Bayview Rallies to Save the Neighborhood

“The City is urinating on our neighborhood,” said Willie Ratcliffe of the Bay View newspaper, “and they have the nerve to tell us it’s raining.” Along with Latino activists from the Mission and Pilipino activists from South-of-Market, the protesters accused the City of allowing – or even facilitating – the mass displacement of people of color from San Francisco. Groups such as International A.N.S.W.E.R., the Nation of Islam, and P.O.W.E.R. were present to lend support to the protesters’ cause.

Last May, by a vote of 7-4, the Board of Supervisors approved the Bayview Redevelopment plan that made the entire neighborhood an area subject to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. Ratcliffe and other local activists mobilized to collect 33,000 signatures to hold a Referendum on next year’s ballot – in hopes that the people would reject Redevelopment and save their neighborhood. After City Attorney Dennis Herrera invalidated the signatures, the next step may be to go to court.

http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Bayview_Rallies_to_Save_the_Neighborhood_3795.html