of October 22, 2003
Recall fever has hit southeastern San Francisco, where some constituents of Supervisor Sophie Maxwell are collecting signatures for her ouster. The District 10 Alliance, a newly formed group of citizens from Bayview and Potrero Hill, charges that Maxwell has ignored residents and they want her out.
"They [politicians] don't listen," says Bayview activist Lynne Brown, one of a handful of people behind the recall effort. "[Gov. Gray Davis] didn't listen to the constituents who put him in office, and neither does Sophie."
Maxwell, a former electrician, was first elected in 2000 and re-elected after running unopposed in 2002. Her District 10 has been plagued by gang crime, high unemployment, and environmental health problems, as well as controversy over developing the former Hunters Point Shipyard and rezoning old industrial areas to make way for housing.
Under city law, recall supporters must collect signatures of at least 10 percent of the registered voters in District 10, or about 4,000 signatures. A recall election can then be held within 120 days.
San Francisco has never successfully recalled an elected official. Ex-Mayor Dianne Feinstein beat back an attempt to unseat her in 1983 and Mayor Roger Lapham held onto his job in 1946. But those who want to give Maxwell the boot are clearly drawing encouragement from the startlingly successful campaign to dump a sitting governor that recently gave us the Terminator as California's chief executive.
Maxwell seemed surprised and angered when the Weekly questioned her about the effort to oust her.
"If these people wanted to do something, why didn't they do it when I was running? I just ran a whole campaign in November and nobody ran against me," she said. "If they had a problem, they certainly could have talked about it then. I think it's because they have their own agenda and they're trying to destabilize our community and they're just on a negative trip. "
The recall is spearheaded by an unlikely coalition of residents of the Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero Hill neighborhoods, dramatically different areas that have often stood apart on district issues. The Bayview is a primarily low-income, minority community where residents worry about joblessness, environmental illness, and gang crime. Potrero Hill is populated mostly by white, upper-middle-class professionals, many of whom feel threatened by the increased development of loft-style housing. And while each neighborhood has its own unique beefs with the supervisor, they share a common complaint: Sophie Maxwell is ignoring them.
Angry Potrero Hill residents say they assumed Maxwell was focusing her attention on the Bayview because the area was more needy. Meanwhile, the Bayview contingent thought Maxwell spent all her resources on Potrero Hill, where the majority of her votes came from. The recall was born when activists from both parts of the district met recently while fighting pollution from PG&E's Hunters Point Power Plant. By then, Maxwell had already been re-elected.
"It's like realizing that your mother has not just been abusing you, but the rest of your siblings as well," says Kepa Askenasy, a Potrero Hill architect who joined the recall effort.
Her Bayview counterparts agree.
"We get so involved in what's going on around us. ... A lot of people just don't know about what's going on," says Lynne Brown. "They don't know what's happening to this area. Unemployment is 14 percent out here. We're busy trying to make ends meet."
Proponents this week planned to take the first official step in getting a recall on the ballot, mailing in a legally required notice to city elections officials that includes a list of grievances. The notice claims Maxwell failed to actively address health hazards, did not assist District 10 residents in getting a fair share of jobs on Muni's Third Street light-rail project, hasn't done enough to help resolve clashes between police and youths in Bayview-Hunters Point, and failed to give adequate consideration to possible health consequences of the city Public Utilities Commission's power plans for the district. Moreover, the petition states, Maxwell doesn't show up for key community meetings and isn't accessible to constituents, forcing them to go to other supervisors to air their concerns.
Maxwell denies recall organizers' charge that she's hard to get ahold of.
"They're absolutely wrong," she says. "I'm probably the most available supervisor. Most of the time people like that don't try and talk. I've invited them to talk, and it's just about their own agenda and what they want."
She says that she helped secure $50 million for job training in Bayview-Hunters Point and met with Muni representatives and Third Street light-rail protesters the day before they marched on City Hall. Maxwell also says she is putting together public hearings on the police and gang-violence issues.
"When they say I'm not anywhere, where are they? I can't just be in Bayview," she says. "I have the largest geographical area in the city. I'm a county representative. I have to go to Washington to look at [federal mass transit] funds. I have to go to Sacramento to do other things. I have to meet with the neighborhoods. I'm on the [Board of Supervisors] budget committee that meets regularly. I have to meet with people. I don't know what they're talking about other than they may not understand what a supervisor does. I am a policy-maker. I have to work through a legislative process. I have to work with people."
