Community arts don't get much coverage from mainstream media. Newswire21's Linda Stark Litehiser produced this story as part of the "Stories from the Ingleside (and Beyond)" series.
Linda Stark Litehiser
Newswire21.org
As an all-star line-up warms up for the eighth annual “Jerry Day” festival on Aug, 1, there’s lots of discussion about how to make more use of the underutilized Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in John McLaren Park.
This year’s free concert will run from noon to 6 p.m. with music from Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band with Stu Allen; Front Street; and a band called Check Engine Light that features Jerry’s big brother Tiff Garcia on guitar.
Tiff affectionately refers to his band as “Geezer Rock” in a back-handed reference to the age of the members of the band.
A pre-party fundraiser will be held on Friday, July 30, at The Broken Record on Geneva Ave. More details on the concert can be found at JerryDay.org.
"The Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in McLaren Park has the tremendous potential of being one of the city's premier event venues,” said Elton Pon, a spokesman for the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. He said the department is looking at ways to “draw more people to this unique and beautiful section of the park."
The natural arena was named for the late Grateful Dead guitarist five years ago after a long, strange trip through city bureaucracy.
Bureaucratic Roadblocks
The idea first came up after Jerry’s death at 53 in 1995 when the Friends of McLaren Park thought of naming the amphitheater for the Excelsior District native. But there were a number of roadblocks and the idea was shelved before many people even knew about it.
Excelsior native Tom Murphy made a connection with the Jerry Garcia Estate in 2002. Murphy, who declined to be interviewed for this article, was researching his childhood neighborhood’s heroes and thought of contacting the estate for help with a community fundraising project. Crocker Amazon Playground, on the edge of McLaren Park, was in need of matching funds for a renovation.
The Garcia Estate was very enthusiastic and soon Jerry’s original artwork was adorning special T-Shirts on sale all over the community.
The collaboration enticed people to share their own stories. Karen Hemer, another San Francisco native, remembers walking to grammar school with her friend, Jerome.
“He was a very nice boy, kind of quiet but very smart,” she said. “He loved science and he would explain things to me.”
Hemer, Murphy and a few other friends produced the first Jerry Day. A petition drive and letter writing campaign to rename the theater began in earnest in 2004. Civic, neighborhood and park groups were contacted for their support and the Garcia Estate gave an enthusiastic okay. On July 21, 2005, the Recreation and Parks Commission made the new name official.
Varied Uses
For all the popularity on Jerry Day, the venue is remains short of fulfilling its potential. A number of promoters and non-profit groups have put on a variety of concerts. It has also been the site of school graduations, Earth Day celebrations and even a bit of Shakespeare, but there is only one or two performances in a typical month.
The poor economy and dwindling charitable sources have played a role, particularly as the parks department steadily raised the rental fees year after year.
Recently the department rolled back the price. At a recent Neighborhood Parks Council meeting with Mayor Newsom and park advocates, the department’s General Manager, Phil Ginsburg, expressed hope that the lower fees would generate more events.
But other challenges remain. Good direct public transportation is limited and the southeastern region of San Francisco is still unfamiliar turf to many city residents and tourists.
Funding is another hurdle. To produce a concert can run upwards of $10,000-$15,000, even with a lot of volunteer labor. The funding has to be raised through donations, sponsorships or grants.
Charging a ticket fee for all attendees is unrealistic. It would require fencing in a large part of the surrounding area, something that would be costly and out of character for the park.
Small Venue
The venue is relatively small with about 700 bleacher style seats, though another 1,000 or so can sit on the grassy area. It isn’t a space that big promoters would consider for a large revenue-generating concert, and there’s not yet any trust to underwrite performances.
Some supporters are working on creating a non-profit “friends” committee. The office of Supervisor John Avalos and San Francisco Parks Trust have lent organizing expertise.
The committee has identified the major issues, logistics and challenges in securing more events as well as the needs for capital improvements. Lighting for nighttime events comes up a lot, so does fundraising and grant writing expertise.
There are also plans to develop a McLaren Park Festival in 2011 that would include varied performances with hopes of creating a broader donor and sponsorship base.
One idea is to have a concert that would “bring back the blues,” because the amphitheater was the home of the San Francisco Blue Festival in the early 1970’s.
_________ Linda Stark Litehiser helped to establish Jerry Day and sits on the Friends of the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater Committee. This is her first article for Newswire21.org.
Dog, Frisbee, park. Sounds like fun? Not so much, according to Newswire21.org reporter Linda Davirro who reports on a turf war between dog lovers and disc golfers at San Francisco's McLaren Park, the latest in our series of "Stories from the Ingleside (and Beyond)"
Linda Davirro
Newswire21.org
Dogs and Frisbees usually get along pretty well, but plans for an 18-hole disc golf course at McLaren Park has left many local residents howling in protest.
Critics claim the city's Parks and Recreation Department ignored community viewpoints before going ahead with plans to break ground for the course this summer.
Those plans are now on hold after the Parks and Recreation Open Space Advisory Committee asked the city's parks commission to hold hearings on the plan. The advisory panel, better known as PROSAC, felt that it was important to hear the public’s voice.
Disc golf, also known as Frisbee golf, is typically played over a nine- or 18-hole course set up on 25-35 acres. Starting on a four-by-10-foot concrete pad, players try to throw discs of different weights into a four-foot metal basket at the end of each 300-500-yard fairway.
The course was first proposed in 1997 by the SF Disc Golf Club, but they later withdrew the plan due to public opposition. In 2005, the commission approved the permanent Golden Gate course and added in McLaren Park, though few outside of the hearing room knew about it.
The park neighbors next heard about the course in January of this year when the parks department announced plans to build it this summer. While there are a variety of neighborhood concerns with the course, the biggest is that about 10 of the 18 holes would overlap with a 60-acre off-leash exercise area for dogs.
At first, it may sound like a lot of fun to see dogs running with Frisbees flying overhead, noted Sally Stephens, chair of SFDog, a group that advocates for the rights of dog owners. "But we have concerns that the two uses actually might not be compatible," she said.
Stephens said the group suspects the scene would quickly degrade into "people yelling at each other" as the playful pups intercept and chew on the discs, which typically cost $10-20.
"A lot of the laying-out of the course seems to have been done behind closed doors," Stephens said. "We're asking that he process be started over with a lot more community input."
Dogs and Discs
Jeffery Bowling, a past president of the San Francisco Disc Golf Association and the leading advocate for the McLaren course, said the concern over conflicting uses is misplaced. Bowling, who lives near McLaren, said he owns three dogs and often brings them with him while he plays at Golden Gate Park.
"We're greatly surprised by the opposition," he said, noting his all-volunteer group would be donating 4,700 in man-hours to help build a major recreational facility for the city during a time when the parks department budget is lean. He said he understands some of the neighbors might not be attracted to the game, but said the course would attract younger people to the park.
According to Bowling, the disc group took great care to ensure that the holes that overlap with the dog area won't cause problems for either the golfers or the dogs. He said only about 20 percent of the dog area is used in the course, but the busiest parts were avoided and there are no plans to reduce the off-leash area.
Bowling said he hasn’t heard about plans for any hearings and isn’t sure what will happen next. But he noted that Supervisor John Avalos is trying to work out a compromise while the parks department reviews the planning process.
The parks department staff and the disc golf group argue there's a need for more recreational facilities at the sprawling park in the southeast corner of the city. But critics of the course say there are already a growing number of uses including the dog area, new trails, Philosopher’s Way, bike skills area and the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater.
Some park users are asking for a full environmental impact report on the disc golf proposal, citing concerns about erosion, tree damage, noise and the potential liabilities of flying discs injuring walkers, hikers and dogs.
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Linda Davirro is a member of the District 11 Neighborhood Council. This is her first article for Newswire21.org. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
About 300,000 teachers are being fired in the US because of budget cutbacks. Newswire21's Mayra Martinez found out that in San Francisco, it's the poorest schools that get hit the hardest. Please help support education reporting like this by donating to: "Stories from the Ingleside (and Beyond)"
Mayra Martinez
Newswire21.org
As the San Francisco schools lay off 195 teachers, the deepest cuts will come in the poorest schools in the city’s southeast corner.
Neighborhoods like the Mission, Ingleside, Excelsior, Bayview and Visitation Valley, which have the highest concentration of children and minority residents, stand to lose the most teachers under rigid statewide seniority rules. Because it’s hard to keep teachers in the city’s poorest schools, teachers there tend to have the lowest seniority, leaving them most vulnerable to losing their jobs amid budget cuts.
That reality hit home on the last day of class, June 3, which also marked the end of professional and personal relationships between the fired teachers, parents and students.
“We hear the words ‘social justice’ getting thrown around everywhere and it
really is tragic that the students that need it the most are losing out on relationships that they’ve established,” said Methinee Thongma, one of four educators who lost their jobs at El Dorado Elementary in Visitation Valley.
Although Mrs. T, as she’s called by her students, has nine years experience, only one was in San Francisco, leaving her at the bottom of the seniority list.
At Monroe Elementary in the Excelsior, three teachers and a classroom aide were laid off. In the same zip code, Sheridan saw four firings; Principal Dina Edwards said the dismissals marked the deepest cuts she’s seen in her 14 years at the school.
By comparison, no teachers were laid off at Alice Fung Yu Elementary in the Inner Sunset, where every teacher has been at the school more than three year, according to Principal Liana Szeto. At Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary in the Sunset, just one teacher was let go, according to Principal Dr. V. Kanani Choy.
The final numbers for each school will shift through the summer. Last-minute shuffling is common as teachers with more seniority are moved into positions or schools with openings left by newer teachers. That process continues right into the fall.
District Disparities
Overall, San Francisco boasts the highest average student performance of the large urban districts in California. But it also has the widest gap between that average and the lowest performing students, according to the district’s current strategic plan.
The problem isn’t unique to the City by the Bay. Seniority-based variations between rich and poor neighborhoods are the basis for the lawsuit pending against the Los Angeles Unified School District and the state. Filed by the ACLU and students from three different schools, the suit asks that “there may be, once and for all, equal education opportunity for every child.”
Teachers in poor neighborhoods must possess special skills and extra patience to deal with kids who have emotional or behavioral problems. At El Dorado, school psychologist Allyson Holmes said educators spend a lot of time working on simple things such as transitions from play time to study time that can prove more difficult at schools in rough neighborhoods.
“It is important to have teachers and staff that are very sensitive and are aware of the experiences of these kids,” said Holmes. “There’s a certain level of consistency and predictability that a lot of these kids need.”
A study released in May by the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education found the poorest schools are likely to see 25 percent more teacher layoffs and, in the case of “significant layoffs,” the highest-minority schools would lose 60 percent more teachers.
In schools with the fewest minority students, only eight of 100 teachers had two years or less experience, according to the study. In schools with the most minority students, the number jumped to almost 13 out of 100.
Development Problems
Kids from unstable homes have more difficulty dealing and processing change. “We’ve been talking a lot about how all of the changes and unpredictability actually impacts not just the child's ability to learn but their actual brain development.” said Holmes.
Children who face constant change and unsafe situations may be more subject to “meltdowns,” said Holmes. “You see them sitting on the playground crying because they can’t access the part of the brain that helps them stay calm, that helps them rationalize and think about what’s happening,” she said.
Thongma made a similar observation just minutes after consoling a student who crumpled in the playground, sobbing inconsolably at her feet. “The routine and everything that they have at school – the one thing that they can count on – is falling apart,” said the teacher. “A lot of their homes are like that and now their school is going to be like that.”
