Tag: Lennar

The lines are drawn – Captialism’s Profits over People, or, Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, all Power to the People

The injustice continues with Ahimsa Porter Sumchai’s ongoing exposure of the relentless suffering and death attacking the residents of Bayview Hunters Point – the result of the U.S. Navy’s poisoning the land with no cleanup or accountability, handing it off to profiteering developers, years of government and corporate corruption and greed, and crimes against humanity, culminating in three federal Superfund sites now confirmed.

When we fight, we win! A hearing on the final approval of the $6.3 million settlement between the past and present homeowners in the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and Lennar and Five Point will be heard in the U.S. District Court on Oct. 14, 2021. Tetra Tech will continue to feel the hot breath of the dragon for their apparent environmental racism, corruption and harm to citizens.

We will fight this attempted toxic genocide! So say Bayview Hunters Point residents, once again, clearly stating they will not accept the radiated, toxic grounds of their community, bearing the pain of years of deliberate indifference, lies, deceits and government and corporate shenanigans resulting in egregious harm and suffering to families’ lives.

Nine months ago, a panel of UC experts headed by Dr. John Balmes released a review of radiation retesting procedures for Hunters Point Shipyard Parcel A, finding them “appropriate.” At a Jan. 28 public meeting, Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai challenged Dr. Balmes’ independence, recalling he was paid by developer Lennar for reassuring the community of the safety of the dust generated by developer Lennar’s grading in 2006-2007.

Endlessly bombarded by the triple slam of the capitalist corporate installed food desert, poverty and government refusal to take responsibility for the toxic remains of the Hunters Point Navy Shipyard wedded to developer greed and other shenanigans, Bayview Hunters Point community continues to take the steps necessary to claim a healthy environment.

Nine months gestation birthed what? The review by the UC expert panel about retesting procedures for Parcel A and Parcel G in Hunters Point Shipyard, nine months after the report’s release, seems to have resulted in a stillbirth as there is no evidence of benefit to the parent Bayview Hunters Point (BVHP) community. Foul play is suspected.

When we least expect it, trouble comes. “I came in contact with a door handle, now I got COVID-19. It’s bad enough my immune system is compromised. I have emphysema and I might not make it out of this.”

CANCELLED Due to Bad Air: PROTEST TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 11 AM If research suggests a direct link between air pollution and death from COVID-19, shouldn’t this league of kneeholders be held accountable for failing to address long-term environmental injustice in Bayview Hunters Point?

Like a deep tissue abscess, landfill systems will not promote “healing” until they are excavated and removed. All Hunters Point residents and workers screened to date by HP Biomonitoring have chemicals detected in toxic concentrations.

The UC committee finds the recent surface radiation testing at the Hunters Point Shipyard sufficient and calls for “an informational meeting with the residents of Parcel A to discuss the cost and benefits of further radiation testing of the parcel.” Supervisor Shamann Walton has called a public meeting for Tuesday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m., at 451 Galvez Ave., the Storehouse at the Shipyard. All residents are urged to attend.

Judge James Donato: “It just doesn’t make any sense to me, that a guy rolls out of bed and says, ‘Hey, today is the day I’m going to swap out the test samples.’”

The Navy appears to be in violation of the regulatory requirement to “reassess community interest at least every 24 months.” It has been over a decade since Laura Duchnak signed the Navy’s Letter of Intent to Dissolve the RAB.

If the committee of four UC researchers have had very limited, if any, freedom to design their “independent review,” how can they be sure that what they have been instructed to do can address the very complicated issues of the Shipyard and is good for the community?

The deep dark dirty development of the federal Superfund site at the Hunters Point Shipyard is not stalled. It is simply catnapping as government agencies, working on behalf of Lennar, strategize for the residential development of the MUD of Parcel G.

Remember the many years Marie Harrison owned the back page of the Bay View? She defined what “speaking truth to power” means. With headlines like “We’ve always survived your whip and your noose” and observations like “Voter education isn’t just somebody educating the voters; it’s the voters educating the people they elect,” as we carry on without her, we must infuse every fight with her courage.

You’ve been an especially effective, strong, patient and articulate voice confronting forces that do not respect human rights or human life. You’ve told these opportunists firmly and politely that every human being on earth has the right to live and raise their children and see their grandchildren thrive in pollution-free places and to breathe clean air without toxins.

Twenty years ago, the city of San Francisco moved thousands of its homeless and low-income residents into former military housing on Treasure Island, a small artificial land mass whose 55 years as a Navy base left it covered in toxic radiation. Today, construction on the island has it on track to becoming a bustling, upscale extension of the city. The problem is, some of those residents from 20 years ago are still there. So are thousands of others who have moved in since. So is the radiation.

On Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018, the second San Francisco Board of Supervisors audit hearing will be held on racial discrimination in City jobs. The public is urged to attend the press conference on the City Hall steps at 12:30 and the hearing in the Board Chambers beginning at 3 p.m. The first hearing on Sept. 19, 2018, brought literally hundreds of workers to the Supervisors’ Chambers and the overflow room. Dozens testified that they had faced numerous instances of racist discrimination and retaliation and even physical assaults by city managers.

We caught the vision of the Shipyard, asked our Lennar sales rep. some pointed questions about the safety of this former Superfund site and were told it had been “thoroughly cleaned up, inspected and certified by the EPA as safe to build homes on.” As they often stated, the land that had been transferred for development had previously housed “officers’ quarters,” so none of the radiological testing being done on other parts of the Shipyard had happened there. I mean, of course they wouldn’t build if it wasn’t clean … right?