by Len Appiano

Beneath a large banner proudly proclaiming, "Our Pride is Back," students of Visitacion Valley Middle School (VVMS) combined music and verse in a spirited afternoon Black History Assembly on Feb. 27 which featured enlightening words from guest speaker Mayor Willie Brown.

Students attending the 2 p.m. assembly were first entertained by the Touch of Class Choir from Philip and Sala Burton High School singing an uplifting "Lift Every Voice and Sing" before returning later in the program for more musical selections.

Several inspiring poems were presented by VVMS students throughout the hour, as  the audience perused a program listing products created by African American inventors.

VVMS Assistant Principal Tina Smith complemented praise earlier given by Principal John Flores to the student body for skills well executed in organizing the event. She then introduced Mayor Brown, who entered the VVMS auditorium to a thundering ovation.

Brown spoke candidly about future opportunities in the local job market, especially in multimedia, and reminded students that future success would be determined by effort now applied in their formative years. He then recounted his past experiences, a long journey from hometown Mineola, Texas through 31 years in state government before being elected mayor of San Francisco in 1995.

As a youth attending a segregated high school with obsolete textbooks and no athletic facilities, Brown's had originally inspired to become a mathematics instructor, a goal quickly surpassed by his interest in politics after relocating to the City  in 1952. Unable to pass an entrance examination for San Francisco State College, he was granted an interview with a counselor at the institution who asked him direct questions that led to his admittance on probation. Through hard work and determination he quickly excelled, going on in life to become  both a prominent attorney as well as state legislator, before eventually reaching City Hall.

"It can happen for every one of you if you want it to happen," Brown enthusiastically told his eager listeners. "If I can do it, everyone can do it!"

One thing that didn't work right, Brown laughingly recalled, was his jumpshot as a point guard on the S.F. State basketball court. As a player on rugged  outdoor courts in Texas, he had always accounted for the wind obstructing the path of the basketball in scoring his points. 

Organizers Want Towers Implosion
Part of "Neighborhood Day" Event

Organizers for Visitacion Valley's upcoming Neighborhood Day told Task Force members Mar. 28 they would like to see the impending implosion of Geneva Towers take place the same weekend as the May 16 community event.

With both 20-story structures now stripped down to bare concrete and nearly ready to be planted with explosives, speculation is great for having a dual  celebration. Both events are taking place one block from each other on Schwerin Street. With a motto to "Start late and finish early," Neighborhood Day will be replacing the community's annual Street Festival, while the forthcoming Geneva Towers implosion--one of the most anticipated Valley occurrence  in decades--will finally relieve a neighborhood of small family structures from the shadows of two out-of-place skyscrapers.

Implosion contractors have already stated that demolition would take place on an early Sunday morning when the least number of residents would be impacted.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

A Membership Committee of the Visitacion Valley Task Force (VVTF) on Mar. 5 expanded the number of available VVTF seats from 21 to 26. Residents will continue to hold 14 seats in seven sub areas, but businesses will be cut from four seats to three. Churches and Community Based Organizations will now each be allotted three seats with Schools now getting two positions. Three new Community at large seats will only be valid if all other seats are filled.

VVJET EVALUATION

Ann Williams of Visitacion Valley Job Education and Training (VVJET) presented a thorough report of her organization's operations. Based at the Village on Schwerin Street, the purpose of VVJET is to decrease crime and violence through employment. Candidates are helped to train for interviews through simulaitons on how to speak at an interview. VVJET now has a database of almost 2,000 applicants.

NEW BYLAWS

VVTF members agreed to move the date of review for the organization's new bylaws to May 23.

ANOTHER GREAT SWEEP

Jay Smith of the Mayor's Office of Community Development (MOCD) announced that a second Great Sweep would occur in San Francisco on Saturday, May 9. Hundreds of bags of trash were gathered locally by residents and merchants during the City's successful first event last fall, encouraging a repeat event this spring.

APRIL MEETING POSTPONED

VVTF members voted to postpone their regularly scheduled meeting for April 25 so its members can attend Community Boards training that day to be held from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at VVCC. Next Task Force meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 23, 10:30 a.m. at the Community Center gymnasium, 50 Raymond Ave.

Click Here for Previous Task Force Reports

Development of City's Southeast
Section Will Affect the Environment

by Ralph Oroquita

Southeast Alliance for Environmental Justice (SAEJ) is maintaining a collaboration with the Little Hollywood Committee with an intention for a future comprehensive health study and assessment of toxic sites in Visitacion Valley to be added to the database of the southeast section of San Francisco.

Traffic, air emissions, Candlestick stadium, recycling facilities, hazardous waste sites, brownfields, health issues, and developing a healthy environment are some of the issues that affect both communities.

A chain reaction of new construction, demolition, and development has an amplified cause and effect in the southeast area of the City and along the waterfront. Both the Giants stadium at China Basin and the Mission Bay development will have an enormous gentrification effect on their perimeter land uses. Relocation of light and heavy industries has already started and rezoning is causing M2 heavy industrial land use to be reduced.

