Bayview Hunters Point/Southeast San Francisco

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Overview

The Bayview Hunters Point / Southeast San Francisco Community is in the southeastern part of San Francisco with neighborhoods along the main artery of Third Street. Neighborhoods that will likely be included in this community include Bayview-Hunters Point, and portions of Potrero Hill to the north, Excelsior to the west, Visitacion Valley to the southwest, and Little Hollywood. Little Hollywood is a small neighborhood adjacent to Visitacion Valley which is within the Crocker Amazon neighborhood.

According to supporting materials within Bay Area AQMD’s nomination letter, the BVHPC Advocates and MHC Foundation have been especially concerned about legacy pollution from the Naval Shipyard, dust and asbestos from on-going large-scale redevelopment, odors and emissions from a wastewater treatment facility, diesel truck idling, and from industrial rendering plants. The community is bisected by the commercial-oriented Third Street corridor and straddles two busy freeways (Interstate- 280 and Interstate-101) which bring freight trucks and high-volume commuter traffic adding to the mobile source pollution burdens.

Residents of this community have lower life expectancies and higher mortality rates from lung diseases, which can be partially attributed to constant exposure to air pollution. This community has a higher rate of asthma-related emergency room visits and cardiovascular disease than most of California. It also has some of the highest unemployment and housing cost burdens and some of the lowest educational attainment. This is supported by the Community Health Needs Assessment (SF CHNA) developed by San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership as referenced in the attached self-nomination letter submitted as a part of the Bay Area AQMD’s nomination letter in support of the Bayview Hunters Point/Southeast San Francisco.

Community Advocacy and District Partnership

There are decades of leadership and community capacity building, inter-neighborhood coalitions, and collaborations among the Bayview Hunters Point/Southeast San Francisco community members. The Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates (BVHP Community Advocates) is governed and operated by long-term members of the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood in San Francisco combining community organizing with education, advocacy, and direct services. The BVHP Community Advocates connects residents with environmental justice issues at a neighborhood level. Their projects provide capacity building initiatives for organizations and the neighborhood to model practices that increase collaboration while lessening the extractive nature of partnership and relationships with the community.

The Marie Harrison Community Foundation (MHC Foundation) for environmental and social justice serves as a platform in part to mobilize grassroots community power and develop campaigns to advance community-designed solutions and policies to long- standing health, economic, and environmental issues in the Bayview Hunters Point community. The MHC Foundation was founded in 2019 to honor the legacy, advocacy, and dedication of Marie Harrison, “Mother of the Environmental Justice movement” shortly after, the foundation launched the #CanWeLive campaign, a youth-driven effort to amplify the community’s call for full clean-up of the numerous Brownfield and Superfund Sites in the district as well advocate for medical services for the community. 

The MHC Foundation has experience developing programs and conducting outreach in the BVHP Community and has gained deep leadership and expertise around engaging the Air District with regulatory rulemaking, enforcement, programs, and in planning processes. The BVHPC Advocates and the Marie Harrison Community Foundation intend to serve as co-leads in development of the CERP with the Bay Area AQMD.

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