Kitty lovers: don't miss this!

Contributed by Nan Foster

Our wonderful neighbor, Nan, reports that the pictured calico cat she and her family have befriended lives on the streets in this neighborhood somewhere between Revere and Quesada just west of Third.

We feed her and...are trying to find where this cat recently had kittens. After she leaves my yard, she usually heads off in the direction of Quesada Ave, so maybe her kittens are in someone's yard on your block. Animal Care and Control will come and take them away and get them into homes if we can locate them. I was about to take her in to be adopted when I realized that she had just had kittens so I did not want to take her away from her litter.

Besides this immediate concern, I am interested in working with Animal Care and Control in an ongoing way to control and care for the cat population in our neighborhood. We can get the feral (un-tame) cats spayed and neutered by using humane traps. Friendly, socialized cats like this calico can be easily adopted. There was a really cute black and white cat who was coming to our back door, and we brought him to A.C.C. He was given a good home within a week! I have the name of a volunteer with A.C.C. who will help us. San Francisco will not kill any cats that are adoptable, and they will return feral cats to our streets after they have been spayed and neutered; they won't kill the cats.

Can you please pass on the calico cat pictures to others in the neighborhood to see if we can find her litter? Thanks. And if others want to unite to work on these kitty issues, I would like to connect with them.

Please let Nan know if you can help!

Quirky Third Street history

Contributed by Jim Ansbro

Some of you may recall the Urban Renewal projects of the 1970's which moved "skid row" from Third & South Park over to Sixth St.

I have a delightful book about S.F.'s "Three Street" written in 1962. It is very romanticized image of skid-row; but if you've wandered around SOMA's alleys recently, you'll recognize all the characters. Start @ Dave's Bar, 29 Third St. (or W.B.Jr.Blvd.?)

At this month's meeting of the SF Museum and Historical Society, it's founder (Charles Fracchia) recalled his father warning him to "work hard - or you'll end up at Third & Howard." Charles lamented that he wishes he had ended up there - in one of the New High Rise Condos...

The Salame factory Charles' father took him to as a boy, is still here in the Bayview.

Rename Third St. poll

The poll is still open!

Results so far trend in the "No" direction. Comments are ranging from "Great way to acknowledge African-American history and culture in the neighborhood" to "You have GOT to be kidding!"

Media center at Hunters Point Shipyard

by Heidi Hardin
Think Round Inc./Children’s Mural Program

Shipyard Community Arts (formerly the Arts Center Working Group) has formed a Media and Communications arm to explore using technology as a focus for teaching and learning. Student projects involving web design, broadcast and internet media, filmmaking, and other digital arts are envisioned for a classroom setting.

The Graphic Communications program envisioned will combine technology and the arts, providing students with essential skills training in graphic design including multimedia such as 3D animation and web design. A Broadcast Communications program will give students an opportunity to write, edit, and produce actual “on-air” radio, television and internet programs using state-of-the-art production equipment and facilities.

Also see Shipyard Trust for the Arts

Media in Bayview Hunters Point

Media here, like the neighborhood itself: wait a minute and it will change.

AsianWeek marked the New Year by closing its doors, and now even the San Francisco Chronicle finds itself in the path of economic downturn and new technology.

In the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, the dramatic shift in the way information is exchanged was never clearer than when the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, a sixteen year labor of love for publishers Willie and Mary Ratcliff and the many talented people drawn to their work, stopped printing last summer to revise their approach.

New publications have emerged in the past year, including Bayview Footprints “Local” News and the HP Journal. Online resources have multiplied, including the popular www.QuesadaGardens.org blog and online news groups like the BetterBayview Group. Public access television shows from community members, and pirate radio stations add to the communications patchwork of perspective.

Like this neighborhood, where neighbors from all points on the diversity spectrum live near one another, Bayview media-makers often differ in terms of perspective while remaining friendly: collaborating, linking, sharing content, and generally staying connected. The core values of community strength and justice seem to endure.

In the spirit of community, and in the context of a changing media environment, Footprints offers a very unofficial “round-up” of media resources that serve us all. We apologize in advance for any resource we’ve missed, and invite additions to our list.

