Wild Bayview - Then and Now

by Amy Clark

When I moved to the Bayview in 2008, I discovered that my dog Danny and I could walk two blocks down Van Dyke to the end, pick our way around the ever-present illicit garbage dump, slip past the fence and the junkyard with its cats, and find ourselves in a beautiful wild area on Yosemite Slough. It didn’t have a name for me then, it was just “the wild area at the end of the street where I take my dog.”

The path led through beautiful and abundant wildflowers which I picked for my kitchen table, by the abandoned boat perched on a small rise in the grass, past the concrete jetty where teenagers came to hang, the occasional homeless camper and an abandoned community garden, all the way to the “Under Environmental Investigation for Hazardous Substances—KEEP OUT” sign posted on the barbed-wire fence.

The path circled back again, through an open area where I discovered dog-owners came regularly to let their friends run free. Several abandoned warehouses hunkered there, in precarious condition, with bold graffiti art splashed across imposing walls. Twice, on a Sunday in the early dawn, I found happy and still partying ravers, their cars parked in the grass, holding their red plastic beer cups.

I met a chef who showed me pictures on his phone of his underground locovore restaurant. I met a young couple, clearly still in love, and their enormous, jolly black dog. I ran into one of the many artists from the studio across the street (Cataclysmic Megashear Ranch), and occasionally a friendly neighbor whose name I regretfully never learned. There was a frightening Rottweiler-Pit mix, off-leash, whose owner did not seem to have control or responsibility for his companion. But the area was wonderful for the sense of freedom, a convenient place two minutes away from my door. Danny ran free, chased rabbits, and smelled the flowers.

I looked out on the inlet and saw abandoned tires, a destroyed boat, random concrete pilings and enormous growths of rebar exposed at low tide. There were (and are) the several housing projects across the water which I know are oppressed by high cancer rates likely due to the Naval Shipyard Superfund site with its buried plutonium treasures and toxic construction waste. They are framed in the background by the luxury condos built on the hill behind, and the City Park Restoration Area at the top of Key Street where once I had been startled by a bobcat.

It was a striking place to be, particularly at sunrise and sunset, with the light and the silence and the green, the neighborhood using it peacefully and with pleasure.

The area has become the San Francisco Estuary Project in partnership with California State Parks. According to their website:

The two-phase restoration of Yosemite Slough will create the largest contiguous wetland area in the County of San Francisco. The project will help restore essential wildlife habitat, improve water quality, and prevent erosion along the shoreline of the City of San Francisco—an area of the bay where tidal wetlands have been most impacted and suffered the greatest loss due to urbanization.

So no more off-leash dog walks. But I wonder, could this be a milestone in the environmental cleanup of the neighborhood, and a gift to the entire Bay Delta?

Dog-owners still visit. The garbage at the cul-de-sac is mostly gone, for now; all buildings have been removed, and there are no more wildflowers or invasive pampas-grass. The ground has been ploughed under, leaving a hard corrugated effect that is a danger to my dog and his bad knees. But that is what comes with phase one of the project, and what creates the foundation for the landscape to come.

A gravel road runs through, and (thank goodness) they have spared one beautiful tree next to which is a dumpster with the tag “radiation tree.” The tree is still very beautiful, and intelligent. It anchors the place for me.

The coastline is carefully delineated and re-formed, so the tides will flow cleanly and create new homes for migratory birds and sea-life. The slough is part of the underground water system that runs from the Bayview to the Presidio, where the indigenous Ohlone once had summer camps. If all goes according to plan, soon there will be a visitor center and disability access, and the land will be actively protected and maintained.

I have taken my students to the other end of the system and to Heron’s Head Park many times. It is interesting to imagine the network of water that runs under the city, and the river that rushed down what is now 18th Street.

I’m glad that Yosemite Slough has been adopted. While I’m sad that Danny has lost an off-leash playground, I know that, with all the other parks in the area, he and I will do fine. I do wonder how the project fits in with other projects, projects that focus on people as well as the birds. I wonder how many other neighbors know about the project, and what their perspective might be.

What is certain is that, in the four years since I moved here, much has changed, and much has stayed the same.

