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Hi all,<br>
<br>
This toxic trade bill is now in the California Assembly, so calls
opposing SB 792 should be made immediately to <b>Fiona Ma: </b>916-319-2012
and <b>Tom Ammiano:</b> 916-319-2013<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/unfair-trade-sen-leno-wants-to-give-lennar-our-clean-parkland-give-the-people-toxic-land/">http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/unfair-trade-sen-leno-wants-to-give-lennar-our-clean-parkland-give-the-people-toxic-land/</a><br>
<p><strong>May 30, 2009</strong></p>
<h2><a
href="http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/unfair-trade-sen-leno-wants-to-give-lennar-our-clean-parkland-give-the-people-toxic-land/"
title="Unfair trade! Sen. Leno aims to give our clean parkland to Lennar, toxic land to the people">Unfair
trade! Sen. Leno aims to give our clean parkland to Lennar, toxic land
to the people</a></h2>
<p><em><strong>by Alicia Schwartz </strong></em></p>
<div class="img alignleft size-full wp-image-5009" style="width: 400px;">
<img src="cid:part1.00070703.09030901@aim.com"
alt="By traveling to Sacramento with Caravan for Justice III on May 26, these precious children are learning to stand up for their community. Will you stand up for them and express your outrage about Sen. Leno’s land grab? – Photo: Francisco Da Costa "
height="300" width="400">
<div>By
traveling to Sacramento with Caravan for Justice III on May 26, these
precious children are learning to stand up for their community. Will
you stand up for them and express your outrage about Sen. Leno’s land
grab? – Photo: Francisco Da Costa </div>
</div>
Sen. Mark Leno’s Senate Bill 792 would allow for the transfer of
clean parkland at Candlestick Point to the San Francisco Redevelopment
Agency for private development by Lennar and replace it with toxic land
that is not an even exchange. Lennar, a developer that has endangered
the community by exposing it to toxic dust from the Hunters Point
Shipyard, is planning to build 10,000 luxury condominiums on the site
as part of a brand new neighborhood they plan to build inside the
boundaries of Bayview Hunters Point.
<p>Not only is this a prime example of environmental racism, it is
also a marker of what is to come in our community if we don’t make our
voices heard right away. SB 792 will be voted on by the full state
Senate very soon. Read the bill <a
href="http://www.totalcapitol.com/?keywords=SB792">here</a>.</p>
<p>POWER is gathering 500 letters for Sen. Mark Leno from San
Franciscans and community based organizations everywhere who are
concerned about the future of the Bayview Hunters Point community
specifically and African American communities and working class
communities of color broadly. If you want to sign the letter, contact
POWER at (415) 864-8372 or <a href="mailto:alicia@peopleorganized.org">alicia@peopleorganized.org</a>.
Or contact Sen. Mark Leno directly at (916) 651-4003, <a
href="mailto:senator.leno@senate.ca.gov">senator.leno@senate.ca.gov</a>
or State Capitol, Room 4061, Sacramento, CA 95814.</p>
<p>Dear Sen. Leno,</p>
<p>I am writing to register my opposition to Senate Bill 792 Tidelands
and submerged lands: City and County of San Francisco: Candlestick
Point and Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. <strong>I am in opposition to
SB 792 because this bill offers an unfair exchange of land for the
residents and families of Bayview Hunters Point.</strong> The bill
authorizes an exchange of parkland that currently benefits the
neighborhood for land that is not equal to the original parcel and land
that is currently contaminated by toxins.</p>
<p><strong>As you are aware, African American communities are
disproportionately adversely impacted by environmental racism, and
there is a long history of environmental hazards that have affected the
health of families in the Bayview neighborhood.</strong></p>
<p>Eighty percent of San Francisco’s sewage comes into Bayview through
the sewage treatment plant; the neighborhood is bordered by major
freeway thoroughfares that daily expose residents to diesel and car
emissions; Hunters Point Naval Shipyard hazards have plagued the
community since it closed in the early 1970s; 50 percent of
neighborhood residents are estimated to have cancer or respiratory
illnesses as a result of radioactive elements and other toxic
inorganics being left behind by the U.S. Navy and other polluting
industries.</p>
<p>Exchanging a clean piece of parkland, whose occurrence is rare in
the community, for a polluted area would result in the state of
California engaging in environmental racism. Giving clean land to a
multibillion-dollar developer while providing dirty land in exchange to
a working class African American community is environmental racism.</p>
<p>The priority of the state of California should be to clean the
Hunters Point Shipyard to residential standards, in accordance with
Proposition P, passed by 87 percent of San Francisco voters, thereby
ending the practice of environmental racism in one of the last
remaining African American communities in San Francisco.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span
style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Giving
clean land to a multibillion-dollar developer while providing dirty
land in exchange to a working class African American community is
environmental racism.</span></span><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">
</span></h3>
<p><strong>I urge your office to oppose SB 792 as an unfair and unequal
exchange of land that will adversely impact the residents of Bayview
Hunters Point and the City of San Francisco as a whole.</strong></p>
<p><em>Alicia Schwartz, co-director of People Organized to Win
Employment Rights (POWER), can be reached at (415) 864-8372, ext. 305,
or <a href="mailto:alicia@peopleorganized.org">alicia@peopleorganized.org
</a></em></p>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara</pre>
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