Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!TREASURE ISLAND:
Carol Harvey’s Update on Environmental Injustice,
the Homelessness Catastrophe, and Big Development
on Treasure Island
Treasure Island, the former radioactive-waste dump site off the coast of San Francisco, is turning into a $5 billion housing development for big profits.
Treasure Island, a man-made island off the coast of San Francisco, looks more like a post-apocalyptic wasteland than a Bay Area suburb. But as demand for housing in the area continues to climb, developers including Lennar now thee largest homebuilder in the US turned to Treasure Island in hopes of creating the next big real-estate destination.
In 2011, the city of San Francisco approved a proposal to add 8,000 homes, 500 hotel rooms, 300 acres of parks, 140,000 square feet of retail, and 100,000 square feet of office space to the island over 15 years. The island’s population is expected to grow from 2,500 to about 20,000 by 2032, when the final stages of development wrap. Most of the existing buildings will be demolished to make room for new developments. The development project comes with a price tag of $5 billion. With construction on infrastructure underway, we are learning that there’s more to this former toxic-waste site than meets the eye.
Like the Bayview, these landfills were used by the Navy to decommission its radioactive ships and for other toxic work. In 1993, the Navy decommissioned Treasure Island, moving sailors’ families out. The 1994 federal Base Closure Community Redevelopment and Homeless Assistance Act,“A bill to revise and improve the process for disposing of buildings and property at military installations under the base closure laws,” opened national floodgates to environmental racism. Men, women and children are stricken with tumors and cancers from exposure to radiation, chemicals and lead the Navy dumped into island soil during 50 years training sailors for nuclear war, as well as lung disease from asbestos and mold in the walls of military housing.
A 1997-1998 city government report announced, “Three hundred housing units on TI [Treasure Island] are expected to be occupied in October or November of 1998 under an interim housing plan. TIDA has contracted with the John Stewart Company to rehabilitate and manage these units. This interim plann is intended to preserve the housing stock which deteriorates rapidly with lack of use, and to provide an income stream.”San Francisco began to use HUD subsidies for maintenance and eventual island redevelopment.
As mayor, veteran of 30 years in the state Assembly and 15 as the all-powerful speaker, Willie Brown used his pull to deprive Treasure Islanders of San Franciscans’ equal rights to rent control, subjecting them to no cause evictions. Additionally, he crafted a consortium of collaborating organizations.
� The Treasure Island Development Authority Board (TIDA), which serves at the mayor’s pleasure
� Treasure Island Homeless Development Initiative (TIHDI), an umbrella organization of nonprofits, which provides rehabilitation services for marginalized people
� The John Stewart Co., California’s largest poverty pimp, which manages HUD-subsidized and market rate housing
� The Navy arm of the consortium, following federal law, which began radiation and chemical cleanup.
By 2017, 18 years of subsidy money and intimidation have elapsed. As the cartel prepares the toxic soil for lucrative high-rise condos and hotels, homeless families’ incomes are no longer required. Redevelopment has begun. With three generations of subsidies in its coffers, John Stewart Co. is quietly launching evictions. Ill from chemical and radiation exposure, their offsprings’ DNA forever transformed, targeted families are, as planned, being returned to City streets.
Carol Harvey will share with us the history, and the damning revelations she continues to unearth, and what we can do about it.
Carol Harvey is a San Francisco political journalist specializing in human rights and civil rights.
http://sfbayview.com/2017/09/death-camp-treasure-island/
Time will be allotted for announcements.