We Need Someone New...

by Sam Drew/PNN

By now, you know about the Board of Supervisor razor thin vote to allow the Lennar Corporation to continue it’s controversial work at the Hunter’s Point Shipyard. What you may not know is that the movement to force Lennar to temporarily stop work to access the communities health continues to grow in size and scope. On Thursday at the Grace Tabernacle Community Church a packed audience listened to various speakers whose tones were both motivational and informative.

Minister Christopher Muhammad notified the energetic throng, “We have decided we are going to start a recall of Supervisor Maxwell. We have to send a message…for Bay View Hunters Point, we need someone new.” This declaration was met with thunderous applause, as many remembered how Supervisor Maxwell said nothing during the lengthy Board of Supervisor meeting.

At the Board of Supervisors meeting Supervisor Chris Daly’s resolution to temporary halt Lennar’s work on Parcel A was put to a vote. Supervisor Maxwell voted NO on Supervisor Daly’s resolution. The resolution lost by one vote.

Since Lennar began serious grading on Parcel A in early 2006, the Bay View Hunters Point community has had to endure toxic plumes of asbestos and arsenic laced dust. The health of the communities’ children has been the focal point of the movement for environmental justice.

“No one has the right to poison children-there has got to be another way to make money,” exclaimed Dr. Ali Muhammad, The Nation of Islam’s Minister of Health, Dr Muhammad relayed his tragic findings during his recent testing at the University. I was testing a little girl and some things just weren’t making sense, “why does she have arsenic and antimony…I’m not use to seeing this in a 7year old girl…that’s why the Minister(Christopher Muhammad) got me out here, it’s not about him it’s about this little girl…they just want to go to school and to have a future.”

The San Francisco Health Department has turned a deaf ear to the communities’ request for testing but Dr. Muhammad is accessing the people, “We’ve been testing all day” declared Dr. Muhammad. “We want to test 100% of the staff and children at the University and as many as we can of the community,” he added.

The majority of those tested have been positive for arsenic and antimony. Tireless warrior Francisco Da Costa explained to us and to the folks downtown why the community shouldn’t have to trade health for money when he said, “I see in the children of the Bay View the potential to do great things…there is a lot of talent in this community…[these children] give me a renewed hope in the family.”

In the aftermath of the Board of Supervisors vote. The San Francisco Chronicle attempted to pit the community against each other. In the article on the vote they said there was a “holy war” going on between the Muslims and the Christians of the community.. I’ve attended four meetings at Grace Tabernacle Church. I’ve only viewed unity, love and respect between Christians and Muslims at these meetings. I haven’t sensed a holy war but only holy warriors who are fighting for the health and the wealth of the entire community. Reverend Ernest Jackson, pastor of Grace Tabernacle Church spoke to the things all the assembled shared, ”We are linked as brothers because we all have the same father” Do those words sound like the brewing of some denominational flare up?

The issue is the Lennar Corporation and it’s toxic business practices. The reason for the charge of environmental racism is Lennar’s mishandling of the missing monitors that lost three months of crucial data about asbestos levels during the most active grading period. Lennar is the one who ignored citizen’s demands for accountability. The Lennar Corporation may have got a free ride in the Chronicle article ,but they didn’t get one at this meeting.

Joe Cassidy(Residential Builders) revealed that Lennar Corp. got an exemption from being licensed to handle asbestos. A deal was cut by Lennar with the contractors state licensing board to get them exempted. Now how did the Chronicle miss that one?

A few months ago at the Progressive Convention, I asked Mayoral candidate Dr Ahimsa Porter Sumchai ,why the mainstream media had ignored the issue of environmental racism in the Bayview. She thoughtfully responded, "Because the main stream media addresses the message in a pro development manner, there was no sustained focus on Lennar’s record nationwide. Around the nation it has constructed homes on toxic grounds.”

As Dr. Porter Sumchai addressed the church to let us know her platform includes halting the construction activities at the Hunters Point Shipyard then she lowered her voice to share a very personal loss with all of us, “My dad died due to his exposure to asbestos at that Shipyard.”

This community has suffered too many losses. It’s time for the entire Bay View Hunters Point area to start enjoying some wins.