Press release: 9/27 March & Rally in Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco

For Immediate Release:
September 27, 2006
Contact: Alicia Schwartz (510) 759-3843 (cell)
Willie Ratcliff (415) 671-0789


What: March down Third Street to demand the re-validation of 33,000 signatures against the Redevelopment Plan for Bayview Hunters Point and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Bayview Hunters Point 1966 uprising, rally and press conference at the corner of Third and Palou streets

Who: San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), Nation of Islam Bay Area, Idriss Stelley Foundation, POOR Magazine, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), residents of Bayview Hunters Point, Environmental Justice Advocacy

Where: Third and Palou, Bayview Hunters Point

When: Wednesday, September 27, 2006—4:00pm march, 4:30 press conference and rally. Residents will be available afterwards for comment.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Community residents and the Coalition to Defend Bayview Hunters Point will lead a march and rally through Bayview Hunters Point on Wednesday to commemorate the 40-year anniversary of the 1966 uprising against police brutality by demanding City Attorney Dennis Herrera retract his decision to silence more than 33,000 voters who demanded a referendum on the Redevelopment Plan for Bayview Hunters Point.

“It’s clear to me that this is another way for the Redevelopment Agency and the City Attorney to do what they want with our neighborhood, instead of respecting our right to decide for ourselves what we want to see happen with our community,” said Eddie Mary Gipson, POWER member and long-time resident of Bayview Hunters Point. “I signed the petition because I know that this is the most valuable land in the City, and I think the Redevelopment Plan isn’t good enough for our community.”

Herrera released a formal legal opinion last week that used a legal loophole to disqualify the referendum petition, announcing that although the signatures were certified by Department of Elections officials at 110% validity, the petition needed to include the text of the Redevelopment Plan—a fifty-six paged document—in its’ text. Other key documents that Herrera mentions in his formal opinion total more than 800 pages. Community members and organizers say that Herrera’s decision to disqualify the referendum after it had already been certified by the Department of Elections was arbitrarily applied, and call the move a “politically-motivated legal tactic that is aimed at ending the referendum process altogether.”

“For forty years, we’ve demanded an end to police brutality, fought for living wage jobs for the Black community, especially as it relates to City construction contracts, and for the right to develop our own community,” said publisher Willie Ratcliff. “This is just another legal trick infused with politics that the City is trying to use to keep us from determining our own futures. But we’re not about to let City Hall shoot us in the back, like they did forty years ago. We’re gonna fight this thing every step of the way!”

The march and rally is being organized by organizations who participated in the Defend Bayview Hunters Point network, a loose association of community organizations and activists who are united to place development back into the control of local residents. This group led a successful effort to table the Redevelopment Plan by collecting over 33,000 signatures that were needed to place the issue before San Francisco voters next year.

The group is organizing the march and rally to coincide with the forty-year anniversary of the uprising against police brutality that occurred in Bayview Hunters Point on September 27, 1966, when a young African American boy was shot in the back by police. The march will run through the center of the community, beginning on Third and Williams Streets and will end at Third and Palou Streets, where members of the Defend Bayview Hunters Point coalition and community residents and stakeholders will present their demands for City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

“We’re demanding that the people of Bayview Hunters Point be allowed due process,” said Alicia Schwartz, organizer with POWER. “It’s no coincidence, given what’s at stake, that the City Attorney would find something to invalidate this effort. The reality, however, is that the people have already spoken, the people do not want this Plan to go forward, because there’s nothing that guarantees that people can remain and thrive in their neighborhood—if this Plan goes forward, there are several legal loopholes that big corporations and private developers will use to get rich off the deals they make in the community, at the expense of Black people and other working class people of color in San Francisco.”

“This referendum is about demanding the creation of a real community plan with a transparent community process that address the needs, such as jobs, resources and housing, of the existing community – not a community ten years ago or a community that the “city” would like to see ten years from now,” said Sister Stephanie Hughes, ACORN member and community resident.

At the rally, residents and members of the Defend Bayview Hunters Point coalition will demand that the City re-validate the more than 33,000 signatures collected and allow the process to continue as usual. Barring Herrera’s decision, the issue would have returned to the Board of Supervisors for re-consideration. At that time, the Board could either vote to uphold their decision, which would place the issue before the voters no earlier than March of 2007, or could strike down their previous decision, which would prevent the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency from re-introducing the Plan for at least twelve months.

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Speakers available for comment afterwards will include:

Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper
(415) 671-0789

Francisco Da Costa, Environmental Justice Advocacy
(415) 816-2307

Minister Christopher Mohammad, Nation of Islam Bay Area
(415) 671-0662

Alicia Schwartz and Eddie Mary Gipson, People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER)
(510) 759-3843 cell

mesha Monge-Irizarry
(415) 595-8251

Espanola Jackson

Marie Harrison

Grace Martinez and Sister Stephanie Hughes, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
(415) 823-5344 cell