Potrero Hill recall proponents are angry over development issues, particularly the rezoning of light industrial areas to make way for more live-work housing. Maxwell, they allege, has supported developers over the wishes of constituents in rezoning and in allowing "monster homes" to spring up around Rhode Island, De Haro, and 18th streets.
Maxwell seems stunned by the criticism, saying she has sought to inject community input into the planning process, and that the city Planning Department is now reviewing plans for the entire southeast side of San Francisco.
"People don't understand what happens and the process and how you have to go through it," she says. "Nothing has gone up. Nothing has happened with any of the developers. I am the one making sure that we have planning and a process and ... hearings on things.
"These people are very selfish and self-centered -- that's what they are and who they are."
A District 10 native, Maxwell swept into office with support from Potrero Hill, beating out Linda Richardson, who was supported by Mayor Willie Brown. The supervisor is often backed by Potrero Hill Boosters, the area's most politically powerful neighborhood group. And since her election, Maxwell also has been supported by Brown, to the chagrin of recall advocates who believe the mayor is too friendly with developers. Maxwell's failed run at the presidency of the Board of Supervisors earlier this year was backed by Brown-friendly Supervisors Gavin Newsom and Bevan Dufty.
But Maxwell has suffered some serious personal losses since she took office as well.
"My son died. My mother [well-known local activist Enola Maxwell] died. I'm raising a grandchild. I have family issues like everybody else," she says. "This community has been my first priority. I [won the election] and I believed I could deal with this because the environment and issues were important to me."
And she acknowledges that getting around her large, diverse district -- which also includes Visitacion Valley and some smaller, adjacent neighborhoods -- can be difficult.
"On one side of [Potrero] Hill I have a power plant and on the other side they're talking about rebuilding S.F. General and people losing their homes, and I have to be both places on the hill," Maxwell says with exasperation. "I have to deal with city departments who are not my departments. I don't own them. I can suggest to them what to do, but I can't hire and fire them. There is a process that you have to go through.
"I say to those people [the recall supporters] that they really don't understand the process and they're not looking at the whole; they're looking at their interests and what they want. I work day and night to be available to people. I had to run immediately when I got in here. I've been running ever since."
If Maxwell's political enemies can gather enough valid voter signatures in time, they hope to place the recall on next March's state primary election ballot. If not, a special election would have to be held later.
sfweekly.com | originally published: October 22, 2003
by Lisa Davis Thursday November 27, 2003 at 07:50 PM
L_Brownatyahoo.com 24 Harbor Road
Dumping Sophie
On the heels of Gov. Davis' recall, angry constituents are trying to oust Supervisor Sophie Maxwell
BY LISA DAVIS
lisa.davis [at] sfweekly.com
Anthony Pidgeon
Maxwell: Not long for City Hall?
From the Week of Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Mecklin
Rolling in War Bucks
How the state public employees' retirement system and the politically connected Carlyle Group profit from defense
Matt Smith
Sounds of Silence
ASCAP's legal threats kill a thriving local music scene
Night Crawler
To Hell and Back
There's no way to show all the deviltry from this year's SF Weekly Music Awards gala. But here's a hot peek.
Bay View
A Fine Mess
A monumental sewage eruption shows tenants the downside of living in the Presidio
Dog Bites
You preach/We laugh
In which we come up with our own (slightly cynical) version of Muni's new ad campaign
Letters
Letters to the Editor
Week of October 22, 2003
Recall fever has hit southeastern San Francisco, where some constituents of Supervisor Sophie Maxwell are collecting signatures for her ouster. The District 10 Alliance, a newly formed group of citizens from Bayview and Potrero Hill, charges that Maxwell has ignored residents and they want her out.
"They [politicians] don't listen," says Bayview activist Lynne Brown, one of a handful of people behind the recall effort. "[Gov. Gray Davis] didn't listen to the constituents who put him in office, and neither does Sophie."
Maxwell, a former electrician, was first elected in 2000 and re-elected after running unopposed in 2002. Her District 10 has been plagued by gang crime, high unemployment, and environmental health problems, as well as controversy over developing the former Hunters Point Shipyard and rezoning old industrial areas to make way for housing.