Print Resources (also online):

San Francisco Bay View Newspaper – We all stand on these broad shoulders. A national and international newspaper, a Black newspaper (one of the top 10), and a community newspaper all rolled into one, the San Francisco Bay View remains vibrant with an expanded online presence and one print issue per month (mailed, not hand delivered). Usually neglected populations and subjects are kept “on the front page.” In a recent phone interview, Mary Ratcliff said, “It’s a real lifeline for the prison population.” The online version is packed with news and views for Bayview Hunters Point and beyond. Subscribe or donate at www.sfbayview.com.

Bayview Footprints “Local” News – This communications resource for community groups, including small and informal groups, emphasizes street-level, community-defined change led by people with deep roots in the neighborhood. It serves the BVHP exclusively. info@QuesadaGardens.org, www.BayviewFootprints.org or 415.822.0800

HP Journal – This online magazine-style resource with beautiful cover graphics profiles community leaders, businesses and perspectives. Longtime Bayview resident Kathy Perry, the writer/editor, has created a publication that feels “personal and real.” The online version is complimented by HP Journal stories published in the newly restructured Western Edition/HP Journal, now a joint publication. Kathy also edits the Western Edition. 415.439.8319 or editor@thewesternedition.com

Broadcast:

“Life on the Block” with James Ross – Resident James Ross hosts a 22-minute talk show on public access cable channel 29 every other Friday at 6pm. Recent shows have featured Linda Brooks-Burton from the library and Dr. Sharad Jain and Dr. Chitra Chandran from SF General Hospital. James@QuesadaGardens.org and www.accessf.org

Online Groups:

BetterBayview Group – An online news group with about 70 members that was created “for people who want to share information about programs, public meetings, social events or resources that are making Bayview a better place to live in San Francisco.” Past posts and discussions have focused on community meetings about the redevelopment of Bayview Hunters Point, Silver Terrace and India Basin, the creation of a Shipyard artists’ community center, neighborhood beautification and greening, and community advisory committee meetings. groups.yahoo.com/phrase/bayview

Bayview Hills Association – A companion to the blog below. groups.yahoo.com/group/bayviewhillsf/

Blogs:

QuesadaGardens.org – The Quesada Gardens Initiative’s blog is packed with content about community-building activity of all sorts. It started as a way to track the efforts of residents on Quesada Avenue who came together in 2002 to transform their environment by meeting one another and working together through community gardening and public art projects. Now, the blog covers a full range of happenings in the neighborhood. www.QuesadaGardens.org

Bayview Examiner – Part of a national aggregate of blogs, the Bayview Examiner is in the “neighborhoods and culture” category. Much of the content parallels the Quesada Gardens blog, but offers more perspective and opinion with an emphasis on innovations in community organizing and local systems. www.examiner.com/x-545-SF-Bayview-Examiner

Bayview Hills Association – An online resource that is useful if you missed one of the police stations’ emails or an article with gardening tips. bayviewhillassociation.blogspot.com

Websites:

Many community-based organizations, including Footprints member groups, have great websites with information specific to their programs and perspectives. “Google” them all!

BayviewFootprints.org portal site – Footprints member groups and others have been asking for one internet site where anyone can go to find the range of community-based online resources available to Bayview Hunters Point residents. That portal site is now online, and being refined. It includes a social networking tool. Please let us know if you have ideas about it, and help out in whatever way you can. Like Bayview Footprints “Local,” it’s an all-volunteer, not-for-profit contribution. www.BayviewFooptprints.org, 415.822.0800 or info@QuesadaGardens.org

Online Calendars and Events Listings:

BayviewCalendar.org community calendar – A completely open calendar for user-generated content (community events and meetings) donated by Footprints’ volunteers at the request of member groups and other community leaders who asked for a calendar that no single group “owns.” To promote your upcoming event in Footprints’ newsletters and eblasts, be sure it is listed on the calendar. www.BayviewCalendar.org

www.sfbayview.com, the online version of the SF Bay View Newspaper, maintains an excellent online calendar with a focus on African American community events.

