The struggle over neighborhoods, jobs and the future of black and working class San Francisco

“Nobody is going to take my house from me. This utility undergrounding project is just another way for the City to clear Black folks out of this community.”

— Eddie Mary Gipson, 50-year resident of Bayview Hunters Point and POWER member who led our successful campaign against liens against home-owners to pay for the City’s utility undergrounding program.

The Bayview Hunters Point Organizing Project is organized around the assertion that development and the existence of our communities can and should co-exist, and therefore development should improve the lives of existing poor and working class communities of color in San Francisco. The project is led by a working group, comprised of POWER members who live in the neighborhood, which meets weekly to develop agendas for community meetings and actions, set goals and plans for outreach and conduct trainings with and for other POWER members. Through an emphasis on leadership development, strategic alliances, and grassroots organizing, we aim to build and implement a development plan rooted in an agenda for racial and economic justice, in order to prioritize the rights and interests of poor and working class communities of color.

Only in San Francisco would you see a dozen senior citizens from Bayview Hunters Point march into the Mayor’s Office on Housing, demanding that policymakers address the needs of their community.

Why did they march, chanting and holding signs, four long blocks to the city department? They marched because they saw that the changes happening in their community weren’t happening for them. They marched because they identified a need to defend Bayview Hunters Point from gentrification, and they marched to ensure that all development that happens in the neighborhood directly benefits folks who live in the neighborhood.

Gentrification isn’t just happening in Bayview Hunters Point—it’s happening in every working class community of color in San Francisco. If there’s one thing we can count on seeing in the San Francisco skyline, it’s a crane and some hard hats. Everywhere you look, someone is trying to tear something down in order to build another condo or live/work loft. Suddenly, politicians are concerned about pollution, air quality, and good grocery stores in Bayview Hunters Point. Why now?

In order to understand gentrification in San Francisco, we’ve got to understand that the history of development in San Francisco has historically led to and supported the displacement of working class communities of color.

In the late 1960s, Justin Herman led a ruthless charge through the Fillmore District, one of the first thriving Black communities in San Francisco. The Fillmore District, now known as the Western Addition, was once known across the country as the “Harlem of the West.” Although music greats like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong helped to put this community on the map, the community was identified as a target for “urban renewal” or, as many Black families experienced it, “Negro removal.” Redevelopment displaced more than 6,000 Black people during its first wave, and more than 14,000 Black people in its second wave through the neighborhood. Thousands of families were assured the right to return, as well as refurbished homes and businesses, yet, even today, that dream remains deferred.

Early displacement of more than 20,000 Black people from the Fillmore District laid the foundation for San Francisco to continue hemorrhaging thousands of Black people—in fact, since 1990, the Black population here has decreased by more than 25%. From the Fillmore to the Mission to SOMA, we know how the story ends. There is a massive land grab going on in working class communities of color, and our neighborhoods are being sold out from under our feet to the highest bidder.

What’s driving the displacement of working class communities of color out of San Francisco? Corporate globalization (corporations moving production overseas) has meant that cities like San Francisco are losing their industrial and manufacturing base. This important economic shift has not only pushed more of our communities into poverty—it has also created a new speculative market. With manufacturing moving overseas, private developers are able to reap enormous profits by converting formerly industrial lands and working class neighborhoods into trendy new enclaves for retail and high end housing. Our communities are now commodities that are being bought and sold on the global market. Across the country, we can see a trend where redevelopment operates like a stockbroker, placing entire neighborhoods up for sale and funneling public funds to subsidize huge profits for private developers.

But POWER members who live in Bayview Hunters Point aren’t giving up their communities to ANYONE without a fight.

The Bayview Hunters Point Organizing Project is organized around the assertion that development and the existence of our communities can and should co-exist, and therefore development should improve the lives of existing poor and working class communities of color in San Francisco. The project is led by a working group, comprised of POWER members who live in the neighborhood, which meets weekly to develop agendas for community meetings and actions, set goals and plans for outreach and conduct trainings with and for other POWER members. Through an emphasis on leadership development, strategic alliances, and grassroots organizing, we aim to build and implement a development plan rooted in an agenda for racial and economic justice, in order to prioritize the rights and interests of poor and working class communities of color.