Radiological White Elephant at Hunters Point.

ENVIRONMENTAL PIMPS

The Bayview Hunters Point lies in the Southeast Sector of the City and County of San Francisco. It is here that we have two aging Power Plants that spew dangerous levels of toxins into the air, soil, and water every single day. Within this sector are long arteries that ply diesel trucks, buses, and other vehicles spewing the most dangerous toxins into the air which in turn people breathe and suffer from respiratory diseases and cancer. The Navy has conducted radiological experiments and left toxic hot spots that have polluted the Hunters Point Shipyard and is now just attempting to do the clean up after decades. The Shipyard was closed in 1974 and some clean up attempts were made in 1992 and are still on going.

Over $300 million dollars have been spent during the first round with very little clean up at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The second round has the Navy working with $200 million and this time around we are seeing for the first time some concrete clean up and results. Millions have gone to consultants.

We also have the Southeast Sewage Treatment Plant that treats over 80% of the City and County of San Francisco's raw sewage. 80% secondary effluents from the City plus a 100% of all the raw sewage from Colma, Brisbane, Burlingame, and Daly City, some 80 million gallons pass through the Main Force Sewer pipeline situated at Pier 80 every single day.

This Southeast Sewage Plant is very old and was never built to operate and handle such a huge load but it does. The Mayor knows about this and so does San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. The Board of Supervisors knows this but frankly speaking no one wants to do anything about this chronic situation.

For decades the filthy rich saw to it that the freeways, the dump sites, in short the arm-pit of the City was deliberately placed in an area where the poor and the ignorant could NOT fathom nor comprehend the health hazards that they encountered every single day of the lives. Today times have changed and the information age has brought qualified information to the doorstep and keyboard of every one who cares to learn.

Some years ago the constituents of San Francisco passed a proposition to build a Cross Town Tunnel. This tunnel would have taken all the secondary effluents to the Pacific Ocean. The City has still to fulfill its obligation to the people of San Francisco on this. In the mean time Environmental Pimps in the Southeast Sectors talk the talk but do not walk the walk. The claim to represent the community that suffers but what they in fact do is represent and make sure their own pockets are full.

Community Based Organization in the Bayview Hunters Point receive millions of dollars but they service given to the constituents of the area is next to nothing.

When the Shipyard was fully operational it employed over 15,000 people. When it closed down in 1974 it left a huge vacuum. Many people who had jobs and lived in the Visitation Valley, Bayview Hunters Point, Portola, Potrero. Dog Patch, Little Hollywood and beyond had to fend for themselves by finding new jobs. I still meet many of the veterans who worked at the Hunters Point Shipyard and they still remember as if it was yesterday the memorable days when the Shipyard was fully operational. They worked as machinists, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, cooks, and administrative workers every possible job that any City offers.

The Southeast Sector has over 20% unemployment today and this factor contributes to a lot of crime and drug abuse. The Southeast Sector has over 48,000 people according to the latest census. Less then 3000 vote and most of the people are apathetic. It is amazing to hear and see the people of the Southeast Sector tell you that they have NO HOPE. That their plight is a lost one and that they have been screwed over, again and again by crooks.

The Supervisor from District 10 who has jurisdiction over this area does not seem to understand the real issues. She is surrounded by people who are environmental pimps who advice her and mislead her to passing Resolutions and Bills that adversely impact the people. Assembly Bill 1187, which created the Hunters Point Shipyard Development Authority, aims to privatize the Shipyard without cleaning up the Hunters Point Shipyard. The Shipyard is listed on the Superfund List and the Supervisor does not really fully understand the meaning of Superfund. The Supervisor has NOT attended one single Restoration Advisory Board Meeting. The RAB represents the community and is created to work with the Navy to maintain standards, which will enable the community to enjoy Quality Living Standards.

The Environmental Pimps who sided with the Supervisor on AB 1187 are all on the take and have all received grants from the San Francisco Department of the Environment. None of them have served the community is a just manner. These environmental pimps have pocketed money that should have gone to community.

These environmental pimps back a corporation Lennar BVHP LLC that has been tasked to develop and build over 1600 units on just one parcel. More parcels to follow - never mind that the Shipyard is polluted and that the clean up has just really begun. I predict the day the Mayor leaves office - Lennar will pack its bag, write off its losses, and that we will never see the likes of Lennar again!

The Supervisor of District 10 recently passes a City Energy Resolution linked to the Mirant Plant and Peeker Plants. Again this plan fails to consult the constituents and leads the City and County of San Francisco in the wrong direction. Again and again the District 10 Supervisor presupposes the people are dumb - when to be sincere she has been the most na•ve and ill informed Supervisor on the full board.

