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| Valley Votes "Implosion"
for Geneva Towers
Results of a first-of-a-kind neighborhood
election to decide which demolition method was best for taking down Geneva
Towers showed an overwhelming support for implosion.
"More than 90 percent voting want us to implode rather than use a wrecking ball to take down Geneva Towers," said Agnos. "This is an absolute mandate, and we will now go forth to apply for the permits for an implosion." A final count of petition ballots collected from the community was conducted at the VVMS press conference which included San Francisco newspaper and broadcast journalists, HUD and city dignitaries, community leaders, school principals, students and teachers from social studies and science classes who had studied the demolition process and community empowerment issues. This event concluded a three-month public outreach campaign designed to integrate community preferences into policy decisions affecting Visitacion Valley. And for the first time in a HUD outreach effort, the opinions of elementary and high school students were also included. Visitacion Valley students played a key role in involving their parents, relatives and neighbors, contributing to the success of the effort. "This is the first time in the nation that community residents have been asked to decide how we will take down a dilapidated and unfit building, added Agnos. "It is a full recognition that the Visitacion Valley residents have a right to participate in the decision that affect their lives, and that government has an obligation to honor that participation. We will comply with the wishes of this community as expressed in this election/petition process." As white tarps on each building indicate,
asbestos clean-up and other safety remediation work continues with demolition
of Geneva Towers now tentatively scheduled for February/March 1998.
Schools, principals and students participating
in the press conference included:
This last part of the count concluded the major community count, which had been conducted at Visitacion Valley Community Center the night before on Sept. 23, with community and organization representatives Wendy Tsang, Huang Zheng Wang, LoPeng Yir Leang and Judith Sandoval, and with representatives John Phillips and Imtech Communications' Kathleen Cha and Dennis Holloway all counting. Grand total of almost 3,000 ballots showed the community's preference of demolition by implosion with 2,589 in favor of implosion, 216 in favor of a wrecking ball method and 48 who were either undecided or simply wanted the twin 20-story towers taken down by any means available. Early cost estimates of the two demolition methods suggest the wrecking ball approach would cost an estimated $5 million, while an implosion would cost an estimated $4 million. The wrecking ball approach would take six to eight months, while an implosion would be done in less than 90 seconds with another six or more weeks required to remove rubble from the site. Community balloting followed a series of large and small community meetings held in both English and Chinese outlining the advantages and disadvantages of tearing down the highrises. Ballot boxes were placed at community and senior centers, the Bank of America, stores and the Visitacion Valley Library. All 9,780 households and 450 businesses in the 94134 zip code received mailings about the demolition and petition election and more than 4,000 households received materials in both English and Chinese. A special feature was an outreach to 3,000 students in elementary, middle, and high schools serving Visitacion Valley, with lesson plans and videos provided for classroom use. Members of the Village Youth Council also very ably assisted the process by canvassing and collecting petitions. When constructed in 1966, Geneva Towers was designed as housing for smaller working class families employed in businesses in the southern part of San Francisco and northern part of San Mateo County, including San Francisco Airport. When the complex failed to attract enough residents for which it had been designed, its owners turned toward federal subsidy to ensure economic viability. By 1976, Geneva Towers had received full Project Based Section 8 funding with the typical resident profile predominantly very low income larger families, many headed by female single heads of households. About 49 percent, or 1,102 of its residents were youth. Despite heavy subsidy, ownership neglected the buildings' significant maintenance needs and ignored HUD's continual pressure to improve health and safety conditions. Power outages, one for 36 hours, occurred in October, 1986 as a lack of management attention and proper security allowed drug related activities to flourish in both buildings. With three homicides and 48 shootings occurring at Geneva Towers in 1987, and after receiving a 14-page report listing fire and safety violations, HUD made several attempts beginning in 1988 to work out problems of the complex. HUD finally had the property freed from bankruptcy proceedings and foreclosed in 1991, the first time it had foreclosed on a property for non-financial reasons. Upon take-over, HUD immediately improved security, made improvements to occupied apartments, improved the elevator and common spaces, and removed 66 dumpsters of trash in a matter of days. Geneva Towers drew national attention in 1994 when Connie Chung of CBS came to Visitacion Valley on June 5 to feature the twin highrises in a segment of her Eye to Eye news show. Emotional Towers residents discussed the pros and cons of security in the buildings in a show that aired in late that summer. In 1995, HUD and the City and County of San Francisco signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing $74 million in federal and local resources to fulfill goals established by community leaders and the Visitacion Valley Task Force, which was established in January of the previous year. HUD had committed $35.6 million in funding garden apartment and townhouse-style family housing and lowrise senior housing, a better fit for the neighborhood to replace the imposing buildings which once contained 576 households. "The fact that thousands of residents cast ballots is proof that our effort to rebuild faith with the community is taking hold," said Agnos, who thanked and acknowledged the many community members who worked hard to assure a full level of participation. "Our pledge is to continue this partnership in ways that benefit the community." When the new housing is complete, qualified
former Geneva Terrace residents will be given the first opportunity to
avail themselves of the new homes. All 269 Geneva Towers families who had
honored their leases were successfully relocated to new homes by October
1995, with 82 percent remaining in San Francisco.
