Hunters Point, San Francisco, California
Encyclopedia
Bayview-Hunters Point or The Bayview, is a neighborhood in the southeastern corner of San Francisco, California
, United States. The decommissioned Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is located within its boundaries and Candlestick Park is on the southern edge.
Originally dominated by grassland and tidal marshland, Bayview-Hunters Point has a unique history for its transformation into an urban industrial neighborhood while segregated from the metropolitan area. Slaughterhouses and their associated industries in the 1800s and shipbuilding in the 1900s drove its urbanization. Subsequent extensive toxic pollution, loss of industry jobs and racial segregation in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in urban decay
. Bayview-Hunters Point has been described as a marginalized
community. Modern problems include high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime and disease.
Redevelopment
projects for the neighborhood became the dominant issue of the 1990s and 2000s. Efforts include the Bayview Redevelopment Plan for Area B, which includes approximately 1300 acres of existing residential, commercial and industrial
lands. This plan identifies seven Economic Activity nodes within the area. The former Navy Shipyard waterfront property is also the target of redevelopment to include residential, commercial, and recreational areas.
from India Basin
to Candlestick Point. The boundaries are Cesar Chavez Boulevard to the north, U.S. Highway 101 (Bayshore Freeway
) to the west, Bayview Hill to the south, and the San Francisco Bay
to the east. Neighborhoods within the district include Hunters Point, India Basin, Bayview, Silver Terrace, Bret Harte, Islais Creek Estuary and South Basin. The entire southern half of the neighborhood is the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area as well as the Candlestick Park Stadium.
people prior to the arrival of Spanish
missionaries in the 1700s. It was first surveyed in 1775 by Juan Bautista Aguirre, a ship pilot for Captain Juan Manuel de Ayala who named it La Punta Concha (English: Conch Point). Later explorers renamed it Beacon Point. For the next several decades it was used as pasture for cattle run by the Franciscan monks at Mission Dolores.
In 1839, the area was part of the 4446 acres (18 km²) Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo
Mexican land grant
given to José Cornelio Bernal (1796–1842). Following the California Gold Rush
, Bernal sold Bayview-Hunters Point property for real estate development in 1849. Little actual development occurred but Bernal's agents were three brothers, John Phillip and Robert Hunter, who built their homes and dairy farm on the land (then near the present-day corner of Griffith Street and Oakdale Avenue) and who gave rise to the name Hunters Point.
After a San Francisco ordinance in 1868 banned the slaughter and processing of animals within the city proper, a group of butchers established a "butchers reservation" on 81 acre (0.32779566 km²) of tidal marshland in the Bayview district. Within ten years, 18 slaughterhouses were located in the area along with their associated production facilities for tanning, fertilizer, wool and tallow. The "reservation" (then bounded by present-day Ingalls Street, Third Street, from Islais Creek to Bayshore) and the surrounding houses and businesses became known as Butchertown. The butcher industry declined following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake until 1971 when the final slaughterhouse closed.
Shipbuilding became integral to Bayview-Hunters Point in 1867 with the construction there of the first permanent drydock on the Pacific coast. The Hunters Point Dry Docks were greatly expanded by Union Iron Works
and Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
and were capable of housing the largest ships that could pass through the locks of the Panama Canal. World War I increased the contracts there for building Naval vessels and, in 1940, the United States Navy purchased a section of property to develop the San Francisco Naval Shipyard
.
The shipbuilding industry saw a large influx of blue collar
workers into the neighborhood, many of them African Americans taking part in the Great Migration
. This migration into Bayview increased substantially after World War II
due to racial segregation
and eviction of African Americans from homes elsewhere in the city. Between 1940 and 1950, the population of Bayview saw a fourfold increase to 51000 residents.
The Bayview-Hunters Point district was labelled "South San Francisco" on some maps, even though there was already a city named South San Francisco further to the south.
Until 1969, the Hunters Point shipyard was the site of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL). The NRDL decontaminated ships exposed to atomic weapons testing and also researched the effects of radiation on materials and living organisms. This caused widespread radiological contamination and, in 1989, the base was declared a Superfund site requiring long-term clean-up. The Navy closed the shipyard and Naval base in 1994. The Base Realignment and Closure
program manages various pollution remediation projects.