Under city law, recall supporters must collect signatures of at least 10 percent of the registered voters in District 10, or about 4,000 signatures. A recall election can then be held within 120 days.
San Francisco has never successfully recalled an elected official. Ex-Mayor Dianne Feinstein beat back an attempt to unseat her in 1983 and Mayor Roger Lapham held onto his job in 1946. But those who want to give Maxwell the boot are clearly drawing encouragement from the startlingly successful campaign to dump a sitting governor that recently gave us the Terminator as California's chief executive.
Maxwell seemed surprised and angered when the Weekly questioned her about the effort to oust her.
"If these people wanted to do something, why didn't they do it when I was running? I just ran a whole campaign in November and nobody ran against me," she said. "If they had a problem, they certainly could have talked about it then. I think it's because they have their own agenda and they're trying to destabilize our community and they're just on a negative trip. "
The recall is spearheaded by an unlikely coalition of residents of the Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero Hill neighborhoods, dramatically different areas that have often stood apart on district issues. The Bayview is a primarily low-income, minority community where residents worry about joblessness, environmental illness, and gang crime. Potrero Hill is populated mostly by white, upper-middle-class professionals, many of whom feel threatened by the increased development of loft-style housing. And while each neighborhood has its own unique beefs with the supervisor, they share a common complaint: Sophie Maxwell is ignoring them.
Angry Potrero Hill residents say they assumed Maxwell was focusing her attention on the Bayview because the area was more needy. Meanwhile, the Bayview contingent thought Maxwell spent all her resources on Potrero Hill, where the majority of her votes came from. The recall was born when activists from both parts of the district met recently while fighting pollution from PG&E's Hunters Point Power Plant. By then, Maxwell had already been re-elected.
"It's like realizing that your mother has not just been abusing you, but the rest of your siblings as well," says Kepa Askenasy, a Potrero Hill architect who joined the recall effort.
Her Bayview counterparts agree.
"We get so involved in what's going on around us. ... A lot of people just don't know about what's going on," says Lynne Brown. "They don't know what's happening to this area. Unemployment is 14 percent out here. We're busy trying to make ends meet."
Proponents this week planned to take the first official step in getting a recall on the ballot, mailing in a legally required notice to city elections officials that includes a list of grievances. The notice claims Maxwell failed to actively address health hazards, did not assist District 10 residents in getting a fair share of jobs on Muni's Third Street light-rail project, hasn't done enough to help resolve clashes between police and youths in Bayview-Hunters Point, and failed to give adequate consideration to possible health consequences of the city Public Utilities Commission's power plans for the district. Moreover, the petition states, Maxwell doesn't show up for key community meetings and isn't accessible to constituents, forcing them to go to other supervisors to air their concerns.
Maxwell denies recall organizers' charge that she's hard to get ahold of.
"They're absolutely wrong," she says. "I'm probably the most available supervisor. Most of the time people like that don't try and talk. I've invited them to talk, and it's just about their own agenda and what they want."
She says that she helped secure $50 million for job training in Bayview-Hunters Point and met with Muni representatives and Third Street light-rail protesters the day before they marched on City Hall. Maxwell also says she is putting together public hearings on the police and gang-violence issues.
"When they say I'm not anywhere, where are they? I can't just be in Bayview," she says. "I have the largest geographical area in the city. I'm a county representative. I have to go to Washington to look at [federal mass transit] funds. I have to go to Sacramento to do other things. I have to meet with the neighborhoods. I'm on the [Board of Supervisors] budget committee that meets regularly. I have to meet with people. I don't know what they're talking about other than they may not understand what a supervisor does. I am a policy-maker. I have to work through a legislative process. I have to work with people."
Potrero Hill recall proponents are angry over development issues, particularly the rezoning of light industrial areas to make way for more live-work housing. Maxwell, they allege, has supported developers over the wishes of constituents in rezoning and in allowing "monster homes" to spring up around Rhode Island, De Haro, and 18th streets.
Maxwell seems stunned by the criticism, saying she has sought to inject community input into the planning process, and that the city Planning Department is now reviewing plans for the entire southeast side of San Francisco.
"People don't understand what happens and the process and how you have to go through it," she says. "Nothing has gone up. Nothing has happened with any of the developers. I am the one making sure that we have planning and a process and ... hearings on things.