Re-naming the Library after Linda Brooks-Burton | Update

The campaign to name the Bayview Branch Library for Linda Brooks-Burton, a local hero who died suddenly in September, has reached new milestones. Both as a managing librarian and Bayview community member, Linda had devoted her life to the benefit of education, youth and families, and to the preservation of African American history.

Over 650 people have signed on to the campaign, on paper petitions at the branch library, and through a petition the campaign organizers have circulated online. Well over half of the signers of the online petition live in zip codes outside the 94124 and 94134 areas, which may indicate that Linda touched the lives of more people than locals may have known.

A committee of organizers met at the Bayview Branch Library on October 21st to discuss the campaign. Lydia Vincent organized and facilitated the meeting which included petition originators Norita Collins and Fran Carter. Other participants were Dorris Vincent, Espanola Jackson, Geoffrea Morris, Mary McClure, Rene Gonzalvez, Jeffrey Betcher, and library representative Christina Mitra.

San Francisco Public Library system leadership has expressed support of the campaign which seeks to honor one of their own. Norita Collins organized an October 31st meeting with SF City Librarian Luis Herrera and Chief of Branches Edward Melton that was also attended by community members Fran Carter and Jeffrey Betcher.

The campaign to honor Linda will be underway for at least one year, given the SF Public Library Commission’s policies for such things. Future campaign events will include involvement opportunities supporters, including attending a library commission meeting to formally register the library naming, participating in community feedback gatherings in the neighborhood, generating letters of support from key City and community leaders, and growing the number of petition signers.

Managing librarians of branch libraries across the City are being approached about hosting a petition in their branches as a way to grow support for the renaming of the Bayview Branch Library.

The next meeting of the campaign committee has been scheduled for December 18th at noon in the community room of the Bayview Branch Library. Find more information online.

Sign the petition today!

New mountain and sink hole | Another day in "Constructionville"

The view from Kathy Looper's backyard is very different than it was
before Mount Construction rose from the landscape. Photo: Footprints

Last Wednesday, Revere Avenue neighbors discovered something new about the place they live when a part of their street suddenly fell into space they didn't know existed underneath it.

A crew fills the "sink hole" on Revere Avenue.
Photo: Footprints

A liaison with the construction team building the new Willie Brown Academy school in the Silver Terrace area of Bayview told neighbors that the "sink hole" was connected to the removal of a huge cistern that had been excavated from the building site. A crew of workers began fixing the hole in the street right away.

While area history unexpectedly emerged, a mountain of dirt pushed further toward the skyline. After construction on the new building had begun, foundations of houses and other structures demolished decades ago were discovered buried beneath the old school grounds.

That long-forgotten layer of Bayview history surprised the engineers who used Google Earth to do research. A 1938 aerial view of the area helped them map debris remaining beneath the surface of today's Silver Terrace.

Building on top of old foundations, no matter how far down they are buried, is not allowed by Code. So contractors dug further than they intended, sifting out the older construction, and creating a series of terraces and a dirt mountain.

A 1938 aerial view of the Silver Terrace area. Photo: Google Earth

The mountain is temporary, until problems closer to the foothills can be worked out, and the excavated earth is moved back. Neighbors, in this place where construction can be found at most every turn, are taking it all in stride.

Elliott Johnson's informal food business

Elliott Johnson gets an assist from Gabriel 
in this Footprints' photo from 2008.

This story first appeared in a 2008 print edition of Bayview Footprints.

While Elliott operates a business that is informal in some ways, others could learn a lot from him. He's found a way to bring fresh fruit to a neighborhood that is short on food retailers, he keeps his overhead low, and he brings personality and warmth to one of Bayview's most unique and enduring businesses.

If you've spent time in the heart of Bayview, you know Elliott Johnson. You may not know him by name. But if someone mentioned "the watermelon man," you would know exactly who they meant.

Some changes are better than others. Elliott has seen the drug trade on the intersection decline, due in part to his presence. At the same time, older customers are passing away all too quickly, as new residents move into the neighborhood.

