The Real Bayview-Hunters Point:
Jobs, public housing - and a building boom

What about jobs?

"Jobs" have been promised to the residents of Bayview-Hunters Point as part of every new development that's been built in the community: Bayview Plaza, the Post Office, Indian Basin Industrial Park, the PG&E power generation facility, the city sewage plant.

The promises have never been kept. That's why community leaders pressed the mayor to put the promise of stadium jobs in writing. He refused.

Not that jobs are scarce in Bayview-Hunters Point. Anyone who has driven north on 101 and looked east as he's passed the district has seen a sea of warehouses and light industrial facilities. The "flatlands" part of the area is the home to scores of employers which provide hundreds of jobs. There's just one catch: local residents have not been succesful in getting them. For the most part, these companies "hire from within" - outside of the neighborhood.

What about the projects?

Yes, there is public housing in Bayview-Hunters Point just as there is in Western Addition, North Beach, Hayes Valley, the Mission, and Chinatown. Some of it is well managed and in good condition. Some of it is not.

Interestingly, the "special" poling places that were opened prior to the election in Bayview-Hunters Point were opened in projects with some of the worst problems like this one, Sunnydale. When tenants move out, instead of making room for new families, their units are boarded up.

Contrary to the press image, Bayview-Hunters Point is booming and new houses are going up everywhere. Although the new construction is within the boundries of Bayview/Hunters Point, the promoters seem to go out of their way to obscure the fact.

The secret, to everyone except the people who live there, is that Bayview-Hunters Point, is quiet, safe, beautiful, and, until recently, an affordable neighborhood in one of the most expensive housing markets in the U.S.

Yes, there are problems in Bayview-Hunters Point, but most of them can be solved by a fair apportionment of tax revenue. Between the thousands of home owners and the hundreds of business in the area, Bayview-Hunters Point is one of San Francisco's cash cows, but rather than give the community its fair share of services (bus service, public health, youth programs), the city withdraws services and leaves health threatening environmental problems unaddressed.

Bayview-Hunters Point is the neighborhood that was supposed to have been widly enthusiastic about the city giving a $100,000,000 city grant to the owner of the 49ers football team and receiving in return a "good faith effort only" offer of mall jobs. Espanola Jackson and other long time residents active in the politics of the community say that neither the reported large turnout (on a rainy day no less) nor the extraordinarily high percentage of "Yes" votes make any sense.

I think anyone who has bothered to spend any time south of Army Street would have to agree.