The Bayview-Hunters Point district served as the location for the coal and oil-fired power plants which provided electricity to San Francisco from 1929 until 2006. Smokestack effluvium and byproducts dumped in the vicinity have been cited for health and environmental problems in the neighborhood. In 1994, the San Francisco Energy Company proposed building another power plant in the neighborhood but community activists protested and pushed to have the current facility shut down. In 2008, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
demolished the plant and began a two-year remediation project to restore the land for residential development.
By the 1960s, the Bayview and Hunters Point urban neighborhoods had become increasingly segregated from San Francisco and were composed predominantly of African-Americans and other racial minorities. At this time, the hyphenated name "Bayview-Hunters Point" became the official designation for the district. Pollution, substandard housing, declining infrastructure, limited employment and racial discrimination were notable problems. James Baldwin
documented the marginalization of the community in a 1963 documentary stating "this is the San Francisco, America pretends does not exist." In 1966, racial tensions sparked a race riot
at Hunters Point. Closure of the naval shipyard, shipbuilding facilities and de-industrialization of the district in the 1970s and 1980s increased unemployment and local poverty levels.
Building projects to revitalize the district began in earnest in the 1990s and the 2000s. As in the rest of the city, housing prices rose 342% between 1996 and 2008. Many long-time African American residents, whether they were those who could no longer afford to live there or those who sought to take advantage of their homes' soaring values, left what they perceived to be an unsafe neighborhood and made an exodus
to the relative safety of the Bay Area's outer suburbs. Once considered a historic African American district, the percentage of black people in the Bayview-Hunters Point population declined from 65 percent in 1990 to a minority in 2000. Despite the decline, the 2010 Census shows the African American population in the Bayview to be greater in number than any other ethnicity.
In the 2000s, the neighborhood became the focus of several redevelopment projects. The MUNIT-Third Street light rail project was built through the neighborhood, replacing an aging bus line with several new stations, street lamps and landscaping. Private developer Lennar Inc. proposed a $2 billion project to build 10,500 homes and commercial spaces atop the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. A potential new football stadium for the San Francisco 49'ers and a shopping complex were also proposed for Candlestick Point which would reinvigorate the district, but the 49ers changed their focus to Santa Clara
in 2006. A bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics in San Francisco that included plans to build an Olympic Village
in Bayview-Hunters Point was also dropped. Lennar Inc. proposed to build the stadium without the football team. Local community activist groups have criticized much of the redevelopment for displacing rather than benefiting existing neighborhood residents.
According to the 2010 Census, Bayview-Hunters Point had the highest percentage of African-Americans among San Francisco neighborhoods, home to 21.5% of the city's Black population, and was the predominant ethnic group in the Bayview. Census figures showed the percentage of African-Americans in Bayview declined from 48% in 2000 to 33.7% in 2010, while the percentage of Asian and White ethnicity increased from 24% and 10%, respectively, to 30.7% and 12.1%.
According to the 2005-2009 American Community Survey
(ACS), the Bayview district is estimated to have 10,540 housing units and an estimated owner occupancy rate of 51%. The 2010 Census indicates the number of households to be 9,717, of which 155 belong to same-sex couples. Median home values were estimated in 2009 to be $586,201 , but that has since fallen dramatically to around $367,000 in 2011, the lowest of any of San Francisco's ZIP codes. Median Household Income was estimated in 2009 at $43,155. Rent prices in the Bayview remain relatively low, by San Francisco standards, with over 50% of rents paid in 2009 at less than $750/mo.
A recent Brookings Institution report identified Hunters Point as one of five Bay Area "extreme poverty" neighborhoods, in which over 40% of its inhabitants live below the Federal poverty level of an income of $22,300 for a family of four. Nearly 12% of the population in the Bayview receives public assistance income, three times the national average, and more than double the state average. While the Bayview has a higher percentage of the population who receive either social security or retirement income than the state or national averages, the dollar amounts that these people receive is less than the averages in either the state or the nation.
. In 2011, it remained "one of the most economically disadvantaged areas of San Francisco". Root causes include a working class populace historically segregated to the outskirts of the city, high levels of industrial pollution, the closure of industry and loss of infrastructure. The results have been high rates of unemployment, poverty, disease and crime. Attempts to mitigate the effects of marginalization include the building of the Third St light rail line, establishment of the Southeast Community Facility (SECF), the Southeast Food Access Workgroup, and implementation of a local hiring law.