Visitacion Valley GreenWay Plan Gets on Tract by Salvador Velasco Friends of Visitacion Valley Parks (FVVP) hosted its first Valley Greenway Rally and Community Picnic Sept. 6 in the Senior Park on Arleta Avenue. Co-sponsored by the Visitacion Valley Asian's Alliance, the Trust for Public Land, the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners and the Urban Team of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the event drew a wonderful crowd of friends and neighbors out to enjoy a lovely late summer day. Among attendees feasting on generous and varied refreshments while listening to a beautiful blend of East/West music provided by Dr. John Choy, Dave Mitchell and Brian Lies were a number of local elected officials including: Supervisors Amos Brown, Leland Yee and Tom Ammiano. (Special thanks to Supervisor Ammiano who helped cut through the City red tape, allowing access to the normally locked Senior Park.) FVVP is a neighborhood group which came together over the summer of 1996 to work on revitalizing local parks, playgrounds and open spaces. A detailed plan is now being developed for three parks in the Valley: Visitacion Valley Playground, Campbell-Rutland Mini-Park and Herz Playground. Included in the plan are the Reis Tract lots, managed by the San Francisco Water Department. This two-acre ribbon of open space stretches through seven blocks of our community, from Tioga Avenue near McLaren Park to the commercial strip of Leland Avenue. Unfortunately, most of this open space is inaccessible to the public. It hasn't always been that way. Viz Valley resident Dixie Catros remembers when her mother and grandmother rented the lot between Tioga and Tucker from the Water Department and raised rabbits, chickens and goats more than 50 years ago. During World War II, these lots were used as victory gardens. Before that, Visitacion Valley was a thriving agriculture community. Friends of Visitacion Valley Parks invites all community members to help develop this plan to bring back some of these historical activities to the neighborhood. There is a vision of these tracts being opened for community use, planted and managed to provide a welcoming, green belt through our community. In order to envision the possibilities, FVVP now refers to these tracts as the Visitacion Valley GreenWay. Friends and neighbors really enjoyed themselves at the rally and picnic, and strongly supported a plan to keep this land as open space accessible to everyone. Alvin Sullivan, a local resident for more than 50 years stated it clearly when he observed, "We've our share of houses here in the Valley." Viz Valley native Alma Taylor recalled the genesis for the Senior Park: a grant awarded to the All People's Coalition as part of the nation's 1976 Bicentennial celebrations became the seed money used to develop this site and many others in Visitacion Valley. Safety is a major concern to many people who gathered to discuss the issue and how it can be incorporated into the plan. Donna Billups expressed her happiness to see the diversity of those gathered, many bringing food to share, and felt that this is "really a neighborhood on the upswing." She hoped that neighbors now meeting for the first time would form safety block parties; networking support groups that can offer one another help in time of emergency. Overall, it was exhilarating to see everyone smiling on a beautiful day in a natural setting. Marlene Tran, spokesperson for the Visitacion Valley Asian's Alliance, stressed how important it is for "neighbors to take the opportunity to work together to develop community involvement. If we keep this up, Visitacion Valley will become well known as an integrated community that knows how to work together." Visitacion Valley is made up of a diverse
group of neighbors from all walks of life. Friends of Visitacion Valley
Parks is committed to one mission: to preserve the valuable and vanishing
resource of open space in our neighborhood for the enjoyment and benefit
of everyone. FVVP urges you to join in making this vision a reality: preserve
and develop the Visitacion Valley GreenWay for the benefit of the entire
community.
