Sunday, June 1, 2008
They're both African American women, both residents of San Francisco's Bayview district for more than 50 years, and both lived in the city's public housing projects before moving into their own homes - one painted pale green, the other pale yellow.
They both recall fondly the days before the 1974 closure of Hunters Point shipyard when the neighborhood was prosperous and peaceful, and they want that feeling to return.
But on Tuesday, Lola Whittle, 51, and Esselene Stancil, 76, will cast opposite votes on their neighborhood's fate, demonstrating the division among Bayview residents over a proposal to dramatically remake 721 acres of the shipyard and Candlestick Point.
Whittle will vote for Proposition G, which would give approval to a development company to add 10,000 new units of housing, commercial and industrial space, parks, a rebuilt public housing project and a new 49ers stadium if the team stays in the city.
She'll vote against Proposition F, which would mandate half the new homes be affordable to poor and middle-income residents - a requirement the developer, Lennar Corp., says would kill the entire project. Stancil, on the other hand, will vote against G and for F.
Both women have appeared at news conferences on behalf of the campaigns, and say they haven't earned any money for their advocacy. They're just convinced they have the right idea when it comes to the future of Bayview-Hunters Point.
Stancil was the 14th of 15 children born to a farmer and housekeeper in Yahola, Okla. After her mother's death and a fire that destroyed the family house, 21-year-old Stancil sought a fresh start in California. She moved into the Hunters Point projects. "They had all kinds of stores - a big huge grocery store, a beauty shop, a barbershop," she recalled. "It was really nice, and the people really looked out for each other. It has changed a lot." Stancil has seen government attempts to improve the city's predominantly African American neighborhoods but says none of them have worked. She doesn't believe Lennar's plan will either. She remembers residents of the Fillmore district losing their homes to bulldozers in the name of urban renewal in the 1960s. She remembers city voters passing a measure in 1997 that allowed $100 million in public funds to be spent on a new football stadium and shopping center at Candlestick Point. But it went nowhere - and Tuesday's Prop. G would repeal it to make way for the new plan. "We have been promised things for years and years and years, and it has never materialized," Stancil said. Stancil is suspicious of Lennar, which reported a $1.9 billion loss for 2007 and like many other national developers recently had its credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor's. Prop. G is not binding, and until Lennar actually signs a deal with the city, the company could back out at any time. Stancil believes Prop. G is a land grab for the company that hopes to make hundreds of millions of dollars by persuading wealthy people to buy market-rate homes in a corner of the city with great weather and beautiful views. She believes holding Lennar to this standard is the only way to ensure Bayview improves without its residents being pushed out. "It needs improving, yes," she said. "If they're going to improve it to help the people and not hinder them, then yes."One view
Across Third Street sits a little yellow house on Palou Street where Esselene Stancil lives with her husband of 55 years, a retired mechanic named Ben. Stancil, a retired cook, has three children and five grandchildren. Pictures from various proms and graduations sit next to basketball and cheerleading trophies on her shelves.
That's why she wears a pin on her T-shirt reading, "We Strive to Thrive: Yes on F." Prop. F is binding and would require that Lennar and any other company make half the new homes affordable to people earning 30 percent to 80 percent of the city's median income, or $64,267 for a family of four.
Another view
From the back deck of her expansive house on Griffith Street, Whittle can see the 49ers' current stadium and the Alice Griffith public housing projects.
Both decrepit structures would be torn down under Lennar's plan; a new 49ers stadium would be built on the shipyard, and the crime-plagued Alice Griffith projects would be remade with public housing and market-rate housing mixed together.
Looking out at the two structures and the bay beyond, Whittle, who owns a cafe at the airport, said she can picture the vibrant neighborhood she hopes takes shape.
She wants parks in which to walk her bichon frise puppy, Papi. She wants a grocery store offering "Trader Joe's type stuff." She wants her neighborhood to make it into San Francisco guidebooks.
It's a vision Whittle's grandmother talked about for years. Zerline Dixon, the matriarch of Whittle's large family, moved from Natchitoches, La., in the 1940s to work as a welder at the shipyard.
Whittle was one of four children born to a single mother, Dixon's daughter, and lived for a time in Double Rock, the former name of the Alice Griffith projects. Once her grandmother could afford to buy her own home, Whittle's family moved in with her.
Dixon eventually bought eight homes in Bayview, which are still in the family, because she was convinced the neighborhood would improve dramatically.
"My grandmother talked about it for many, many, many years, but time had just passed," she said. "I feel like it could happen with Prop. G, and if it doesn't, our neighborhood will stay the same for another 20 years."
Sitting in her living room, filled with family photos, stacks of Ebony and Jet magazines and African artwork, Whittle said her neighborhood can improve without driving away African Americans.
"I don't want to see gentrification. I want to see revitalization," she said. "African American people, we've always been a strong people, and we need to find that strength to not get scared and not leave - to say, 'I'm going to stay here and make this a better community.' "
If her grandmother were still alive, Whittle knows exactly where she'd be in the days leading up to the election.
"She'd be outside with a banner marching in the streets," she said. "She'd be so supportive."
E-mail Heather Knight at hknight@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/01/BA5N10QFAC.DTL
This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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