The Hunter's Point ship yard's toxic waste
pollution has been cited for elevated rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases among residents. Clean-up of the site is underway.
Gang
and drug
activity, as well as a high murder
rate, have plagued the Bayview-Hunters Point district. A 2001 feature article in the San Francisco Chronicle cited feuding between small local gangs as the major cause of the area's unsolved homicides. In 2011, the New York Times described Bayview as "one of the city’s most violent" neighborhoods. Police have made the removal of guns from the streets their top priority in recent years, leading to a 20% decline in major crimes between 2010 and 2011, including declines of 35% in homicides, 22% in aggravated assaults, 38% in arson, 30% in burglary, 34% in theft, 23% in auto theft, and 39% in robbery. Lesser crimes have also declined by about 24% over the past year (source, SFPD Bayview Station).
Until the late 2000s the neighborhood had no supermarket chains, as many corporate chains could not afford to lease a retail space. In 2011, a San Francisco official described the area as a "a food desert - an area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food like fresh produce at a full-size grocery store." In fact, a large swath of the southeast sector of San Francisco sits within a Federally recognized food desert. A Home Depot was approved by the city to be built in the area, but the Home Depot Corporation abandoned its plans following the late 2000s economic crisis. Lowe's took over Home Depot's plans and in 2010, opened their first store in San Francisco on the Bayshore Blvd site. In August 2011, UK supermarket chain Tesco
, owner of Fresh and Easy stores, opened Bayview-Hunters Point's first new grocery store in 20 years.
The neighborhood was the subject of a 2003 documentary, Straight Outta Hunters Point,, directed by lifelong Hunters Point resident Kevin Epps, the movie exposes the daily drama of gang-related wars plaguing a community already fighting for social and economic survival. The Spike Lee
film Sucker Free City
used Hunters Point as a backdrop for a story on gentrification and street gangs.
Community gardening
is popular in the area. The Quesada Gardens Initiative is a well recognized organization that includes nine urban gardens, including the original Quesada Garden on the 1700 block of Quesada Ave, the Founders' Garden, the 2011 Neighborhood Empowerment Network's "Best Green Community Project" Award-winning Bridgeview Community Teaching and Learning Garden, Krispy Korner, the Latona Garden, and the new Palou Community Garden.
Bayview is home to two large parks: Bayview Park, located on Key Ave just west of the San Francisco 49'ers stadium, offers sweeping views of the city; and The Candlestick Point Recreation Area, located just east of stadium, is a popular attraction for kayakers and windsurfers. Heron's Head Park, located in the northern part of the neighborhood, is home to a recently resurgent population of clapper rails
and the EPA Award-Winning Heron's Head Eco Center
.
Speakeasy Brewery, located at 1195 Evans Street, offers tours, beer, and hosts live music at their "Final Friday" events. Restaurants such as Chef Eskender Aseged's Radio Africa Kitchen, Old Skool Cafe, Limón Rotisserie, and Brown Sugar Kitchen, slated to move into the area by late 2011/early 2012, join an existing group of established restaurants up and down the Third St corridor, including Sam Jordan's, Frisco Fried, and Las Isletas, to name but a few.
The San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market, located on Jerrold Ave, has been at the center of food distribution in San Francisco long since before moving to its Bayview location in 1964.
The Hunters Point Shipyard is home to the country's largest artist colony, "The Point".
Hunters Point Shipyard is a redevelopment project by Lennar Corporation
on the 702 acres at Candlestick Point and the San Francisco Naval Shipyard
. The plan calls for 10,500 residential units, a new stadium to replace Candlestick Park, 3700000 square feet (343,741.2 m²) of commercial and retail space,an 8,000- to 10000 square feet (929 m²) arena; artists’ village and 336 acres of waterfront park and recreational area. The developers said the project would contribute up to 12,000 permanent jobs and 13,000 induced jobs.
The approval process required developers to address concerns by area residents and San Francisco government officials. Criticism of the project focused on the large-scale toxic clean-up of the industrial superfund
site, environmental impact of waterfront construction, displacement of an impoverished neighborhood populace and a required build-up to solve transportation needs.
