Fighting Lennar Development and Environmental Racism in SF Schools and Hunters Point Community

Photos from SF Bayview Newspaper

Environmental racism and health inequality for the lowest income communities of color in San Francisco are clear structural barriers to educational equality in our school district. The largely African American Hunters Point community in the Southeast region of San Francisco has been organizing for almost a year now to stop the 'ethnic cleansing' of SF's Black community there.

Over the past decade big business developers and city politicians have gradually 'pushed out' African American families from Bay View Hunters Point and other Southeast areas of the City. But the most dramatic displacement is going on right now with Lennar Corporation's Hunters Point Shipyard development that is threatening the neighborhood with some 1500-1600 new condos. The School Board has been working with neighborhood and environmental justice groups, parents, students and social justice organizations to halt the Lennar Development until a thorough independent health study can be conducted to ensure the health of the community's children and families.

Here's the resolution the San Francisco Board of Education is scheduled to vote on at our school board meeting on Tuesday 9/25 at 6pm:

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San Francisco Board of Education Resolution
In Opposition to Lennar Corporation’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Development and In Support of the Community’s Demand for a Temporary Stoppage and an Independent Health and Safety Assessment to Protect Our Students and Their Families

- Commissioners Eric Mar and Kim-Shree Maufas
[will move to suspend the rules to vote on First Reading 9/25]

WHEREAS: Patterns of environmental racism, inequity and injustice exist within San Francisco, where schools in communities like Bayview Hunters Point bear the brunt of environmental health problems; and
WHEREAS: Since October 2006, when a young worker blew the whistle on Lennar Corporation’s Hunters Point Naval Shipyard development, large numbers of students, teachers, educators, workers, and families of the Bayview Hunters Point area have been voicing their concerns about the construction-related dust at the Hunters Point Shipyard site and the dangerous health impact that the dust and toxics in it, including asbestos, heavy metals and other inorganics, are having on our SFUSD students, staff and members of the community; and
WHEREAS: Lennar Corporation is a Florida-based Fortune 500 company which reportedly had revenues of $16.3 billion in 2006 from development projects throughout the country like the 1500-unit condominium development planned for Hunters Point; and
WHEREAS: Lennar Bayview Hunters Point LLC was involved in large scale grading that reportedly caused untold amounts of toxic dust and Asbestos Structures to migrate over its boundary and into areas were children and families live, work and play; and
WHEREAS: In response to these health dangers and conerns, a broad grassroots coalition of Bayview Hunters Point and social justice community organizations has been demanding a temporary stoppage in Lennar Corporation’s construction so that an independent health assessment can be conducted; and
WHEREAS: There has been a history of problems with implementing the City’s dust-mitigation plan since the soil grading and disposal process began that has included: an absence of air monitoring for the first four months of the project during heavy grading; malfunctioning air monitors; a Notice of Violation from the Air Quality Management District; and when the monitors started working, routine exceedances of the agreed-upon allowance of asbestos prevalence in the air – 16,000 structures per cubic meter [SF Department of Health Regulations, Article 31] including 9 exceedances in June alone; and very poor communication of these exceedances to adjacent neighbors; and
WHEREAS: Numerous studies have documented that Bayview Hunter's Point and other communities in Southeast San Francisco are overburdened with the cumulative impacts of a multitude of environmental health threats that impact the health and well-being of children and other residents who are overwhelmingly African American and other people of color. These impacts include exposure to toxic air pollution, carcinogens, and other inorganic substances from industrial facilities, power plants, sewage treatment and solid and hazardous waste facilities and diesel particulate from trucks, trains and other vehicles. Additionally, these impacted children and residents are more vulnerable to environmental toxics due to their limited access to quality health care and healthy foods and other social and cultural factors. And, this disproportionate impact has a damaging effect on our students academic achievement and opportunities for success in school and in their lives; and

