"There's something different about this place."
That thought crossed my mind as I stepped of the 29 MUNI onto Paul and Third Streets. The sun blazed throughout the area as a cool breeze swept on by.
"Gorgeous," I thought.
The thing about Bayview is that it houses some of the best weather in the city. Not only that, it has the most open space in the city. It's quite amazing actually. If you ride down Jamestown Avenue to Candlestick park, a breath-taking view of the bay and red clay deposits appear. From first glance, down on this end of Third Street, Bayview appeared calm, cool and welcoming.
It wasn't until I walked about half a mile down, near Palou Street, where the notoriety that the district received came to life. Between Palou and Oakdale were people strewn about the streets, who looked high, drunk or both. Plenty of residents were openly drinking alcohol, passed out in front of the Bayview Opera House. It was a weird juxtaposition to have a building, filled with culture and a history of civil rights action, prefaced with drunk, haphazard people. SFPD looked on by across the street, anticipating an act.
The one thing that gets me about Bayview, and also the Western Addition (another historically Black neighborhood in San Francisco that I work by), is that police and surveillance is commonplace. In both places, cops are as numerous as actually residents, and it seems an uneasiness clings to the people here. A hopeless darkness seems to captivate their steps. And yet, despite this image, the Sun shows itself brilliantly across the neighborhood, almost as if to get hope to rise from the spirits of these people.
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Hey Aaron, I always thought the weather must be great over there. Here's a history I stumbled onto by mistake one day: "Trouble in Paradise: Postwar History of San Francisco's Hunters Point Neighborhood. An Honors Thesis in Urban Studies" by Kelsey Finch. It's so well-researched and full of sources. If you just google the title you'll find the pdf online.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like your neighborhood is like mine...known by more than one name by various planning commissions and agencies; it's referred to as Bayview/Hunter's Point repeatedly in Finch's report. I'm facing the confusion of China Basin being known as Mission Bay, Dogpatch, North Bayview, and variously as parts of SOMA and Potrero Hill. I guess it's sort of a no-man's land... Good luck with your meeting report!
Such good observations. I know how difficult it sometimes is to see people in hard straights. It really tears me up. I'm glad you have brought so much consideration to such a difficult neighborhood and that you've read a lot about it. Good luck. Yvonne
ReplyDeleteI really do think you've the most interesting neighborhood.
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