In July 2010, Lennar Corporation
received initial approval of an Environmental Impact Report from San Francisco supervisors. In September 2011, the court denied the transfer of property to Lennar Corporation prior to clean-up of contamination.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States. The decommissioned Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is located within its boundaries and Candlestick Park is on the southern edge.
Originally dominated by grassland and tidal marshland, Bayview-Hunters Point has a unique history for its transformation into an urban industrial neighborhood while segregated from the metropolitan area. Slaughterhouses and their associated industries in the 1800s and shipbuilding in the 1900s drove its urbanization. Subsequent extensive toxic pollution, loss of industry jobs and racial segregation in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in urban decay
Urban decay
Urban decay is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude...
. Bayview-Hunters Point has been described as a marginalized
Marginalization
In sociology, marginalisation , or marginalization , is the social process of becoming or being made marginal or relegated to the fringe of society e.g.; "the marginalization of the underclass", "marginalisation of intellect", etc.-Individual:Marginalization at the individual level results in an...
community. Modern problems include high rates of unemployment, poverty, crime and disease.
Redevelopment
Redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses.-Description:Variations on redevelopment include:* Urban infill on vacant parcels that have no existing activity but were previously developed, especially on Brownfield land, such as the redevelopment of an industrial site...
projects for the neighborhood became the dominant issue of the 1990s and 2000s. Efforts include the Bayview Redevelopment Plan for Area B, which includes approximately 1300 acres of existing residential, commercial and industrial
lands. This plan identifies seven Economic Activity nodes within the area. The former Navy Shipyard waterfront property is also the target of redevelopment to include residential, commercial, and recreational areas.
Geography
The Bayview-Hunters Point district is located in the southeastern part of San Francisco, strung along the main artery of Third StreetThird Street (San Francisco)
Third Street, formerly Kentucky Street in the Dogpatch and Railroad Avenue in the Bayview, is a north-south street running through the Downtown, Mission Bay, Potrero Point, Dogpatch, and the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in San Francisco, California which turns into Kearny Street north of...
from India Basin
India Basin
India Basin is the easternmost neighborhood of San Francisco, California.The parameters of India Basin are roughly the neighborhood surrounding Cargo Way, Third Street, Evans and Innes Avenues to the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, from the top of the hill to the water.The history of India Basin is a...
to Candlestick Point. The boundaries are Cesar Chavez Boulevard to the north, U.S. Highway 101 (Bayshore Freeway
Bayshore Freeway
The Bayshore Freeway is a part of U.S. Route 101 in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It runs along the west shore of the San Francisco Bay, connecting San Jose with San Francisco. Within the city of San Francisco, the freeway is also known as James Lick Freeway...
) to the west, Bayview Hill to the south, and the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
to the east. Neighborhoods within the district include Hunters Point, India Basin, Bayview, Silver Terrace, Bret Harte, Islais Creek Estuary and South Basin. The entire southern half of the neighborhood is the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area as well as the Candlestick Park Stadium.
History
Primarily composed of tidal wetlands with some small hills, the area was inhabited by the OhloneOhlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
people prior to the arrival of Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
missionaries in the 1700s. It was first surveyed in 1775 by Juan Bautista Aguirre, a ship pilot for Captain Juan Manuel de Ayala who named it La Punta Concha (English: Conch Point). Later explorers renamed it Beacon Point. For the next several decades it was used as pasture for cattle run by the Franciscan monks at Mission Dolores.
In 1839, the area was part of the 4446 acres (18 km²) Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo
Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo
Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo was a Mexican land grant, largely in present day San Francisco County, California and extending to San Mateo County, California, given in 1839 by Governor Protem Manual Jimeno to José Cornelio Bernal...
Mexican land grant
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
given to José Cornelio Bernal (1796–1842). Following the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
, Bernal sold Bayview-Hunters Point property for real estate development in 1849. Little actual development occurred but Bernal's agents were three brothers, John Phillip and Robert Hunter, who built their homes and dairy farm on the land (then near the present-day corner of Griffith Street and Oakdale Avenue) and who gave rise to the name Hunters Point.
