Pollution litters the classroom

Is there a connection between environmental injustice and children’s ability to learn?

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has estimated that, of the 39 pollutants they measure in San Francisco neighborhoods, the highest concentrations of 20 of them were found in Bayview Hunter’s Point.

Our neighborhood has four times as many toxins released as all other neighborhoods in the city, as well as four times the state rate of hospitalization for chronic diseases like emphysema, diabetes, asthma and hypertension.

It is no coincidence, according to a local examiner.com education blogger, that schools are experiencing a high incidence of exceptional children needing special education.

New support for small business

Commission Executive Director, Theresa Sparks

The San Francisco Human Rights Commission has announced the opening of a Bayview Hunters Point outreach office at 1485 Bayshore Blvd., Suite 320H.

Commission Executive Director Theresa Sparks said the office would help stimulate the economy of the city's southeastern neighborhoods.

According to the commission, the office will help to inform local small businesses of contracting opportunities, connect them with the city's Local Business Enterprise and Surety Bond and Finance programs, and create a forum for business owners to share ideas and concerns with city agencies.

For more information, call (415) 252-2503.

Bargain barrels for rain capture

While supplies last, San Francisco residents can purchase up to ten fully outfitted 60-gallon rain barrels at steep discounts, compliments of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Wastewater Enterprise.

Purchase the first barrel for $89, and each additional barrel is $69.

The re-purposed rain barrels, originally used for food storage, are available at The Urban Farmer Store at 2833 Vicente Street, at 40th Avenue. Find details online or inquire via email.

Innovative solution to obesity could help BVHP

Compared to more affluent neighborhoods, Bayview Hunters Point is off the charts when it comes to the obesity epidemic. The rest of the country may not be far behind.

Last month, researchers proposed a solution that would reverse a century of trends in favor of large scale agri-business. America should increase its regional food consumption, those researchers said, and each metropolitan area should obtain most of its nutrition from nearby.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, between 1980 and 2006 the percentage of obese teenagers in the United States grew from 5 to 18, while the percentage of pre-teens suffering from obesity increased from 7 to 17. These children often become overweight adults, susceptible to heart illness, Type 2 diabetes, strokes, and some forms of cancer.

MIT’s Collaborative Initiatives program, which uses systems analysis to study broad social issues, has concluded that obesity is widespread due to our national-scale system of food production and distribution. That system surrounds children, especially lower-income children, with high-calorie products.

90 percent of American food is processed, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, mixed with ingredients that can make food fattening.

While the “local food” solution may be familiar to progressive urban dwellers, the researchers from MIT and Columbia added an innovative urban planning suggestion. Local efforts, they said, should form a larger “Integrated Regional Foodshed” system, intended to lower the price and caloric content of food by lowering distances food must travel, from the farm to the dinner table.

While just one to two percent of all food consumed in the United States today is locally produced, that could change quickly if policies are adopted that drive investment toward “food terminals,” retail developments combining grocery stores with greenhouses, farmers’ markets, restaurants, and other enterprises that can reverse city residents’ diminishing access to fresh produce.

"Food insecurity" strikes the nation

“Food insecurity” has rocketed to the highest level since the government began tracking it 14 years ago, according to a Department of Agriculture report. 13 million Americans were added to the hunger roster, nationwide.

The government’s definition of “food insecurity" is a lack of money that forces members to skip meals, cut portions or otherwise forgo food at some point in the year. Nationally, about a third of struggling households fell into this category, while the other two-thirds were eating cheaper or less varied foods.

In Bayview Hunters Point, food security has been a challenge for decades. As with unemployment statistics, the national report issued Monday is a pale reflection of how hard hit the area has been by the economic downturn.

The San Francisco Food Bank has been reporting a dramatic increase in the demand for food, at its network of pantries serving Bayview Hunters Point, since the recession began. Community and backyard gardens were already becoming more popular in this neighborhood where so many on a tight budget, if any budget at all, make their homes.

The Southeast Sector Food Access working group is a collaboration of government, community and business representatives focused on bringing more and healthier food options to the southeast part of the City. A study the group administered two years ago showed that 94 percent of residents would actively support most any new food option in their neighborhood.