The Planning Commission is granting permits for new live/work units in the Central Waterfront east of Third Street which will in turn lead to a further reduction of blue collar work available in the City.

Heavy industries that relocate will have only one place to go, Bayview-Hunters Point and its waterfront. A proposed sale of the PG&E power plants will renew environmental concerns of increased Bay water and air pollution.

MEETING UPDATE

During a February SAEJ meeting with representatives of Golden West Studios, president Charlie Swanson made a presentation about the development of movie and video sound stages, and multimedia facilities in existing buildings at the Hunters Point Shipyard. Mayor Willie Brown has endorsed this effort, a proposed project that will provide renovation and installation of special equipment in 14 large sound stages (6,000-25,000 square feet, 60-80 feet high). There will be long term office space within the 11 buildings on 40 acres of 550 acre Hunters Point parcel.

A presentation given by Damien Raffai about development of an area at Pier 98 (actually landfill for an unfinished pier) into a wetland and environmental study area and park is still moving forward. PG&E's power plant hot water discharge is west of this 25 acre parcel of land on Islais Creek. The wetland will be restored, trails will be constructed and a finished pier will be installed. Caution must also be used to determine if fish of this area are safe for human consumption.

A new Literacy for Environmental Justice Project will be established and located at the SAEJ office, according to project coordinator Dana Lanza. This will be a school-based education program for Bayview/Hunters Point youth with 18 environmental subjects including a classroom-based educational component, a hands-on activity or service project, accompanying curriculum suggestions, and post program reflection and evaluation.

A presentation by Neil Cendel of the Health Children's Organization Project was concerned with the lead and other toxins within the home, schools and other interior areas. Removal of pre-1978 exterior paint containing lead must be contained. Call the Department of Building Inspections at (415) 558-6598 to report any sand blasting or grinding of painted surfaces. Every child should be tested for lead in their blood. Very complicated health problems could be prevented.

There were also discussions of Norcal using Pier 96 for recycling, Lonestar Concrete moving to Pier 92, and Pier 94/96 being used for heavy vehicle maintenance and storage or bidding for a lease agreement. The sale of PG&E power plants was also a serious discussion subject.

San Francisco's southeast area must be developed without creating more long term problems with short term solutions.

Multicultural Assemblies at VVES

Annual multicultural assemblies held Feb. 6 at Visitacion Valley Elementary School (VVES) and celebrating the Lunar New Year of the Tiger and Black History Month were so appealing to the audience that three groups performing that day were invited to participate in other City events: Mr. Hunter's 4th graders and Mr. Edward's 3rd graders performed Feb. 26 at the Bayview Opera House, while Ms. Chin's Chinese fan dancers were invited to dance on stage in Chinatown in March.

VVES Principal Vincent Chao applauds Mrs. Christie and her committee, as well as all staff and students involved in both celebrations for making them so successful.

Valley Residents Voice Concerns to Supervisors During Meeting at Sunnydale Auditorium

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors brought their regular weekly meeting to Visitacion Valley on Mar. 2, where neighborhood residents packed the Sunnydale Auditorium to voice their concerns about local issues.

The Board had agreed in the past to make meetings more accessible to City residents by periodically conducting business in various neighborhoods.

Of the two dozen residents who stepped to the microphone to express their views at the Monday evening meeting, 15 cited safety as their major concern for attending.

Presenting plenty of statistics was ESL instructor Marlene Tran, representing the Visitacion Valley Asians' Alliance, who reported a startling 60 percent of her students had been victims of crime. She requested that more bilingual police officers be assigned to the neighborhood's growing Asian American community, and that more services be provided for the non-English-speaking residents of the area.

Tran also suggested that a crime prevention video in Chinese be aired on a foreign language television station to instruct residents on safety measures.

Her views were supported by several other speakers from the Asian community who related their experiences through a translator. One man, a former resident of Teddy Avenue, described how he had been attacked four times, with his car suffered three atrocities. Another explained that students were afraid to attend evening ESL instruction for fear of being accosted in the dark after classes. Still others requested a senior center be organized for the Asian community in Visitacion Valley so they could be more clearly informed of various issues affecting them.

Vincent Chao, principal of Visitacion Valley Elementary School spoke about efforts of the current Valley Merchants Association, as well as the City's latest effort to revitalize commerce along a stagnating Leland Avenue. He described a recent survey of both residents and merchants conducted by the Mayor's Office of Community Development citing safety as their primary issue of local concern.

Chao's remarks were supported by J.B., a hair stylist who operates The Shop on Leland. He expressed his desire to see empty store fronts return to thriving businesses, possibly providing his business with a little competition.

Anne Seeman of Friends of Visitacion Valley Parks summarized her group's activities in the past two years as advocating the upgrade and restoration of parks and open space in the neighborhood.  She described recent construction slated for local parks and the future of outdoor areas to be enjoyed by generations to come.

Robin Moore, project manager of the American Red Cross Family Community Partnership located both in Sunnydale and Potrero Hill, saluted the positive changes recently made by the City in its public housing, and invited all interested to free CPR training available in Sunnydale later that month.