After a San Francisco ordinance in 1868 banned the slaughter and processing of animals within the city proper, a group of butchers established a "butchers reservation" on 81 acre (0.32779566 km²) of tidal marshland in the Bayview district. Within ten years, 18 slaughterhouses were located in the area along with their associated production facilities for tanning, fertilizer, wool and tallow. The "reservation" (then bounded by present-day Ingalls Street, Third Street, from Islais Creek to Bayshore) and the surrounding houses and businesses became known as Butchertown. The butcher industry declined following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake until 1971 when the final slaughterhouse closed.
Shipbuilding became integral to Bayview-Hunters Point in 1867 with the construction there of the first permanent drydock on the Pacific coast. The Hunters Point Dry Docks were greatly expanded by Union Iron Works
Union Iron Works
Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.-History:...
and Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works in 1905...
and were capable of housing the largest ships that could pass through the locks of the Panama Canal. World War I increased the contracts there for building Naval vessels and, in 1940, the United States Navy purchased a section of property to develop the San Francisco Naval Shipyard
San Francisco Naval Shipyard
The San Francisco Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city...
.
The shipbuilding industry saw a large influx of blue collar
Blue collar
Blue collar can refer to:*Blue-collar worker, a traditional designation of the working class*Blue-collar crime, the types of crimes typically associated with the working class*A census designation...
workers into the neighborhood, many of them African Americans taking part in the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
. This migration into Bayview increased substantially after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
due to racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
and eviction of African Americans from homes elsewhere in the city. Between 1940 and 1950, the population of Bayview saw a fourfold increase to 51000 residents.
The Bayview-Hunters Point district was labelled "South San Francisco" on some maps, even though there was already a city named South San Francisco further to the south.
Until 1969, the Hunters Point shipyard was the site of the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL). The NRDL decontaminated ships exposed to atomic weapons testing and also researched the effects of radiation on materials and living organisms. This caused widespread radiological contamination and, in 1989, the base was declared a Superfund site requiring long-term clean-up. The Navy closed the shipyard and Naval base in 1994. The Base Realignment and Closure
Base Realignment and Closure
Base Realignment and Closure is a process of the United States federal government directed at the administration and operation of the Armed Forces, used by the United States Department of Defense and Congress to close excess military installations and realign the total asset inventory to reduce...
program manages various pollution remediation projects.
The Bayview-Hunters Point district served as the location for the coal and oil-fired power plants which provided electricity to San Francisco from 1929 until 2006. Smokestack effluvium and byproducts dumped in the vicinity have been cited for health and environmental problems in the neighborhood. In 1994, the San Francisco Energy Company proposed building another power plant in the neighborhood but community activists protested and pushed to have the current facility shut down. In 2008, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Pacific Gas and Electric Company
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company , commonly known as PG&E, is the utility that provides natural gas and electricity to most of the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield almost to the Oregon border...
demolished the plant and began a two-year remediation project to restore the land for residential development.
By the 1960s, the Bayview and Hunters Point urban neighborhoods had become increasingly segregated from San Francisco and were composed predominantly of African-Americans and other racial minorities. At this time, the hyphenated name "Bayview-Hunters Point" became the official designation for the district. Pollution, substandard housing, declining infrastructure, limited employment and racial discrimination were notable problems. James Baldwin
James Baldwin
James Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist and civil rights activist.James Baldwin may also refer to:-Writers:*James Baldwin , American educator, writer and administrator...
documented the marginalization of the community in a 1963 documentary stating "this is the San Francisco, America pretends does not exist." In 1966, racial tensions sparked a race riot
Race riot
A race riot or racial riot is an outbreak of violent civil disorder in which race is a key factor. A phenomenon frequently confused with the concept of 'race riot' is sectarian violence, which involves public mass violence or conflict over non-racial factors.-United States:The term had entered the...
at Hunters Point. Closure of the naval shipyard, shipbuilding facilities and de-industrialization of the district in the 1970s and 1980s increased unemployment and local poverty levels.
