SHENANIGANS IN THE BAYVIEW HUNTERS POINT (11/04/11)

Since 1996 we have seen a blatant divisiveness in the Bayview Hunters Point area. It has not helped; that the previous District Supervisor of District 10 within which Bayview Hunters Point falls under - Supervisor, Sophie Maxwell and the present one Malia Cohen are both chronic sell outs - the last one did not have the better interest of the community and the present Supervisors is even worse.

On important issues such as HOPESF which is being planned to gentrify entire areas know to us as Public Housing and which comes under Federal Jurisdiction once under the Department of Defense and today under Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD transferred the properties to San Francisco Housing Authority (FHA) who with intent, let the good housing go in disrepair, stopped maintenance, and ruined good housing that accommodated large families.

Blacks and Polynesians living in Public Housing are most affected. Once both communities were given opportunities; this soon changed and for the last 15 years the communities living in Public Housing have been treated like dirt.

Guns were placed in these Public Housing Areas, and every effort was made to destroy any unity and remove large segments of the population. Outsiders such as Dwayne Jones and gimmicks and ploys employed by Communities of Opportunity further took the communities in Public Housing at Potrero Hill, Hunterview and Kiska Road, Oakdale and Sunnydale to the edge of the precipice.

This housing; we call Public Housing contained large rooms and could accommodate large families; that is father, mother, and three or four children. No more, the plans to develop modern high density units, is small and if a queen size bed in placed in one of the rooms; leaves no space for moving around.

In short San Francisco and the Big Developers and Property Managers - be it Mercy Housing, Bridge Developers, the John Stewart Company - have no intention to accommodate Polynesians, Black, Latinos, and those that really need affordable housing. Less families with children a completely different type of population will move in these "gated communities" unless the community at large rallies and takes a stand. First thing put the sell outs on notice.

Plans are afoot to demolish the thousands of units and use any ploy and machination to remove thousands of families and send them packing to far off places. Some choose to try the Tenderloin and find it difficult to survive - if they remain they slowly die and hundreds have died over the years. Reminiscent of the times when hundreds were remove from the Fillmore and moved into the Tenderloin to slowly die from becoming alcoholic, heroin addicts, prostitutes, and so on. At that time it was Middle Class families mostly Black that suffered the consequences when San Francisco Redevelopment took their properties and left them to the elements. Others today leave go to any State that they think they can survive and fade in oblivion.

Care not Cash does not work at all and the fact that these folks on Care not Cash are marginalized; that does not bother those that are in charge of the program.

Lies are spewed to tell those that believe yarns; the good that this program does - the opposite is the truth. No one can survive if they are given a roof but even less the measly sixty dollars a month to survive. If it was not for places like Saint Anthony, Martin de Pores, Glade Memorial, and other such places - thousands would have died. Our Food Banks play a role too but they too for the first time do not have sufficient to distribute to the needy.

In the Bayview Hunters Point Sexually Transmitted Diseases have reached a high point and with AIDS and other chronic diseases mostly respiratory in nature - the people are forced to take to drinking and other illegal drugs to make the pain go away. We all know about crack cocaine and its adverse impact; but crack has single handedly destroyed thousands in the Bayview Hunters Point since the early 1980s and no one entity including the SF Health Department has made a fair assessment of the situation at hand.

The Mayors of San Francisco, more going back to Willie L. Brown Jr. have with intent harm the Bayview Community. This was followed by Gavin Newsom who could talk the talk but failed to walk the walk. The various Enterprise Department truly do not have a sense of the Bayview Community but outsiders think they can read some stale written history and do the community in. In recent times the community has chosen to take on these vermin head on and hopefully there will be some concrete - results.

The 1800 Oakdale ˆ Southeast Facility Commission Building was built as a mitigation requirement to benefit the community. Nothing much has happened with this building in the last 20 years. All the good that happened in prior years, before - mostly at the inception when the building was opened were wiped out. Sound classed given at the then State of Art Facility - with Universities like San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley conducting classes were taken away.

The Green House and Horticulture Facilities were meant to train the community, raise money for scholarships, and so on and so forth - nothing much happened. Your Toye Moses who has been there for years and nearing retirement and hopefully will leave soon and in all time the man has been there is has been a pain in the ass.

It does not bode well when the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is given the sound information and dares to challenge the community using outsiders who have no idea of the community, it long advocacy history, trying to make plans without comprehending the situation at hand.

In the last fifteen years those appointed the Southeast Facility Commission are lackeys who will follow what the Mayor says; after all they are appointed by the Mayor. These Commissioners themselves are NOT fully cognizant of the history of the Southeast Commission Building, the fact that they are the only active, sitting Commission in the entire City and County of San Francisco representing a District such as District 10. It further complicates the matter when they are nonchalant, have no drive to modern their way of thinking, and less have a vibrant vision for the future. They are not an asset they serve to the detriment of the community at large - all except two and they happen to be younger and women.

Such Shenanigans will not fly and it does not help that Malia Cohen is inept, ignorant, arrogant, and cannot after all these months evaluate the problems inundating the community and come out with solutions. She has no Blue Print and has failed on each and every promise she made linked to her Platform when she ran for District 10 Supervisor.

Her only saving grace grinning like an ass - and nothing more - recently she invited many agencies and had nothing concrete to offer accept display the "dog and pony show" where folks talk most hot air, have nothing to offer, make promises and bluff the community at large. Sad to say; such a waste of time, energy, and tarnishing and diminishing good will from others that want to do good but have to deal with such an ass who is the District 10 Supervisor.

When will the Shenanigans stop in District 10 and more in Bayview Hunters Point?




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