Government- and redevelopment-related listings include BMAGIC which sends out emails emphasizing youth services info (contact Public Defender’s Office, 415.558. 2428), www.benefitingbvhp.org which lists Project Area Committee and Citizen Advisory Committee meetings (contact Urban Strategies Council at 510.893.2404), www.hunterspointcommunity.com with CAC meeting listings (maintained by Lennar Urban), and regular list serv communications from the Bayview Police Station which contain crime reports in addition to event listings (email SFPDBayviewStation@sfgov.org).

www.Facebook.com earns its ink:

Footprints’ informal polling of BVHP youth provided clear feedback about where our young people go online for information and connections. Facebook swept the poll, leaving www.MySpace.com in the virtual dust. And it’s not just youth anymore. Recently, Facebook overtook email as a way to communicate regardless of age.

For older folks hoping to keep up with the younger set, text messaging and Twitter seem to be next on the learning curve.

Library hosts VLSP

Here's yet another reason to love our library...

Sure, the Bayview library has books. But look more closely and you’ll find so much more: history archives, computer access, community-building gatherings, even life-changing services.

Take, for example, Volunteer Legal Services Program, or VLSP for short, which holds weekly office hours at our library, providing legal assistance to low income residents for free.

“The grannies are my weakness,” says Hali Reiskin, VLSP’s Community Lawyer.

One such woman struck Reiskin as the “quintessential granny…showering unconditional love for her grandbabies and looking forward to the next bingo outing.” But this woman “goes to bed at night [in Hunters View Housing Project] where gunshots can be heard regularly, she’s had to bury a child and grandchildren and has raised others in buildings that can generously be described as dilapidated.”

Reiskin advocated for the woman who had been overcharged several thousand dollars in rent by the San Francisco Housing Authority. She was able to keep the woman in housing that would have been lost otherwise.

VLSP also provides legal services at a housing project and a church in Bayview Hunters Point, and even makes house calls for those with mobility issues. If you need legal assistance, call 415.989.1616, visit www.sfbar.org...or simply stop by your Bayview branch library and say hello to Hali Reiskin!

New Bayview library - Update

by Linda Brooks Burton
Branch Manager- Bayview Library

Plans for the new Bayview branch library are moving along well. The schematic design process is 95% done, and we are now looking into the art opportunities for the branch.

In early January, a Community Artist Selection Panel was convened by the Arts Commission to select three artists to present their design proposals for public art at the Bayview Library. Community members on the panel include: Juan Fuentes, Lydia Vincent, Jeffrey Betcher and Linda Brooks Burton. The artists’ design presentations will be on display for public comment at the branch late next month.

Later in January, a Bayview Library Artist Orientation was held for the three artists selected as finalists: Marion Coleman, Ron Saunders, and Mildred Howard.

The architects for the Bayview project, THA Architects Inc., are asking the community for historical images to be considered for the exterior art/history panels. Some ideas for images include the Ohlone Indians, the Hunters Point Shipyards, Italian/Irish history, African-American migration, church and family.

In other library news, the building next door to the branch has been purchased and is now owned by the San Francisco Public Library. This building will be demolished along with the existing library to make room for the new Bayview branch.

The existing branch is scheduled to close in 2010. The Friends and Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library will be fundraising for the furniture, fixtures and equipment during the closure. The new branch will open in late 2011. In the meantime, interim library services will be held at the YMCA just around the corner on Lane St.

Bayview's healthcare approach

Pictured are Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and Southeast Health Center Director Dr. Mark Ghaly

Serious health issues affect communities like Bayview Hunters Point more than others, while prevention and treatment are unequal in the reverse. The more challenging the times, the more difficult it is for those with unequal access to healthcare to stay well.

When illness strikes, the nearest trusted person or group becomes tremendously important. For some, the first place to turn is family, for others it’s church, longtime neighbors, or a familiar community-based organization.

Community health events that combine community-building with clinical services are models for success, and part of Bayview Hunters Point’s history of public health strategies that blur the lines between industry and “grassroots.”

On Saturday February 21st, women’s health was celebrated in what was part festival and part medical clinic. Staff from the Southeast Health Center, the driving force behind the event, mixed balloons and a raffle with free professional mammograms, clinical breasts exams, and other important services.

