San Franciscans call on Supervisors to stand up against Redevelopment in The Bayview

Progressive San Franciscans from the Castro to the Tenderloin and from the Haight to South of Market are shocked and awed by the Redevelopment Agency’s recent threats and announced attempts to “eminent domain” and “market rate” African Americans, peoples of color and other homeowners out of Bayview Hunters Point for profit. We see this as rank environmental, civil and human rights injustice – as significant, though not as visible, as the racist and classist Katrina disaster. We aim to make it more visible.

We want the mayor and the Redevelopment Commission to know they cannot sweep under the rug this aggressive invasion of Bayview homeowners’ property rights.

The biggest thing in most people’s lives is whether or not they own a home.

We urge the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and people who influence the board to gather the confidence of leadership and stand up against the Redevelopment Agency’s powerful, but most repugnant tool – the threat of eminent domain and insidious use of market rate housing to push people off of property they have worked for years to build, own and repair and on which they planned to secure their family’s future.

When you lay out this issue of eminent domain for taxpayers who think it through, they will side with Bayview residents. If the Bayview citizenry can be pushed out by the Redevelopment Agency’s tool, eminent domain, any group anywhere can be similarly made to disappear – in the Haight, the Mission, the Castro, Noe Valley, Richmond or Sunset.

The Supreme Court’s recent Kelo decision on eminent domain expands governmental powers to condemn property for private development. It strips American taxpayers of their property rights.

It is the most unpopular decision the court has ever made, opposed by everybody from the far left to the far right. Why would any political leader or anyone considering running for public office want his or her name associated with eminent domain or predatory gentrification?

San Francisco is the most popular tourist attraction in the world. It will not stay that way if it is ethnically cleansed. Convention and Visitors Bureau official literature reads as if no human being lives in Southeast San Francisco. Bayview Hunters Point is not mentioned except for the caution, “Beware. It’s a rough neighborhood.”

Once upon a time there was the Fillmore. Known as “Harlem of the West,” the Fillmore was known all over the world. That was a time when Black folks couldn’t buy a house in most parts of San Francisco. They couldn’t go to school in most schools in San Francisco, but they could work at the Shipyard and hold other jobs.

In Bayview Hunters Point right now, discrimination is universal. A total lockout excludes Blacks from nearly every job. Additionally, African Americans are “redlined” and can’t borrow money to improve their property or start their own businesses.

The Fillmore was once the biggest attraction in San Francisco next to Chinatown. People could be celebrating and making music again. The Fillmore and the Bayview’s Third Street could become huge twin tourist attractions – but not by bringing in non-indigenous restaurants and musical venues.

If we want San Francisco to be a premier tourist city, let’s think hard about ways we can be proactive in enhancing our city’s attractiveness to tourists.

We can do this. We have the population now, but we will not have the population for long. San Francisco will not be an exciting place for tourists to visit if all they see is rich white people. The multicultural character of the city will be vastly diminished by the absence of the African-American community.

Let us revisit the 2000 Board of Supervisors election when San Francisco voted in a host of great progressive leaders: Chris Daly, Jake McGoldrick, Gerardo Sandoval, Tom Ammiano, Aaron Peskin, Leland Yee, Mark Leno and Matt Gonzalez. Most are still in office.

Let these Supervisors reconsider their own strong progressive values and refocus their compassionate spirits to support the folks in Bayview Hunters Point whose economic, environmental, human and civil rights are being savaged by the Redevelopment Agency’s threat to bulldoze them out of their homes and replace these lovingly built structures with market rate condominiums.

We need to save this precious green gem with the sunniest, warmest weather in San Francisco and its wonderful blue bay views for the lively, energetic, intelligent, tight-knit community of folks who have worked hard for many years to build and maintain it, without hope or help and against all odds. It is a one of a kind community that must be preserved at all costs.

We owe it to the world to help Bayview Hunters Point keep its dream. It is our dream as well.

Carol Harvey, a San Francisco writer, attended the March 7 Redevelopment Commission hearing and interviewed people from many San Francisco neighborhoods, all of whom voiced strong opposition to the designation of Bayview Hunters Point as a Redevelopment project area. Email Carol at carolharveysf [at] yahoo.com.

Please use the following sidebar with links to e-mail every SF Supervisor and let them know what you think.


TELL SUPERVISOR SOPHIE MAXWELL TO STOP SELLING OUT HER DISSTRICT

by Willie Ratcliff, Publisher, San Francisco Bay View

Thanks to the vigilance of Francisco Da Costa, we’ve just learned that Supervisor Sophie Maxwell has placed adoption of the Redevelopment Plan for the Bayview Hunters Point Redevelopment Project ON TODAY’S AGENDA for the Land Use Committee, which she chairs. (See http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_page.asp?id=13956.)

No need to rush to City Hall, though. She introduced it under the “30-day rule,” which means it will only be read aloud by the clerk today – no discussion, no chance to testify. And it can’t be considered for at least 30 days from today.

Supervisor Maxwell represents District 10 and lives in Bayview Hunters Point, the largest neighborhood in the district. What she has done is to start the clock ticking ... and it’s up to us to determine whether it ticks toward doomsday or liberation day.

Are you ready to give control of Bayview Hunters Point to the Redevelopment Agency and their big developer buddies? Are you ready for Redevelopment to “repeople” the neighborhood – that’s their stated goal – and disperse long-time residents to the four winds, like Katrina evacuees?

If not, if you want residents – not Redevelopment – to be in charge of making this a thriving community, here’s what you can do:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Tell Sophie how you feel. Bombard her office with phone calls and emails: (415) 554-7670 and Sophie.Maxwell [at] sfgov.org. Email all the Supervisors at once at Board_of_Supervisors [at] ci.sf.ca.us.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Gather tons of signatures on the Limit Eminent Domain petition and recruit others to do the same. There are plenty of petitions at the Bay View, (415) 671-0789, or you’ll find them at http://www.LimitEminentDomain.org. Without the power of eminent domain, Redevelopment is toothless.

So the battle is joined. We’re going to win. But we’ll have to fight! WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!

Bay View publisher Willie Ratcliff and Mary Ratcliff, editor, can be reached at publisher [at] sfbayview.com.