Bayview–Hunters Point

Bayview–Hunters Point is a neighborhood in the southeastern corner of San Francisco, California, formed by the merger of the adjacent Bayview and Hunters Point communities. It is sometimes spelled Bay View or Bayview, and represents the combination of two historically distinct but geographically proximate neighborhoods in the southeastern corner of the city. One of San Francisco's oldest and most historic communities, the district was originally occupied by plains of coastal grasslands, hillsides covered in coastal sage scrub, and extensive marshlands before being extensively transformed from the initial contact era between Spanish explorers and the native Ohlone inhabitants. Over succeeding centuries the neighborhood evolved from indigenous homeland to rancho land, then to industrial district, and ultimately to one of the city's most significant African American communities. Bayview Hunters Point is today a predominantly industrial and residential district that has historically been the location of the city's heaviest industries, some of its poorest residents, and its greatest concentration of public housing — characteristics that frequently placed it outside the mainstream of San Francisco life.

Geography and Boundaries

The Bayview–Hunters Point districts are located in the southeastern part of San Francisco, strung along the main artery of Third Street from India Basin to Candlestick Point. The boundaries are Cesar Chavez Boulevard to the north, U.S. Highway 101 (Bayshore Freeway) to the west, Bayview Hill to the south, and San Francisco Bay to the east. Neighborhoods within the district include Hunters Point, India Basin, Bayview, Silver Terrace, Bret Harte, Islais Creek Estuary, and South Basin.

The Bayview Hunters Point Survey Area, initiated in January 1995, uses these same cardinal boundaries, and encompasses over 2,528 acres and approximately 9,000 parcels. The entire southern half of the neighborhood is the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, including the site of the former Candlestick Park stadium, which was demolished in 2015. The weather in the area can be some of the best in the city, and the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area to the south provides a reprieve from city life.

Early History and Indigenous Heritage

The history of human activity in the area now known as Bayview–Hunters Point is documented to have existed for over 5,000 years, with the indigenous Ohlone, or First People, thriving along the shores of areas near today's India Basin and Candlestick Point. Primarily composed of tidal wetlands with some small hills, the area was inhabited by the Yelamu and Ramaytush Ohlone people prior to the arrival of Spanish missionaries in the 1700s, and the district contained what the Ohlone people called "shell mounds," which were sacred burial grounds.

During the Spanish and Mexican periods, what is now the Bayview–Hunters Point district was home to cattle herds, belonging first to Mission Dolores and later to José Bernal's Rancho Rincón de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo. In 1839, the area was part of the 4,446-acre Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo Mexican land grant given to José Cornelio Bernal (1796–1842). Following the California Gold Rush, Bernal sold what later became the Bayview–Hunters Point area for real estate development in 1849. Little actual development occurred, but Bernal's agents were three brothers — John, Phillip, and Robert Hunter — who built their homes and dairy farm on the land near the present-day corner of Griffith Street and Oakdale Avenue, giving rise to the name Hunters Point.

After the American conquest of California, the land comprising today's Bayview–Hunters Point district was quickly subdivided into house and garden lots and gradually sold off to a diverse group of American and European settlers. The area soon became San Francisco's most ethnically varied community, housing British, Scandinavian, and German boat-builders at India Basin; several Chinese fishermen's camps at Hunters Point; Italian, Maltese, and Portuguese truck farmers in the Bayview; and French tannery workers and Mexican and southwestern vaqueros at Butchertown.

Industrial Development

Bayview–Hunters Point has a distinguished industrial history, beginning with the construction of the San Francisco Dry Dock at Hunters Point in 1866. Shipbuilding was soon augmented by Butchertown, San Francisco's wholesale butchers' reservation on Islais Creek. At least since 1868, when the City and County of San Francisco, by State legislature mandate, designated the Bayview's northern area — thereafter known as "Butchertown" — to carry on the business of slaughtering beef, cattle, hogs, sheep, and calves, Bayview Hunters Point has been the locus of some of the city's most noxious and unhealthy heavy industries, including steel manufacturing, ship repair, junk yards, and auto wrecking.

By the First World War, San Francisco's industrial belt had extended south along the Central Waterfront to Islais Creek, leading to the filling of most of the Islais Creek Estuary for industrial sites during the 1920s and 1930s. It was not until the Second World War, however, that Bayview–Hunters Point leapfrogged into the top ranks of industrial zones on the West Coast, following the acquisition of the Hunters Point Dry Dock by the U.S. Navy in 1940.

The Navy's development of Hunters Point, and the growth of related private industries, yielded a massive influx of blue-collar workers from around the country. This population explosion, which is tied to the second Great Migration of African Americans from the South, transformed Bayview–Hunters Point almost overnight. By August 1945, Black people comprised over one-third of the total 18,235-person workforce at the Shipyard, many of whom settled in the Bayview. To meet housing demands, the National Housing Authority, in cooperation with the Navy and the San Francisco Housing Authority, built more than 12,000 new homes in and around the Bayview–Hunters Point neighborhood.