WHEREAS: San Francisco public schools such as Malcolm X Academy, George Washington Carver, Bret Harte, and Dr. Charles Drew College Prep Academy, other schools, childcare centers, and playgrounds are in the immediate vicinity of the Lennar development site; and
WHEREAS: Three African American employees of Lennar Corporation filed a whistle blower lawsuit in SF Superior Court on March 16, 2007, alleging that they suffered retaliation after reporting asbestos dust exposure and racial discrimination and that the company failed to contain asbestos dust while drilling into the Shipyard site, endangering the local community, including the school children of the neighboring Muslim University;
WHEREAS: The World Health Organization reports that there is no evidence for a threshold for the carcinogenic effect of asbestos and that increased cancer risks have been observed in populations exposed to very low levels of asbestos; However, there are tests for lead, chromium, radon, arsenic, etc., which are toxic chemicals that are present in the dirt on the affected site; and

WHEREAS: The ‘Precautionary Principle’ has been adopted by a growing number of cities, including San Francisco, as well as the Los Angeles Unified School District, as a proactive approach to promote the safest, lowest risk approach to protecting people’s health, the environment, and property; and

WHEREAS: The Precautionary Principle as adopted by the City and County of San Francisco includes the following “essential elements:” :

Anticipatory Action: There is a duty to take anticipatory action to prevent harm. Government, business, and community groups, as well as the general public, share this responsibility.
Right to Know: The community has a right to know complete and accurate information on potential human health and environmental impacts associated with the selection of products, services, operations or plans. The burden to supply this information lies with the proponent, not with the general public.
Alternatives Assessment: An obligation exists to examine a full range of alternatives and select the alternative with the least potential impact on human health and the environment including the alternative of doing nothing.
Full Cost Accounting: When evaluating potential alternatives, there is a duty to consider all the reasonably foreseeable costs, including raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, use, cleanup, eventual disposal, and health costs even if such costs are not reflected in the initial price.
Short-and long-term benefits and time thresholds should be considered when making decisions.
Participatory Decision Process: Decisions applying the Precautionary Principle must be transparent, participatory, and informed by the best available information. (City of San Francisco, Precautionary Principle Ordinance, Section 101, August 2003, http://temp.sfgov.org/sfenvironment/aboutus/innovative/pp/sfpp.htm)

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the San Francisco Unified School District believes that the Precautionary Principle as adopted by the City and County of San Francisco requires the Mayor Gavin Newsom, the Redevelopment Agency, Department of Public Health, Board of Supervisors, and other agencies accountable to our communities to take “anticipatory action” to prevent harm and through exploration and careful analysis of courses of action in order to present the least threat to the students, families and staff of the schools in the vicinity of the Hunters Point development; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Board of Education of the San Francisco Unified School District calls on the Mayor, Board of Supervisors, Redevelopment Agency, Department of Public Health and other relevant City agencies to require an immediate halt of Lennar Corporation’s development of Parcel A in the Hunter’s Point Shipyard until an immediate and independent health and safety assessment can be conducted in coordination with the Superintendent and the School District’s School Health Programs Office and relevant community organizations and City task forces like the SF Asthma Task Force; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the Board directs the Superintendent to coordinate with City officials to ensure the health of our students and their families in the affected area and report back to the full Board with an environmental safety action plan and timelines to ensure the safety of our students and their families no later than the Board’s October 23rd meeting.

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For more info on how you can support the Bayview Hunters Point community -

POWER

Green Action

Francisco DaCosta

SF/California Elections - This is what democracy looks like?

As the nation debates what “San Francisco Values” are and SF Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi prepares to become speaker of the House of Representatives, my SF State students and I are grappling with the meaning of local, state and national elections to our communities.
For the past few weeks leading up to election day tomorrow, we have been looking closely at what democracy really means in America – especially for immigrants, for Asian Americans, and for other disenfranchised communities. With CA’s Proposition 87 [Clean Energy/Oil Corps Tax] and Proposition 89 [Stop Political Corruption/For Clean Money Elections] and other campaigns we have been studying how corporate domination of the political process really operates in local communities, urban centers and states like California. Randy Shaw of Beyond Chron predicts both of those initiatives to go down to defeat tomorrow because of a corporate and big business onslaught of $ and misleading political ads.
After being pulled into the Pro-Prop 87 hoopla with Clinton and Gore and other celebrities rallying around the issue of global warming - I agree with Shaw's criticism of the Prop 87 camapaign's lack of strategic vision -

I sure wish Hollywood producer Steven Bing had thought of more productive ways to spend $47 million on improving the environment rather than blowing it on Prop 87. Bing could have hired hundreds of grassroots organizers and impacted dozens of political races to build the environmental movement---instead he waged a television war against Chevron and big oil companies that he will lose.

