Here’s a biased
perspective and commentary on Bayview Hunters Point from an insider.
+ Quesada Gardens is the
most beautiful street in SF. Many more community gardens are
sprouting.
+ I found more community
here in the first 6 months of living here than all 6 years of living in other
parts of San Francisco. People are tight. People hug one another, a lot. Even
before saying Hi.
+ We have the highest
home-ownership rate in SF. People feel rooted here. But conditions favor the
outmigration of families as seen in trends over the years. We’re trying to
progress without gentrification.
+ We can manage better
with chaos and uncertainty. We have no choice but to evolve. We’re getting
fitter.
+ We process 80% of the
city’s sewage at the Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant. The nearest homes are
a stone’s throw away across the street. We have tolerated and survived the smell
of raw sewage for decades. The stuff hasn’t hit the fan yet. But it will unless
things change for the better, soon.
+ We process 100% of all
US Mail at the main Post Office on Evans. W’ere the last drop for IRS tax
returns.
+ We process 100% of all
the city’s waste, recyclables and compost at Recology’s campus. Zero waste and
Cradle to Cradle? We’ll get there.
+ We shut down the
oldest power plant in California in 02006. Nonviolently.
+ When the bulldozers
were tearing down the power plant we broke ground and built the cleanest, most
sustainable classroom that serves as a model EcoCenter that is off the electric
grid AND the sewer grid with its in-house wastewater treatment
system.
+ We have 24 acres of
Wetlands at Heron’s Head Park, the only one of its kind in the Bay area with 100
species of birds documented by the Golden Gate Audubon Society.
+ We have the largest
and oldest artist colony in the US at the former Naval Shipyard.
+ The bulk of all the
city’s fruits and vegetables passes through the Wholesale Produce
Market.
+ Alemany Farmers Market
across the freeway is the oldest farmers market in the country.
+ During World War II
and beyond, the Hunters Point Shipyard employed close to 40,000 people many of
them African-Americans who moved here from the deep south. When the Shipyard
closed in 01976, these employees who were laid off, their kids and grand-kids
have endured the toughest economic conditions that deeply scarred the society.
There are many who are still hopeful for change.
+ A majority of the
families live in extended multigenerational families. Many single-parent
families struggle with raising children. We’re learning to breed better and
unconventionally. We’ve gone viral.
+ The 02010 census shows
the rising numbers of Latino and Asian community members.
+ We have the best
weather in town year-round with micro-climate 3, meaning sunny weather even when
the Sunset, Richmond, and Haight districts are foggy and cold.
+ The view of Hunters
Point as seen from the bay on a canoe or a whaleboat looks like parts of Italy
or Greece with small homes on terraced hills. We’ll get there, one day. We have
more than a dream.
+ 10,000 housing units
are being built in the next few years at Hunters Point and Candlestick. A
home!
+ We’re less than a 10
minute ride from the SFO Airport. Never mind that many of us are afraid to
fly.
+ We have a Caltrain
stop. Trains connecting SF and Silicon Valley, stop by to pick us up on the road
to prosperity.
+ We bridge AT&T
Baseball Park with Candlestick Football Stadium or whatever games we’ll play
there. Bring it on.
+ We’ve got a new UCSF
campus at adjoining Mission Bay and will have a new Cancer Hospital, Women’s
Hospital & Children’s Hospital in the next few years. Health - we get it.
We’re getting it.
+ We have the country’s
biggest Superfund site at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. We’ve been
providing an invaluable service to the city and region by fighting to get it
cleaned of its Hazardous wastes and Radioactive wastes fully and forever. The
fight is still going on.
+ We elected the
youngest cleanup advisor to the Navy, a teenager who now serves in Afghanistan.
He isn’t the kind to burn the Quran nor shoot innocent villagers on a mad
rampage.
+ Some have faith in
faith. We have about 45 churches, a mosque, a temple for African Jews and
more.
+ We provide a majority
of the customers for the City’s San Francisco General Hospital.
+ We have more pantry
houses and soup kitchens than anywhere else in the city.
+ San Francisco Food
Bank would be bankrupt without our participation in the thousands of tons of
nonperishables, canned goods and processed foods every year.
+ We’re disconnected
from BART. Our MUNI light rail service and bus service stinks. So at times, some
of us dont pay the fare, litter and urinate as and when necessary.
+ Some of us dont trust
the government. Some of us dont trust the whole system. It feels opaque,
nonresponsive, remote and alien to us. So, we created our own underground
microeconomy.
+ Some of us exhibit
CTSD, continous traumatic stress disorder. Some of us feel abandoned, vulnerable
and under constant threat from both the outside and inside. Under stress we
reach for comfort and discover in our mouths and hands, self-destructive
substances and tools designed and refined by industrial corporations in the 20th
century. We find that Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Drugs are not very pro
life.
+ Zip car is available
everywhere in the city, except in Bayview Hunters Point & Visitacion Valley,
our neighboring community further south. We tried to create a system of
“Community Cars” many years ago before “collaborative consumption” was in. But
insurance companies and their legal staff dont have the literacy for this nor
the imagination to recognize or comprehend innovation.
+ We’re looking hard and
patiently for transparency, accountability, integrity and a level playing field
in the system. There are many of us who want no charity or addiction to
generosity.
+ We want to capitalize
on our assets, our cultural and historical treasures, our shoreline access and
be connected to the waterways. We want to build new innovative watercraft, ride
a Bayview Ferry or take a water taxi from the future Hunters Point Ferry
Terminal. We want to be connected to Sausalito, Emeryville, Alameda, Alviso and
beyond in a 20-30 minute pleasurable water ride. People will come here to ride
our banana boat catamarans for Spring Break. And the bay will be clean to swim
in again.
+ We want to create our
stories that’ll inspire our future generations. We have a story to tell.
Ours.
+ We want to create a
few Bayview billionaires in the next decade.
+ We’re doing inventory,
mapping our assets, connecting our dots and holding our hands. Kum baya
optional.
+ We are Bayview Hunters
Point. We’re creating the beautiful communities, we witness now.
+ Live in peace. Live in
community. No stress. And leave with beauty.
_________
Inspired by
Unhackathon2, a TED City 2.0 Equality Challenge, held at the California College
of the Arts, April 6-7, 02012 in San Francisco. Written by Sudeep Motupalli Rao,
a local resident who’s been working in the community since 02003 and living at
Quesada Gardens in the heart of it since 02008. Please forward comments,
complaints and suggestions to: designer@beautifulCommunities.org
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.
Annette Smith, one of the first to plant flowers on the Quesada Avenue median strip in 2002, beginning a new phase of community involvement in a challenged neighborhood, offered an opening prayer at the post-work gathering near the new “Bayview Is…” mural on Newhall at Bridgeview. Smith offered thanks for the effort underway in the neighborhood, and asked for wisdom and guidance as more and more people get involved in the work.
The charming Bridgeview Garden, at the corner of Bridgeview and Newhall Streets in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood, is getting dressed up. A mural is already emerging, and is the next phase of a resident generated plan to create a community-defined destination point in what was once a tough stretch of a challenged neighborhood.