The Gantry Crane at the shipyard was built in 1947 by U.S. Steel's American Bridge Company. It is the tallest structure at the shipyard, extending 160 feet above the water and 405 feet wide. It remains a prominent visual landmark of the neighborhood's industrial heritage.

Civil Rights, Decline, and Community Activism

In 1966, after being largely neglected for almost two decades, the residents of Bayview–Hunters Point took to the streets in what became known as the "Hunters Point Uprising." The 128-hour demonstration involved a standoff between residents and the California National Guard, and is considered the most significant event in San Francisco's civil rights struggle. The civic uprising helped facilitate a $150 million grant for the Bayview–Hunters Point community to use at its discretion. The residents elected to build 3,000 new homes and transform the former Butchertown area into the India Basin Industrial Park, and the rejuvenation created more than 4,000 jobs, many of which were filled by residents of Bayview–Hunters Point.

Despite extensive job losses following the closure of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in 1974 and the eventual decommissioning of the base in 1991, as well as other problems stemming from isolation, neglect, and higher-than-average rates of poverty, Bayview–Hunters Point has remained a vibrant, predominantly but not exclusively African American neighborhood. Once considered a historic African American district, the percentage of Black people in the Bayview–Hunters Point population declined from 65 percent in 1990 to a minority by 2000; however, the 2010 U.S. Census shows the African American population in the Bayview to be greater in number than that of any other ethnicity.

The Bayview neighborhood is one of San Francisco's most diverse, housing 22% of the city's Black residents. Bayview's population is comprised of 12% seniors and 24% youth, and over 30% of Bayview–Hunters Point households have less than $30,000 in annual income.

Environmental Concerns and the Superfund Shipyard

The legacy of heavy industrial use has left lasting environmental burdens on Bayview–Hunters Point. Decontamination efforts at the former naval shipyard were considered unsuccessful, and in 1989 the shipyard was designated a CERCLA site, or "Superfund site." The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) was enacted by Congress in 1980 and would force responsible parties to perform cleanups; despite the shipyard eventually being decommissioned, the effects of radioactive contamination continue to harm the people of Bayview Hunters Point.

The Hunters Point Power Plant (HPPP) was established in 1929 and served as one of the first sources of electricity for the entire city. Owned and operated by PG&E, the plant had a reputation for being especially dirty and polluting, and many residents blamed it for their poor health. Placed in east-central Bayview–Hunters Point, it was near many residential centers.

In 2018, the Bayview–Hunters Point community filed a $27 billion class action lawsuit against the contractor Tetra Tech, claiming the company had falsified soil samples and indirectly caused death and health complications in the community. Tetra Tech, a private environmental engineering and science consulting firm, had been commissioned by the Navy to clean up the site and provide regular radiological tests in 2002 and was given $1 billion for the contract. The lawsuit accused the company of "blatant, conscious, callous disregard of Bayview Hunters Point residents' lives." A year later in 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice also sued Tetra Tech for fraud, finding more evidence for data manipulation and falsified records, and showing the company had repeatedly violated safety protocols.

Residents of this community have lower life expectancies and higher mortality rates from lung diseases, which can be partially attributed to constant exposure to air pollution. The community has a higher rate of asthma-related emergency room visits and cardiovascular disease than most of California.

Redevelopment and Transportation

In the 2000s, the neighborhood became the focus of several redevelopment projects. The Muni T-Third Street light-rail project was built through the neighborhood, replacing an aging bus line with several new stations, street lamps, and landscaping. Opening in 2007, the T-Third Street line, a line extension of the Muni Metro system, linked Bayview–Hunters Point to downtown San Francisco. In addition to facilitating a connection between the neighborhood and the rest of the city, many residents cite the T-Third Street as also being a contributing factor to rising property values and housing prices in the area.

A major proposal from the 1995 plan update called for the revitalization of Third Street, which, as the primary artery running through the middle of Bayview Hunters Point, has a significant influence on investment attitudes toward the district as a whole. Commercial activity primarily runs along 3rd Street, which is also home to the light rail line and the Bayview branch of the San Francisco Public Library.

Redevelopment projects for the neighborhood became the dominant issue of the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, including the Bayview Redevelopment Plan for Area B, which encompasses approximately 1,300 acres of existing residential, commercial, and industrial lands. Local community activist groups have criticized much of the redevelopment for displacing rather than benefiting existing neighborhood residents. A number of community groups — such as the India Basin Neighborhood Association, the Quesada Gardens Initiative, Literacy for Environmental Justice, the Bayview Merchants' Association, and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice — work with community members, other organizations, and citywide agencies to strengthen and protect this diverse part of San Francisco.