Back to my teaching and my students' learning opportunities - hopefully by plugging into various electoral campaigns, even for a few hours, to learn about how communities “mobilize the immigrant vote”, and work to raise awareness in local races to increase turnout for example in city council, supervisorial or even school board races, students can learn in a hands on manner of the huge barriers that exist for working families, immigrants and English learners, and for people of color and younger votes in our ‘democracy’.
For more on grassroots efforts to use electoral organizing and mobilizing to build stronger social justice movements - see
Nov 7 Elections - 5 ways you can help make progressive change in San Francisco Schools
Sick Kids & Yes on SF's Prop F, the Makibaka Hotel and learning about people's struggle
SF Yes on Prop F - working families deserve sick pay
lacitybeat.com on LA's AGENDA
sf-chinatown-its-about-time-for-prop 89
From the Streets to the Polls [to the streets....]
Election 2006 - It's Time to Smash the Color Line
Linking immigrant rights with voting rights
SF Progressive Organizing Center kickoff

Asthma, Schools and Environmental Justice

Marie Hoemke, a former SF School Nurse and activist with the SF Asthma Task Force, has been one of the driving forces of implementing better Asthma policies in the San Francisco Schools - addressing a serious issue of environmental racism in our City. But she hasn't done this alone. She's worked alongside amazing parent and enviornmental justice activists like Maria Luz Torre, Lorrie Jones, Natasha Madaris and Parent Voices, Beth Saiki and Anjali Nath of the American Lung Association, and Kathy Perry of Kaiser and the Chair of the City's Task Force. Hoemke has been at it for over a decade. In the 1990's she worked with teachers, parents and students from George Washington Carver Elementary like school counselor Veronica Lightfoot to begin the district's first school asthma education program in 1996. See the SF Asthma Task Force's Strategic Plan.

For a concise history of the struggle for envirnonmental justice in the SF Schools in the Bayview Hunters Point communities - check out this article from the Action Alliance for Childen's July-August 2000 issue of the Children's Advocate.
Check out also SF Chronicle environmental reporter Jane Kay's excellent coverage of the struggle to change City and School District policies in the aftermath of the deaths of 3 children.

Marie, with Parent Voices, the American Lung Association, Bayview Hunters Point and other parents in the South East neighborhoods of SF and others are keeping the pressure on the School District to deal with asthma and other environmental justice issues in our district.

For a useful tool for school districts - check out - Tools for Schools
Help improve the air in your school through the Tools for Schools action kit.
The Tools for Schools kit shows schools how to carry out a practical plan of action to prevent and resolve indoor air problems—and create a healthier environment for children and staff.
The number of children with asthma increased by 60 percent during the 1980s, and poor indoor air quality can trigger asthmatic episodes. Over half of the schools surveyed found at least one environmental problem which affects indoor air quality, according to a recent government report.
Good indoor air quality contributes to a favorable learning environment for students, productivity for teachers and staff, and a a sense of comfort, health, and well-being for all school occupants. These combine to assist a school in its core mission—educating children.
For more information about Tools for Schools, just call 1-800-LUNG-USA to be connected automatically to your local American Lung Association office.

See also the American Association of Adminstrator's new
Powerful Practices: A Checklist for School Districts Addressing the Needs of Students with Asthma

This checklist, developed by AASA and partner school districts, is intended for school administrators to use to help you identify areas of asthma management your district is already doing well, as well as areas in which you may want to focus more energy.