India Basin neighbors choose environmental advisor

The India Basin Neighborhood Association (IBNA) reports that it has selected Soil Water Air Protection Enterprise (SWAPE), an environmental consulting firm with offices in Southern California and San Mateo, to serve as technical adviser for the Hunters Point Shipyard Cleanup.

IBNA intends to introduce SWAPE to the community at a meeting in December when those interested will have the opportunity to meet SWAPE's Project Director, Matt Hagemann.

Email Alex for more information.

Old Skool launches campaign, wins award

Vivi, shown here serving at the Gospel Brunch at Powell's Restaurant on 3rd Street, is a member of the Old Skool Cafe program.
Tomorrow, from 10am to noon, Old Skool Cafe will receive a community leadership award from the FBI (yup, that FBI), and launch a campaign to raise funds for a permanent location for the group's work geared toward life skills training of area youth.

On November 18th, the "Celebrity Jail Bird Campaign" will kick-off at Foreign Cinema restaurant located at 2534 Mission Street. Radio celebrity Chuy Gomez, Sheriff Hennessey, Chief Siffermann, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, Dwayne Jones, Kofi Bonner, Doris Ward and Pastor Calvin Jones are among those who hope to attract donations from those wanting to help post their bail.

Old Skool Cafe is a Bayview Footprints Network member group that is also working with the Quesada Gardens Initiative to build a kitchen garden to supply the group with healthy fruits and vegetables for its programming. University of San Francisco students from the Community Art and Architecture School and the SF Rotaract Club are among the groups supporting the garden construction.

UC grants target community partnerships

The Seva* project, which is a partnership of the San Francisco General Hospital's Internal Medicine Residency Program and the Bayview Hunters Point community (through SEFA), emerged from the University Community Partnerships program over a year ago. Other good work in the neighborhood has also benefits from the grants program.

Now, the UC Community Partnerships Office has announced two 2010 Grants Program Workshops, both at the UCSF Mission Center Building located at 1855 Folsom, Rooms 126 and 128. The workshops are scheduled for Tuesday, November 24, 10:30am - 12noon and Monday, December 7, 4pm - 5:30pm.

Application submission begins on January 15, 2010 and ends on February 12, 2010.

Latona "Fiesta" this Saturday Noon to 3pm

Children have played a big role in the creation of the Latona Community Garden. Photo by Rhonda Winter

Join neighbors in the heart of Bayview as they celebrate the Latona Community Garden's second birthday.

Hear residents who have lived on Latona longest share Bayview history, applaud leaders who have made the garden happen, express your love of Bayview to student documentary filmmakers, or just stop by to say "hello."

As always, there will be lots of local food. Activities in the planning include the premiere of a new solar-powered mobile kitchen, Spanish-language translation of local history interviews, and displays of local projects residents are designing for the open spaces where they live.

The Latona Community Garden is regularly applauded by the Quesada Gardens Initiative, and supported by Kaiser Permanente/DPH and Dome Construction.

Command change at Bayview Station

John Loftus, who has led the Bayview Police Station since February of 2008, will be appointed Commander of the Investigations Bureau by new Police Chief Gascon on Saturday. Captain Greg Suhr, a native San Franciscan, will take over the leadership role.

“Captain Loftus and I are lifelong friends,” Suhr said in an email to Footprints, “having attended grammar school and high school together here in San Francisco.”

Loftus, in an email to Footprints, said that he has enjoyed his recent work in the neighborhood, and that he believes “this is a terrific district with a very bright future.”

A meeting at 6:30 this evening at the Bayview Station on Williams Avenue will be Loftus’ last meeting in the neighborhood, for awhile at least. The Southeast Community Facilities Commission meeting this evening at 1800 Oakdale will feature new Police Chief George Gascon and include the introduction of Bayview Captain Greg Suhr.

Bayview street trees at reduced price

Street trees that usually cost about $400 to plant through Friends of the Urban Forest are currently only $75 for residential and commercial property owners in Bayview.

Contact Megan Moran at Friends of the Urban Forest by email or at 415.561.6890 x101 for more information about the upcoming Bayview Street tree planting.

Application forms are due Monday, November 9th by 5pm, and can be found online. They can be mailed to Friends of the Urban Forest, P.O. Box 29456, San Francisco, CA 94129 or emailed to Megan.

Planting day will be Saturday, December 5th 9am to 1pm. To volunteer, call Doug at 415.561.6890 x103.