City to Mark Start of Clean Water Act by Gerry L. Galvan San Francisco's commitment to clean water during the past 25 years will be brought to public consciousness Oct. 14 when the City's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will celebrate, at the Candlestick Point State Recreational Area, the Clean Water Act implementation in the U.S. Ceremonies will commence at 9:30 a.m. A list of three public officials, including Mayor Willie Brown, will extol the virtues, wisdom and foresight of those who had a hand in legislating and implementing what is basically Mother Nature's responsibility. Other speakers include U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Carol Browner and Region 9 Administrator Felicia Marcus. The late U.S. Secretary of State Edmund Muskie had a hand in the nation's Clean Water Act legislation when he was still a member of the U.S. Senate. Muskie is well remembered as saying during one of the floor debates, "...to restore and maintain the natural chemical and biological integrity of the nation's waters." Mayor Brown could very well be at home in talking about the U.S. Clean Water Act. During his term as member and later Speaker of the California State Assembly, he played a passionate role in expanding the scope of the Hetch Hetchy water supply project up in the Sierras. Immediately upon assuming the City's mayorship, he embarked upon an agenda on ample supply of clean water. His own appointments to the San Francisco PUC are eloquent testimonies to his keen interest in the City's water supply. Members of the PUC board appointed by
Mayor Brown include Victor McKras, president; Ann Moller Caen, vice president;
and members Dennis Normandy, Bob Werbe and Frank Cook.
In other Valley news, both John King
of the John King Senior Center and Visitacion Valley Community Center's
Julie Kavanagh joined a large crowd of administrators who addressed Mayor
Brown along labor union issues and the impact on their operation. Interestingly
enough, most of those who took the floor during the Mayor Brown Saturday
with Labor on Sept. 20 didn't relish the idea of labor union infiltration.
On the Road to Success More than 200 residents of Sunnydale and Potrero Hill public housing will join City officials, community leaders and service providers in a special One the Road to Success V ceremony Oct. 17, 11 a.m. at the Sunnydale Auditorium. This event will honor families having
made outstanding efforts towards family self-sufficiency and salutes community
leaders and organizations in both Potrero Hill and Sunnydale housing developments.
United Nations World Day to Overcome Extreme Poverty will also be commemorated.
St. James Honors Grandparent of the Year by Gerry L. Galvan St. James Presbyterian Church at 240 Leland Ave. might be one of the very few, if not the only congregation in the U.S. or the world ever to observe the first Grandparents' Day this year on Sept. 14. During simple but appropriate rites
at worship service, 96-year-old Georgina de Pruda was awarded the title
of Grandparent of the Year by the Men of St. James, an arm of the Church.
Mrs. de Pruda, who has no natural children of her own, was given the award on the basis of her raising more than 40 foster children, who in turn have raised their own children. Just like any grandparent, she spent many years of her life baby-sitting and looking after the welfare of her grandkids. Following an admirably unique style of raising children, Mrs. de Pruda made inculcation of Biblical principles and the Christian mode of living a top priority in bringing up her children and grandchildren. The rest of child rearing principles followed as a matter of course. The idea of observing Grandparents' Day originated with the men's club leadership. The president ran into a one-of-a-kind home calendar carrying a Grandparents' Day logo on the Sept. 14 space. Discovery was brought to the attention of the St. James Pastor, who promised his cooperation. After an initial request was made by the club president to the treasurer who agreed that a Grandparents' Day was a good idea, a membership exploratory meeting was called to determine popular proposal acceptance. Several weeks later on Sept. 7 with a club quorum at hand, a final decision was made and Mrs. de Pruda was unanimously voted to be Grandparent of the Year 1997. Two separately composed poems extolling the virtues, whims, caprices, strength and weaknesses of grandparents were read on the pulpit by the St. James clerk of session, who then presented a well-developed orchid to Mrs. de Pruda on behalf of the Men of St. James. At 96, Mrs. de Pruda can still carry on a lucid conversation that rings with clear grasps of events during scores of years ago. She narrates experiences being a young girl of seven in Scotland, where she was born. She tells of her life as a 14-year-old at Sunday school here in the U.S. Her date recollection and sequences could be as flawless as an atomic clock. Georgina de Pruda might not be the oldest
grandmother in the U.S. (or the world), but she certainly could be one
of the most conscientious guardians for growing kids in the Christian faith.