"That's sad," Elliott said. "But we have to keep up with the changes. My Hispanic customers already outnumber African American customers. That's when I put my daughter into a Spanish immersion class, and learned enough of the language myself to do a watermelon sale entirely in Spanish. My new customers love their sandia," he added with a smile.

The watermelons Elliott is selling now are from Arbuckle, a town about two and a half hours north of San Francisco. Elliott sets out before daybreak to harvest ahead of the unforgiving heat, then drives back to be at his Bayview post by noon. That makes for a long day, but the watermelons are as fresh as they come.

Tom Galante serves Bayview

This article was first published in Bayview Footprints Local News print edition, Summer 2008. 

When Tom Galante landed a job back in 1970 as a teller at Bay View Federal Savings and Loan (now US Bank) on the corner of Third and Quesada, he didn't realize how it would shape his life.

Tom Galante was pictured (left) in the New Bayview News in 1985 when he managed the Bayview Federal Savings and Loan on 3rd and Quesada Avenue.

In 1973, Galante bought a house half a block away from the bank where he worked.  He became immersed in the neighborhood's community-building work, and retired from the bank in 1995 as Vice President and Community Banking Center Manager.

"So many people knew me by the time I retired that I grew a beard for awhile just so I could walk down the street without having a hundred conversations," he joked recently.

Galante joined the BMA in 1972, and served as the organization's president for five years. During his tenure, the scope of the BMA's activity expanded from a four block radius to most of the 94124. He was solely responsible for "temporarily" blocking off what is now known as Mendell Plaza, a contribution that lives on to this day.

Galante also served on Mayor Feinstein's Third Street Task Force, was a founder of the Network for Elders, joined the board of the South Bayshore Community Development Corporation, and was a commissioner of the Southeast Community Facility for four years.

Even before Bayview became the epicenter of Galante's busy universe, "service" was an important value to him. In fact, he served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War, and was involved in the recovery of three Apollo space capsules.

Galante is a Co-Founder of Quesada Gardens Initiative, and serves on the organization's Board of Directors.  He is known as the "Ambassador of Quesada." It's a fitting title, and reminds newer Quesada and other Bayview residents how broad the shoulders are on which we all stand.

Bayview Merchant's Association 2008

First published in a 2008 Bayview Footprints Local News print edition that focused on Bayview business.

At age 83, The Bayview Merchants Association is the wise and active senior citizen of Bayview organizations. In 1925 when the BMA was founded, the Southern Pacific train still labored through the heart of the neighborhood along Railroad Avenue (now Third Street). Young women's dresses flirted with the knees. Hunters Point Dry Docks had just become the largest drydock in the country. And cows grazed on the hills between the railroad and the water.

Al Norman was the BMA President
when this article was published.
Lashon Walker is the current BMA
President. Photo: Footprints

It was a sleepy town compared to today, but business activity had reached a threshold that required an organized presence in the rough and tumble world of San Francisco's post-earthquake boom years. A generation later, as Allied forces fought toward victory in Europe, African-Americans from the South and poor whites from the "Dust Bowl" prairie states migrated to the neighborhood in search of decent jobs building war ships at the Shipyard.

And life was good in Bayview. The economy was growing along with the population. Women gardened. Children swam in the Bay. And men, whether in overalls or uniforms, strolled confidently up Railroad Avenue with money in their pockets. Bayview businesses, especially African-American businesses, needed a new voice and powerful advocacy.

Archie Reynolds understood the needs of both the African-American community and the business community when he reshaped the Bayview Merchants' Association just two years after coming to Bayview from New Orleans. In 1943, like so many others, he moved here for a Shipyard job, worked at the Post Office for a short time, and then opened "Bayview Bar B.Q." at 4720 Third Street. Before long, Reynolds moved his business to 5130 Third Street, renaming it "Archie's Bar B.Q."

According to a 1960 Spokesman Newspaper, Reynolds was committed to family and community. He opened his own business, he said, because he wanted to be sure he could afford to send his six children to college. Fast-forward to the present day, and the need for Bayview business to have a voice is as great as ever. What is that voice saying? ThThThird Street! Al Norman, current BMA President, has a vision.

