Published since 2005. San Francisco is a city that belongs to the people of the world. Hence this blog has a global focus. The name "Sam Spade's San Francisco" refers to an exciting era in the City's history, the time of Dashiell Hammett's fictional gumshoe and San Francisco character, Sam Spade. My name is Tom Dunn and I edit the blog. I'm not as exciting as Sam Spade, but I am definitely a San Francisco character.Contact or on Twitter -- Search blog below.
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Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Bayview - Hunters Point
The recent news that the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency unanimously voted to create a 1,300 acre redevelopment site in the Bayview - Hunters Point (BV-HP) is being met with mixed emotions. One one hand are many of the current residents of the BV-HP who say redevelopment will really mean minority relocation - a repeat of what happened to Black San Franciscans in the Fillmore. On the other hand are the civic planners and community leaders, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, who see the proposal as a way to give the BV-HP a needed economic boost to compliment the Third Street Light Rail project which is now almost finished.
San Francisco does not have a good record of preserving minority communities. The Japanese were all but kicked-out of San Francisco and today's Japantown is a weak remembrance of what used to be. Past city planning power brokers under the direction of Justin Herman during Mayor George Christopher's administration almost completely destroyed the thriving Black community in the Fillmore. These were dark and embarrassing chapters in San Francisco's history.
To prevent a repeat performance we absolutely must have the following:
1) We need clear and effective safeguards to assure that a 1,300-acre redevelopment of BV-HP is not going to dislocate Black families in favor of deep-pocketed yuppies in search of more landscape to gentrify. We need a clear and direct plan from the mayor to assure us of protection for the existing BV-HP community.
2) We also need - just as surely - a clear plan to keep the BV-HP from returning to being a dirty, crime-ridden, felon-infested narcotics supermarket. No taxpayer wants to give lazy, weapons-carrying gang-affiliated dope dealers new homes paid for by public money. This taxpayer, at least, wants only to put that variety of BV-HP resident into a cell at San Quentin. We need a believable plan from the mayor to close all those corner liquor stores along Third Street and turn up the police heat high enough that we can keep all those baggy-pants-wearing street-corner dope dealers in prison ... and that is going to require a very significantly increased budget for law enforcement in the BV-HP.
It is also going to take a strong and clear commitment from District Attorney Kamala Harris to prosecute those dope dealers and assure us that they stay behind bars.
A 1,300 acre redevelopment of the Bayview - Hunters Point community will only work if we have these absolutely essential guarantees in place.
5 comments:
Anonymous said...
The Bayview - Hunters Point is an eyesore. No amount of money is going to change basic living patterns for many of the current residents. People who toss their trash and fast-food discartds on sidewalks, people who are too lazy to go to City College and get an education, people who find it easy to make fast money selling crack cocaine, people who want little or nothing to do with a mainstream society they see as being "white", and people who see law enforcement and civic government as being the enemy - no amount of money or redevelopment will change these people into solid community members.
If we put redevelopment money into the Bayview - Hunters Point without doing something to get rid of the layer of scum out there, we will be flushiong our tax dollars right down the toilet.
What about some federal money to go after the dope dealers. murderers and gang members? Is any federal money available to us?
Friday, March 10, 2006 12:16:00 PM PST
Marcus Williams said...
What about jobs! Redeveloping the Bayview and Hunters Point and providing new housing without providing job opportunities is not going to create change. We need jobs. We need training. Where is the money going to come from for that?
You didn't taslk about the projects. What about those bone-ugly low-income public housing projects in Hunters Point? What about the dope dealers and gang members that live in those projects. Can't we tear them down and start fresh?
The SF Redevelopment Agency has a 26-page plan. It protects all residentially-zoned property and other legal dwelling units from eminent domain. It uses as a guide the 81-page Concept Plan, developed over 9 years by the BHVP-elected Project Area Committee (PAC). Redevelopment can't condemn any business without a public hearing and the approval of the PAC.
Public housing projects aren't part of the plan. They remain under the separate jurisdiction of the SF Housing Authority. Yes, there are plans to rebuild them. Some of their residents have already been evicted. No one with a felony on their record will be allowed back after the units are rebuilt.
Unless you live in BVHP, your tax dollars won't be coming here. Only our "tax increment" dollars will be diverted from the general fund and funneled back into our community, partly for improvements such as streetscaping, facade improvements, and code upgrades; partly for "community benefits;" and about half to ensure affordable housing in new residential developments.
We'd welcome federal money and any other help to get rid of the drug dealing. Anyone who wants to contribute can stop doing drugs and ask their friends and family to do the same.
5 comments:
The Bayview - Hunters Point is an eyesore. No amount of money is going to change basic living patterns for many of the current residents. People who toss their trash and fast-food discartds on sidewalks, people who are too lazy to go to City College and get an education, people who find it easy to make fast money selling crack cocaine, people who want little or nothing to do with a mainstream society they see as being "white", and people who see law enforcement and civic government as being the enemy - no amount of money or redevelopment will change these people into solid community members.
If we put redevelopment money into the Bayview - Hunters Point without doing something to get rid of the layer of scum out there, we will be flushiong our tax dollars right down the toilet.
What about some federal money to go after the dope dealers. murderers and gang members? Is any federal money available to us?
What about jobs! Redeveloping the Bayview and Hunters Point and providing new housing without providing job opportunities is not going to create change. We need jobs. We need training. Where is the money going to come from for that?
Marcus Williams
You didn't taslk about the projects. What about those bone-ugly low-income public housing projects in Hunters Point? What about the dope dealers and gang members that live in those projects. Can't we tear them down and start fresh?
The SF Redevelopment Agency has a 26-page plan. It protects all residentially-zoned property and other legal dwelling units from eminent domain. It uses as a guide the 81-page Concept Plan, developed over 9 years by the BHVP-elected Project Area Committee (PAC). Redevelopment can't condemn any business without a public hearing and the approval of the PAC.
Public housing projects aren't part of the plan. They remain under the separate jurisdiction of the SF Housing Authority. Yes, there are plans to rebuild them. Some of their residents have already been evicted. No one with a felony on their record will be allowed back after the units are rebuilt.
Unless you live in BVHP, your tax dollars won't be coming here. Only our "tax increment" dollars will be diverted from the general fund and funneled back into our community, partly for improvements such as streetscaping, facade improvements, and code upgrades; partly for "community benefits;" and about half to ensure affordable housing in new residential developments.
We'd welcome federal money and any other help to get rid of the drug dealing. Anyone who wants to contribute can stop doing drugs and ask their friends and family to do the same.
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