Asthma Wellness: Keeping Children With Asthma in School and LearningProject Facts
Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease, affecting more than five million school-aged children. It is the reason 10 million school days are missed each year and thereby can have significant negative impacts on academic performance. It is critical for school leaders to be proactive and implement policies and practices that will keep children with asthma in school and learning. This is why AASA—the oldest and largest membership organization for school superintendents—has undertaken an effort to reduce the burden of asthma among children and youth. This ambitious five-year effort is funded by the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

For SF School Board Resolutions on Asthma - click here.

Watts 40th Anniversary, March on Washington, & Teachers Speak Out - Books Not Bars!

Teachers Speak Out About CYA

On the 40th anniversary of the Watts Uprisings ['riots'] grassroots groups are converging on Washington to build a stronger movement for racial and economic justice. For more info check out Family Members and Friends of Incarcerated People of Alabama. Over 2 million imprisioned!.

TEACHING MOMENT: See also the great LA Weekly coverage of the anniverary -
Joe Hicks' commentary Great Perspective from the Watts Labor Action Committee on the need for 'self-determination' for our communities.

ALLIANCE BUILDING/MOVEMENT BUILDING?
Education Not Incarceration, with the support of Critical Resistance and Books Not Bars, was successful in winning stronger teacher support for their various campaigns at the National Education Association representative assembly gathering in LA recently. Congrats to the groups working to build more unity among teachers, students and grassroots groups and a stronger movement for educational justice, and to reform the prison industrial complex.
For more info on these efforts contact Jonah Zern of Education Not Incarceration.
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On another front - Books Not BarsBooks Not Bars (BNB) is fighting to redirect California's public resources away from punishment for young people and towards opportunity.Currently, their "Alternatives for Youth" Campaign is fighting to close the California Youth Authority (CYA) eight youth prisons. They also coordinate a statewide network for parents of incarcerated youth, called Families for Books Not Bars. And, they have a youth organizing and leadership development program called Let's Get Free.

From Books Not Bars:
Mass incarceration is a crisis in California.
For decades, the state has poured money into its abusive, costly, and ineffective prison system, claiming this will make neighborhoods safe from crime. So, what do we have to show for this? The largest, and most expensive, prison system in the nation. A prison system that warehouses and abuses people, the vast majority of whom are from low-income communities of color. And streets and neighborhoods that are no safer than they were twenty years ago. BNB has a different vision for how to make our communities safe and healthy. We know California’s current prison system was never meant to truly provide for the safety and well being of low income communities and communities of color. We also know what these communities need instead. The government should invest in opportunity -- not punishment. The safest communities are the ones with the best schools and the most jobs -- not the ones with the biggest police departments or the most jail cells. This is the future that California deserves. It is the future that Books Not Bars is fighting for.
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The National Education Association (NEA) – an organization representing 2.7 million educational professionals – wrote a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger expressing deep concerns about the CYA

July 25, 2005
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
On behalf of the 2.7 million members of the National Education Association (NEA), I am writing to advise you of our great concern for inmates of the California Youth Authority (CYA).As education professionals, we are dedicated to opening the doors of opportunity for all children. While we are committed to the goal of great public schools for every child, we recognize that every child is not law abiding. However, we do not believe that children who run afoul of the law should also forfeit their opportunity to receive a quality education which greatly improves their chances of becoming productive citizens.Currently, the state of California spends only $7,692 per student for education, while spending $80,000 to $100,000 to house a child as an inmate of the CYA. By contrast, the state of Missouri spends half that amount on juvenile offenders, while housing them in small, supportive centers. Missouri's 15 percent recidivism rate, compared to your state's rate of 91 percent is further proof that there are successful alternative approaches to rehabilitating youthful offenders.As you consider transformation of the CYA, we would encourage you to look toward replicating the efforts of states like Missouri. For the state of California to not follow the lead of other states in restructuring your program in a manner that would provide youthful offenders with an environment leading to rehabilitation and greater opportunity for success as adults would lead us to recommend closure of the CYA.As you know, NEA members work in every level of public education -- from pre-school to university graduate programs. We are committed to the education of all, especially our youth. We urge you to stand with us by improving the opportunities for inmates of the CYA, and sending an important message that emphasizes education over incarceration.
Sincerely,
Reg Weaver
NEA President