"Go to 24th Street in Noe Valley on any Saturday afternoon," he said recently, "and you'll see what business in Bayview should be like." To reach that goal, Norman wants to see the capacity of businesses on Third Street strengthened, and the corridor made safe for shoppers. "We're going to work very hard on the safety issue," he said.

Is Norman optimistic? You bet!

"There's a coming together of the minds," he said, adding that there are better relationships between the individuals and groups involved in business revitalization than there has been in a long time. Mel Washington, owner of Bay Copy and past President (1999 to 2004) of the BMA, is equally optimistic.

"Things have already improved," he said, motioning out the window of his business at Bayview Plaza as the T Third train passed by.

Mr. Washington & Ms. Knighten

Joyce Knighten, Treasurer of the BMA and owner of Doublerock Foods, agreed. "I'm optimistic," she said. "Even with the problems, small businesses are doing okay." Washington and Knighten both recalled how the BMA had risen to address serious issues many times in its history - advocating with city government, supporting civic activities, addressing issues like safety, parking, and traffic. They also remembered the BMA's 75th anniversary gala at Hunters Point Shipyard, a big and elegant event at a time when the Shipyard was mostly dormant.

In years to come, that event may be recalled as the beginning of a new period in Bayview business, and not just a celebration of the past. The Bayview Merchant's Association is here today, working toward a time when Third Street is teeming with shoppers. Now that's a vision we can all share!

3rd Thursday Just for Us - 2008

First published in Bayview Footprints Local News print edition, Summer 2008.

Just for Us - and YOU TOO! (also known as "Third Thursday") is the traveling monthly social event organized by Bayview Footprints community builders. In May, the event celebrated business, art and community at Javalencia Cafe where owner/operators Servio Gomez and Mayra Mizrachi demonstrated that they are among the most community-minded business people in Bayview. Servio and Mayra have inspired Art 94124, a group of residents who have created an art space called Gallery 94124, and held an art festival in June.

Local CBS news covered the next Just for Us on July 24th when the event series found its way to the Quesada Garden on Quesada Avenue and Third Street. About 60 residents and community leaders had come together to launch the 2nd Annual Quesada Gardens Film Festival.

Nibblers tried EverGood Sausages donated by Bayview's favorite sausage maker, yellow watermelon from the Bayview Farmers' Market, and nectarines donated by the San Francisco Wholesale Food Market. Linda Brooks Burton supplied lemonade she made with locally harvested lemons. Young people stayed until nearly midnight using the fi lm projection system for a video gaming competition - a new aspect of the film fest added last year when Bayview kids convinced adults that video gaming on the projection system was "crush."

Steven Aiello received the first-ever "Karl Paige and Annette Smith Award for Community-Building." Fred Guni wowed the crowd with his guitar and voice, while The Green Goatee handed out alms of gardening advice.

As dusk approached, jazz diva Sarah Vaughan and silent film star Harold Lloyd came to life on the BIG outdoor screen, lent by Kristine Enea. Later, the younger crowd used the projection system for video gaming until nearly midnight.

On Saturday July 26th, the Quesada Gardens Outdoor Film Festival went into overdrive with a showing of Girl's Rock!, a feature-length documentary by QGI Co-Founder and resident Shane King. Shane took questions from the audience after the film, and then local youth swept in with a Play Station once again to make the universe safe from space pirates.

Both Just for Us and the film festival are ongoing efforts that residents have been organizing to introduce community gathering spaces to their neighbors, and to take back the night from fear and isolation.

Nearly 200 people from all backgrounds participated in these free events, providing another example of how Bayview residents are stepping up to uncover our neighborhood's strength.

Tom Galante, Bayview hero, passes

Longtime Quesada Avenue resident, Tom Galante, passed away after a brief illness on Friday, October 9th.

Tom was a familiar face in Bayview.  He managed the Bay View Federal Savings and Loan on 3rd and Quesada, just half a block from his home.  He served as President of the Bayview Merchants Association, and as a Commissioner for the Southeast Community Facility Commission.

He was also a Co-Founder of Quesada Gardens Initiative, which blossomed on the block where he lived.  While he was a Board Member, Board Treasurer, and Chief Financial Officer for the group, he may be best remembered as the friendly guy who managed to feed a lot of volunteers for a few dollars. 