"These people are very selfish and self-centered -- that's what they are and who they are."
A District 10 native, Maxwell swept into office with support from Potrero Hill, beating out Linda Richardson, who was supported by Mayor Willie Brown. The supervisor is often backed by Potrero Hill Boosters, the area's most politically powerful neighborhood group. And since her election, Maxwell also has been supported by Brown, to the chagrin of recall advocates who believe the mayor is too friendly with developers. Maxwell's failed run at the presidency of the Board of Supervisors earlier this year was backed by Brown-friendly Supervisors Gavin Newsom and Bevan Dufty.
But Maxwell has suffered some serious personal losses since she took office as well.
"My son died. My mother [well-known local activist Enola Maxwell] died. I'm raising a grandchild. I have family issues like everybody else," she says. "This community has been my first priority. I [won the election] and I believed I could deal with this because the environment and issues were important to me."
And she acknowledges that getting around her large, diverse district -- which also includes Visitacion Valley and some smaller, adjacent neighborhoods -- can be difficult.
"On one side of [Potrero] Hill I have a power plant and on the other side they're talking about rebuilding S.F. General and people losing their homes, and I have to be both places on the hill," Maxwell says with exasperation. "I have to deal with city departments who are not my departments. I don't own them. I can suggest to them what to do, but I can't hire and fire them. There is a process that you have to go through.
"I say to those people [the recall supporters] that they really don't understand the process and they're not looking at the whole; they're looking at their interests and what they want. I work day and night to be available to people. I had to run immediately when I got in here. I've been running ever since."
If Maxwell's political enemies can gather enough valid voter signatures in time, they hope to place the recall on next March's state primary election ballot. If not, a special election would have to be held later.
sfweekly.com | originally published: October 22, 2003
District elections notebook
Alicia Becerril's mysterious contributors
MAYOR WILLIE BROWN -backed District Three incumbent
Alicia Becerril has a lot of mysterious campaign
contributors. According to the Ethics Commission's
online files, 43 of the 54 individuals who contributed
to Alicia Becerril's campaign for supervisor have
"unknown" occupations and are "self-employed."
"That's the information [the contributors] reported to
us. In general, we take the information off of the
[donation] envelope," said Cory Black, Becerril's
campaign manager.
Becerril's contribution filings do not technically
violate the law. The Ethics Commission would only
investigate such a case if a member of the public
objected or if fields were left blank on the campaign
files. Under investigation, campaign employees have to
prove that they made an effort to obtain contributors' employment information.
Aaron Peskin, one of Becerril's opponents for
supervisor in District Three, is fully aware of the
missing information in Becerril's contribution files.
"The campaign finance laws require disclosure to allow
voters and the media to know whether or not a lot of
money is coming from one source," Peskin said.
Peskin told us that he does not intend to file a
complaint with the Ethics Commission.
Susan Horsfall is one of the 43 contributors whose
employment information is left out of Becerril's
files. Horsfall – a lawyer at Goggin & Goggin, which
represents Lennar, the prime developer at Hunters
Point Naval Shipyard – told us she does not remember
whether she provided that information when she made
her donation.
Black would not discuss Horsfall's donation, because
he was away from his desk and did not want to talk
about specific contributions.
"We do need to do a better job on getting that
information," Black admitted.
Genevieve Kramer
Look for Susan Horsfall of Goggin& Goggin and Lennar especially since it is Lennar's Law Firm
Alicia Becerril's mysterious contributors
MAYOR WILLIE BROWN -backed District Three incumbent
Alicia Becerril has a lot of mysterious campaign
contributors. According to the Ethics Commission's
online files, 43 of the 54 individuals who contributed
to Alicia Becerril's campaign for supervisor have
"unknown" occupations and are "self-employed."
"That's the information [the contributors] reported to
us. In general, we take the information off of the
[donation] envelope," said Cory Black, Becerril's
campaign manager.
Becerril's contribution filings do not technically
violate the law. The Ethics Commission would only
investigate such a case if a member of the public
objected or if fields were left blank on the campaign
files. Under investigation, campaign employees have to
prove that they made an effort to obtain contributors' employment information.
Aaron Peskin, one of Becerril's opponents for
supervisor in District Three, is fully aware of the
missing information in Becerril's contribution files.
