Editors Note: This one of many people’s testimony at Tuesday’s Redevelopment Commission hearing.
My name is Patrick Monk, I’m a Registered Nurse, I have lived in SF well over half my life, and my wife Lisa has lived here since the day she was born. We both work, but can only live and survive here because of Rent Control; none of the supposedly affordable housing being built is affordable to us. I am a home visit Hospice nurse, and bicycle all over the city visiting folks who are dying in their bodies. But what I see as well is a City and many Communities, especially of minority, low income and working families, that are dying in their heart and soul. Suffering from decades of designed neglect, exploitation and greed.
I am not a resident of Bayview Hunters Point, but I am a resident of this City and this Planet. There are many here who have been involved in this particular struggle for years, so I don’t want to take away from their time, but I was asked to say a few words, so I wrote them down.
There are local ‘progressive democratic’ leaders who have objected to receiving my “damned emails” about BVHP, saying that they represent the people, all over the state, and that I “… should get off my high horse and quit bothering all the people with my insular issue…”. I say b***s***. At least this is a horse worth riding. Anything of concern to one should be of concern to all. Anything that hurts one hurts all. All politics is local. If our appointed and ‘self appointed’ democratic leaders, who could only muster nine votes in opposition to renewing the UnPatriotic Act, had listened to us the people over the last few decades, and been true to their promises, maybe we wouldn’t be up to our ‘you know what’ in alligators, elected crooks and co-opted ‘leaders’.
This is a complicated issue, there are many wise experienced folks up here who are far more knowledgeable and educated in the details than I am, but when I finally became aware of what was going on I knew in my gut what the bottom line was. You don’t need to be weatherman to know which way this wind is blowing. We’re getting screwed again. I just wanted to help in whatever way I felt I could, as one individual, to help bring this issue to more peoples attention.
I would like to know why the document detailing todays proposed reclassifying of over 1,000 acres of land by the Relocation Agency, an action that they consider routine and one that can be acted upon by a single vote, did not appear to be available on their web site until yesterday.
It is also interesting, though hardly surprising, that in the days and weeks preceeding this proposed rezoning of over 1,000 acres of our city, our local ‘news’ organizations did little or no reporting on the issue. Makes one wonder what exactly is considered newsworthy in San Francisco, and who actually controls what is reported.
I see the same old divide and conquer tactics being used. Keep the people hungry, then offer a few some scraps from the rich mans table, set neighbor against neighbor, then move in for the kill. Let’s not get fooled again.
No more scraps; its way past time that the table was reset, with real food and plenty of it, for all of ‘us’; and no more silver spoons for the few of ‘them’.
Finally I would like to take a moment to honor a woman and activist I never knew in person, but feel I know in my heart. Mary Rogers, who passed on Friday. Fly on home, your work is done, rest easy, you’ve earned it. But the struggle down here continues.
Please help stop the new Robber Barons and their bought and paid for lackeys. Stop the Land Grab. Power, Peace and Real Justice to All Peoples Everywhere. Impeach Bush. Stop the Killing. Remember the Fillmore, Protect and Defend Bayview-Hunters Point and New Orleans.
Thankyou.
UPDATE
As expected, after a long, packed and sometimes contentious meeting, at which many questions and reservations were voiced by residents, and few or any were satisfactorily answered; the Redevelopment Agency unanimously accepted and approved both the Environmental Impact Report and the Proposed Redevelopment Plan for Bayview-Hunters Point. However the struggle to ensure that inevitable change primarily benefits both District residents in particular, and City residents in general, is far from over. The RDA is an appointed body, appointed by ‘special’ interests, and as such is essentially only responsible to it’s sponsors.
The whole Plan must now go before the Board of Supervisors, an elected body and accountable to us, the people of the city, through the Ballot box, (or touch screen….demand a paper trail ! ) to represent our interests. But it is also our responsibility as individual citizens, or community leaders, to make sure these Supervisors fiercely and faithfully represent and fight for our interests, and not for downtown power brokers and speculators. We are their sponsors. Stay informed and involved. This does and will effect us all, sooner or later, whether you realise it now or not. We need to keep watch on the watchdogs.