Chaney Casimir worries about how the changes will affect her son, Jaiden, who struggled with fellow classmates under a previous teacher. “When he transferred to Mrs. T’s class it was a total turn around,” she said.
“She lets us play on the computers and play outside with my buddies,” added Jaiden. “And she always makes us read books.”
In her empty classroom, Thongma reflected on how teachers work extra hard for small gains when teaching children who face hard lives.
“I have put blood, sweat and tears into this job,” she said. “Out of my nine years of teaching, this has been the hardest year that I’ve ever worked in my career. But I did it because it was worthwhile.”
It's summertime. And the living is, well, not so easy if your kids live in Southeast SF where the parks' report card included three C's, 1 B and only 1 A. Newswire21's Jackie Bernardo reports below on what's lacking. Please support our pitch: "Stories from the Ingleside (and Beyond)"
Jackie Bernardo
Newswire21.org
The 2010 Playground Report Card is out and the Ingleside District earned one “A”, one “B” and three “Cs." It also got one "incomplete" for McLaren Park, which had its playground equipment removed.
The report card, issued every two years by the Neighborhood Parks Council and city Recreation and Parks Department, identifies playgrounds that need the most attention, said Sunya Ojure, Program Coordinator for the council.
The grades measure the safety, cleanliness, maintenance and quality of the overall play experience of each of 120 playgrounds. Grades are determined by a playground survey, which examines the playground’s equipment and cleanliness. Broken playground equipment, unclean sand or corrosion to parts of the play areas lower the grade of a playground.
Playgrounds that receive a “C” or lower are targeted for improvement. Revitalization includes planting trees, removing weeds, adding sand and general clean-up by volunteers, according to the council. The average grade of the playgrounds in District 11, which includes the Ingleside, is 80 percent this year compared to 83 percent for the city as a whole.
Balboa Park Playground received a “B;” Junipero Serra Playground received an “A”, making it one of the best playgrounds in the area.
"It’s not surprising that [Junipero Serra] received this grade,” said Kathy Dalle-Molle from Friends of Junipero Serra Playground, noting that the playground opened two years ago with a new play area and clubhouse. “We have such a dedicated group of individuals that live nearby and look out for the playground.”
However, Excelsior Park, Brooks Park and Merced Heights
Playground received “C” grades.
Concerns for McLaren
McLaren Park was omitted from the report card because the playground equipment has been removed from the site. The park therefore could not be evaluated as a playground and is one of the parks that is “noted, but not graded,” said Ojure.
“We are hoping to bring more attention to the fact that [this] play area has no equipment,” said Ojure. “The community still has kids who would like to play in this area.”
The parks department, parks council and the Parks Trust have held three McLaren Needs Assessment and Action Plan Workshops since the beginning of the year. Residents near McLaren Park have voiced concerns, and the city is applying for a grant to improve the park and called for feedback from residents on priorities.
At the final workshop, residents expressed their desire to improve the park grounds, specifically its picnic areas, pavement and pedestrian safety. Residents also showed concerns for conditions on Mansell Street and Visitacion Valley. Neighbors presented ideas that included the addition of a group picnic area, a nature center and a McLaren Park council that would better organize residential concerns.
“It’s important to hear what the community’s greatest priorities are,” said Karen Mauney-Brodek of the city department. She acknowledged that some of the biggest issues addressed at the meeting included traffic-related problems and the conditions of pedestrian and picnic areas. “They can help us determine [our next steps based on] what we know is most important for them.”
Park Improvements
The playground report card, issued in April, acknowledged the improvements made to the Balboa Park Playground. In 2006, the park received a “D” in the first report card. Subsequently, with the help of more than 500 volunteers and the organization Friends of Balboa Park, new structures were added to the park, including a play area for toddlers and a rock-climbing wall for older kids.
The park has maintained a “B” since its renovations in 2008. Overall, playground grades for the general parks in San Francisco have risen from 79 percent two years ago. With the implementation of volunteer workdays, the number of playgrounds that received “D” or “F” grades has also decreased from 26 to 16 within two years. Parks with “A” grades have risen by 4 percent since the last report card.
Dalle-Molle said community volunteers can help maintain SF playgrounds but still need the support from the city.
“The community is committed to doing as much as they can, but we’re not professional,” said Dalle-Molle. “It is important that the city does continue supporting funding for gardening [and] maintenance.”
Practical solutions to the environmental threat to ethnic elders in Hunters Point remain elusive, Nahmyo Thomas reports in part 3 of her series, which is part of "Stories from the Ingleside (and Beyond)" on Spot.Us. Please help fund this pitch, which has produced two dozen stories on the most undercovered neighborhoods of San Francisco.
Nahmyo Thomas
RedwoodAge.com
SAN FRANCISCO (N21) – It’s well known that living in polluted neighborhoods takes a heavy toll on the health of ethnic elders. The hard question is what to do about it.
After decades of inhaling industrial chemicals, ozone and particulate matter, seniors in neighborhoods like San Francisco’s Hunters Point suffer increased risks of cancer and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases such as bronchitis and asthma that are the fourth leading cause of death in America.
“There needs to be a holistic and integrated approach to health,” said Edna James, who sits on San Francisco’s African American Community Health Equity Council. “It needs to include the physical environment surrounding the elder.”
While many experts would agree with her, finding such an approach has been elusive because of the complexity of the problem. Simply drawing cause and effect between health and pollution is hard enough.
Under current law, the EPA must provide evidence that a chemical is harmful to human health before manufacturers are forced to limit its output. But about 85 percent of chemicals emitted by large companies are not even tested for health effects before they are released.
Kathy Sykes, Senior Advisor to the EPA’s Child and Aging Health Division, says “this has been ineffective…very few chemicals have been prohibited from coming into public domain.”
Overdue Reform
The Toxic Control Substance Act has not been reformed since its inception in 1976. Its reform could shift the burden of proof by allowing the EPA to mandate that industries prove chemicals are safe before populations are exposed to them.
“It is one of the top priorities set by the current administrator - to reform how we regulate chemicals and deal with at-risk-populations,” said Sykes.
However, no deadline exists for the revised legislation, and policy makers are up against a tough battle with powerful manufacturing lobbyists that will fight tooth and nail in opposition. Until then, responsibility lies with state and local governments to apply emissions regulations and protect the well-being of surrounding minority populations.
According to community members and activist groups, local leaders don’t do a good job at this. James’ council recently made key policy recommendations to San Francisco officials to help close the health gap for aging minorities.
Key points call for improvements to the quantity and quality of outdoor air monitoring and to ensure that results are clinically analyzed and shared with the community.
“It also needs to be recognized that black people who live in these [environmentally] poor communities are suffering from traumatic stress syndrome and metabolic syndrome,” said James, who is also a registered nurse.
Toxic Tours
To raise awareness of issues, Gerald Gage of the Health and Environmental Resource Center (HERC) provides what he calls Toxic Tours of Hunter’s Point.
During the tour, Gage argues it is unfair to take advantage of an already suffering population by directing 80 percent of the entire 49-square-mile city’s waste into their 5.5 square-mile neighborhood.
The streets next to the sewage treatment facility reek. “That’s because it’s the only uncovered one in the nation,” he explained. “No one wants something like this in their backyard.”
Many activist groups are going beyond immediate environmental clean-up to raise the issue of environmental justice. They argue that suffering from environmental-health is an issue of race.
The group Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEDGE) has spent the past decade working to build an Eco Center in Hunters Point. In recognition of the 2006 victory, of getting Pacific Gas and Electric to shut down and vacate the area after 76 years of operation, the center was recently opened across from the remaining transmission lines.
“It’s not just an eco center; it’s an environmental justice center, the first of its kind,” said Anthony Khalil, an organizer with LEDGE. The center thrives with community volunteers who want to re-expose the natural wetland marsh that was previously hidden by gray machinery.
“It makes a very clear statement” he said pointing to the land around the factory’s old remains. “Let’s not just shut it down. Let’s build it up.”
Greener Futures
Taking the optimistic approach, Saul Bloom of Arc Ecology emphasizes that with so much bad stuff going on there is also room for success and leadership.
“We have an important environmental success story here that cannot be ignored,” he said, noting that the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund site is receiving a cleanup that “other communities across the country would love.”
Although it’s impossible to restore the Superfund site to its pristine state, Bloom attests that the Navy has undergone such intensive scrutiny that it has finally agreed to a level of clean-up that will make the land useable again.
Incorporated in the redevelopment goals is the establishment of an Aging Health Campus to help and to prepare the people of the community as they age.
But even Bloom worries whether environmentalists and legal experts can reach a consensus nationwide that will prevent corporations from simply moving their waste somewhere else. If regulations are too strict in one place, "they’ll ship it all off to Texas where compliance costs and regulations are low,” alleged Bloom.
To move forward, he thinks it will be necessary to replace traditional factory jobs with permanent green technology jobs, not just to clean and counter decades of chemical degradation, but to ensure that the next generation of ethnic elders can age more gracefully without leaving their homes.
Nahmyo Thomas wrote this story for RedwoodAge.com as part of a New America Media journalism fellowship sponsored by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It is being distributed through Newswire21.org as the third part in a three-part series.
In Part 2 of her series, Nahmyo Thomas reports the impact on ethnic elders of living among toxins in Hunters Point, featured in this update to Newswire21's "Stories from the Ingleside (and Beyond)" on Spot.Us.
Nahmyo Thomas
RedwoodAge.com
SAN FRANCISCO (N21) - Breathing even small doses of chemicals over time may be lethal for elders living in polluted neighborhoods. Eighty-six-year-old Chestine Mason knows this all too well.
She’s lived in San Francisco’s predominantly African American Hunters Point district for a half century. A decade ago, her husband died of lung cancer caused by breathing asbestos. Now she watches as her grandchildren grow up in the same environment.
She’s grown weary of big corporations that tell customers to be environmentally friendly while continuing to generate high volumes of waste, defying state and national pollution caps set by the EPA.
“They’re always down my throat, ‘Go green. Go green,’” she says. “Yet these people can spew whatever they want, and they’re not forced to do anything, [while] spewing this disease.”
Ethnic elders in Hunters Point suffer largely from chronic respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and lung cancer as well as heart disease and many unexplainable allergies.
Like older Americans in other polluted communities nationwide, their particular circumstances are a bit different, complicating efforts to devise a national strategy to address the problem.
Here, the exposure to hazardous chemicals that aggravate respiratory conditions is unique because Hunters Point itself is built on serpentine rock, which releases naturally occurring asbestos into the air when disturbed. Prolonged exposure is correlated with a severe risk of lung cancer and even death.
This was the case of Ms. Mason’s husband who worked on the Naval Shipyard here before it was shut down and designated a toxic Superfund site.
According to Marie Harrison, a local resident and community organizer for Greenaction, “almost every biopsy turns up positive traces of asbestos. Regardless of whether it was the cause of death or not, it accumulates in the lungs.”
Long-term Impacts
Saul Bloom, CEO of Arc Ecology, a San Francisco organization dedicated to environmental responsibility, is largely concerned about the acute effects on elders who have lived in the neighborhood the longest.
“It’s just like smoking cigarettes,” he said. “When you’re young you can still smoke and run up a hill … [but] the capacity to run up a hill diminishes.”
Seniors suffer from a residual presence of toxins in their lungs, making them more vulnerable to disease. “Even a small dosage will have a harsher effect on the elderly,” Bloom said.
From 1929 to 2006, Pacific Gas and Electric alone emitted an average of 600 tons of pollutants per year directly over Hunters Point. The chemicals included 321 tons annually of nitrous oxide and 52 tons of particulate matter, which is easily inhaled deep into the lungs, but not easily exhaled.