Building projects to revitalize the district began in earnest in the 1990s and the 2000s. As in the rest of the city, housing prices rose 342% between 1996 and 2008. Many long-time African American residents, whether they were those who could no longer afford to live there or those who sought to take advantage of their homes' soaring values, left what they perceived to be an unsafe neighborhood and made an exodus
Black flight
Black flight is a term applied to the out-migration of African Americans from predominantly black or mixed inner-city areas in the United States to suburbs and outlying edge cities of newer home construction...
to the relative safety of the Bay Area's outer suburbs. Once considered a historic African American district, the percentage of black people in the Bayview-Hunters Point population declined from 65 percent in 1990 to a minority in 2000. Despite the decline, the 2010 Census shows the African American population in the Bayview to be greater in number than any other ethnicity.
In the 2000s, the neighborhood became the focus of several redevelopment projects. The MUNIT-Third Street light rail project was built through the neighborhood, replacing an aging bus line with several new stations, street lamps and landscaping. Private developer Lennar Inc. proposed a $2 billion project to build 10,500 homes and commercial spaces atop the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. A potential new football stadium for the San Francisco 49'ers and a shopping complex were also proposed for Candlestick Point which would reinvigorate the district, but the 49ers changed their focus to Santa Clara
Santa Clara
Santa Clara may refer to:-People:* Saint Clare of Assisi , known in Spanish as Santa Clara* Saint Clare of Montefalco -Portugal:...
in 2006. A bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics in San Francisco that included plans to build an Olympic Village
Olympic Village
An Olympic Village is an accommodation centre built for an Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials, athletic trainers, and other staff. Since the Munich Massacre at the 1972...
in Bayview-Hunters Point was also dropped. Lennar Inc. proposed to build the stadium without the football team. Local community activist groups have criticized much of the redevelopment for displacing rather than benefiting existing neighborhood residents.
Demographics
According to the 2010 Census, Bayview-Hunters Point (ZIP 94124) had a population of 33,996, an increase of 826 from 2000. The census data showed the single-race racial composition of Bayview-Hunters Point was 33.7% African-American, 30.7% Asian, 12.1% White, 3.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.7% Native American, 15.1% Other, and 5.1% Mixed race. 24.9% of Bayview's population was of Hispanic or Latino origin, of any race.According to the 2010 Census, Bayview-Hunters Point had the highest percentage of African-Americans among San Francisco neighborhoods, home to 21.5% of the city's Black population, and was the predominant ethnic group in the Bayview. Census figures showed the percentage of African-Americans in Bayview declined from 48% in 2000 to 33.7% in 2010, while the percentage of Asian and White ethnicity increased from 24% and 10%, respectively, to 30.7% and 12.1%.
According to the 2005-2009 American Community Survey
American Community Survey
The American Community Survey is an ongoing statistical survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, sent to approximately 250,000 addresses monthly . It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the decennial census...
(ACS), the Bayview district is estimated to have 10,540 housing units and an estimated owner occupancy rate of 51%. The 2010 Census indicates the number of households to be 9,717, of which 155 belong to same-sex couples. Median home values were estimated in 2009 to be $586,201 , but that has since fallen dramatically to around $367,000 in 2011, the lowest of any of San Francisco's ZIP codes. Median Household Income was estimated in 2009 at $43,155. Rent prices in the Bayview remain relatively low, by San Francisco standards, with over 50% of rents paid in 2009 at less than $750/mo.
A recent Brookings Institution report identified Hunters Point as one of five Bay Area "extreme poverty" neighborhoods, in which over 40% of its inhabitants live below the Federal poverty level of an income of $22,300 for a family of four. Nearly 12% of the population in the Bayview receives public assistance income, three times the national average, and more than double the state average. While the Bayview has a higher percentage of the population who receive either social security or retirement income than the state or national averages, the dollar amounts that these people receive is less than the averages in either the state or the nation.
Marginalization and its Mitigation
Since the 1960s, the Bayview-Hunters Point community has been cited as a significant example of marginalizationMarginalization
In sociology, marginalisation , or marginalization , is the social process of becoming or being made marginal or relegated to the fringe of society e.g.; "the marginalization of the underclass", "marginalisation of intellect", etc.-Individual:Marginalization at the individual level results in an...
. In 2011, it remained "one of the most economically disadvantaged areas of San Francisco". Root causes include a working class populace historically segregated to the outskirts of the city, high levels of industrial pollution, the closure of industry and loss of infrastructure. The results have been high rates of unemployment, poverty, disease and crime. Attempts to mitigate the effects of marginalization include the building of the Third St light rail line, establishment of the Southeast Community Facility (SECF), the Southeast Food Access Workgroup, and implementation of a local hiring law.