Tom had been a longtime volunteer with the San Francisco Ducal Court.  In his final months, he was cared for by his partner, Tony Tarket.

See more about Tom online now.

Please comment with a remembrance of Tom.

Let's go to Linda's library - Sign the petition

Linda Brooks-Burton, 1962 to 2013

Tuesday's "Homegoing Celebration Service" honoring the life of Linda Brooks-Burton was so large it tested the limits of the Alex Pitcher Community Room at the Southeast Community Facility.  Hundreds of friends turned out to support the Brooks and Burton families, and to express the love Linda inspired in so many.

 

Rev. Ollie Robinson and Lydia Vincent both announced a petition to name the Bayview Branch Library after Linda.  At the end of the day, 300 people had signed it.

 

A similar petition is online now, ready for the electronic signatures of others who support honoring and remembering Linda Brooks-Burton in this way.

 

Click here to sign the petition (and please tell your friends about it)!

 

Many familiar locals spoke at Tuesday's service, including Jessie Whiley, Larry Ware and a representative of FACESSF, each of whom read original poems in honor of Linda.  Dr. Arelious Walker and Walter Johnson gave moving reflections.  Dennis Gilmore sang, and the FACESSF Dancers performed to a cheering audience. 

 

Among others who testified to Linda's contribution to the community was the YMCA's Gina Fromer.  During the period when the older library building was being demolished, and the present one constructed, the Bayview YMCA housed temporary services for the branch library.

 

Linda's husband, John Burton, was the final speaker, just prior to the blessing of food and Repast.  He expressed gratitude about the turnout with humor: "I'm the one who grew up here," he said.  "Linda was from LA!"

Linda Brooks Burton mourned by community

Linda at the 2012's Black Cuisine.

One of Bayview Hunters Point's most beloved members, Linda Brooks Burton, passed away yesterday.  While details are scarce, early reports are that she suffered a heart attack. 

Most community members know Linda from the Bayview's branch library where she served as Managing Librarian for nearly 15 years. She worked for the SF Public Library for a total of over 30 years.  She was a central champion of the new library building project.

Though she was promoted to Southeast District Manager for the SF Public Library, and began working from Civic Center, her commitment to the Bayview branch was unwavering.  

Linda was born in Los Angeles, lived in Bayview until a family move to Fairfield, and remained highly-involved in the life of the Bayview community she loved.

Linda co-founded  the Bayview History Preservation Project to build an archive of materials about the African American migration to the area, and other aspects of local history. She served on many boards, including those of the Whitney Young Child Development Center and the Healing Arts Youth Center. 

Linda also co-founded the Bayview Footprints Network of Community Building Groups. Her fellow co-founders are stunned at the loss.

Linda was glowing at the opening of the new Bayview Branch Library.

"I keep expecting to get a call about it all being a mistake," said Tom Kennedy of ttdigital.

"She was so young and beautiful and vibrant," said Heidi Hardin of Think Round Inc.

Footprints' deepest sympathies go to Linda's husband and three children, and to her entire family and community.

Pictures of a changing Shipyard

Building 101 is where the tour starts, and where artists have made a home for decades.

Several dry docks served various sizes of ships during WWII.

 

The "durable cover," seen in the foreground, may look like a parking lot so some, but is a key element of the clean-up and turnover of parcels to the City.  Word is that the City has plans for raised bed greening at this site.

The Shipyard had its own internal rail system during the years of peak activity.  The building with the tower was the only facility on the west coast that could work on the periscopes of submarines.

Evidence of habitat restoration is "blossoming."

The largest of the Shipyard's dry docks could accommodate enormous battleships and aircraft carriers.

Shipyard tours impress locals

The landmark gantry crane at the Shipyard remains an engineering marvel. Built in 1947, it is 330 feet tall, and can lift 450 tons. It was built to lift the steel turrets of battleships, and was the only one on the west coast that could do that. The "swale" in the foreground is a new 100 foot culvert designed to channel storm water to the Bay. The water management system and the "durable cover" over toxic waste are among the new engineering marvels at the Shipyard. Photo: Footprints

Bus tours of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, designed as informal updates about the Navy's environmental cleanup program, rolled between new construction and decay on Saturday, August 24th. 