Bill Threadgill of the El Dorado School Neighborhood Betterment Council requested that Visitacion Valley again be served by only one police precinct in order to optimize service.

Kim Mitchell of the TURF program in Sunnydale suggested San Francisco consider investing in the neighborhood--having recently been given a considerable upgrade--to encourage local residents to participate more in their community.

And Esther Smith, a resident of Sunnydale for more than two decades, was thankful for added security in the area, enabling fellow senior citizens to take walks in the neighborhood and ride busses with less fear. 

McLaren Park Neighbors
Oppose Proposed Disc Golf Course

by Julie Kavanagh

In a contentious Sunday afternoon meeting on Feb. 8, neighbors who live adjacent to McLaren Park loudly opposed the installation of a recently proposed disc golf course.

Feelings were strong on both sides, as more than 150 area residents braved the rain and flooding to be heard, many for the first time.

Marvin Yee of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department presided over the meeting and attempted to outline the pros and cons of the proposal, but found it difficult to be heard above the din of the crowd. Many of those attending booed and shouted at each other as lines were drawn on both sides of the question. On each side of the issue there were residents convinced that Yee was taking the opposite side.

But opponents did agree on one thing: past failures of the Rec and Parks to manage existing amenities and services in the McLaren Park. This issue made neighbors leery of a proposed MOU (or contract) with the Disc Golf Club as a tool to force the club to keep the area clean while not encroaching on the enjoyment of the park by others.

Disc golf seemed to be the final straw in neighborhood's long-simmering resentment of Rec and Park's planning for McLaren Park without adequate outreach to its neighboring residents.

Many of the speakers in attendance cited examples of Department neglect. One man recounted that Rec and Parks had built a bathroom in McLaren Park many years ago that has never been opened, but is instead used as a tool shed. This, when all attending the meeting decried the park's lack of bathroom facilities.

It should be noted that many years have passed since a Master Plan for McLaren Park was adopted, yet very few improvements have been implemented. And those few, mostly cosmetic in nature, have only recently begun.

Neighbors attending the Feb. 8 meeting also expressed very negative views of a planned park administration building described in McLaren Park plans.

Although the Disk Golf Club has been privately raising money for the cost of the course, neighbors felt it not fair that Rec and Parks would approve this measure ahead of the many improvements that had been previously promised. Their point was that these improvements had also been paid for--and with their taxes.

Yee had promised the group that a consensus reached by the end of the day would dictate Rec and Parks' next steps. And judging from sentiments expressed, the future of disk golf in McLaren Park might be dead--killed by years of neglect suffered by both McLaren Park and its neighbors.

In the meantime, opponents of the disk golf proposal planned a meeting held on Mar. 10 which they advertised with flyers warning, "Save McLaren Park."

Let's hope both the mayor, and Rec and Parks take the message of the neighborhood to heart and initiate an ongoing dialogue with the entire area on plans for area parks, while also beginning to implement some of the previously approved improvements. They are sorely needed, and adequate lines of communication with all residents could go a long way in repairing damage done during past administrations.

In addition, we hope that those neighborhoods who defeated the disk golf course proposal will use their considerable energy to join hands with the rest of their neighbors and begin promoting some positive solutions for McLaren Park.

Some participants at the meeting expressed a wish for young people to get involved in activities such as science and nature walks. We hope they'll volunteer through local schools and youth organizations. In recent years, schools and youth organizations bordering McLaren Park have sponsored Park Clean-up days. Such events depend on many volunteers to helping with organization and supervision, an ideal way for McLaren Park neighbors to make contact with area students. These activities could in turn grow into ongoing projects that would reinforce principles of community involvement taught in the schools.

And results of such activities would bring result in the ideals those supporting the Disk Golf Club wanted all along--positive activities for our neighborhood that could bring youth and adults together in an alliance for community good. 

Couple Robs Bank on Leland Avenue

Bank of America on Leland Avenue was again a target for robbers shortly after noon on Friday, Feb. 28 when a couple wielding a gun fled with an undetermined amount of cash. Police reported that one suspect climbed over the teller's counter to seize money from a drawer during the robbery.

CPR Classes to be
Held at Sunnydale

Free CPR classes will be offered Saturday, Mar. 14 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 1 to 4 p.m. at 1704 Sunnydale Ave. Call 1-888-686-3600 for further information. 

Youth Counselor Shot and
Killed in Valley Parking Lot

A Sonoma County counselor visiting a client in San Francisco was accidently shot and killed Feb. 7 outside a Visitacion Valley convenience store during an argument between two groups of young people.

Melodie Silva, 46, of Windsor had driven a youth client and friends to the 7-11 store on Bayshore Boulevard and Arleta Avenue at 2:45 a.m. when heated verbal exchanges erupted in the parking lot. When a gun was fired, the bullet struck the back of Silva's front seat. The youth counselor, a mother of three, had been working toward a doctorate in clinical psychology.