Particulates are inflammatory agents that cause the lungs and other internal organs to swell. They corrode cells, aggravate respiratory functions and lead to lung diseases and neurological damage.
The Bay Area Air Quality District measures 39 pollutants in San Francisco’s neighborhoods. The highest concentrations, and 20 of the pollutants, are found in Hunters Point where approximately 70 percent of the households are African American.
Of these pollutants, the six major chemicals that the EPA monitors are ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, sulfate, particulate matter. In California and Hunters Point, both ozone and particulate matter fail to meet the EPA’s required levels.
State and city officials are responsible for regulating emissions, but without public interest on the issue of chemical overdoses, some industrial plants are willing to break the rules for up to 360 days a year. Their only punishment is to pay a few thousand dollars in fines administered by the EPA.
“Our city government is in charge of all this,” said Mason. But she said the majority of city supervisors, and all of the industry executives, live in different areas. “They don’t understand what it means to grow old in these circumstances.”
A Hazardous Matrix
In the 5.5-square mile area of Hunters Point, hundreds of diesel trucks weave their way through a matrix of over 500 back-to-back heavy and light industrial companies and commercial establishments.
There is a Mirant power plant; remnants of the old PG&E power plant; an uncovered sewage treatment plant; an animal incinerator; a cement manufacturing plant; two major freeways; train tracks; 187 leaking underground fuel tanks; more than 124 hazardous waste handlers; and a 638-acre former Naval Shipyard – which is on the National Priority List of Superfund sites.
There are also more than 100 so-called vacant Brownfield sites, which may need treatment for toxic materials before the land can be redeveloped.
Gerald Gage, Asthma Program Coordinator of the local Health Environmental Resource Center, defines a Superfund site as being so dirty “that it cannot be cleaned without federal funding.” But even now, after over 20 years of being recognized as a Superfund site, the majority of the neighborhood remains poisoned by unsafe levels of lead and mercury, while sprinklers line the perimeter to keep asbestos from rising.
San Francisco's tourists and residents rarely visit the area, while experts say many neighbors are unaware of the gravity of their circumstances, especially as they age.
Many long-term residents like Mason shrug their shoulders because they don’t think there’s much they can do to change the system.
“The people here don’t have a voice or the political backing,” said Gage.According to Harrison, the community is largely uninterested. “A lot of blacks think they are put in a situation and there’s nothing they can do about it, so they accept the circumstances,” she said.
Familial Concerns
The worst part for many low-income elders is watching the impact on their children and grandchildren. According to the Elder Economic Security Initiative, more than one in 10 seniors live in poverty and often have to choose between receiving health care for themselves or their family members.
This problem is exacerbated in neighborhoods where environmental health problems worsen mental and physical ailments.
Mason, for example, picks up her great-granddaughter from school twice a week, breathing in fumes from the common site of idling school buses. But, here, the air is also polluted because 15 trucking companies house and operate their diesel-emitting fleets in Hunters Point.
Gage points out the trucks during the "Toxic Tours" he offers to visitors. “All day long, you just see trucks," he said.One heavy-duty, 18-wheel truck can generate the same amount of pollution as 150 cars.
Diesel exhaust alone contains 40 chemicals identified as toxic health contaminants, including particulate matter, a major contributor to the rates of asthma found in Hunters Point, where one in six children suffers from the disease. It is the highest rate in San Francisco, and three times that of the national rate.
Community activists are urging lawmakers to increase pollution monitoring, educate the community and close the gap in health disparities.
The San Francisco African American Community Health Equity Council has called for improved air monitoring and wants the results shared in the community. It has also called for more healthcare screenings, educational programs and resources for preventative actions.
Until such considerations are adequately enforced, the ethnic elders of Hunter’s Point continue to face health dangers. People may be sick and dying prematurely, but Harrison says, “there’s just not enough attention.”
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Nahmyo Thomas wrote this story for RedwoodAge.com as part of a New America Media journalism fellowship sponsored by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It is being distributed through Newswire21.org as the second part in a three-part series.
For ethnic elders in Hunters Point, pollution poses a special risk. For news media sites today, covering this story well takes collaboration. Newswire21.org is pleased to publish this story by RedwoodAge.com writer Nahmyo Thomas, with support from New America Media and Atlantic Philanthropies. Please help support community reporting like this with a pledge to Stories from the Ingleside on Spot.Us.
Part 1 of 3
Nahmyo Thomas
RedwoodAge.com
SAN FRANCISCO (N21) - Four out of five residents in California’s most polluted neighborhoods are minorities, but it’s the elders among them who face the greatest risks.
“We have lived here the longest, and don’t have the money or opportunity to move away like many younger people do,” said Marie Harrison, a 62-year-old resident of Bayview Hunter’s Point, a highly polluted African-American neighborhood on San Francisco’s southeastern shoreline.
Harrison, a community organizer for the environmental group Greenaction, says her aging neighbors seem to have accepted their plight. Like most other older Americans, they’re rooted in their neighborhood and can’t imagine living among strangers somewhere else.
It’s a scenario played out all over America. In Odessa, Texas, seniors living down-wind of polyethylene plants breathe in ethylene, propylene, benzene, and butadiene – known carcinogens – which are released at hundreds and thousands of pounds per day.
In Chester, Penn., the state’s largest garbage-burning incinerator is located right across the street from a residential community that is 95 percent African American. Camden, N.J. is home to 103 toxic waste sites and numerous superfund sites where traces of chromium, lead and other toxic chemicals remain.
Overall, the Environmental Protection Agency has identified thousands of Superfund sites across the country where abandoned and potentially lethal chemicals such as arsenic and magnesium are found in soil and water. In addition, many of these sites are surrounded by large operating factories that emit tons of pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter into the air on a daily basis.
“There are clearly places where there’s lots of bad stuff going on,” said Kathy Sykes, Senior Advisor of the EPA Aging Initiative. “They’re called cancer alleys.”
And a lot of the seniors living on those alleys are the same people who were exposed to the chemicals while working in the factories decades ago. Most of the jobs are long gone, but the aging residents remain and struggle severely with long-term illnesses.
Recent EPA studies found that as people age, their bodies are less able to compensate for the effects of environmental hazards. Prolonged exposure, residual build-up, and a weakened immune system make senior citizens more susceptible to acute effects that cause or worsen chronic diseases.
Broad Impacts
Excessive exposure to air pollution, especially ozone and particulate matter has been tied to higher risks for heart attacks, cancer and respiratory problems such as asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the US and is particularly common among older adults. It includes chronic lung diseases such as bronchitis and emphysema.
As 77 million boomers age, the number of older adults affected by COPD and asthma will grow significantly. “The people who are at risk are those with compromised immune systems,” said Sykes.
The lack of access to good healthcare in these poor communities also makes it much more difficult to exercise preventative measures and treat ailments for many at-risk ethnic elders.
“We are greatly concerned about the well-being of senior citizens,” said Saul Bloom, CEO of Arc Ecology, a San Francisco-based organization advocating national environmental and social responsibility.
Pollutants, of course, are unsafe for people of all ages and greatly affect children’s health. But according to Bloom, the young generations are at an even greater risk of suffering from violence, drugs and other threats that tend to coexist in neglected neighborhoods.
“Even if we did everything possible, and removed every ounce of waste, radioactive pollutant, and particulate matter that affect the lungs, it would not [ease] the mortality rate for young people,” he said.
‘Big Bubble of Pollution’
Solutions for ethnic elders won’t come easily. To say cleaning up industrial pollutants is difficult is a gross understatement, according to several of the environmental experts interviewed for this story. Just finding out which company is responsible is hard enough because industrial plants tend to be found around already polluted areas.
By going to poor neighborhoods, where preexisting contamination exists, factories run a smaller risk of being pinpointed as a health hazard or having to limit or stop operation, according to Bloom.
Testing and sorting chemicals for links to ill health is a challenge that environmental and health experts say they face because multiple manufacturers release different toxins simultaneously in the same area.
Regulated and unregulated airborne chemicals fuse to create what they call “toxic cocktails.” These toxic brews make it nearly impossible to track the effect of individual substances, especially over time as the ingredients change.
“This is the biggest health issue,” said Bloom. “When you add them together, it equates to one big bubble of pollution.”
Individually, industries need to get permits to pollute. But the cumulative effect of those pollutants creates a political and environmental enigma with no easy solution.
“At the end of the day, it’s hard to tell whose pollution belongs to whom,” said Bloom. “There is a lot of finger pointing that goes on…We have done a horrible job at testing and being able to identify the source.”
Regulatory Stalemate
The federal government is working to reform existing legislation on toxic emissions, but so far only drafts have been proposed. Huge gray areas of regulation leads to blame shifting. This is where the uncomfortable issue of environmental racism comes in.
“You would never have this happen in an all white, middle- or upper-class residential neighborhood,” said Gerald Gage of San Francisco’s Health and Environmental Resource Center. “It wouldn’t be OK. It’s only OK because it’s here [in Hunter’s Point].”
In 1993, the EPA established the Office of Environmental Justice to assure that ethnic groups and the poor were represented in the EPA decision-making process and programs. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has acknowledged that impacted neighborhoods are disproportionately comprised of “the disenfranchised” and “communities of color.”
On a local level, Mrs. Harrison, who has received numerous certifications of honor and appreciation for her community activism in environmental justice, is not afraid to stand up to the confusing rhetoric used by policy makers and big corporations to distract from what she views as blatant environmental racism.
“I’m no science major, but I do have common sense,” she said with a shrug of disgust. “When I see feces floating in the water, orange foam bubbling at the surface, an exodus of fishermen, and notice that pigeons - the rats of the airway - won’t even fly overhead anymore, I know something’s gotta be wrong.”
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Nahmyo Thomas wrote this story for RedwoodAge.com as part of a New America Media journalism fellowship sponsored by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It is being distributed through Newswire21.org as the first part in a three-part series.
It's a bad year for teachers, especially in Southeastern San Francisco where schools that have a hard time attracting teachers stand to lose experienced staff. Newswire21's Mayra Martinez reports. Reporting like this requires your support, so please supportStories from the Ingleside.
Mayra Martinez
Newswire21.org
For the 349 San Francisco teachers who received layoff notices, the last, best hope for being saved from unemployment rests on the adoption of an agreement between the teachers union and school board that would save up to 148 teachers and provide an additional $700,000 towards trained support staff.
The board is expected to consider adoption of the agreement pending union ratification at its May 25 meeting, according to human resources officer Roger Buschmann. Either way, the city's poorest schools will likely feel the greatest impact.
In the Excelsior and Ingleside districts, which have the city's highest percentage of children per capita, the waiting game continues as the school year winds down. Frustrations and worries grow for teachers over leaving the classrooms and students they have called their own and the current reality of being unemployed in California.
“Us people in the trenches who are holding on to pink slips and trying to do our jobs everyday, and still do it with enthusiasm and happiness, are starting to get tired," said seventh grade science teacher James Stewart from Aptos Middle School. “I’ve done this for three years where I have to sit for the last two months of school and worry about my job and I don’t know if I want to do that next year.”
At Guadalupe Elementary in the Excelsior, David Gerbic is one of three teachers waiting to see if they’ll have jobs in the fall.
“I work so hard. I put in so many hours," he said. "I do everything they ask me to do and then they turn around and kick me out on my butt. I don’t feel valued. I feel pushed around. I feel like I’ve been chewed up and spit out.”
For those teachers whose jobs are safe, many wonder how they will maintain quality classrooms with less help. “We’re up at the crack of dawn. We spend our own money. We’re here after dinner.” said Gerbic, a fourth grade teacher. “Every teacher I know works 10 to 12 hours a day if they’re really doing their job right, but they get paid for what, 6 or 7?”