The Hunter's Point ship yard's toxic waste
Toxic waste
Toxic waste is waste material that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It spreads quite easily and can contaminate lakes and rivers. The term is often used interchangeably with “hazardous waste”, or discarded material that can pose a long-term risk to health or environment.Toxic waste...
pollution has been cited for elevated rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases among residents. Clean-up of the site is underway.
Gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
and drug
Drug
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
activity, as well as a high murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
rate, have plagued the Bayview-Hunters Point district. A 2001 feature article in the San Francisco Chronicle cited feuding between small local gangs as the major cause of the area's unsolved homicides. In 2011, the New York Times described Bayview as "one of the city’s most violent" neighborhoods. Police have made the removal of guns from the streets their top priority in recent years, leading to a 20% decline in major crimes between 2010 and 2011, including declines of 35% in homicides, 22% in aggravated assaults, 38% in arson, 30% in burglary, 34% in theft, 23% in auto theft, and 39% in robbery. Lesser crimes have also declined by about 24% over the past year (source, SFPD Bayview Station).
Until the late 2000s the neighborhood had no supermarket chains, as many corporate chains could not afford to lease a retail space. In 2011, a San Francisco official described the area as a "a food desert - an area with limited access to affordable, nutritious food like fresh produce at a full-size grocery store." In fact, a large swath of the southeast sector of San Francisco sits within a Federally recognized food desert. A Home Depot was approved by the city to be built in the area, but the Home Depot Corporation abandoned its plans following the late 2000s economic crisis. Lowe's took over Home Depot's plans and in 2010, opened their first store in San Francisco on the Bayshore Blvd site. In August 2011, UK supermarket chain Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...
, owner of Fresh and Easy stores, opened Bayview-Hunters Point's first new grocery store in 20 years.
The neighborhood was the subject of a 2003 documentary, Straight Outta Hunters Point,, directed by lifelong Hunters Point resident Kevin Epps, the movie exposes the daily drama of gang-related wars plaguing a community already fighting for social and economic survival. The Spike Lee
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
film Sucker Free City
Sucker Free City
Sucker Free City is a 2004 film directed by Spike Lee. The film examines white, black, and Chinese characters in San Francisco and the conflicts they encounter with each other. The film was intended to be the pilot for a Showtime television series. Showtime declined to pick up the series...
used Hunters Point as a backdrop for a story on gentrification and street gangs.
Community activism
A number of community groups, such as the India Basin Neighborhood Association, the Quesada Gardens Initiative http://www.quesadagardens.org, Literacy for Environmental Justice http://www.lejyouth.org/aboutus/about.html, the Bayview Merchants' Association http://www.bayviewmerchants.org, and the Bayview Footprints Collaboration of Community-Building Groups http://www.bayviewfootprints.org work with community members, other organizations and city-wide agencies to strengthen and improve this diverse part of San Francisco.Community gardening
Community gardening
A community garden is a single piece of land gardened collectively by a group of people.-Purpose:Community gardens provide fresh produce and plants as well as satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement, sense of community and connection to the environment...
is popular in the area. The Quesada Gardens Initiative is a well recognized organization that includes nine urban gardens, including the original Quesada Garden on the 1700 block of Quesada Ave, the Founders' Garden, the 2011 Neighborhood Empowerment Network's "Best Green Community Project" Award-winning Bridgeview Community Teaching and Learning Garden, Krispy Korner, the Latona Garden, and the new Palou Community Garden.