A stream of women and their families coursed through Mendell Plaza and the Bayview Opera House at the all-day event while healthcare professionals provided screening, taught workshops, and distributed information.

The urgency of health issues facing women in Bayview Hunters Point was never far from mind. A mid-day lunch and line-up of speakers provided what were some of the most moving moments of the day.

Breast cancer survivor and advocate Gail Bishop shared her story as an example of the importance of early detection. Supervisor Sophie Maxwell spoke about the pain of losing her son to a five-year battle with cancer, and pointed out the impact of serious health issues on family, friends and community. Bayview Hunters Point native and Community Health Worker, Veronica Shepard, was credited for much of the organizing work.

Another opportunity for neighborhood residents to get healthier is Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds, Families First, the Southeast Community Facility Commission’s 2nd annual health fair scheduled for Saturday, April 4th from 10am to 2pm at 1800 Oakdale.

“We want to bring our community’s children, youth and families together to celebrate and improve health and wellness,” stated Commission President Willie B. Kennedy. “Obesity and diabetes can be prevented and treated if we commit ourselves to education and to finding ways to connect services with the people who need them.”

Residents of Bayview Hunters Point, doctors from SF General Hospital, and community leaders from throughout the neighborhood will join together in the coming months to discuss the community’s healthcare needs, and to develop a national policy brief that informs the current healthcare debate. The specific needs of the Bayview Hunters Point community and communities like it will be highlighted.

A series of facilitated discussions hosted by organizations that represent a diverse spectrum of knowledge and experience with regard to BVHP’s mental and physical healthcare landscape is now being scheduled. A draft policy brief will be presented at an open “Bayview Footprints Forum.”

It’s all part of a partnership, called “Seva,” between the BVHP community and the UCSF Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program at SF General Hospital. Seva emerged from the Southeast Food Access Working Group, and was designed to build bridges of understanding between the hospital and the community.

Informal poll - rename Third Street?

The Quesada Gardens Initiative and Bayview Footprints Network can't take a position on the proposed renaming of Third Street to "Willie Brown, Jr. Blvd." But YOU can!

Take this 5 second poll to offer your "thumbs up...down...sideways."

Health fair focused on children and families

Healthcare and physical fitness experts appeared at the Southeast Community Facility on Saturday April 4th at the 2nd Annual Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds, Families First Health Fair. Games, prizes, panel discussions, and information booths were lined up to address diabetes and obesity, public health issues that are especially prevalent in communities like Bayview Hunters Point.

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds, Families First was a family-friendly, free event organized by the Health and Housing Ad-Hoc Committee of the Southeast Community Facility Commission with support from businesses, schools, community-based organizations, and concerned citizens from Bayview Hunters Point.

The event was presented in partnership with five community Elementary School: Bret Harte, Dr. George W. Carver, Dr. Charles Drew, Malcolm X Academy, and Willie Brown Academy. School children’s paintings and essays will be featured. Children, youth, and their families from all backgrounds are encouraged to attend.

Lots of healthy foods, health information, and health testing were provided free of charge.

“We want to bring our community’s children, youth and families together to celebrate and improve health and wellness,” stated Commission President Willie B. Kennedy. “Obesity and diabetes can be prevented and treated if we commit ourselves to education and to finding ways to connect services with the people who need them.”

According to a San Francisco Department of Public Health 2004 Community Health Assessment, two-thirds of African Americans in San Francisco are overweight or obese. And the Bayview ranks highest among San Francisco neighborhoods in ambulatory hospitalizations for adult uncontrolled diabetes.

Pictured is Josepha from Rainbow Grocery at 2008's health fair.

Third Street may be renamed for Willie Brown

The Bayview Hunters Point community and its neighbors are just now hearing the news that Third Street, the major surface street that defines much of the Southeast Sector, may be renamed as part of Mayor Gavin Newsom's birthday gift to former Mayor and California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, Jr.

Today's San Francisco Chronicle reports that "Newsom and his staff have been working quietly behind the scenes to drum up support and got Supervisor Sophie Maxwell to carry the legislation."

The renaming will require the Board of Supervisor's support, and is sure to raise a host of questions. Many San Franciscan's recall the renaming of "Army Street" to "Cesar Chavez Blvd," which remains a contentious issue in some pockets of the city.