None of these environmental pimps fully understand the infrastructure of the Southeast Sector as it pertains to the Power Plants, the Sewage Treatment Plant, Transportation, Drain Storms and Runoff, Blight, Solar Power, Industrial waste, Dirty Industries linked to concrete, sand, and aggregate, Old fuel tanks, land fill and toxic hot spots, Environmental Impact Studies and Reports, and a variety of other issues linked to toxicity and sound planning.

Right now we have 3 conduits built at great expense under Islais Creek. One or two of these conduits will help connect the Old PG&E Power Plant with Mirant and keep it alive way past 2020. None of these environmental pimps know nor understand the significance of the conduits. They keep trying to bluff the public by protesting against PG&E while all the time enjoying grants given to them by SF DOE from fines that were imposed on California Power Plants in the amount of $47 million.

The City and County were given $13.3 million - which SF DOE distributed, to these environmental pimps from the Southeast Sector. PG&E contributed to these fines which were meant to mitigate and make the constituents who had suffered whole. The Environmental Pimps do not understand this - the only reality they understand is pocketing the money while our infants and children die!

A grant was given by SF DOE to conduct a Window Project to help the constituents of the Southeast Sector understand the Shipyard. A handful of people has visited the entity that was given this grant over two years. For months this grant was NOT used and yet the San Francisco Department of the Environment looks the other way. This is wrong.

In the meantime our infants die and hundreds of the constituents suffer from cancer and other life threatening diseases. This Window Project grant was worth more then $500,000. It could have been spent to do much good. Nothing happened. Shame on those who cannot adjudicate.

Recently $16 million was given to SF Department of Environment to help reduce energy. Instead of helping the constituents of Bayview Hunters Point they chose to help the filthy rich businesses in downtown San Francisco. When this fact was brought to the SF DOE at the Human Rights Commission Workshop April 26, 2003 none of the environmental pimps who are enjoying the grants were there to speak for the community. I saw Maurice Campbell, I saw Lynne Brown speak up and some others but not the environmental pimps that cozy to the Supervisor of District 10 and the SF DOE.

The Human Rights Commission has initiated an investigation and if all goes well the crooks will be exposed. It is a shame that the SF DOE did not fully understand the map of the GRID the superhighway through which the energy flows. They now admit that Bayview Hunters Point should really have been the area for them to conduct their energy saving study. Once again too late and a bloody wrong choice.

On another note $1.5 million was given to the Conservatory which is situated in Golden Gate Park from the $13.3 million Environmental Justice Grant. This money was given to train 10 horticulturists. This money was to have gone to mitigate problems inflicted on the constituents of Hunters Point. Where is the rationale to waste money on the filthy rich who hang around the Conservatory at Golden Park when our children are dying at Hunters Point? Why would Bayview Hunters Point require 10 horticulturists when we have a Nursery and trained personnel next to the Southeast Facility at 1800 Oakdale that can cater to practical training for much less?

I pray the day come when we have a new Mayor and all these crooks are taken to task. I see them already making plans - trying to jump ship. One crook that was debarred in 1978 as a lawyer has her paws in everything where she can cause confusion and make a fast buck on the backs of the constituents. She promises to do this and that but never, ever keeps her word.

Her partner in crime who is the Director of one of worst entities in the Bayview always talks about serving the community but is busy making back deals with the Navy, the Dirty Businesses, anyone who can give him a buck. It is such vermin that have ruined the good name of the community. Come to think of it such crooks even go to South Africa to represent this community on the environment when they have done nothing for their community. Nothing at all.

A few hundred feet away from the old PG&E plant at Hunters Point is Herons Head Park which belongs to the San Francisco Port Authority. This area is a toxic dump. Day in and day out tons of toxins saturate the air, the water and soil. This area has been given to some folks who do not have the interests of the community. Can you imagine that Earth Day was held on this toxic dump? That these same folks none of which live in the community get millions from the SF DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency. That innocent children are taken to the toxic dump and exposed to the toxic air, soil and water. In fact these folks serve their own self-interests, their life style, and a philosophy that is convoluted and has little to do with the environment, its protection and the community that is affected at large.

Some of the Environmental Pimps play the race card. It is a shame that African Americans keep killing African American - Black on Black violence must end. It is also a greater shame when African American who receives EJ grants money - do not think twice before pocketing the money. It is a shame that for decades those that could have helped African Americans chose to see to the demise of progress while creating chronic BLIGHT in the community. It is not too late but precious time has been lost and we now have to catch up or lose all that once was good.

It is time that the community gather their strength and under good leadership rid these vermin who call themselves activists and Environmentalists - but are nothing more then Environmental Pimps who talk the talk but do not walk the walk.

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