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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Bayview - Hunters Point Begins to Rise!


How many people in San Francisco complain about the crime, the corner liquor stores, the gangs, the dumpy housing projects, the murders and the thriving narcotics business in the Bayview - Hunters Point? It is a figure that would instantly jump into the thousands. Let's face it: the Bayview - Hunters Point has been the most embarrassing neighborhood in San Francisco. It is a place we never mention to tourists. Mere mention of the name brings up images of murders, shootings, crack selling baggy-pant wearing felons, sleazy corner liquor stores that double as emporiums for drug dealers, and, piece-of-shit old cars with expensive amplifiers that produce that BOOM BOOM BOOM (license plates rattling all the way) that disturbs everyone's peace.

Deep inside this place Wells Fargo decided to open a branch. Wells Fargo is headquartered in San Francisco and has taken a step toward doing its part to bring normality and law-abiding life to an otherwise dismal neighborhood. The branch has reached its two-year milestone and recently announced it has attracted more than 1,000 local customers. The Third Street Light Rail project has helped a lot and the City's installation of surveillance cameras has had a major impact on crime reduction.

Joanne Schultz, SF downtown regional president for the bank, told the San Francisco Business Times, "The Bayview district has a lot of potential for economic growth and our strong numbers are a sign that things are looking better in the neighborhood."

This coming Saturday, September 16th, the Wells Fargo Bank Baview - Hunters Point Branch will host a community celebration. The San Francisco 49ers Cheerleaders and members of the team (which plays at Candlestick Point, adjacent to Hunters Point) will join Wells Fargo corporate executives to meet with and get to know the people in the neighborhood. Additionally, Wells Fargo will present a total of $30,000 in grant money to the Bayview - Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology, the Take Wings Foundation, the Providence Foundation of San Francisco, Renaissance Parents of Success, and the Visitacion Valley Development Corporation.

Now ... what about some of the other major corporations that are either headquartered in the SF Bay Area or which have substantial investments in San Francisco? Where are they? What plans do they have to follow in the Wells Fargo footsteps?

Where, for example, is the Safeway in the BV-HP?

How about Starbucks? I work in the Financial District and we trip over the damn things here. Has anyone seen a Starbucks anywhere even remotely close to the Bayview - Hunters Point community?

Rite-Aid has a contract to provide prescription medicine for the City and County of San Francisco. Rite-Aid currently forces many of the City's customers to go downtown to the Rite-Aid at Van Ness and Market. What about the Bayview-Hunters Point where an abnormally large number of Rite-Aid pharmacy customers live? Why can't Rite-Aid open a store where its customers are? At very least, why force people to leave their neighborhood and travel across the entire City to get their prescriptions filled?

Walgreen's has stores in BV-HP. Walgreen's has invested in the people of the Bayview - Hunters Point. What in hell is wrong with the stuffed-shirt executives at Rite-Aid?

Safeway and Rite-Aid are only two examples of businesses that want nothing to do with the Bayview - Hunters Point. We, the rest of San Francisco, need to put pressure on these entities to follow Wells Fargo's lead and begin investing in the future of ALL our City ... not just the plum locations.
on Thursday, September 14, 2006

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