It wouldn't be the first time for the renaming of Bayview's main drag. According to the Bayview History Preservation Project, Third Street was once known as Railroad Avenue in reference to the street cars that connected the neighborhood to the City's downtown, and to the Southern Pacific Railroad which was a defining feature of the area until the 1950's. Before it was called "Railroad Avenue," the road was known as "Hunters Point Blvd."

Bayview was embroiled in controversy over the renaming of streets in the early part of the last century when Father O'Sullivan of All Hallows Parish protested naming a street for Revolutionary War-era patriot Thomas Paine who O'Sullivan considered to be an athiest and an "infidel."

BVHP's early years

Excerpt from the Bayview History Preservation Project's exhibit at the branch library on Third and Revere:

Has the main drag that runs through the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood always been called “Third Street?” Older residents will know the answer to that question, and many will remember when Third was called “Railroad Avenue” and, before that, “Hunters Point Boulevard.”

It’s not just the name that has changed.

At the turn of the century, the road was little more than a broad wagon trail, clay or mud depending on the season. It was graded in 1917 in a surge of investment following the 1916 flood that crept up the road from Innes Avenue. Until being discontinued in the 1950’s, Southern Pacific rail cars steamed along a rugged waterfront that was still wild between clumps of one- and two-story wooden commercial building. The train ran from Townsend and King Streets, criss-crossing what is now Third and running passengers directly through the neighborhood.

Whatever you call it, Third Street has always been a major artery for San Francisco.

Until the mid-1900’s, the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood was critical to San Francisco as the City’s food-shed: its pastures were filled with livestock and family farms, residents almost always had a backyard garden (if not cows and chickens) to supply their own tables, and Chinese fishermen and others actively harvested the bay. The docks included a thriving open-air market that many residents still remember as the best place to buy shrimp. “Truck farms” used Third Street to transport the wealth of food to San Francisco’s wholesale market.

Light industry speckled the area, including a concentration of breweries servicing the still untamed City. Lucky Lager Brewery, one of the best known, was also the last brewery in the neighborhood to be torn down or go out-of-business. After the U.S. Civil War, the Hunters Point Drydocks began keeping trade afloat, and in 1916 built what was then the largest drydock in the world. The military, already ensconced in the Presidio, took notice and began negotiations to acquire the commercial facility.

As food and beer trucked north on Third, new residents traveled south to take up residence in the growing neighborhood. Working class immigrants - Chinese, Italian, Maltese, Irish and German – gravitated to the area because it was less expensive and reminded them of the rural areas they came from. The work was hard, but life was in many ways idyllic given the bay-front beauty of the land and the determination of the diverse populations to build a cohesive, peaceful community.

A notable surge of new residents followed the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Much of the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood was built on bedrock, and the fire stopped far short of its border. If you had relatives or friends in the Bayview when the disaster occurred, you were lucky indeed.

Samoan community mourns

The Samoan community, a growing part of life in San Francisco's Southeast Sector, suffered back-to-back losses when Lepeti Tuitele Fazio died in a freak accident March 6th in American Samoa while she was preparing for the funeral of her brother, Senator, Paramount Chief Tuitele Fofo Tony Tuitele. The siblings were part of a clan that for generations has included chiefs of the western region.

The losses have devastated the South Pacific nation, and are deeply felt in Bayview Hunters Point where the Samoan community has deep roots. A major hub for the community is the First Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa in Bayview on Hollister Avenue.

A large percentage of the neighborhood's school children is American Samoan, with Malcolm X Academy reporting the largest concentration, about a third of the overall student body. For KIPP Academy, on Key Avenue, that figure is 9%.

For more info: The Samoan Community Development Center has been serving the needs of the local community since 1991.

Webspot to celebrate 1st anniversary

Everyone's favorite internet cafe *slash* learning center is turning one year old. Don't miss the celebration on Saturday, March 28th from 10am to 7pm.

On your next visit to Webspot, be sure to check out the new recording studio there. Ask FJ Cava, Webspot owner and Bayview resident, for information about using this new neighborhood resource.