Stimulus Funds
This year stimulus funds and the Rainy Day fund, which saved many jobs in years past, were almost depleted. And Gov. Schwarzenegger's latest budget proposal includes $1.5 billion in education cuts and an additional $1.2 billion reduction in subsidized child care. That proposal, which still faces debate in the Legislature, comes as studies show that certified teachers will be sorely needed to rebuild California’s economy.
Then there is what has been called the “disproportionate effect” of layoffs on hard-to-fill schools in poorer neighborhoods. They have high teacher turnover rates in part because California law uses seniority as the deciding factor when jobs are cut. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed case against the Los Angeles Unified School District claiming the seniority requirement under the education code has a discriminatory effect on their lowest performing schools that is being closely followed for the precedence it may set.
“California ranks 47th in the nation on per pupil spending, so we had a problem even before this economic crisis, and now it's just getting worse.” said district spokesperson Gentle Blythe.
The district and union both are pleased the original number of layoffs has been cut by half. But the reduction provided less consolation for the teachers and administrators at schools where every single teachers is desperately needed.
“Every year we say I don’t know how things can get any worse, and then they get worse, said Guadalupe third grade teacher Grey Todd who remains hopeful that he will be one of the lucky 200 come May 25.
“You can’t expect a teacher alone in a classroom all day long with absolutely no help ... in a room of 34 kids to be effective.” said Todd. “It just becomes a babysitting job.”
Many of the parents in the Ingleside and Excelsior neighborhoods are working class, with scarce time or money to contribute themselves. Yet, at Longfellow Elementary, parents will be asked for the first time for money, said principal Phyllis Matsuno, although she acknowledges most have little or nothing to give.
National Problem
Last year Matsuno's school received no lay-off notices, but this year one-third of her staff is in jeopardy. Similar increases are being seen in districts across the state and across the country, according to national study of superintendents by the American Association of School Administrators.
At Monroe Elementary two certified staff, the nurse and counselor received final letters as well as their part time P.E. and art teachers, according to principal Jennifer Steiner. They will also have to make due with an $8,000 school supplies budget when a school of that size should have about three times that much. And there's no money for substitutes or stipends.
Teachers say all of these factors deeply affect every child’s chance for a good education and success.
“One of the most important aspects of good teaching is having a good relationship between the teacher and the students. Having more kids in your classroom just makes it harder to form close relationships," said Tracy Burt, who teaches child development at San Francisco City College. “Kids need to talk about the things that are going on in their lives. Teachers play lots of roles. They’re counselors, they’re moderators, they’re tutors.”
At schools where kids come from middle- and lower-income households, the effects can be more profound.
“Some of these kids have no routine at home. When they come to school, it’s the same everyday and we eat at the same time everyday and we are one big family," said Methinee Thongma of El Dorado Elementary in Visitation Valley. Earlier, she addressed the board in tears, talking about the kids she might be forced to leave. “Some of them do not even eat at home. They need safe relationships that they can trust.”
Buschmann, the district's HR director, agrees there should be a way to protect the "hard-to-fill" schools, "You get a great teacher that the principal and the parents are so happy to have in a difficult to staff school that may be under-performing that is on the rise," he said. “To turn away and take that teacher away from them is criminal.”
Ilana Nankin, a first year pre-K teacher has received praise from her paraprofessional for the work she has managed to do in one year at Fairmont Elementary in Glen Park. After receiving a layoff letter, she broke down in tears the next time she saw her class.
"Truthfully there’s no incentive to do a good job if seniority is the only thing that counts," said Stewart. “All my evaluations have been very high or outstanding and that speaks for nothing .”
Reluctant Move
During a May 11 school board meeting when the latest figure of 350 layoffs was approved, both Superintendent Garcia and several board members told the emotional and vocal crowd that this was a decision they made reluctantly.
“We went in knowing that unfortunately, when you have $113 million deficit, as much as we would want to not lay off a single person, that's virtually impossible.” said Garcia. “It's not us that have created the problem. It's Sacramento that has.”
“I think we all know that we're making a difficult decision that many members of the public will not understand. Not being able to look at the budget that we get to on a daily basis.” said BOE president Jane Kim.
“It's black and white.” said board member Rachel Norton. ”This is something we have no choice in.”
In order for more teachers to be saved the next steps between now and May 28 will be for UESF members to begin voting on the latest negotiated contract. Once it is passed and adopted by board members, more letters can be sent out rescinding layoffs. Until then students, teachers and kids wait to see which familiar faces won't be roaming the schools halls next year.
“There is a little girl in my son’s classroom that brought in a bag of coins and left it for her teacher," said Star King Elementary parent Jamie Deiner. ”The kids know. They are worried.”
Do you fear crime? Newswire21's Aaron Williams reports that a quarter of those living in Southeast SF feel vulnerable in broad daylight. The number jumps to half at night. Shine a light on forgotten neighborhoods; please support Stories from the Ingleside on Spot.Us.
Aaron Williams
Newswire21.org
More people feel unsafe during daylight hours in Southeast San Francisco than in any other neighborhood, according to a citywide study.
About a fourth of residents feel unsafe during the day, according to the health department survey. The percentage jumps to 49 percent at night.
The report follows a recent rise in robberies and burglaries in the Ingleside police district, according to Capt. Louis Cassanego. "Although we’ve made numerous robbery arrests and a major burglary arrest with multiple suspects, the numbers have climbed up,” he said.
The report links low community trust and high levels of violence in the
neighborhood, and comes at a time when both the police and residents are making efforts to make the area safer.
The Ingleside station set a goal to reduce street, property and MUNI crime by 20 percent this year, according to Cassanego. He also said that the station worked to have more face-to-face community involvement,
such as working with community groups and putting officers on foot patrol.
“On the surface this may not seem to be an important link to the community, but it is the initial step to bonding with the neighborhood,” he said in an email.
Taking Action
To be sure, not everyone in the community is waiting for the police to notice their issues. Jackie Tash, member of the Excelsior District Improvement Association, said her group began a project called "Light Up The Night" that encouraged Persia Avenue residents to keep their porch lights on to deter crime.
The project boundaries stretched from Mission Street to McLaren Park.
To get the news out, they partnered with the Excelsior Action Group to print flyers in several languages. “People in the Excelsior don’t just speak English or Spanish,” Tash said. “We are not a homogenized neighborhood. We printed flyers in Russian, Tagolog and other languages.”
Persia Avenue had a prevalence of cars and trees that block the street light, she said. As a result, the association wanted the city to prune trees and install brighter lights. Residents were thankful that someone noticed the lighting issue on Persia Avenue, Tash said. “We’re the sleeping giants out here."
Tash and EDIA are not alone in their efforts. Excelsior native Adriana Iglesias said teens used to loiter on her block, and neighbors reported vandalism last year. As a result, Iglesias started a neighborhood watch group through the nonprofit SF SAFE.
“People didn’t talk because they were scared and afraid of retaliation [from vandals]. We created a relationship with the school and we constantly talk to the police. We want to keep communication open,”
said Iglesias, who noted there'd been no trouble since the watch group began.
Iglesias hopes to create a block festival with the schools so that kids could have more ownership of their school’s neighborhood.
“We have more sense of a community,” she said. “It makes people feel concerned about their community and help support it.”
If you've ridden a bike on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco's underbelly, congratulations on surviving. Newswire21.org reporter Cameron Crowe reports below that some relief is on the way. If you'd like to see better reporting from local neighborhoods, please support Stories from the Ingleside on Spot.Us.
Cameron Crowe
Newswire21.org
Bike lanes should be in place along Ocean Avenue from City College to Alemany Boulevard by late summer following a four-year legal delay.
The so-called “class II” lanes will be marked by a stripe on each side of the roadway. They’ll extend from Lee to Alemany. There will also be lanes on Phelan from Judson to Ocean.
Although many cyclists say Ocean Avenue is unsafe, even frightening, the installation of the lanes have has long been delayed by a lawsuit filed by opponents. The suit claimed that plans for bike lanes across the city would slow traffic in a way that would, in turn, increase air pollution.
In November, a Superior Court judge partially removed an injunction, giving San Francisco’s Municipal Transit Authority the green light to improve 45 bike routes.
“We expect Ocean Avenue to have bike lanes by August,” said Marc Caswell, project manager of the San Francisco Bike Coalition. “That street is really essential for a lot of students going to SF State or CCSF from Balboa Park Station.”
Streetcars & Autos
With streetcar tracks and heavy car traffic around the I-280 interchange, Ocean Avenue is considered a danger zone by cyclists riding through the area.
"There is just a lot going on," said Trent Downes, a 23-year-old student at SF State. "A MUNI train runs down the middle, the curbs are constantly coming in and out of the lane, and the drivers are horrible."
The number of cyclists in San Francisco is estimate at 128,000, up 53 percent since 2006, according to the bike coalition.
“Personally Ocean Avenue is my least favorite street to ride on,” said Caswell. “We look forward to seeing some changes.”
Attacks by youths on seniors have been played up in mainstream media recently. But Newswire21 reporter Juan Martinez found the generation gap is narrowing at a teen center that is now providing free, hot meal for elders. If you'd like to see better reporting from local neighborhoods, please support Stories from the Ingleside on Spot.Us.
Juan Martinez
Newswire21.org
The Excelsior's teen center has started to attract an older crowd. The space has a new kitchen to provide hot meals for seniors.
The meals, prepared at the On Lok 30th Street Senior Center, will be served weekly at the youth center.
“I think it is very important for seniors to get services because they helped build and are a part of this community,” said Victoria Kupu, a student at Lowell High School. "It is always good to give back to those who helped you get where you are today."
The addition of senior services could help bridge the generation gap between the two groups in the center, which is located at 4468 Mission St.
“Seniors will be able to learn more about what the Excelsior Teen Center is and why us teens are there,” said Jazmine Miranda, a student at Metropolitan Arts & Technology High School. “Teens can understand and respect seniors better.”
Faith Kirkpatrick, the project manager for the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, which owns the teen center, says there is a big need for this service. Teens participated in a Food Pantry program at the teen center last summer and distributed food from the city's food bank to an unexpectedly large number of seniors.
“We started distributing free meals for 100 seniors last June,” Kirkpatrick said. “Within a few weeks there were 400 people in line for the Food Pantry. By adding the kitchen, we will be able to serve meals to the community where there is such obvious need.”
Leah Weitz, the youth program coordinator for the teen center, says youths have already benefited from last year's program.
“The Food Pantry serves as a great opportunity for kids to volunteer and get community service credit to graduate from high school,” Weitz said. “They learn things like time management and how to make a difference in their community.”
Youths will continue to organize, design and stock food in preparation for the program, which started May 5. According to pantry supervisor Antonio Jones, 21, this kind of work is important because it functions as a form of job training and helps keep kids off the streets.
“It shows teens how to deal with diversity,” Jones said. “In my experience, both seniors and teens find some joy interacting with each other. I started out working my way up as a youth by volunteering and getting job training. Now I work for the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.”
The price tag on the project isn't yet known. “We are in the process of completing the work and do not know what the final cost will be,” Justine Lauderback, the deputy director for the Bernal Heights center, said in an email.
The Bernal Heights center is a non-profit organization that bought the Excelsior facility in 2008. The Mayor’s Office of Housing provided a $40,000 grant to complete improvements to the center’s youth programs for the current fiscal year, according to city records. The center also received a $385,000 grant from the city’s Department of Children, Youth & Their Families, according to Jill Fox, the communications coordinator for the department.