The guided tours made six stops where participants heard about the testing, cleanup and environmental monitoring of what is a massive redevelopment project that has been decades in the making.

This structure suggests the long arc of history at the Shipyard.

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is the town-sized swath of prime waterfront real estate located below Islais Creek ... and within sight of India Basin, Heron's Head Park, and Hunters Point Hill ... in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. It was once the economic driver for the southeast part of the City. At its peak of activity, the Shipyard employed 30,000 people. 

"I was one of those 30,000," Bayview resident Ramiro Castro recalled. Ramiro was a teenage in the 1960's when he worked at the Shipyard. He is now an attorney who lives at 5800 Third Street. 

"I probably shouldn't have been breathing the asbestos," he said. "But we didn't know about that in those days." 

Some tour participants seemed as interested in the history and future use of the Shipyard as they were in the environmental issues that the Navy has been wrangling with. Others were focused on the cleanup status, aware the project has been the subject of contentious debates. 

Keith Tisdell, who like Ramiro is a former Shipyard worker, was pleased with what he saw on the tour. Keith had been featured in a 2007 SF Chronicle article in which he disclosed health problems he and his family were experiencing that he believes are associated with construction dust. 

When asked how he would rate the cleanup on a scale of one to ten, he paused for a moment then said, "Nine. We've come a long way." 

Environmental challenges at the Shipyard are no secret to concerned residents, or to urban planners and corporate developers who are re-purposing the land, parcel by parcel, as portions are deemed safe and then transferred to the City. The site was added to the Federal Superfund List in 1991, both an acknowledgment of the seriousness of the problems and a source of revenue for the clean-up effort.

Keith Forman

The Navy's tour organizer and guide, Keith Forman, got right to the point when he oriented tour participants in the auditorium of Shipyard Building 101. 

"We are the people who polluted the Shipyard," he said. "And we used it to defend the country." 

After World War II, demand for Shipyard services steadily declined along with the number of jobs and the general economic vitality of the area. Left behind was a morass of environmental problems that have affected the lives of residents ever since. 

Keith reviewed the long arc of history, planning and potential of the Shipyard site before participants stepped aboard a tour bus to see the sites. 

In addition to the Navy's Keith Forman, the tour was led by former Shipyard Residents Advisory Board (RAB) facilitator John Scott. Also on hand were Craig Cooper, the US EPA's coordinator of the Yosemite Slough clean-up, Martha Walters from ARC Ecology, and Ryan Miya from the State Water Board.

The Shipyard transformation ... into a large, new San Francisco community that mixes residency with commerce ... is on track. The site remains a historical landmark and a symbol of urban decay and potential. Stay tuned! 

- Jeffrey Betcher

Willie B. Kennedy passes suddenly

Anyone who worked with Mrs. Willie B. Kennedy during her long career might easily have thought she would go on forever.  At age 90, she remained an extraordinarily active and familiar presence in the community. 

According to Dr. Toye Moses, Southeast Sector Community Facility Commission Executive Director, Kennedy was working in her position as President of the Southeast Sector Community Facility Commission right up until her death earlier this week from a heart attack.

In a statement issued yesterday, Mayor Edwin Lee acknowledged Kennedy as a personal source of inspiration, adding that he was "glad she was able to help turn the first shovel of dirt on the project representing the beginning of the first phase of home construction at The Shipyard earlier this week."

In 1981, Kennedy was appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by Mayor Dianne Feinstein, succeeding Supervisor Ella Hill Hutch. She went on to re-election in 1984, 1988, and 1992.

In 1996, Kennedy resigned from the Board of Supervisors to become the administrative officer for the Public Transition Development Corporation.  She began her service as Commission President at that time.  She was also the longest-serving Board member for the Bayview Opera House.

Photo: Footprints caught up with Mrs. Willie B. Kennedy at the opening of Fresh & Easy in August 2011.  She was a familiar presence in Bayview, and a tireless advocate for her community.