Grand opening of "4800 Third Street"

The grand opening of “4800 Third Street” is tomorrow, Friday, from 1pm to 5pm at the new building on 3rd and Oakdale. Don't miss the beautiful exterior tile work!

RSVP by calling 415.822.1022 x 119 or by email. 4800 Third Street is a project of the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation which works for stability in minority and low income neighborhoods in the Bay Area.

New Bayview gardens

New gardens are about to sprout in Bayview Hunters Point.

Everyone is welcome to join in the gardens installation at Charles Drew and Whitney Young Child Development Centers on Friday and Saturday, November 6th and 7th.

A solar pond will be installed at the existing edible garden at Charles Drew Child Development Center from 3pm to 5:30pm, Friday. A new edible garden will be installed at Whitney Young Child Development Center from 1pm to 3:30pm, Saturday.

Niko, a 4 year old chef will demonstrate to kids how to prepare healthy snacks (Saturday). Live music, youth performances, an eco-friendly fashion show, seed exchanges and much more are also planned!

The green double-header is tied to the San Francisco Green Festival scheduled for next weekend. It is part of Farms to Grow, Inc.’s Gardens to Grow project, and a partnership with the Children's Council of San Francisco.

For more information, contact Farms to Grow, Inc. at 415.359.7825 or by email.

Bayshore corridor makeover

If you can’t see the street sign in this picture, you may not know you are looking at Bayshore Boulevard from a point near Cortland. The landmark Goodman Lumber sign is gone, along with the building it was attached to.

Recent demolition is to make way for new construction, a Lowes Home and Garden Center that broke ground after the site went empty for nine years. Home Depot planned to build on the site, but withdrew after the economic downturn and resistance from Bernal Heights residents.

Lowes claims the store will create 200 permanent new jobs, half of which are promised to Bayview Hunters Point residents, and another 25 percent to other residents in the surrounding area. The chain store is also expected to give $750,000 to the City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and $100,000 toward the building of a center for training day laborers.

Historical survey community meeting

The 2nd community meeting of the Bayview Historical Resources Survey is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18th from 6pm to 8pm at the Bayview Branch Library located at 5075 3rd Street at Revere.

The meeting’s agenda includes the presentation of a draft context statement, time for community input about neighborhood history, and discussion about historic photos and documents having to do with Bayview Hunters Point. Refreshments will be served.

The meeting is sponsored by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency as part of an effort to survey the structures that exist within the redevelopment zone in the heart of Bayview. Structures with historic significance could affect future planning in the area.

For more information, contact Alfred Williams at 415.467.4675 or by email.

Pictured is a Bayview Hunters Point building, located at Mendell and McKinnon, as it was when it served as a community center. Many planning and organizing meeting were held there. Today it houses programs like the college prep program the 100% Club.

New SF General Hopsital breaks ground

Pictured: A rendering of the new SF General Hospital building and spectators at the recent groundbreaking ceremony.

In a time of severe economic challenges, dust and jobs are being raised over on Potero Avenue.

San Francisco General Hospital broke ground on a $1 billion construction project that will land a new hospital and trauma center between old buildings on Potero Avenue, while the existing hospital operates behind the construction zone.

San Francisco General Hospital is an important resource for Bayview Hunters Point residents, particularly those with limited resources, given its proximity and role as a provider for those without insurance coverage. The Southeast Community Health Clinic, a part of the Healthy San Francisco program, uses General Hospital for Bayview Hunters Point patients who need clinical services unavailable at the clinic.

The connection between the hospital and neighborhood is being strengthened through a project known as Seva*, a University of California Community Partnership-funded effort that links doctors who are part of the Internal Medicine Residency Program with community-based organizations. Seva*’s goal is to help clinicians better understand the unique needs of neighborhood residents, while residents better understand the resources the hospital offers.

GE brings good things to Bayview

Volunteers from General Electric came from all over the Bay Area to help out at the Quesada Gardens Initiative yesterday, helping rescue the Quesada Gardens irrigation system, cleaning up and weeding the Bridgeview Community Garden, and doing a makeover of the Latona Community Garden.

Pictured are the partipating GE employees and resident volunteers: Rhonda Winter, Peter Haas, Tony Tarket, and Sudeep Rao. Not pictured are participating residents Mary McClure and Jeffrey Betcher.