"The campaign finance laws require disclosure to allow
voters and the media to know whether or not a lot of
money is coming from one source," Peskin said.
Peskin told us that he does not intend to file a
complaint with the Ethics Commission.
Susan Horsfall is one of the 43 contributors whose
employment information is left out of Becerril's
files. Horsfall – a lawyer at Goggin & Goggin, which
represents Lennar, the prime developer at Hunters
Point Naval Shipyard – told us she does not remember
whether she provided that information when she made
her donation.
Black would not discuss Horsfall's donation, because
he was away from his desk and did not want to talk
about specific contributions.
"We do need to do a better job on getting that
information," Black admitted.
Genevieve Kramer
Look for Susan Horsfall of Goggin& Goggin and Lennar especially since it is Lennar's Law Firm
Ethics panel eyes redevelopment role in Hunters Point
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross Monday, March 17, 2003
San Francisco -- The trio whose habit of voting together on controversial items has tagged them the "Pep Boys" of the San Francisco Redevelopment Commission -- Benny Yee, Leroy King and Darshan Singh -- were all hit with subpoenas from the city's ethics watchdog agency this past week.
Soon to join the list: City Hall insider Susan Horsfall, who works for the law firm that represents Lennar Corp. -- the developer that won the right to take over the old Hunters Point shipyard.
No one at the Ethics Commission is talking, but word among Redevelopment insiders is that a complaint came in more than a year ago alleging that Horsfall and the Pep Boys appeared to be a little too close for comfort -- often dining out together after meetings.
Right around the time, it seems, that the commission -- including the Pep Boys -- voted to disregard its consultant's findings and award the rights to develop the shipyard to Lennar.
"This is all about those same old stories about us getting gifts and dinners," King said. "It wasn't true then, and it isn't true now."
An Ethics Commission investigation isn't criminal -- but it can refer its findings to the district attorney.
For her part, Horsfall told us she has "no idea what any of this is about. We haven't had dinner together in over a year, so any reference to that is old news."
Maybe -- but from the looks of things, it's about to become news again.
SOS HOM: Real estate broker, political fund-raiser
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross Monday, March 17, 2003
San Francisco -- The trio whose habit of voting together on controversial items has tagged them the "Pep Boys" of the San Francisco Redevelopment Commission -- Benny Yee, Leroy King and Darshan Singh -- were all hit with subpoenas from the city's ethics watchdog agency this past week.
Soon to join the list: City Hall insider Susan Horsfall, who works for the law firm that represents Lennar Corp. -- the developer that won the right to take over the old Hunters Point shipyard.
No one at the Ethics Commission is talking, but word among Redevelopment insiders is that a complaint came in more than a year ago alleging that Horsfall and the Pep Boys appeared to be a little too close for comfort -- often dining out together after meetings.
Right around the time, it seems, that the commission -- including the Pep Boys -- voted to disregard its consultant's findings and award the rights to develop the shipyard to Lennar.
"This is all about those same old stories about us getting gifts and dinners," King said. "It wasn't true then, and it isn't true now."
An Ethics Commission investigation isn't criminal -- but it can refer its findings to the district attorney.
For her part, Horsfall told us she has "no idea what any of this is about. We haven't had dinner together in over a year, so any reference to that is old news."
Maybe -- but from the looks of things, it's about to become news again.
SOS HOM: Real estate broker, political fund-raiser
For more information:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file...
BVHP residents’ lives are at stake!
by Jesse Mason and Lynne Brown
BVHP RSOC Interim Co-Chairmen
It’s showdown time in 94124. On Tuesday, December 2, @ City Hall Room 416 at 4pm San Francisco’s Redevelopment Agency Commission will decide the future of Bay View Hunters Point. Their plans will cause you irreparable harm. We must attend that meeting in force, to stop them.
In the past two decades, more than half of the City’s African-American families have been forced to move away, primarily as a result of San Francisco Redevelopment Agency actions. Remember the Fillmore! In the past half century, promised jobs have never materialized: they were lies!
Fortunately, there is a plan that will create jobs, capital ownership and complete community control: the BVHP RSOC (the Residents’ Stock Ownership Corp.). The RSOC program calls for the residents of 94124 to own, control and develop all 500 acres of the Shipyard. This means that the residents of 94124 - the people who have endured poverty, bad housing, every kind of environmental insult, violence and neglect - will own and control our community and our destiny.