Construction Closure
During the month-long renovation, teens could use other youth centers on Cortland Avenue or London Street. But some were still upset.
“It was surprising and hurtful,” said Byron Smith, a student at Abraham Lincoln High School. “Teens are comfortable there. They go there to hang out. To some, it is the only place where they can go.”
In addition to the new meals program and already established Food Pantry service, the center will provide seniors a range of activities including health, fitness, education and games. The goal for program coordinator Lea Tamayo is to engage and bring enthusiasm to the lives of seniors through these programs.
“We want them to feel like they belong in their community and in society,” Tamayo said. “Having a very accessible senior center here is a great opportunity for those that live far from their homes. Seniors can socialize, get healthy and have access to several resources.”
Teen Programs
The center offers teens leadership development, violence prevention, employment training and placement, and after-school and summer programs. After-school programs include: Boiz Group, the Youth Employment Services Program, Leadership Group and Tutorial Program, according to SFKids.org.
The Boiz Group program teaches young men personal development skills. The Youth Employment Services Program features job readiness training for youths 16 to 24. The leadership program teaches life skills such as accountability, integrity and responsibility. Kids have access to computers, the Internet and tutors.
Seniors programming will be available from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays. Youths from 13 to 24 will be able to drop-in from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The Excelsior neighborhood is one of the most diverse areas in the city, according to Insabella Lo, who will be coordinating senior services. The neighborhood is comprised primarily by Asian and Pacific Islanders, Hispanics or Latinos and Caucasians, according to SFFoodbank.org. It is home to 2,925 children and 2,125 seniors.
“I have the language capacity to speak many different languages like English, Cantonese and Mandarin," she said. "It is good to be able to connect with people from all over.”
Newswire21's Michael Pawluk reports on man at SF City College who, after 18 years of addiction, now counsels others. Please help support community reporting like this with a pledge to Stories from the Ingleside on Spot.Us.
Michael Pawluk
Newswire21.org
For some addicts, the road to recovery can be long and arduous, with an ever-present danger of relapse. Some never make it. But every so often there's one who uses his experience to help others.
At 37, Jeremy is a recovering cocaine addict and alcoholic who is now using his knowledge of the psychological effects of drugs and alcohol to help treat other addicts through a program at City College.
“I’ve had my own experience with drug and alcohol abuse, and one important part of my recovery is to help other people,” said the student, whose last name was withheld to protect his privacy. “I was a very heavy drinker and addicted to cocaine for almost 18 years before I got sober.”
In the summer of 2008, Jeremy was arrested and charged with felony possession of cocaine. A stipulation of his sentence required him to join alcohol and narcotic support groups. It was during this time he realized that he could use his experience to help others.
“I feel really lucky that I was arrested when I was because it made me realize that I needed to change my life before it ended,” he said. “The worst thing you can do is sit around thinking about your problems and not do anything about them until it’s too late.”
In late 2009, Jeremy enrolled in the drug and alcohol counseling program at City College in an effort to gain the skills to needed to help other like him who are looking to face their issues with substance abuse. The program is a two-year intensive study focused on severe alcohol and drug dependency, with an emphasis on urban care.
Easing the 'Trauma'
Students enrolled in the program are required to familiarize themselves with the mental, physical and social impacts that stem from substance abuse. However, for some students, the program offers a constructive outlet for dealing with a history of drug abuse.
“Our program is designed to educate individuals who wish to address the issues of drug and alcohol abuse and help to alleviate the physical and emotional trauma that comes from drug use,” said Program Director Tandy Iles. “We actually have a very comprehensive intern program that allows our students and counselors to get hands on training in different medical centers throughout the Bay Area.”
The Drug and Alcohol Studies Department was founded in 1998; Iles has been involved since its inception.
The course work teaches students a variety of methods for dealing with individual cases of drug abuse but the most prevalent form of care is a controversial method often referred to as harm reduction.
The system is intended to offer addicts a more pragmatic solution to their problem through moderation and control of their addiction over time unlike most 12-step programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which emphasize abstinence as the best way to get clean.
Continued Risk
One example of harm reduction in practice is the San Francisco AIDS Foundation needle exchange program, which offers clean syringes to addicts in an attempt to curb the spread of disease. The CCSF program works closely with foundations such as these in order to familiarize their students with the issues surrounding addiction.
Though Jeremy has been sober for over two years, his work in the field of addiction comes with its occupational hazards. The proximity to active drug users and their drugs can cause the risk of a relapse, a serious concern for recovering addicts.
“I was been cautioned about being triggered in the field by patients, so it can be dangerous mixing your personal recovery while being a professional counselor,” said Jeremy. “One of the most important things to remember is not to preach to your patients. Real progress comes only from self diagnosis and working with the patient to find out what their goals are on the road to recovery.
Newswire21's Jackie Bernardo reports how poor residents living along San Francisco's truck routes face higher risk of serious illness and early death. Please help support community reporting like this with a pledge to Stories from the Ingleside on Spot.Us.
Jackie Bernardo
Newswire21.org
City agencies and residents want changes along truck routes through southeast San Francisco because of concerns over air pollution, traffic noise and rising rates of lung disease.
More than two out of five households in the Excelsior District are located near high-volume roadways. Residents breathe pollution that causes coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath, increasing risks of heart disease, cancer and premature death, according to People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights (PODER).
“In southeast San Francisco, the traffic disproportionately affects residents, [causing] serious impacts for health,” Megan Wier, an epidemiologist with the Health Department, told the city’s Land Use and Economic Development Committee during a March hearing.
According to Wier, increased exposure to vehicle exhaust can cause asthma and lung disease; traffic noise disrupts sleep and impacts children’s ability to learn; and traffic congestion contributes to increased vehicle, pedestrian and bike collisions. The congested roadways include the Still/Lyell freeway and the freeways near Silver and San Bruno Avenue.
After the meeting, city supervisors voted to form an Energy Efficiency Steering Committee. The committee could recommend spending energy conservation funds in the neighborhoods most in need of improvements, said Tom Rivard, an inspector for the Health Department.
Wier said changes would require coordination with area agencies, such as the Bay Area Quality Air Management District. Changes could include building sound walls near freeways, adding double-paned windows and enforcing vehicle and parking restrictions on specific streets.
Large-scale Issue
“There is a lot to be done because the scale of the issue is much larger than specific streets,” Le Tim Ly of the Chinese Progressive Association said at the meeting. “In the southeast, we have the highest rates of asthma hospitalization [and this most affects] low-income, immigrant communities.”
Charlie Sciammas, a community organizer with PODER, presented data from community surveys that focused on residential southeast neighborhoods. It showed 46 percent of residents smell pollution on their block every week and that 44 percent of families live within 500 feet to high-volume roadways.
“These are primarily low-income community members, immigrant families, people of color, and we also know they are at most risk for long-term exposure [to] traffic pollution,” said Sciammas.
Sciammas would like truck operators to adhere to newly designated truck routes. He wants the Health Department, Metropolitan Transit Authority and the police to find better ways of responding to community complaints.
However, he doesn’t expect any quick changes. “It will be a slow process,” he said. “[It might take] a whole year’s worth to [involve] city agencies [with] this issue.”
No Change
“Progress has been made, and we support that, but the point is that there have been no physical changes or improvements,” said Linda Weiner, a representative from the Bay Area Clean Air Task Force.
According to Weiner, southeast San Francisco has the highest number of asthma cases each year and that 40 percent of households in the Excelsior district have families with children. Those children have an increased risk of significantly losing lung function by the age of 18 or experiencing other health conditions that cannot be reversed, she said.
“We urge the development of a specific action and enforcement plan,” said Weiner. “The bottom line is that the more trucks that can be re-routed away from residents, the less respiratory and heart disease, and the less burden in the already over-burdened healthcare system.”
Victoria Sanchez, a neighborhood resident for 20 years, said there have hardly been any improvements in her neighborhood. “I really haven’t seen anything accomplished, to tell you the truth,” said Sanchez, who added that she encounters traffic noise, dirty windows and pollution from passing trucks and buses every morning.
“I wish they would come to my house and really see what I see at 8 o’clock in the morning,” she added. “Even if I touch my house, I can feel the dirt from the pollution.”
Newswire21.org reporter Cameron Crowe filed this update on a contentious plan in the Ingleside District to upgrade Ocean Avenue. Please help support community reporting with a pledge to Stories from the Ingleside! on Spot.Us.
Cameron Crowe
Newswire21.org
Tensions flared when local merchants met with the Ocean Avenue Revitalization Collaborative to discuss plans for a community benefits district along the neighborhood’s busy commercial corridor.
The meeting was organized as a “Merchant Mixer,” a chance for business owners to share food, wine, and ideas of how to make Ocean’s a better place for vendors and visitors. But what began as a cordial evening soon dissolved into a barrage of accusations when the meeting discussed the district plan.
“I didn’t know this was going to be a Tea Party meeting,” said Howard Chung, an Ocean Avenue resident. Chung asked business and property owners to set aside personal interests and consider what the benefits district may provide for the community as a whole.
“It’s hard to see the forest when you have that one most important tree standing right in front of you,” he said at the April 21 meeting.
The collaborative hopes to have the district established by the end of the year, but can't without a 30 percent approval of business and property owners within the districts boundaries.
Merchants and property owners voiced concerns of how the property assessment fund will be spent under the proposed district. In particular, business owners spoke out against the $63,000 reserved under the CBD for “management and operations.”
“They’re trying to run a business off the backs of other businesses. Now that just ain’t right,” said Jesse Waters, owner of Waters Construction & Plumbing Co.
While many of the meetings attendees claimed the CBD is an unjustified tax, Cristy Johnson, executive director of the Excelsior Action Group, sees it differently.
“It’s different from a tax, you [business and property owners] control it,” she said to a skeptical crowd. “You control the services and how you manage your money.”
District Goals
A week earlier, nearly two dozen property owners and merchants met to talk about seven topics connected with the project, but ended up in an impassioned debate over the establishment of the district itself.
“We all have a common goal. Now all we need is a common ground,” Mark Gin, a owner of Copy Edge, said at that meeting. “I want a guarantee that the CBD will bring me business.”
If a CBD is established, commercial properties along Ocean Avenue – from Victoria Street to Geneva Avenue – will pay an increase in property tax that will fund projects like street maintenance, marketing for businesses, and community safety.
“The City’s broke so we are going to lose these services,” said Mary Harris of the OMI Neighbors in Action. Harris calmed frustrated merchants by outlining the processes necessary for a district to be established, noting that the proposed district is in a very early phase. “People are going to vote this up or down,” she said. “It’s democratic.”
Some agitated property owners left that meeting after sharing their concerns. Others worked on strategies for building support for the plan.
“You can look at this as a tax or you can think of it as an investment in your business,” said Patty Clement-Chihak, the program director of the OMI Senior Center where the meeting took place.
Scenes of China's disaster beg the question: how safe are homes in the Bay Area in case of a major quake. Newswire21's Aaron Williams obtained a draft copy of a long-awaited study that predicts billions in damage to homes in the southern portion of the city, including Ingleside. This kind of reporting can't happen without your support for Stories from the Ingleside!
Aaron Williams
Newswire21.org
A major earthquake could damage 80 percent of Ingleside and Excelsior homes and cause $2.3 billion in losses according to the draft of a long-awaited study.
The data reflects the collaboration of public and private agencies studying the potential effects of the 7.2 earthquake that is projected to hit the city within 30 years. The final report, covering the entire city, is due this summer. Follow up reports are expected in the fall.
