Creativity is all yours - Thursdays

Not Your Grammies Theater can be your theater at least once a week. The informal group of artists, writers and performers performed at the Quesada Gardens during the last Bayview Outdoor Film Festival, and has provided actors for other projects in and around the neighborhood.

Now, Not Your Grammies Theater is conducting a performance and writing workshop every Thursday night from 6:30 to 8pm in the community room at the Bayview branch library on 3rd at Revere.

For more information, contact Amy Crumpacker, organizer and performer extraordinaire!

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Quesada Gardens get spring love

The landmark urban garden on the 1700 block of Quesada Avenue, just off 3rd Street in the heart of Bayview, was the focus of massive volunteerism once again this Spring. Large groups of students from UC Stanford mixed with neighbors and their friends to pull a half dozen stumps and invasive trees to give other plants in the garden room to breath.

The student groups have been volunteering with the Quesada Gardens Initiative since 2004, and are a valued part of the community-building network in Bayview. Also represented at the Sunday gathering were UC Santa Cruz, Michael Lee Environmental Foundation, and several friends of Quesada Gardens who were visiting as part of Sunday's streets closure in Bayview.

When resident leaders Joel McClure, Mary McClure, Tom Galante, Tony Tarket, Jacob Watta, Edward Allen, Carla Eagleton, Tai Tran, and Mark Philpot gave the thumbs up, the group gathered for a cook-out on the street to celebrate their work, and to share thoughts about community-building, sustainable eco-systems, grassroots strategies to link people to place, and the like.

The community work day left the "Bayview Is..." mural touched-up, the Founders' Memorial garden space cleared for finished landscaping on the hillside, and the lower garden weeded and ready for your visit.

Picture by Ralph Shardt, Michael Lee Environmental Foundation.

Bayview arts festival ushers in Summer

Doggy Diner heads watched over the festivities

ART 94124 hosted its third block festival on Saturday, June 5th, under a warm Bayview sky. Stage performances, Cyclecide rides, good food, family arts, and neighborliness ruled the day. In the ART 94124 Gallery was an anniversary benefit group exhibit. Visit ART 94124's web site for more.

See great pictures of the 2008 festival and 2009 festival. And even more here!

Congratulations to all the organizers!

Krispy Korner project emerges

Krispy Korner in development circa 2009

The artful group of friends living and working near a site that has become known as Krispy Korner are tending the urban gem they created.



See pictures online.

Krispy Korner is one of a cluster of connected community-building projects emerging from the grassroots in the heart of Bayview. The strategies residents who live near each other employ, from growing food to creating art, vary widely. The results are the same: stronger relationships between people and place and an improved safety net.

As the project has grown, more
than one corner is included.

Project Row Houses is an example of how powerful this community-building approach can be to creating positive social change that can be sustained over time.

Brown Bombers fight summer blues

If a young person in your life is having the “I don’t have anything to do” summer blues, the Brown Bombers may have the right medicine: a mix of equal parts fun and education.

The Brown Bombers, an all volunteer football, cheer and dance organization serving Bayview Hunter's Point youth ages five to fifteen, is hosting its annual Family Day event on Saturday July 10th from 11am to 3pm at King Park and Pool.

That’s good news for your bluesy youngster, and for adults looking for a meaningful way to help our community’s next generation.

One organizer is involved because of the “opportunity to inspire, motivate, and educate youth about nutrition, the benefits of physical activity, and the ability to work as a team.”

Learn more online, email the organization for an application, or call 415.820.1516 to talk with an organizer. Then stop by on July 10th and meet some great neighbors. Say “hi” to our friends at the Blue Dolphin Youth Swim Team while you’re at the pool!

The ladies are in power

Taneshia Miller and her sister Raquel Miller were raised in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter’s Point neighborhood where they proved to their community that a commitment to education, hard work and helping others can lead to success.

Together, they founded LADIES IN POWER to improve the lives of young ladies by mentoring them toward greater self-esteem and confidence so that they can reach their highest potential.

In March 2009 Woman's History month, Ladies In Power was honored by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women for outstanding commitment and dedication to improving the lives of young women. The organization has just hosted its 1st Annual Cervical Cancer awareness summit.

While a student at J. Eugene McAteer High School, Taneshia began working at Yogurt Expressions (later named Boulé Café) in Bayview Hunter’s Point. She caught the entrepreneurial bug there from Lola Wittle, who owned the cafe and became Miller's mentor, and began 6 & 8 Vending, her first start-up venture.

While working at the Bayview branch of Wells Fargo Bank as a personal banker in 2004, her commitment to making a difference in the lives of other young women from the community took hold of her. She is pursing a degree in Psychology at Contra Costa Community College.

Raquel Miller has been working in the legal field for over five years, and is now pursing a degree in Paralegal Studies and Business Management at San Francisco Community College. She began that career track as as an office assistant, working her way up to law clerk while keeping in mind her goal of helping children through the practice of family law.