It’s part of a long San Francisco tradition to shove African-Americans out of neighborhoods like the Fillmore, then out of the city altogether. The BVHP residents’ ownership of the Shipyard is our last chance to stop this.
Sad to say, our own Sophie Maxwell has come down on the wrong side of this issue. She is actively opposing neighborhood ownership of the Shipyard and self-determination for BVHP residents. She has brushed aside discussions of the Shipyard’s future and aligned herself with big-money interests and supporters of gentrification of 94124. She has rejected your RSOC, one of the most forward-looking and truly promising plans for true urban renewal in America.
Do not doubt what the Redevelopment Agency has in mind. On Nov. 4, the agency and the non-elected Project Area Committee proposed to add an additional 1,600 acre to the existing Hunters Point Project Areas to be redeveloped. This proposal, if approved, would pave the way for BVHP residents to be “redeveloped” right out of the city. As always, the intent is that Black families would be the first to be run out of town.
But this is our home. We have fought to build lives here. We shall not be moved.
This is your chance to demand your rights as a citizen, as a voter, as a parent, grandparent, son or daughter - as a San Franciscan.
Monday, Dec. 2, 6 p.m., at City Hall, in Room 416, the Redevelopment Commission Hearing Room on the fourth floor, the Redevelopment commissioners plan to approve a document which will result in the THEFT OF YOUR INHERITANCE, the Shipyard, and give it to an out-of-town carpetbagger.
This document, the DDA, is filled with lies and false promises and has no provision for BVHP residents’ capital ownership. The DDA is a massive fraud, disguised as a benefit.
Even if you have never been to City Hall, if you’ve never attended meetings, if you’ve never fought for anything, come downtown Monday and FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE and YOUR ECONOMIC FUTURE.
BE THERE!
Email Jesse Mason at jmason147 [at] hotmail.com or Lynne Brown at L_Brown123 [at] hotmail.com.
by Jesse Mason and Lynne Brown
BVHP RSOC Interim Co-Chairmen
It’s showdown time in 94124. On Tuesday, December 2, @ City Hall Room 416 at 4pm San Francisco’s Redevelopment Agency Commission will decide the future of Bay View Hunters Point. Their plans will cause you irreparable harm. We must attend that meeting in force, to stop them.
In the past two decades, more than half of the City’s African-American families have been forced to move away, primarily as a result of San Francisco Redevelopment Agency actions. Remember the Fillmore! In the past half century, promised jobs have never materialized: they were lies!
Fortunately, there is a plan that will create jobs, capital ownership and complete community control: the BVHP RSOC (the Residents’ Stock Ownership Corp.). The RSOC program calls for the residents of 94124 to own, control and develop all 500 acres of the Shipyard. This means that the residents of 94124 - the people who have endured poverty, bad housing, every kind of environmental insult, violence and neglect - will own and control our community and our destiny.
It’s part of a long San Francisco tradition to shove African-Americans out of neighborhoods like the Fillmore, then out of the city altogether. The BVHP residents’ ownership of the Shipyard is our last chance to stop this.
Sad to say, our own Sophie Maxwell has come down on the wrong side of this issue. She is actively opposing neighborhood ownership of the Shipyard and self-determination for BVHP residents. She has brushed aside discussions of the Shipyard’s future and aligned herself with big-money interests and supporters of gentrification of 94124. She has rejected your RSOC, one of the most forward-looking and truly promising plans for true urban renewal in America.
Do not doubt what the Redevelopment Agency has in mind. On Nov. 4, the agency and the non-elected Project Area Committee proposed to add an additional 1,600 acre to the existing Hunters Point Project Areas to be redeveloped. This proposal, if approved, would pave the way for BVHP residents to be “redeveloped” right out of the city. As always, the intent is that Black families would be the first to be run out of town.
But this is our home. We have fought to build lives here. We shall not be moved.
This is your chance to demand your rights as a citizen, as a voter, as a parent, grandparent, son or daughter - as a San Franciscan.
Monday, Dec. 2, 6 p.m., at City Hall, in Room 416, the Redevelopment Commission Hearing Room on the fourth floor, the Redevelopment commissioners plan to approve a document which will result in the THEFT OF YOUR INHERITANCE, the Shipyard, and give it to an out-of-town carpetbagger.