The report will likely influence the debate on mandatory retrofitting of homes to better withstand earthquakes. Residents of the Excelsior and Ingleside also can use the report to weigh the costs of improving their homes against a higher earthquake insurance deductible.
“I just pay for a bundle that includes earthquake insurance,” resident Christina Ridad said. A sewer below Ridad’s home broke during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which her insurance covered. Despite the minimal damage, she decided to keep the insurance.
Homeowners such as Teresa Nasareo said that she wouldn’t live without her insurance, although her home was not affected by the 1989 quake. “You have to have it. It’s necessary,” she said.
Danger Below
The garage or store under a multi-tenant, soft-story wood frame building is the most vulnerable to earthquake damage in San Francisco. It is also the most popular type of apartment structure. Though these building aren't prevalent in the Ingleside or Excelsior, most of the single family homes there have garages underneath that don’t provide adequate support.
“Just because many homes in that area don’t fall into that category doesn’t mean they’re exempt,” real estate consultant John Paxton said of the neighborhood. “It’s very popular to have the construction of garages under the living unit in that area. So these people should be aware that their building type is susceptible.”
Laurence Kornfield, chief building inspector for the city, also noted that though earthquakes pose a threat to the city, the shaking isn’t the biggest concern. The biggest risk, he said, comes from the fires that follow.
The Department of Building Inspection jump-started the Community Action Plan for Seismic Safety to tackle the imminent danger of an earthquake in 2001.
While the city figured how to combat imminent natural disasters, think-tanks like the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) created their own proposals. In 2008, SPUR published a report entitled “The Resilient City” that asked for improvements such as transparent building codes, near-term cost-effective repairs and better owner incentives.
“We want to be prepared for the rebuilding process and part of that has to do with our buildings and our lifelines being strong now, so that we can prepare for a major earthquake,” SPUR Deputy Director Sarah Karlinsky said. The DBI, SPUR and CAPSS all collaborated to create the draft report.
Voluntary Cost
To be sure, earthquake preparedness is a primary focus of the city. Newsom’s push in February for mandatory retrofitting came with a strict criteria.
Currently, the primary focus is on homes that are three or more stories, five or more residential units, and have wood-frame structures according to Paxton. Buildings built before May 1973 also get attention because building codes were changed after that date.
The city has waived some fees and expedited inspections so that the city can have safer buildings. Still, a report by the San Francisco Controller’s office stated that an average of only 40 homes a year have been retrofitted since the 1989 quake.
The report noted that the city gave landlords the option to pass the entire cost on to renters over a 20-year schedule through a rent increase of 5 percent or $30, whichever is greater. However, some residents do not like the thought of increased rent, no matter the reason.
“It seems like a loophole around rent control,” Ingleside resident Max Gerhardt said. Gerhardt rented his home and doesn’t want any other cost on top of his rent, regardless of the what it’s supposed to do. “I’d be pissed. I’m worried homeowners would be able to abuse it.”
Editor's Note: This story was substantially edited after publication to reflect revisions of the data by the source.
The latest round of Muni fare hikes may represent a tipping point in the public perception of fare evaders in SF, according to this story by Newswire21 reporter Sharon Lim, who wrote about this in our 9th part of "Stories from the Ingleside." You can help support community reporting like this by supporting the Ingleside Project Pitch on Spot.Us.
Sharon Lim Newswire21.org
Muni has raised its fare so much that some passengers no longer consider it taboo to sneak aboard buses and streetcars in San Francisco.
“It may be wrong to ride without paying, but it is unfair for the less fortunate people to scrounge around for money. People have to get around somehow,” says Sandy Hinejosa, a MUNI passenger who now pays $70 for a monthly pass to commute from Balboa Park to downtown.
The city has raised the cost of Hinejosa’s pass from $55 to help cover the budget shortfall. MUNI also sent out more inspectors to help catch fare evaders, but not even the security workers agree it’s worth the effort.
“You’re not even going to make any difference from catching a person,” says fare inspector Ce-Lon Lam. “They don’t make the deficit.”
Although it’s a petty crime, the growing acceptance of fare evasion reflects how ethical boundaries tend to shift in rough economical times. On a minor scale, the phenomenon is similar to the idea of stealing food to feed your family after an earthquake.
“I don’t condone [fare evasion] but I think it’s understandable for a person to make choices if they need to get across town,” says Supervisor John Avalos.
Much of the community sees the need to make Muni more affordable. Avalos says the current means of transportation isn’t fair for the unemployed while the district’s less fortunate people do what they can by finding a ride, walking, or biking.
POP Cops
Despite these opinions, the “proof of pass” inspectors aren't slowing down any time soon. According to Lam, the fare increases aren’t providing the POP inspectors any extra money. While their job is to catch passengers without passes, it’s also to scare others in making sure everybody boards with a pass or transfer. The fine for not having a proof of pass ranges from $50 to $450.
Even MUNI supervisor Ferdinand Cadelina admits it would cost more in hiring security than what the city is losing to fare evaders.
According to Avalos, the fare increase has helped drivers, maintenance, and cost of living for other workers. But some passengers don’t know the reason for increase, and they overlook those who sneak aboard. Avalos agreed it would be “great” if MUNI was subsidized or free.
Low-Income Option
The obscure $30 “L” pass is an option for individuals with proof of making under $10,000 a year. They must register, provide a social security number, and be reevaluated every year.
“Even if it’s hot and sunny, you’d be surprised to see how long the line is,” says Lam. “People will wait two hours to try and discount a pass to $30.”
Newswire21 had a hard time finding anyone who condemned those who snuck aboard. Most expressed their understanding and empathy towards fare evaders.
“How else are some people expected to go from point A to point B?” asks Angeline Quintilla, who travels from West Portal to downtown. “You have to take any opportunity that will help you reach where you need to go.”
In the 8th story published here through the "Stories from the Ingleside" project, Newswire21.org reporter Brenda Reyes looks at how six San Francisco schools are now losing some of the support that helped them meet state testing standards. Please help support community reporting like this through this groundbreaking project.
Brenda Reyes
Newswire21.org
Victims of their own success and state budget cuts, six elementary schools in the southern half of San Francisco are losing some of the educational resources that helped them meet California school standards.
Monroe, McKinley, Sheridan, Junipero Serra, and Glen Park elementary schools, and the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, will lose one full-time substitute teacher, a part-time nurse and student advisor, art and music instructors, and support from district leaders, who provided classroom observations, said Dee Dee Desmond, the executive director for the Reform & Accountability for the San Francisco Unified School District.
The district had provided those resources as part of its STAR Program - short for Students and Teachers Achieving Results. The 10-year-old program offers instructional, academic, and social support to schools that “have been historically underserved and low-performing in standardized tests,” according to Desmond.
All six of the affected schools are in lower- to middle-class neighborhoods below Market Street. Sheridan is in the Oceanside-Ingleside area; Monroe, McKinley and Serra are in the Mission; Milk in is Diamond Heights; and Glen Park is two blocks west of the BART station of the same name.
Because they now meet state standards, the six schools no longer qualify, raising the question of whether they could slip back when they lose the resources that got them to where they are.
For example, Desmond noted that when a music or art teacher came to the classroom, other teachers would meet to plan lessons, which is “important for schools to move forward." Next fall, these schools will have to do without that extra time to coordinate lessons.
“I know we have to lose something. How do we not go backwards?” said Monroe Principal Jennifer Steiner, whose fear is that students will lose the momentum they gained through the program.
According to Steiner, one of her school's biggest achievements was to have only eight out of 84 Latino students move on to intermediate school with sub-standard test scores.
A school leaves the program when it attains an Academic Performance Index score of 800. Monroe's score was 803 in 2009, up from 612 in 2001. “We’ve been working strategically” to help students, said Violeta Garcia, a liaison to Spanish-speaking parents at the school.
Award-winner
Glen Park Elementary, which has won the Academic Achievement Award for three consecutive years with the support of STAR, is another school leaving the program.
Principal Marion Grady said she knew this would happen eventually because the school started to exit the program in 2006. She was confident the cutbacks won't affect student learning, saying the staff will find alternate ways to provide for their school. “We can do it, because we must,” she said.
The schools are keeping an Instructional Reform Facilitator (IRF) and one parent liaison because those services are funded under Title I, said Desmond. According to STAR, an IRF is an experienced educator the district trains to work at a school to arrange professional development for its teachers. The parent liaison does outreach to parents in their native language to ensure their participation in school activities.
“This proposal to exit [STAR] rapidly is new,” said Deputy Superintendent Myong Leigh, who acknowledged that the removal of the program would lead to “trade-offs.”
For instance, negotiations with the union could result in more furlough days instead of increased class sizes, said Director of Policy and Resource Management Nancy Waymack.
Steiner said she heard from other STAR schools in the city that they were doing fine next year, so she asked the district officials to provide a spreadsheet so that Monroe's staff and families could see exactly what each school in the district is going to lose.
Associate Superintendent Kevin Truitt said releasing the school-by-school data might lead to assumptions when the history of a school is unknown. However, Leigh said it would be a good idea to distribute the information.
Multilingual Challenges
Monroe serves students from multiple linguistic backgrounds. So Steiner said it offers three programs: English Language Development, Chinese bilingual and a Spanish immersion. That presents a unique challenge as a result of state-wide budget cuts on top of the loss of STAR services.
Desmond agreed Monroe may struggle more than other schools next year because it won’t receive enough base money to fund the three-part program. “It’s complicated because there’s so many funding sources,” she said.
Speaking in Spanish, parent Veronica Lacayo asked Leigh to take the teachers' and parents’ concerns into consideration. “We are a multilingual community and we have worked very hard,” she said.
Leigh, who met with Monroe parents on March 10, said additional meetings won't change the outcome of the budget. “There’s no negotiation between a school and a district,” he said.
As budget cuts eat into public school funding, Newswire21.org found continuing support for recently established environmental programs in the Ingleside District schools, the latest of our "40 Stories from the Ingleside." Your support of our coverage in this underserved community is appreciated.
Jackie Bernardo
Newswire21.org
Environmental programs at two Ingleside District elementary schools are moving forward despite budget cuts that have left many other programs scrambling for resources.
Sunnyside Elementary, which developed its green team in November 2008, is finding ways for students reduce their impact on the environment, such as creating safe routes to the school and using compost bins.
The safe routes program encourages students to walk or ride their bikes to school, according to Cathy Meyer, the garden coordinator of the green team at Sunnyside. It also entails having the students put up signs that remind drivers to slow down.
The compost bins teach students how worms break down food. The students then use the compost for fertilizer.
Other green practices include reduced use of toxic cleaning chemicals and turning off unused lights. Students are also turning to natural snacks like oranges and carrot sticks instead of candy and cookies.
Sunnyside kindergarten teacher Leah Plack said students are now writing on both sides of paper and being more conscious the overall use of disposable materials.
“I really hope [students develop] better habits in their homes and middle school and onward,” said Plack. “We don’t have a limitless supply of things. A lot of kids aren’t aware of this and can take things for granted.”
After-school Garden
Sheridan Elementary has started an after-school gardening club that meets every Friday. Students learn to build a garden and take care of its plants.
They’ll also learn to raise money to construct more garden beds and to form partnerships with larger environmental programs that will help them use the outdoor environment as a classroom.
Students have built planter boxes, created a mural and planted a native garden, according to Philip Coffin, the site coordinator for the YMCA afterschool program. He said students are now raising money for more garden beds, setting up bird feeders and planting a garden that is meant to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
Coffin said he does not know why the school did not have an environmental program prior to last year.
The program has survived with help from a supportive principal, motivated staff, parents who were willing to volunteer and space at the school that allowed projects to be conducted under full sunlight with access to water.