Ammiano, Maxwell, and KP at Quesada Gardens

Local politicos and corporate public affairs executives took time from their busy days to visit the Quesada Gardens Initiative last Wednesday. Quesada Gardens residents shared lemonade made from backyard garden lemons, and showed the visitors a bit of the Quesada Gardens project.

It was Assemblyperson Tom Ammiano's first visit to Quesada where he found community-based prevention work florishing. "Kaiser Permanente gets it," he said of the healthcare organization's practical commitment to communities creating grassroots change and improving the wellness of the people who live in them.

The Quesada Gardens Initiative is a model of community-building, growing community and backyard gardens, public art projects and volunteer events to raise social capital as a primary strategy for positive, sustainable change.

District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell added that community-building should be considered "as fundamental to community development as roads." Maxwell is a frequent visitor to the Quesada Gardens which are within walking distance of her own home.

Kaiser Permanente Public Affairs Director Randy Wittorp agreed, saying public health leaders like Kaiser Permanente understand community strength as "structural health."

Elizabeth Ferber, also from Kaiser Permanente, organized the visit as a way to honor the Quesada Gardens Initiative and the work to reduce health disparities in communities like Bayview Hunters Point.

The Quesada Gardens Initiative received a $15,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente to support its work in the heart of the Bayview neighborhood.

Residents turning out to meet the visitors included, Corine and Linda Pettus, James Ross and his sons Isaiah and Apollos Ross, Tony Tarket, Joel McClure, Jeffrey Betcher, Jonathan Bonato, and Sudeep Rao.

Bayview resident writes about bitter-sweet move from Quesada

Martha, shown here on her wedding day in the 1950's, passed away several years ago in the house at 1751 Quesada where she had lived for most of her life. Mr. Woody Young, also mentioned in Deboran's story, contributed the photograph to the digital history archives when the house he shared with "Ms. Martha" was being cleared. The Harrison family lives in the house now.

Deboran Everist still has a house on the 1700 block of Quesada Avenue, and lived on the block many years...long before the Quesada Gardens Initiative was dreamed of. She contributes recollections from when she moved from her Quesada house that will interest all those familiar with the heart of the Bayview neighborhood.

The Move
by Deboran Everist

The mild, foggy morning has again given way to a warm cloudless day here in the Bay Area. I don’t believe the weather makes the day, but it sure can set the mood.

Sometimes the atmosphere of life seems to have a way of occupying time to a point whereby the weather is just an added nuisance or delight. I needed the momentous break from office work to student life to appreciate this world around me. However, I have just reached a state of terminal struggle with another paper for class, and while there still remains the formidable task of writing up the material, the reading is over and done, the notes are made and the clock tells me I still have time before the class cut-off date.

I decided to appreciate the day and the weather by heading for the beach. I have found walking on the beach a perfect transitional zone between one phase of life and another. The glorious solitude of the early morning with just the waves lapping on a long beach of sand and boulders, cliffs and coves was just what I needed to sort out my thoughts and hear myself think. The seagulls seem to drift in the air with their voices embellishing the easy-going sound of the waves with a note of high-pitched expectancy.

My mind drifted back eight years to the day we moved into the Victorian on Quesada Avenue. I remember the friends, laughter, trucks and carloads full of boxes, furniture and miscellaneous necessities that we felt we couldn’t do without. Even though the boxes were marked kitchen, upstairs bedroom and garage, they all seemed to end up in the living and dining rooms just inside the front door.

It seemed like each carload needing unloading brought another neighbor out of doors. Somehow, with armloads of paraphernalia, introductions and handshakes were made.

Banker Bob lived up the street in the Mediterranean style house. He generously handed us brochures on savings, checking and investment accounts along with advice on financial services in the area. Every morning at a quarter to eight and every evening at 5:15 Bob walks by in his distinguished blue suit and narrow blue tie with a smile, hello and the latest interest rates. But through the years he has gained a dividend of a middle age paunch causing him to wobble as he walks up and down the block.

Down the street lived Phil and Martha. Phil has passed on now. But, oh, how I remember the biscuits that he could make from scratch. Phil was the local baker and he would always bring us breads and cakes hot out of the oven. The day we moved in our Doberman casually walked down the street and took a loaf of bread out of his van. Phil thought it was his dog, Casey, until he heard me reprimand my 120-pound puppy, which was supposed to be a watchdog.

