Bayview Redevelopment Decision Postponed

The plan, which has been in the works for over a decade, would aim to revitalize the downtrodden Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhoods by fostering development of new business and housing in the area, specifically targeting the Third Street business district. The Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhoods include the largest concentration of African Americans in San Francisco, but have also in recent years been the focal points of a wave of violence.

However, many community members expressed concern that redevelopment would hasten gentrification of the neighborhood and fail to improve the lives of local residents, as some say it did in the Western Addition, a previous redevelopment project. Though the plan does require that 25% of all projects must be affordable housing, many said they fear that rising prices will contribute to the flight of African Americans from San Francisco.

“Affordable housing is just a euphemism for middle-income housing.,” said Terri Baum. “We don’t need 75% of all new housing built to be market-rate in any neighborhood. The people in Bayview-Hunter’s Point think that there’s a conspiracy to drive them out and I think they’re right.”

“This plan is a slightly slower path than the path that we’re currently on to the gentrification of the southeast quadrant of the city,” agreed Supervisor Chris Daly. “I don’t think that the path that we’re on or this plan saves this low-income community. The redevelopment mechanisms are just an elaborate sort of window dressing.”

However, proponents of the plan responded that gentrification will happen with or without redevelopment.

“There will be development. Either we can be included in this process to make sure there are community benefits or we can ignore it,” said Eloise Patton, executive director of Young Community Developers.

“Since we’ve lost 20 percent of African Americans in the Bayview over the last 20 years without redevelopment, what’s to stop that pattern from continuing?” said Alonzo King, chair of the Project Area Committee (PAC), a group of elected Bayview-Hunter’s Point residents who advised the redevelopment agency on the proposal.

Some residents of the neighborhoods said that while they welcome the improvements, they’re wary of the redevelopment agency.

“Redevelopment is not bad. The redevelopment agency is bad. What redevelopment should do is take all the benefits created by the area and put them directly in the hands of the community,” said Michael Strauss. “Too often, residents are treated like incompetent children with city officials as their parents.”

Whatever the board’s decision next week, Bayview residents agreed that some action is necessary to revitalize the neighborhood.

“We have waited so long to bring this plan forward,” said activist Regina Davis. “As far as I’m concerned, this could have been done years ago, before the average cost of a house in the Bayview was two-and-a-half times the national average.”

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