Ms. Miller co-founded Ladies In Power with her older sister Taneshia Miller in 2006 both young women deciding they wanted to help change the lives of young women in their community and in the world by providing them with guidance, support and education.

Ladies In Power was founded in San Francisco, California in 2006 by sister’s Taneshia & Raquel Miller. In 2008 Ladies In Power begin improving the lives of young ladies by proving them with knowledge, support, and life changing experiences.

"We provide the tools needed to build self-esteem, add confidence and self-motivation in the lives of young ladies," Taneshia wrote recently. "It hasn't been an easy road, but we're committed. We won't stop until our vision is a reality."

Taneshia and Raquel Miller are themselves powerful community servants and professionals. They are what they envision for other women in the neighborhood: ladies in power.

Rare BVHP community leadership in health policy

People who live in communities like Bayview Hunters Point are often the "target" of public policy and programs meant to help them, but seldom part of the process of developing the strategy. 

The Seva* Partnership, a collaboration between the BVHP community and the University of California Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency program at San Francisco General Hospital has turned all of that on its head.

What are the strengths and barriers to wellness in Bayview Hunters Point? What residents have said might surprise you. In the mix are our beautiful and challenging environment, the power of social cohesion, and responses to violence that are barely on the public policy radar anywhere else.

See a brand new draft of the full Seva* Health Policy & Advocacy document online. While you are there, use the cool interactive tool to leave a comment or two!

Pictured: Sudeep Motupalli Rao, a Seva* team member who organized the second "Seva* Accountability Council" meeting earlier this month, is found reviewing the policy recommendations for wellness in his neighborhood.

Marie Harrison: Living and working in her community

Marie Harrison’s roots in Hunters Point and environmental activism run deep, and helps connect everyone on the Quesada Gardens block in Bayview to a better understanding of the challenges neighbors face just up “the hill.”

Marie has lived at the Quesada Gardens for years now - working hard with husband Na’im, daughter Arieanne, and grandchildren Giovanni and Roman – to build a better life for family and community. Always in motion, she can be seen racing from home to public hearing to community meeting…and her day might just be getting started.

Marie combines the personal and political. In fact, she would have a tough time separating them. Her work to address environmental and public health concerns through grassroots strategies is as much a part of her as her personal connections with people struggling with life-threatening illness. She always finds the time to talk with the people she sees, and will share the latest news and most current statistics about the issues that have shaped her life and work.

Marie brings a sense of urgency to her work, whether that work is as a community organizer, candidate for office, writer or speaker. As an African American woman, proud Bayview Hunters Point resident, and loving matriarch of the Harrison family, she brings warmth and personality to all she does.

Bayview Footprints salutes Marie as an involved community-member, good neighbor, and tireless advocate for the causes she champions.

See the new "Beyond Toxicity: A Project by Storm" video

Marie wants you to know about this new video which personalizes the experience of Hunters Point community members. The video begins with the refrain, “I’m still here,” and shares the stories of breast cancer survivors who live near the Superfund Site at the Shipyard.

From this new work...

“It's a civil right that you are allowed to heal, and live in a safe and clean environment.” Sharone Greenpeace, breast cancer survivor and one-time Hunters Point resident

"I cried...shut off, closed up, stopped talking to people for awhile." Shelia Cole, breast cancer survivor

TEDx SoMa features the power of the hug

If you have visited the Quesada Gardens in the heart of San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood, you may have gotten a hug from Co-Founding gardener and Board of Directors Chair Annette Young Smith. The hug is one of the things visitors remember most!

An old fashioned hug still counts for a whole lot, even in the emerging world of Interactivity in the Digital Future.

The future was current, and innovative ideas were commonplace at TEDx SoMa's May 21st event at pariSoma Innovation Loft, held in partnership with Institute for the Future.

Jeffrey Betcher, who works on the cusps of digital and pre-digital worlds where traditional community-building continues while the digital cloud thickens, delivered one TEDx talk about a project he directs: Quesada Gardens Initiative.  He shared the story of how his neighbor Annette, who doesn't have an email address, inspired a rag tag band of Bayview residents to change the world where they lived.

SF Weekly reported that the event "brought out some of the most innovative minds, both as speakers and attendees," and posted a slide show of event pictures by Julie Blaustein on its website.

Hug v. Tech was streamed live on Justin TV and other online outlets. The event earned over 100,000 views. Hug v. Tech and other Tedx talks can be viewed on Youtube.

Jeffrey Betcher works on the cusps of digital and pre-digital worlds where traditional community-building continues while the digital cloud thickens.  His TEDx talk includes the story of how his neighbor Annette, who doesn't have an email address, inspired a rag tag band of Bayview residents to change the world where they lived.