Check out this article released by P.O.W.E.R. discussing the redevelopment of HUNTERS POINT
Fillmore 1965 Re-Visited : Re-Development or Re-(Dis)placement?
Residents say underground wiring project is eminent domain dressed in new clothes
by Alicia Schwartz, POWER
The familiar signs of a neighborhood preparing for change have already surfaced. Construction signs and men with hard hats directing traffic along Third Street. Billboard ads declare that the Bayview is “A Community At Work,” alongside a picture of someone that could be your next-door neighbor. Mayor Gavin Newsom playing basketball with your children. Phone calls and house visits from realtors offering cash for homes. Empty seats in your church as members of your congregation offer stories of rents that continue to increase and ends that never seem to meet, instead of their typical offering to the collection plate. A letter in the mail from the City of San Francisco, informing you that you need to pay for underground wiring in your neighborhood or face losing your home, even though you never agreed to have the project done in the first place.
Many residents in the Bayview shake their heads in disbelief as they see their neighborhood, known for decades as one of the last working class communities in San Francisco, undergo changes that many of them know all too well. As residents and members of People Organized to Win Employment Rights (P.O.W.E.R.) prepare to confront San Francisco racist policies that target working people in our city yet again, one can’t help but wonder what all of these changes will eventually bring.
Why, suddenly, is the City of San Francisco so interested in the Bayview Hunters Point community?
“People are sitting on gold out here,” said La Vaughn Moore, a longtime resident of the Bayview.
It started with the construction of the Third Street Light Rail, a project that seemingly no one would raise opposition to. Many residents had been complaining to their district representative for years about the isolation of the Bayview, re-counting two-hour bus trips just to get downtown. The developers for the project offered community workshops to show you just how great the Light Rail would be for you and your family. No more long bus rides. Jobs for local people. A cleaner, safer Bayview.
Almost a year later, we may see smoother streets, but have yet to see local people steadily working those jobs. Only a small handful of people in the community can say that they know someone who is employed working for the Third Street Light Rail, while a much larger segment of the community can point to knowing someone who was laid off from the project or rejected from the project all together. Signs created by the City for business owners declaring that the Bayview is still “Open for Business” fail to keep the customers coming in, as the construction still blocks the entrances to many businesses, and they can only look forward to more of this as parking along Third Street will be eliminated from both sides. Today, Third Street is lined by boarded up storefront windows, while the businesses that have managed to stay open have had to modify their hours to serve the construction crews—still not enough to pay the bills. For all of this sacrifice, what has the Bayview received in return? Promises that have yet to be fulfilled.
Now it’s the underground wiring project that’s come to your neighborhood. Many residents received letters from the City of San Francisco detailing an underground wiring project scheduled to occur by June 2005 along main streets in the Bayview. The letter, typically around seven pages long, details a process through which the utility wiring, usually found above ground, will be placed underground instead.
It seems idyllic at first glance. No more power lines in the neighborhood—another step toward making the Bayview a cleaner, safer place to live. Yet that same letter also says that you must have the work, with costs averaging between $1200 and $4000 per property, completed by a certain date, or face having a lien placed on your home and a hearing held for your property. Somewhere in the stack of papers that the City sent to residents, there’s a sentence that claims that there are grants available for low-income residents on a first come, first serve basis.
Many who received this letter had never heard of the grant until organizers from People Organized to Win Employment Rights (P.O.W.E.R.) came to the door. By the time we got there, for some folks, it was already too little, too late. We heard stories firsthand from residents who had taken out loans at a 19% interest rate to pay for the work, because they thought there was no other option. We were told by still more residents about seniors in the community who, literally, worried so much about how they were going to pay this cost while taking in less than $1000 per month that they gave up their will to live.
Together, with members of the community, we have taken steps to get residents the assistance that they deserve. We sat with seniors to help fill out the grant applications, only to have the City tell them that they don’t qualify. We have done the work to find local contractors who can do the work in order to keep the money in the community, only to have the City reject those contractors in favor of their own. Why, in a community where the average income is merely $18,500 per year, do people have to apply for assistance in the first place? Why is it that no one in the Bayview can remember ever having given consent to this project in the first place? Why didn’t the City hold a community workshop on this project as well?
The answers are all around us—in fact, they are all over the City of San Francisco. The City of San Francisco—Mayor Gavin Newsom and his real estate and developer friends, want your neighborhood for themselves and their friends. Behind the scenes, representatives from the City take residents aside and promise them a piece of the “good life.” It is those folks who are often the most vocal proponents of adopting the entire community of Bayview Hunters Point as a redevelopment area.
For all of these reasons, we will fight for:
∑ Full grant funding for all BVHP residents affected by the program
∑ Full reimbursements for everyone who already found a way to get the work done because they were unaware a grant program existed
∑ No application process—if the City wants to do the work, the City needs to pay for it.
And we won’t stop until we win.
Those who remember “urban renewal” in the Fillmore in 1966 are being re-acquainted with some of the same indicators, now re-packaged as “redevelopment.” The threat of having a lien placed on your home, or having a hearing held for your property angers many in the community who were displaced from the Fillmore and pushed into the Bayview many years ago. “Nobody is going to take my house from me,” said a 50-year resident of the Bayview. “This new under grounding project is just another way for the City to clear Black folks out of this community.”
In the late 1960s, Justin Herman led a ruthless charge through one of the most vibrant communities in San Francisco—implementing what many remember as “Negro Removal,” the virtual disappearing of thousands of Black people in San Francisco. Today, San Francisco is still a racist “old dog” that didn’t learn any “new tricks”—boasting an embarrassing 20% decrease in African-American residents.
“If you got a rock out here,” Moore said, “you need to hold on to it.” One thing is clear—the residents of San Francisco’s working class communities of color will continue to resist. Residents here aren’t giving up their homes to ANYONE without a fight.
To get involved, contact POWER today at (415) 864-8372; ask for JB or Alicia.