Guns Brought to State Must be Registered Governor Pete Wilson signed an Assembly bill Sept. 24 requiring persons who move to California with handguns after the New Year to register their firearms with the Department of Justice within 60 days of establishing residency. "Guns kill more than 5,000 Californians a year," said Assembymember Kevin Shelley, who authored Assembly Bill 991. "Often these guns come from out-of-state untraceable sources." Shelley noted that firearm violence has reached epidemic proportions in California. It is estimated that approximately 70,000 handguns are brought into the state each year by new residents with no paperwork filed on these guns. Unregistered guns often end up on the illegal market, available to criminals and persons who would otherwise be ineligible to legally purchase them. . MOCYF Reschedules Planning Workshop A planning workshop by the Mayor's Office of Children, Youth and Their Families designed to provide community members with an opportunity to have input into the strategic planning process for this year's Children's Service Plan and other long term planning efforts has been rescheduled. The new location and date is Saturday,
Oct. 25, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the City College of San Francisco Evans Campus
located at the Southeast Community Center, 1400 Evans at Third Street.
Call 554-8990 for information.
Neighborhood Survey
Will Soon Help
Visitacion Valley businesses will soon be able to contribute their ideas for improving neighborhood commerce when a merchant survey is developed and distributed to the area. A separate consumer survey is also in the works for local residents to list the various stores they would like to see in the area. News of the proposed surveys came during the Oct. 2 meeting of the Leland Avenue Revitalization Project, developed by the Mayor's Office of Community Development (MOCD) to help bolster the sagging economy now stagnating Leland Avenue. Questioning existing Valley businesses will help the survey team pinpoint goods and services the neighborhood needs, explained Rufus P. Browning, Ph.D., director of the Public Research Institute at S.F. State University. Along with Ian Citti, they posed questions about local commerce to those in attendance. Ideas stressed for consideration included: ideas to make Valley residents want to shop in the area; cleanliness of sidewalks and buildings; vagrancy; safety of neighborhood shoppers; and the vital need of several key businesses, including a variety store, hardware store and shops of various apparel. A recent survey of the neighborhood found more than a dozen storefronts either closed or vacant with several in a deplorable condition. Most noticeable are the south side of Leland Avenue between Bayshore Boulevard and Desmond Street with three boarded up properties, and the west side of Bayshore past Leland with five closed stores. In just the last few weeks, an clothing
shop and a restaurant have closed their doors on Leland Avenue.
Attractive Housing to Serve as Future King Center Home Summarizing nearly a year of productive workshops with the surrounding Visitacion Valley community, Mercy Charities Housing (MCH) conducted a retrospective forum Sept. 6 at St. James Presbyterian Church to reacquaint future neighbors of the proposed 91-unit John King Senior Housing (JKSH) with the developments that have transpired. In the last several months, preliminary sketches and input by nearby residents have been combined to design a complex which, together with proposed housing scheduled for Britton Street and the area now occupied by Geneva Towers, will be an inspirational foundation of a neighborhood well on its way to rejuvenation. Recently released JKSH drawings now show the new housing wrapped around a circular entrance drive which will bend off a widened Raymond Avenue. Surrounding landscape will include most of the current trees, giving the future complex, located on the north side of the 500 block, a shaded appearance. In compliance with requests of nearby residents, Raymond Avenue will not be opened to Visitacion Avenue at its western end, removing any fears of vehicles speeding up a narrow residential street. MCH will also consider several criteria by Visitacion Valley Bilingual Education and Supportive Services Training (VVBESST), which brought forth its agenda through spokesperson Marlene Tran. Once construction is completed, John King Senior Center will move from Ridge View Methodist Church on Leland Avenue one block north to expanded facilities. |