This document, the DDA, is filled with lies and false promises and has no provision for BVHP residents’ capital ownership. The DDA is a massive fraud, disguised as a benefit.
Even if you have never been to City Hall, if you’ve never attended meetings, if you’ve never fought for anything, come downtown Monday and FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE and YOUR ECONOMIC FUTURE.
BE THERE!
Email Jesse Mason at jmason147 [at] hotmail.com or Lynne Brown at L_Brown123 [at] hotmail.com.
Ethics panel eyes redevelopment role in Hunters Point
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross Monday, March 17, 2003
San Francisco -- The trio whose habit of voting together on controversial items has tagged them the "Pep Boys" of the San Francisco Redevelopment Commission -- Benny Yee, Leroy King and Darshan Singh -- were all hit with subpoenas from the city's ethics watchdog agency this past week.
Soon to join the list: City Hall insider Susan Horsfall, who works for the law firm that represents Lennar Corp. -- the developer that won the right to take over the old Hunters Point shipyard.
No one at the Ethics Commission is talking, but word among Redevelopment insiders is that a complaint came in more than a year ago alleging that Horsfall and the Pep Boys appeared to be a little too close for comfort -- often dining out together after meetings.
Right around the time, it seems, that the commission -- including the Pep Boys -- voted to disregard its consultant's findings and award the rights to develop the shipyard to Lennar.
"This is all about those same old stories about us getting gifts and dinners," King said. "It wasn't true then, and it isn't true now."
An Ethics Commission investigation isn't criminal -- but it can refer its findings to the district attorney.
For her part, Horsfall told us she has "no idea what any of this is about. We haven't had dinner together in over a year, so any reference to that is old news."
Maybe -- but from the looks of things, it's about to become news again.
For more information:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file...
Not long ago all that is Hunters Point with two intact hills belonged to the First People the Muwekma Ohlone: http://www.muwekma.org
Now SF Redelopment Agency wants to steal the land after it was first stolen from the First People, then taken by eminent domain and over 150 families displaced. Now for the 3rd time around those that call Hunters Point their home will be driven away so that the filthy rich can enjoy market priced homes with the best view of the City and County of San Francisco.
SF Redevelopment Agency is a quasi State agency that should be shut down. There is not one single project this agency has done that has helped the constituents of San Francisco. At Fillmore, at Mission Bay, in the Bayview this agency has leached upon the common citizen and adversely impacted the Project Areas.
Today with the help of Willie Brown the lame duck Mayor of San Francisco - the Director of SFRA Marcia Rosen wants to sending the poor who make their home at Hunters Point packing.
Those that failed the First People and then the over 150 displaced home owner, now want to push the resident of Hunters Point away from the last frontier.
Crooks such as Lennar BVHP LLC will fleece the people of San Francisco. Newsom and Mills Corporation and other major developers are waiting in line to pounce upon Hunters Point and the surround area. All of them are pals of Willie Brown - in this case it is imperative we expose the crooks and drive them away - once and for all.
We should all unite and say NO. Enough is enough.
Francisco Da Costa
Environmental Justice Advocacy
Now SF Redelopment Agency wants to steal the land after it was first stolen from the First People, then taken by eminent domain and over 150 families displaced. Now for the 3rd time around those that call Hunters Point their home will be driven away so that the filthy rich can enjoy market priced homes with the best view of the City and County of San Francisco.
SF Redevelopment Agency is a quasi State agency that should be shut down. There is not one single project this agency has done that has helped the constituents of San Francisco. At Fillmore, at Mission Bay, in the Bayview this agency has leached upon the common citizen and adversely impacted the Project Areas.
Today with the help of Willie Brown the lame duck Mayor of San Francisco - the Director of SFRA Marcia Rosen wants to sending the poor who make their home at Hunters Point packing.
Those that failed the First People and then the over 150 displaced home owner, now want to push the resident of Hunters Point away from the last frontier.
Crooks such as Lennar BVHP LLC will fleece the people of San Francisco. Newsom and Mills Corporation and other major developers are waiting in line to pounce upon Hunters Point and the surround area. All of them are pals of Willie Brown - in this case it is imperative we expose the crooks and drive them away - once and for all.
We should all unite and say NO. Enough is enough.
Francisco Da Costa
Environmental Justice Advocacy
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