Volunteers also help. Sheridan received a grant from Lowe’s hardware store, but has grown largely with the help of volunteers, said green team leader Julie Tonroy. The school failed to win a second grant from Ecozone Media, but the process of applying helped to generate attention about the school’s program.
She said students are “very energetic [and] eager to learn.”
Tight Budgets
Starting programs on tight school budgets hasn’t been easy, said Rachel Pringle, program manager of the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance.
“It can be an uphill battle at some times,” said Pringle, who also helped with programs at other Ingleside schools, including Jose Ortega Elementary.
“Most schools have budget constraints, and most of the schoolyards and school gardens are spirited by parents,” she said. “[However,] some schools often find that gardening programs are one of the most valuable things they can fund.”
Going forward, Tonroy said she wants students at Sunnyside to learn more than the basic “reduce, re-use, recycle” idea. She’s hoping to teach more complex concepts, such the threats of being exposed to harmful chemicals on a daily basis or how our food comes from natural resources.
“They are ultimately going to be the caretakers of the environment,” said Tonroy. “If they are not educated about how to shepherd the environment and take care of it, then their generation will have significant problems with regard to waste, water, transportation and food.”
Neighbors and local merchants are wary about how a $130 million project will change life in the Ingleside. Newswire21 Writer Cameron Crowe and Photographer Eric Lawson filed this report as part of our ongoing coverage of one of San Francisco's most undercovered communities. Please help us extend this project by pledging to 40 Stories from the Ingleside on Spot.Us. Thanks!
Cameron Crowe
Newswire21.org
Standing in front of his produce store, Takis Galiatsatos takes a long pull from his cigarette and muses how a giant redevelopment project around the Balboa Park station will change his neighborhood.
The Balboa Park Station Area Plan, which took form after a series of neighborhood meetings in 2000, includes MUNI line changes, dense residential infill, and possibly something the neighborhood hasn’t had in more than 15 years - a supermarket.
“The truth is we don’t know how we will be affected,” said Galiatsatos, the owner of the Fruit Barn for six years. “What they’re doing down there will bring people into the community, but it could take business away. We just don’t know.”
What's certain is that the project will mean major changes for the OMI, the community in southern San Francisco comprised of Ocean View, Merced Heights and the Ingleside.
AvalonBay Communities, Inc. won the unanimous approval of the city Planning Commission last May to build the $65 million apartment building along Ocean Avenue. The apartments, which are expected to be rented at whatever the market will bear, will replace the Kragen and Wheel Works stores.
The apartments will be next to a new $65 million building at City College that will house education programs conducted jointly with San Francisco State University. That building is slated to open by the fall term.
The apartment complex is expected to sit atop a 28,000 square foot market, though no grocers have signed a lease. “The space is set up so that it can accommodate a larger retail store or multiple smaller ones,” said Meg Spriggs, AvalonBay’s senior development director. Construction is expected to last up to two years.
“Every time there is a story about a store moving into the community, a merchant doesn’t like it,” said Dan Weaver, a member of OMI-Community Action Organization and founder of the Ocean Avenue Renaissance Committee. “That means they would sell less coffee, less wine, less beer. But the community as a whole wants a market.”
Transit Changes
The Phelan Bus Loop will be redirected around the existing firehouse and sheltered waiting areas will be constructed to accommodate drivers and passengers alike.
Wider sidewalk layouts have been proposed to better connect the 5,000 daily BART riders at Balboa Park Station to the western portion of Ocean Avenue. The changes are crucial to “improve the economic vitality of the Ocean Avenue Neighborhood Commercial District,” according to the 2008 draft of the plan.
The Balboa Reservoir may turn into a children’s playground, a park, or an affordable housing project. The reservoir is co-owned by City College, which holds a 40 percent interest, and the city's Public Utilities Commission, which owns 60 percent, according to Weaver.
“The Balboa Park Reservoir was constructed in 1947, I believe, and it’s never had a drop of water in it,” said Weaver, chuckling. “But the water department insists that it is critical to their operation.”
According to the plan, if the PUC wants to use the reservoir for water storage, it should provide a roof structure upon which community space can be developed.
Mixed Reactions
“We are big supporters of this plan,” Tim Colen of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition said during the 2009 Planning Commission meeting. “This is a perfect example of what Balboa Park can become.”
Some residents, however, don’t share the excitement.
“What about the traffic?” asked Bonnie Miner, a 21-year-old student at San Francisco State. “I hit city college traffic every day on my way to school, I can’t imagine what it will be like with a supermarket right there.”
To circumvent traffic, AvalonBay and MTA plan to extend Lee Avenue and Brighton Avenue across Ocean Avenue into the 237- car parking structure beneath the market to create a one-way flow of traffic.
The Lee Avenue extension will serve as loading access for the proposed grocery store. Loading hours for the store may be limited to 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. to avoid disturbing prospective tenants of the apartments during the night.
Editor's Note: As the anniversary of the 1906 quake nears, San Francisco is reaching into the multicultural Ingleside District to train citizens in emergency response. But with 12,000 city residents already trained, questions remain about the largely untested, 20-year-old program. Newswire21.org reporter Aaron Williams takes a look in another in our series of 40 stories about the Ingleside.
Aaron Williams
Newswire21.org
The recent images of earthquake damage in Haiti and Chile raise chilling questions about whether the Ingleside District is prepared for a similar quake.
A powerful quake could cut off city services, leaving residents on their own to fight fires and help injured neighbors.
The city offers Neighborhood Emergency Response Team training so that citizens can learn what to do, but questions remain about how effective NERT will be during an actual earthquake.
First, despite its 12,000 active members in San Francisco, NERT isn’t well known.
“I’ve never heard of it,” said Robert Ross, who has lived in the Ingleside for 32 years. He said he hasn’t felt a need to seek emergency training because nobody has made it “readily apparent” that people need it.
“It feels really disconnected out there,” said fire Lt. Erica Arteseros, program coordinator for NERT. “I haven’t really known who all the players are. I don’t have any professional marketing for the program. It’s all word of mouth.”
20-year History
NERT started in the Marina District in 1990 because residents wanted to feel more prepared for a disaster. Fire destroyed a multistory apartment building in the Marina during the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.
Some new homeowners in the Ingleside have taken training, but Arteseros said the majority of residents are under-prepared, primarily because family resources aren’t as abundant.
NERT has since trained 19,700 people citywide and plans to train another 2,200 people, according to Arteseros. But only about 60 percent remain active.
Members helped to clean-up the Cosco-Busan oil spill in 2007, and also helped with wildfire fighting in Southern California. However, their quake-recovery skills remain untested.
NERT is coming to the Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center on March 16 for the first time in a few years to kick off what the program hopes will be a new beginning of disaster preparedness in neighborhoods like the OMI - Ocean View, Merced Heights and the Ingleside. A full schedule of NERT training through April 20 is located on the Fire
Department’s web site..
“This will give us an opportunity to test the OMI coalition and see where everyone is at,” Arteseros said.
Cultural Challenge
NERT offers classes in English, Spanish and Cantonese, but about half the Ingleside’s residents are foreign-born and speak many other languages. Arteseros hopes bilingual city service workers will take the training and help bridge language barriers.
Another concern is the age of NERT participants. Arteseros estimated that the average age of NERT members is 40. NERT worked with Balboa High School’s JROTC and Science majors at City College to help train younger volunteers.
Apathy is a big obstacle. Ross said people feel that earthquakes are so powerful that preparation is superfluous, and he isn’t alone in that thought.
David Younge, business entrepreneur and owner of Discount Hookah on Ocean Avenue, wasn’t worried about earthquake preparedness despite the thousands of dollars of glass merchandise in his store front.
“I owned a night club in San Rafael and during the Loma Prieta earthquake. I lost three bottles. That’s it.” Younge said. “I got through that one. I’m just going to take my chances. Talk to me after. I’ll be sorry then.”
Myth Busting
Arteseros admitted it’s hard to predict how effective NERT will be during an earthquake.
She said NERT has worked to create a community infrastructure that kept members trained through recertification, consistent training sessions, a stronger database of members and collaborating more with currently community organizations.
“I work a lot harder on busting the myth that it’s a resource to you,” Arteseros said. “Before you put responsibility on your neighbor, think about how much responsibility you’d be willing to take on for the whole neighborhood.”
NewsWire21 Note: San Francisco is too expensive for lots of folks, but it's particularly tough on artists who face rising costs on home, work and exhibit spaces. Newswire21 reporter Juan Martinez wrote this piece as part of our series "40 Stories from the Ingleside," providing coverage of a local community often overlooked in the mainstream media. Your donation through Spot.Us will help to sustain this important project.
Juan Martinez
Newswire21.org
When artist Rafael Bensuaski Vieira arrived to San Francisco in 1997, the art scene and weather inspired his work.
“I craved the fog, the cold weather, the incredible art scene,” Vieira said. “It was great being around other artists.”
Now, he and other artists are struggling in neighborhoods like the Excelsior and OMI (Ocean View-Merced Heights-Ingleside) because of high rents for apartments and studio spaces.
“I was paying $1,400 for a one-bedroom apartment, which was basically a hallway with a room at the end,” Vieira said. “It’s just not worth the price they ask. If I could get double the space for the same price across the bridge, I’m doing it.”
After living in Balboa Park for several years, he and his wife moved to the outer Sunset and then to a 2-bedroom studio with a garage in Oakland. Vieira says his moves reflect “la lucha de la vida,” a phrase meaning “the life struggle.”
“Artists need to know how to hustle because any money that an artist can save really allows for more time to be spent on their projects,” he said. “They've got to have a back-up plan because this is a bittersweet career.”
Most artists in the Excelsior and OMI neighborhoods can’t afford to own a home with only one job. Instead, they are forced to work multiple jobs in order to pay their rent and usually share a studio with other artists.
Painter Jennifer Wildermuth is currently in this situation. She shares a space with two other artists near Balboa Park and is considering working from her apartment instead of paying studio fees.
“We pay $575 right now,” said Wildermuth. “However, one of the artists is moving out because he has a kid and can not afford any other expenses. I am also thinking about moving.”
Another reason why artists are having a tough time is because people don’t associate the Excelsior and OMI neighborhoods with having as strong an art scene like other parts of San Francisco such as the Mission and South of Market.
“The majority of studios and galleries are in the Mission District,” said Virginia Jourdan, a painter and longtime resident of Ingleside. “There are also studios in the Bayview-Hunters Point district and some in the Glen Park area, but very few in Ingleside that I know about.”
Sculptor Ann Capitan agrees. For her, getting people to come to her house was easier said than done.
“I don’t think there are too many open studios,” Capitan said. “My studio at 23rd Avenue is the farthest one out. I had to show people where my house was. People don’t see studios this far out in the city.”
Art Walks
City Supervisor John Avalos plans to change this. He felt the need for District 11, which covers the Excelsior and OMI area, to have a series of events where people could come together.
The creativity and culture of artists in the community inspired Avalos and local businesses and organizations last year to have two evening art walks as free family events. They hope to have two again this year. The District 11 Art Walk and the Ocean Avenue Art Walk were created in order to showcase artists’ work and performances.
“The District 11 Art Walk was in the summer and the response we got was amazing,” Avalos said. “There were 200 people of all races and ages. The Ocean Avenue Art Walk was in December. It was a rainy day, but about 300 people came out to support us at five different locations.”
The art walks also provided residents and visitors with the chance to support commercial corridors in the neighborhoods.