Landmarks and Attractions
Four buildings in the district are listed in the California Registry of Historic Places. The Bayview Opera House (previously South San Francisco Opera House), located at 4705 Third St, was constructed in 1888 and designated a California landmark on December 8, 1968. It was nominated for National Registration in 2010, and won the Governor's Award for Historic Preservation in 2011. Quinn House, located at 1562 McKinnon Avenue, was built in 1875 and designated 6 July 1974. The Albion Brewery was built in 1870 and opened as the Albion Ale And Porter Brewing Company. Located at 881 Innes Avenue, it was designated April 5, 1974. Sylvester House at 1556 Revere was built in 1870 and designated on April 5, 1974.Bayview is home to two large parks: Bayview Park, located on Key Ave just west of the San Francisco 49'ers stadium, offers sweeping views of the city; and The Candlestick Point Recreation Area, located just east of stadium, is a popular attraction for kayakers and windsurfers. Heron's Head Park, located in the northern part of the neighborhood, is home to a recently resurgent population of clapper rails
Clapper Rail
The Clapper Rail is a member of the rail family, Rallidae. Some researchers believe that this bird and the similar King Rail are a single species; the two birds are known to interbreed.-Distribution and habitat:...
and the EPA Award-Winning Heron's Head Eco Center
The EcoCenter at Herons Head Park
The EcoCenter at Herons Head Park is the first environmental education center in San Francisco to concentrate on providing a hands on example of green building systems with an emphasis on environmental justice...
.
Speakeasy Brewery, located at 1195 Evans Street, offers tours, beer, and hosts live music at their "Final Friday" events. Restaurants such as Chef Eskender Aseged's Radio Africa Kitchen, Old Skool Cafe, Limón Rotisserie, and Brown Sugar Kitchen, slated to move into the area by late 2011/early 2012, join an existing group of established restaurants up and down the Third St corridor, including Sam Jordan's, Frisco Fried, and Las Isletas, to name but a few.
The San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market, located on Jerrold Ave, has been at the center of food distribution in San Francisco long since before moving to its Bayview location in 1964.
The Hunters Point Shipyard is home to the country's largest artist colony, "The Point".
Redevelopment
The Anna E. Waden Library, currently undergoing major renovations and improvements, is located on Third Street and Revere, where the Neighborhood History Preservation Project is housed.Hunters Point Shipyard is a redevelopment project by Lennar Corporation
Lennar Corporation
Lennar Corporation is a Fortune 500 company based in Miami, Florida, United States, in the Fountainbleau area. It was founded in 1954.In 2008, Lennar was the United States' second largest homebuilder, constructing homes in 17 different states throughout the United States, including Arizona,...
on the 702 acres at Candlestick Point and the San Francisco Naval Shipyard
San Francisco Naval Shipyard
The San Francisco Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city...
. The plan calls for 10,500 residential units, a new stadium to replace Candlestick Park, 3700000 square feet (343,741.2 m²) of commercial and retail space,an 8,000- to 10000 square feet (929 m²) arena; artists’ village and 336 acres of waterfront park and recreational area. The developers said the project would contribute up to 12,000 permanent jobs and 13,000 induced jobs.
The approval process required developers to address concerns by area residents and San Francisco government officials. Criticism of the project focused on the large-scale toxic clean-up of the industrial superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
site, environmental impact of waterfront construction, displacement of an impoverished neighborhood populace and a required build-up to solve transportation needs.
In July 2010, Lennar Corporation
Lennar Corporation
Lennar Corporation is a Fortune 500 company based in Miami, Florida, United States, in the Fountainbleau area. It was founded in 1954.In 2008, Lennar was the United States' second largest homebuilder, constructing homes in 17 different states throughout the United States, including Arizona,...
received initial approval of an Environmental Impact Report from San Francisco supervisors. In September 2011, the court denied the transfer of property to Lennar Corporation prior to clean-up of contamination.
External links
- Profile: Bayview-Hunters Point 2006 11-part series UC Berkeley School of Journalism
- Community-building through informal resident-led groups known as Quesada Gardens Initiative
- Community's user-generated calendar of events created by Footprints community network
- Bayview Merchants' Association
- Bay View Newspaper
- Bayview MAGIC - Community of color collaborative
- Historic Hunters Point in pictures
- India Basin Neighborhood Association
- Map of India Basin
- Islais Creek History Neighborhood Parks Council
- Hunters Point infant mortality rate is comparable to Bulgaria
- Hunters Point Shipyard redevelopment
- 1966 Hunters Point riot
- Review of a documentary film about Hunters Point
- Hunters Point on WikiTravel
- Alternative economic development for Bayview-Hunters Point
- Community Window on the Shipyard, an archive of Shipyard-related documents
- Literacy for Environmental Justice, a local organization working on Environmental Justice issues in Hunters Point
- Artists at Hunters Point Shipyard