Some in Bayview fear the 'r' word

As I've been posting about for a couple of weeks, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency is about to have its way with the Bayview/Hunters Point. Today's Chronicle highlights one woman's perspective.

Patricia Wright's girlhood home in San Francisco's Western Addition and most of the houses on her block were bulldozed in the 1960s by the Redevelopment Agency. In the name of urban renewal, longtime residents -- mostly poor and African American -- were sent packing, and many never came back.

For Wright, who is now 52 and lives in the Bayview home to which she relocated as a child, the resentment still runs deep. "I have no trust in them whatsoever," she said. "When I hear the words 'redevelopment' and 'urban renewal,' I think it really means urban removal."

Those painful memories have Wright and some others who live in the Bayview-Hunters Point area, a predominantly black community situated on the city's southeastern edge, fearful that history could repeat itself.

They've come out in force against a Redevelopment Agency proposal to place about 1,300 acres -- more than half of the Bayview -- under its jurisdiction. The plan would create the largest redevelopment district in San Francisco history, and the agency promises to clean up blight, build affordable housing and stimulate business with the help of property tax dollars.

"Commissioners from the Redevelopment Agency and the city's Planning Department will hold a joint hearing Thursday on an environmental impact report for the proposal, and on March 7 the Redevelopment Agency commission is scheduled to vote on the plan itself. The Board of Supervisors has the final say."

But to those backing the plan, the fears are based on misinformation.

Eminent domain, the powerful tool used by the Redevelopment Agency in the 1960s to seize people's homes, is strictly forbidden in residentially zoned areas under the plan for the Bayview. The agency would be allowed to seize commercial land, but only after a neighborhood advisory group for the agency weighs in with a recommendation, agency officials said.

Also, mowing down neighborhoods and rebuilding them is a practice that redevelopment officials say was traded in long ago for projects that have community support.

Whichever side of the debate you're on, you'll want to make your voice heard now...