Undergrounding- A Bayview Tale of Resistance

by Ace Tafoya/PoorNewsNetwork

An 86-year old Bayview Hunters Point resident, was baffled when she received a letter from the City of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works Bureau of Street-Use and Mapping describing a construction project for underground wiring on her street. She was concerned because she didn’t have the money to pay for the project that the letter was describing. After putting $1500 on her credit card, she became so entrenched with worry about the fate of her home and the debt that she had just incurred on a fixed income that she, quite literally, worried herself to death.

Another 62 year-old Bayview Hunters Point resident, took out a high-interest loan at the rate of 19% to pay for the underground wiring.

Imagine their anger and disbelief when they found out that the City had funds to help residents like them pay for this work.

These stories are becoming all too common as the City and County of San Francisco embarks on a number of new projects to redevelop neighborhoods like the Bayview. On Saturday, April 16 on a typical San Francisco morning, POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) and many residents of Bayview Hunters Point gathered at the Bayview Anna E. Waden Branch Library to voice their concerns and brainstorm solutions over the underground wiring and new construction going on in their neighborhood. POWER, an eight-year old membership organization based in the Tenderloin neighborhood, brought together residents in response to concerns they’d heard about this project.

Beginning late last year, residents in the Bayview began receiving letters from the City detailing an underground wiring process that involved placing the utility poles located in the neighborhood underground. The letters stated that homeowners were expected to pay for this work to be done by a certain date, or face the threat of a lien being placed on their homes.

After receiving a tip from a resident, POWER began to research this project and found that the City had a grant program that would subsidize up to $4000 per property for qualifying low-income homeowners. The vast majority of residents had never even heard of the grant program—some had paid for the work to be done out of their retirement savings, or had gone into debt to avoid having a lien placed on their homes. Many of the homeowners in the community are elderly families living on a fixed income.

"Improving the quality of life in San Francisco - we are committed to teamwork, customer service and continuous improvement in partnership with the community," reads the Department of Public Works Bureau of Street-Use and Mapping stationary. Judging by the presence of more than fifty residents and concerned citizens of Bayview-Hunter's Point at the community meeting, this mission statement is debatable.

"I can't believe City Hall," shouted Regina Douglas, a founding member of POWER and a former resident of the Bayview. "We don't have to look (at) Iraq. We've got terrorism right here at City Hall."

Douglas’ comments echoed many at the neighborhood meeting Saturday morning. Many expressed concerns for their elderly parents and relatives who have been receiving these letters and are taking extraordinary measures to try and make ends meet—and on top of it all, they are attempting to scrape together the money to pay for a project that many residents say they neither asked for nor knew about.

"We are organizing, we're together out here, we are going to make sure everyone entitled to it, gets it," Espanola Jackson, a long-time activist said, referring to the grants available to low-income residents, but hidden from public notice by city lawmakers conveniently.

"(We need) the Mayor's Office on Housing, the Public Utilities Commission and PG&E to explain to this community why nobody knew they had money available," Julie Browne, a lead organizer with POWER called out as she sauntered back and forth across the brick-filled meeting room.

Most of this underground construction will be done by PG&E, unless residents find an independent contractor to do it themselves. The smoke from PG&E’s power plant engulfs a community already crippled by high unemployment, police surveillance, and the highest asthma rate in the country. POWER members and residents of the Bayview are forced to ask: Why do the politicians and local representatives continue to ignore and terrorize this community? Why are we being forced to pay a corporation that has crippled this community, when that same corporation should be paying us reparations?

"They (City Hall) want you to give up...They want your house, they're doing everything they can to take it," cried Leboriae Smoore, a resident of the Bayview since 1974. "So you have to fight back to keep it!"

That's what this neighborhood meeting was called for – to fight back against the City agencies and corporations that promote the racist housing policies which push working class communities of color out of the city. We demand equality. We demand attention. We demand respect.

Residents of the Bayview and members of POWER will get the attention that they deserve—in fact, they will turn out in full force at 6pm Wednesday, April 27 at the Southeast Facilities Commission meeting which is being held at Southeast Community College in the Bayview. It is here at this meeting that representatives from PG&E will try again to explain why residents in the Bayview, a community with a median income of $18,000 per year, is being forced to pay for a project that they never even asked for, either with money, or with their homes.

If you received a letter requiring you to pay for your utility wiring to be placed underground, contact POWER today at (415) 864-8372 to find out more about the City’s CERF grant program. Or contact the city directly at (415) 252-3180.