Milk Club Opposes Leno Land Transfer to Lennar

POWER'S Jaron Browne (standing) urges the Milk Club to oppose SB 792

as green panel speakers Eric Smith and John Rizzo look on

with club President Rafael Mandelman

San Francisco’s politically progressive Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club voted this week to officially oppose Senator Mark Leno’s SB 792, a bill seeking to allow the state to sell 42 acres of pristine public parkland at Candlestick Point to the politically connected Lennar Corporation for private condominium development. The motion to oppose passed nearly unanimously, with only one club member abstaining.

Green area represents the state park and dark orange area
represents section Leno wants to make available for Lennar

Passage of the Leno bill would unnecessarily privatize close to one third of the state park, resulting in the already underserved Bayview-Hunters Point community losing use of much of its only clean land space. According to Jaron Browne, Bayview Project Organizer for the environmental and racial justice group People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), the park is used daily by community members and families, including one senior walking group.

Lennar, a Miami based corporate developer, already purchased 700 acres in the area from the city of San Francisco for a total price of one dollar.

“The key thing is this is additional. Lennar has already been given access to over 700 acres of development land in the shipyard and Candlestick Point,” explained Jaron Browne. “SB 792 is an example of greed, really, because there’s no need for them to take an additional 42 acres for their development. All of their development can be accommodated in the 700 acres they already have. They want to take this land because it’s some of the most beautiful land there.”

Bayview-Hunters Point is home to the notoriously contaminated Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The shipyard was once a nuclear facility where the nuclear bomb used against Japan was constructed. A nuclear testing lab buried test animals at the site and contaminated ships were cleaned there. It’s no surprise the area is one of the few communities in San Francisco with inadequate sanitary outdoor recreation space. It is predominantly populated by people of color with 50% of residents being African American, 20% Chinese, and 10% Latino. Average income in the area is $18,500 per year.

John Rizzo speaks on the environmental justice and green jobs panel at the Milk Club

“This is an environmental racist bill,” said John Rizzo, Community College Board Trustee and former Chair of the Sierra Club Bay Chapter. “If this were 42 acres of Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, or any other park in the city, this would not happen. If they wanted to build 15 story luxury condos in Golden Gate Park, it wouldn’t even be discussed. But, because this is the Bayview, and a lot of people don’t go there, it’s ok.”

Senator Leno anticipated the issue of SB 792 arising at the Milk Club meeting because an environmental justice and green jobs panel was on the agenda. Leno’s office contacted Milk Club President Rafael Mandelman the day of the meeting, requesting no official stand be adopted by the club until he had an opportunity to make his own presentation.

Debra Walker , Milk Club member and Treasurer of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, disagreed, “This issue has been going on for quite a while. We’ve heard about this issue from POWER before. We’ve discussed it and I think it’s time to give some public statement.”

“We do need to take action,” Rizzo, one of the evening’s green panel presenters, told the group. “The bill allows the state to sell the park to the city and then the city gives it to Lennar. This is an incredibly dangerous precedent. This would be the first time the state would enable a state park to be sold off for development.”

SB 792 is scheduled for vote on August 19th, prior to the release this fall of three Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) analyzing the development at the shipyard and Candlestick Point, and well before the opportunity for public comment on those reports.

Senator Mark Leno introduced SB 792 shown with SF Mayor Gavin Newsom
(photo courtesy of Mark Leno for State Senate)

Many Milk Club members expressed deep concern that Leno, a Democrat, would introduce a bill with such broad negative impact, including limiting equal access to healthy parks and open space for low income families and people of color and decimating livable space for the 150 species of wildlife identified at the site.

Rizzo echoed their unease. “This is being done by a Democrat,” he said. “What happens when the Republicans start saying, ‘Hey, we can raise money, just give out all these other state parks. Let’s do it. Hey, we voted for your Democrat selling your state park so you have to vote for ours.’ ”

The Milk Club joins a growing number of political and environmental justice groups opposing the bill including the Sierra Club and the Potrero Hill Democratic Club.

Supervisors Chris Daly and John Avalos recently introduced a resolution proposing San Francisco officially oppose SB 792.

POWER expects more controversy over the development later this year including the issues of early transfer and capping. Early transfer allows the Navy to transfer land before completing the toxic cleanup and provide the city with estimated rather than actual completion costs, leaving no incentive for the Navy to clean thoroughly. Capping is the process of paving over the polluted area and leaving the contaminates underneath rather than cleaning, a process requiring the constant elimination of burrowing animals in the area.