Artist Matt Christenson, who lives in the Excelsior and teaches art at City Arts and Technology High School, participated in the District 11 Art Walk by displaying his work at Mama’s Art Café. He said the event brought much needed energy and excitement to the art community.
“This was a great community event,” said Christenson. “It totally brought people together. There was massive support especially for young artists."
Nesting Neighborhoods
Jed Lane, a realtor for Coldwell Banker, said the characteristics of the Excelsior and OMI neighborhoods are unique because of why people live there.
“More people go there to start families and settle down,” said Lane. “These are working class and residential areas made up primarily of single-family households.”
Lane also said the economic recession, including the unemployment rate, has had a stronger effect on artists in these neighborhoods than the prices of homes.
“These neighborhoods have one of the highest rates of home ownership in the city. Even though the price of rent has not gone down, housing prices in these areas have not gone up and are where they were in 2004.”
What might be affordable for some is still not affordable for Vieira, a conceptual artist who dumpster dives for his media – a method that consists of collecting trash or any other material off the street and using it to create a piece of art that can be sold.
Vieira’s grandfather introduced this process to him when he was a child and called it “treasure hunt.” Some of the objects that Vieira collects and uses are pans, cement, and grass.
“Being an artist can be tough,” Vieira said. “You get rejected and stepped on, but I wouldn’t give up my profession for the world. I would paint with dirt and rocks as long as I could get some work done.”
Editor's Note: Newswire21 education writer Brenda Reyes has this update on parents' reactions to budget cuts in SFUSD. Your help in funding our Ingleside Project will mean more school coverage in the badly underserved southern neighborhoods of San Francisco.
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Brenda Reyes
Newswire21.org
Dozens of parents and teachers braved Friday’s rainstorm to ask San Francisco Unified School District officials for more details about planned budget cuts at Monroe Elementary.
Parents claimed the cuts would eliminate 12 staff positions and an $800,000 grant for the state’s Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) system that the school has received for nine years. The funds are used to enhance math, science and foreign language skills.
“Parents are going to have to volunteer with no certification to teach. [It] seems like that’s the direction we’re heading,” said Heidi Kooy, whose daughter attends first grade at Monroe.
Deputy Superintendent Myong Leigh denied the cuts would mean the complete abolishment of STAR services at Monroe. However, he made it clear that class-size increases and staff lay-offs were inevitable as part of statewide budget cutbacks.
Leigh tentatively agreed to meet again with Monroe families and school Principal Jennifer Steiner on March 18.
Parents and teachers said they want a better understanding of the budget deficit and of alternatives before the final budget proposal is adopted. If the cuts are needed, the parents want the district to gradually remove the programs that have given the school its unique artistic and academic characteristics.
Parents asked if the cuts affected all schools equally or if they were targeting low-income neighborhoods.
Assistant Superintendent Veronica Chavez told the parents she could not definitively answer their questions. “The superintendent knows and tries his best so budgets don’t affect the classroom,” she said.
Superintendent Carlos Garcia, wasn’t present because he was in San Jose to receive California Association for Bilingual Education Vision Award.
Breaking Chains
Speaking in Spanish with her 10-month-old baby in her arms, Veronica Lacayo expressed the frustration of several of the parents who count on public education to brighten the hopes for their children.
“Monroe is the best public school because it promotes art and music in spite of your race and native language,” she said. “[It’s] breaking chains.”
Ten-year-old Vicky Umanzor, who dreams of becoming a match teacher, and the only Monroe student in attendance said, “We’re fighting for the school’s right to have teachers.”
Another parent said her son dramatically improved his reading skills and test scores due to the school’s reading recovery program.
Ask any parent - or any reporter. When local journalism is cut back, school coverage is often the first victim. San Francisco's Ingleside District has more school-age children per capita than any other neighborhood in San Francisco. It also has some of the lowest-performing schools.
That's part of the reason why Newswire21 started its Ingleside Project by publishing two stories about what's happening in area schools. On the eve of last week's budget protest, reporter Brenda Reyes broke the news of how the San Francisco Unified School District barred a community school from having students as young as 8 join in the protest as a field trip. On Sunday, reporter Mayra Martinez told why parents are on edge about the district's plan to change the way students are assigned to schools - a plan facing board action on Tuesday night.
These are two of the 40 stories we plan to publish through the project, which is a collaboration of local citizen journalists, Newswire21.org, the Public Journalism program at SF State. the Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism, and the San Francisco Neighborhood Empowerment Network. Keep tuned for stories on the arts, redevelopment, emergency preparedness and more.
With the highest percentage of school-aged children in the city, the Ingleside and Excelsior neighborhoods have much at stake as the San Francisco Unified School District tinkers this week with rules that determine which kids go to which schools.
The biggest uproar comes from the changes affecting elementary and middle school students - the first such changes in nearly a decade. Most children would go to their local schools, scrapping a system that gives top priority to students that add diversity.
“Our community is scared,” said Rocio Soto de Mobley who, as a parent liaison for El Dorado Elementary School, has spoken with many confused parents during the past few months. “They don’t want to lose control of where their kids go to school.”
Forty-one percent of the schools are characterized as “low-performing” by the district. With more state budget cuts lurking, many parents fear the quality of education at some schools could fall even further.
Surveys presented to the board last month show that parents’ top priorities were the quality of teachers, principals and curriculum. The parents had an average income below $50,000 and lived in Visitation Valley, the Mission, Inner Sunset and the Excelsior. Their children mostly attend low-performing elementary schools.
The “contradictions of the current condition of schools” and what parents desire left many parents struggling, said Carla Cuevas of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco.
“I didn’t want my kids to go to their local school because our neighborhood is not what we wish we had,” said Juan Sandoval, who lives close to the Daly City line. His son is a student at Aptos Middle School. “I escaped from all of that, and I want him to go to college. I want him to be an engineer.”
A mother of two pre-K kids, Christina Wang Longtiran researched the schools and found few that she considered very good. “If we stay in San Francisco, we would go private,” said Longtiran, who lives in the Ingleside.
Varying Rules
The proposed rules, which would take effect this fall, vary for elementary, middle and high school students. They would exclude all K-8 and citywide schools.
The new school assignment plan stemmed from dissatisfaction with the system that uses a diversity index in calculating school preference.
“We asked, ‘How can we create a school like a community center?’,” said Principal Han Phung of James Denman Middle School in the Excelsior. “It is not possible if children do not live near schools.”
One goal of the proposal was to send the message to parents that schools are valued equally. Another was to encourage parents to enroll their kids in schools where they added to the overall diversity as schools improved, according to SFUSD staff member Orla O’Keefe.
“The essential ingredients of quality schools are students and parents. We can create quality schools in every neighborhood,” O’Keefe said when she presented the latest revised proposal to the board on March 25.
Equality Factor
Some parents of kids already attending their local school favor local assignment as such an indicator of equality.
“There should be equality for all schools. There should be no discrimination.” parent Maria Campos said in Spanish as she walked home on Ocean Avenue with a fellow parent from Aptos Middle School and their combined five children.
“There is more of a community between us,” said her friend, Veronica Villasenor. “We feel safer knowing that if the kids have to walk home by themselves, they don’t have to go far.”
Bigger Questions
Many parents and some board members feel that the problems in the public school system extend far beyond which school students attend.
Board president Jane Kim and member Jill Wynns indicated most board members still want a system that offers priority to kids from the poorest neighborhoods.
“If what they’re trying to do is close the opportunity achievement gap, then they need to realize that it is way more than a student assignment problem,” said Lori Fetzer, whose child goes to Fairmont Elementary in Glen Park. “It’s a community problem.”
One important question that hasn’t been answered is what to do with the under-enrolled schools in the Mission and Bayview neighborhoods.“How do we get kids to go there?,” asked board member Normal Yee.
The San Francisco Unified School District barred an Excelsior community school from conducting a field trip in which students as young as 8 would have marched in Thursday’s protest against state funding cuts.
About 70 percent of the parents at the San Francisco Community School had signed permission slips for children in grades 2-8 to participate in the outing, which was organized after a vote by 11 parents and faculty members on the Save Our Schools committee.
The district didn’t want the protests to take away from instructional time, said spokeswoman Gentle Blythe. She said parents who wanted to take their children to the protest could sign students out of class like they would for a doctor’s appointment.
“We encouraged parents and students to go to the demonstration taking place at 4 p.m. in Civic Center Plaza or any demonstration taking place after school hours,” she told Newswire21.org on the eve of the protest. “Many of us have been teachers and are very upset about the state of education funding. We will be joining the rally after school.”
Adrienne Johnstone, a teacher who represents the teachers’ union at the school, had planned for the students and their families to lead the demonstration as the “face of the march.”
Teacher Robin Yorkey said she had expected 300 students, teachers and family members to join the protest, which had been planned for weeks in coordination with other community groups.
The Filipino Community Center, Coleman Advocates for Youth, HOMEY, Chinese Progressive Association, and PODER, along with several other community organizations met with school faculty to coordinate security for the kids, said Jun Cruz, co-coordinator for the Filipino center.
After the district’s decision six days before the rally, school representatives phoned parents who’d signed permission slips to see if they would pull their children out of class to join the march.
“If students are taken out of class to go on other field trips, why not let them go to one where they learn to defend their rights as students?” said Leticia Colmenares, an 18-year resident of the Excelsior who was among the 170 parents to sign permission slips.
Her 10-year-old son, Luis, said his teacher told her class of 21 students the budget cuts mean “teachers losing jobs” and “bigger classes.” He said he was excited about the protest because “they may not make the cuts.”
Cultural Divide
Not all the parents thought the outing was a good idea, with levels of approval varying along cultural lines in the school, which offers classes from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Of the 285 students, the school says 39 percent are Hispanic, 23 percent Chinese, 14 percent African American, 11 percent white, 7 percent Filipino, and 6 percent from multiple or other ethnicities. More than a third are learning English.
Sofia Nixon, the school’s parent liaison, and school secretary Ivy Chan called every student’s family to encourage their participation. Nixon, also a Spanish translator, said 23 of 40 Spanish-speaking parents planned to attend the march.
Nixon said many Hispanic parents had two or three jobs “or are currently looking for a job,” and that is was a challenge to ask them to take the day off to protest with their children. But she said most were comfortable with their children marching in a political protest.
Chan, however, said she had difficulty explaining the significance of the protest to Chinese-speaking parents. “They will listen and give you the time of day, but all you’ll get is ‘we’ll see,’” she said.
Chinese parents didn’t give permission for children from kindergarten to third grade to participate, according to Chan, who noted she would have reacted the same way. “What’s one more body if there’s so many already?”
Chan described the school’s teachers as “all hippies,” and said she couldn’t say whether rallies and marches were effective.
Other Schools
The community school’s efforts to organize its students weren’t typical of nearby schools. For example, Sunnyside Elementary School Principal Nancy Schlenke said she “didn’t even know” about the rally. And Sheridan Elementary School Secretary Odette Catalaa said parents were never notified about protests or encouraged to attend.
Two weeks before the march, Eliza Okwan, a second-year secretary at Longfellow Elementary said fliers were translated and sent home in Spanish and Chinese. This was the first time she could remember that the school invited families to rally at the Civic Center in the evening, she added.
Kylee Pinten, an 11-year paraprofessional who works with special needs children at Commodore Sloat Elementary, said teachers were notified through email and that fliers were sent home in one of February’s weekly newsletters.
The community School’s situation was different, according to Rachel Lederman, a parent who handled outreach with other area schools and with groups who planned to provide protection to the SFC contingent.
“SFC is a small school and a teacher run school with a high level of parent participation,” said Lederman, “so it [was] easier for us to organize as a whole school than some other bigger schools.”
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