Phil, Martha and I would always start our conversations with how to make biscuits from flour, baking powder, and water, leisurely drifting into the details of the latest veterinarian visit for our menagerie. Phil had two dogs and we had three. I added two cats to our household, and along with the neighbors, left food out for all the strays.

Further down the street lived “Pop” and his wife Helen. He always wore faded, shabby overalls on his six-foot plus frame and a ragged, red baseball cap on his balding head with “POP” embroidered across the brim. It seems like all the neighbors were raised by him. He would reprimand the young ones, give advice to their parents, and with a hardy handshake and a look of steel stare into your eyes with the scrutiny of a prosecuting attorney. Yet he would always leave baskets of cherry tomatoes on everyone’s front steps during the summer and would deny this fact. However, he was the only one with a front yard overgrown with tomato vines.

Next door to us lived Woody. He sported a personality that was one part charm, one part wise old sage and one part hellbender. That day we moved in, Woody was right there with a handshake and a grin. My husband had worked with him years before. While they reminisced, Woody set up his barbecue pit in the driveway, and the sound of beer cans popping permeated the activities. Woody had a way of saying “If you need anything I’m right next door.” Initially I was skeptical considering he enticed the men with beer while the women carried in boxes.

Nevertheless, as the sun left the sky a yellow orange the move was completed and the neighbors brought chicken, steaks, ribs, potatoes and ears of corn for the barbecue. I remember the clear blue night with a gentle breeze, which rustled the palm trees that run down the middle of our block. The eyes of our new neighbors coincidently twinkled like the constellations, which were visible that night.

Around midnight the welcoming committee dispersed and with our bellies full, muscles stretched tired, the mattresses on the floor in the living room, and the bedding somewhere in box number 143, we fell fast asleep in our new dwelling.

As I now watch the waves gently caress the sands, I think of all the changes since that day eight years ago. Besides Phil’s death, there was my husband, and “Pop” down the street, along with the dogs and cats and numerous friends. There have been divorces between the friends that moved us in that day including Woody and his wife, Annie. But through it all there has always been Woody’s voice saying “If you need anything I’m right next door.” Woody moved in with Martha, so he’s still on the block one house over. Woody has watched me paint, clean, and pack for my approaching move. And even though the weather can turn crazy with one day like summer, the next winter, the next rain, there is always another high-pressure system in the weather forecast to bring a balmy, cloudless day.

Do you have recollections about Bayview Hunters Point you would like to share? We'd love to hear from you.

Bayview library sculpture will not delay new building

The San Francisco Arts Commission Visual Arts Committee voted unanimously to recommend to the full commission that a site-specific sculpture in an exterior wall of the existing Bayview Branch Library be de-accessioned from the Civic Art Collection so that the San Francisco Public Library can move forward, on schedule, with demolition of the old building.

The sculpture can still be preserved if supporters step forward with the necessary resources before demolition begins. No one spoke at the commission meeting on behalf of the artwork.

Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood residents crowded the San Francisco Arts Commission conference room on Wednesday, October 21st to express unity about moving forward with the building of the new Bayview Branch Library which might have been stalled by a late stage proposal to redesign the library around a sculpture that is part of the existing building.

Testimony about the importance of the new library to Bayview residents with regard to violence prevention, education, historic preservation and new artwork developing for the future building brought tears to the eyes of some residents, and prompted one SF Arts Commissioner to say that the show of unity was “frankly moving” and unusual.

Brian Bannon, SFPL Chief of Branches, spoke on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library, making a strong case that the existing sculpture was out of sync with the new building design, and that forcing the library to preserve it would derail the construction schedule and budget for the new building. His presentation was supported by comments from SFPL City Librarian Luis Herrera and SFPL Commission President Jewelle Gomez.

Bayview residents presented the commissioners with a petition listing 237 hand-written and electronic signatures in support of de-accessioning the sculpture. An online survey showed that 95 percent of respondents were in favor of de-accessioning.

In preparation for the discussion at the Visual Arts Committee, the sculpture at the existing branch library was appraised at $100,000, and the cost of preserving and relocating was estimated to be between $100,000 and $150,000.

See the comments from the online survey.

See more about the Bayview Branch Library, including comments on the recent issue from Managing Librarian Linda Brooks-Burton.