SAN FRANCISCO PORT AUTHORITY MAKE POOR CHOICES

A little over two years ago I took on the San Francisco Port Authority when the Port refused to remove some 20 tons of toxic soil at Pier 92. Mr. Norman Riley from the Department of Toxic and Substances Control (DTSC) mandated that the soil be removed. The Port had to spend over $900,000 and clean up the area. The San Francisco Port Authority chose to fight me and I won. Big time.

It is true that some crooks made money from this clean up. I did not want to have anything to do with the blood money on this issue that is if I want to have some money. Homeless people died who lived closed to the toxic pile. So did dogs. What bothered me is that the toxic piles adversely impacted thousands of people in are around the site at Pier 92. People living in and around 3rd Street in the general area.

I was at a Port meeting a little over one and a half years ago, when I learned that the San Francisco Port made a decision to permit Literacy for Educational Justice (LEJ) to build a Living Classroom a few hundred feet from the Hunters Point Power Plant at Herons Head Park which is a toxic dump.

LEJ spent hundreds of person hours, hundred of post cards, and thousands of dollars trying to convince the Port Commissioners and I that they were doing the right thing. They went before the San Francisco Port Commission and made the children testify to the SF Port Commissioners that building the Living Classroom - was the right thing to do. I said NO.

I pleaded with the SF Commissioner that it is wrong for our children to go anywhere near the worst toxic dump that is Herons Head Park. Electronic Magnetic Fields are so high that a few minutes of exposure can cause immense damage to children. I was shocked that LEJ could not understand such a fundamental fact. My partner Mr. Andrew Bozeman testified and told the Commissioners the truth - he stated that the Living Classroom should not be built at Herons Head Park.

Recently the San Francisco Department of the Environment decided not to build the Living Classroom at Herons Head Park. I won. It does make a difference when one person stands up and fights for what is the truth. I testified before the Board of Supervisors, before numerous good people and they all listened to the facts. The San Francisco Department of the Environment should spend the money on children adversely impacted and freeze the fund slated for the Living Classroom. We need some accountability on the money spent from taxpayer funds.

The San Francisco Port Authority wanted to build the proposed Cruise Terminal. We the constituents put pressure and the SF Port Authority decided to hold a two-day workshop. We all attended with experts and others including Port officials present. We learned a lot. Scientists explained to us how NOx clouds would hover around certain areas. One of them being right where the Rincon Hill Project is going to be built.

In this case the SF Port Authority had a frank dialog and together some good will came from the deliberations. We may need a Cruise Terminal but we the constituents also stated ways to make this State of the Art Cruise Terminal one that least adversely impacts the health of human beings and the environment in general on the SF Waterfront.

I have stated to the San Francisco Port Authority that is WRONG to build a movable bridge across Islais Creek landing on Illinois Street. I have stated that this proposed movable bridge will impact the Force Main that carries over 150 million gallons of half treated sewage every day which flows into the Bay by Pier 80.

The Main Force is already damaged. I have testified before the Board of Supervisors. I have written to the Coast Guard. To BCDC. If this movable bridge is built, it will serious impact the already damaged Main Force. It will also seriously harm birds, animals, insects, fish, and plants around the last area known to the City and County of San Francisco as the Last Frontier. One of the best real Open Space in some what of a natural state which the SF Port Authority wants to destroy.

The SF Port keeps making stupid mistakes. Carol Bach, David Beaupre, Diane Oshimoto recently wanted to convince me that chasing dust clouds around Pier 92 to 96 was a good way of resolving Dust Control issues.

Tracking dust clouds after observing them with the naked eye in this day is a big joke. Port officials will fail again and again if they are NOT forthright and if they do not use empirical data to investigate serious NOx, dust, oil pollution, toxic sites, asbestos, piers in disrepair, dredging issues, and even a so called Eco Park that is riddled with corruption, bribes, and crooks by Pier 94.

The SF Port Authority Director, Douglas Wong and Ken Winters the Director of Real Estate would do well to call in the staff and review some of the facts I have stated. The SF Board of Supervisors and the City Attorney should investigate the issues I have spelled out. We should not waste thousands of dollars on stupid projects. Many SF Port employees are NOT educated and so cannot discern. Many of them lack common sense.

I have won big time on Pier 92 with the toxic soil. I won on Herons Head Park and stopped the building of the Living Classroom. I have exposed the SF Port Authority when it came to the Cruise Terminal and they did well on this issue. The SF Port Authority will fail when they attempt to build the movable bridge across Islais Creek landing on Illinois Street.

Cattelus Corporation a very corrupt corporation is behind this project. Millions of diesel vehicles will pollute the area and adversely affect the lives of all living beings. The SF Port Authority can stop this project and hopefully common sense will make more sense then nonsense, which prevails, today on this issue.

Community Based Organizations like Literacy for Educational Justice while harping to the world that they want to save Mother Earth have done more harm then good. How can you save Mother Earth when you made every attempt to harm our innocent children by taking them near the most toxic park and close to the old toxic spewing Hunters Point Power Plant?

Such CBOs should be investigated. I say you really cannot build the Living Classroom if that is your plan outside the 94124 area. The mitigation money given to the LEJ was to address the children most affected and City officials better pay attention to this very serious matter. We the constituents need Accountability and Transparency.

Bottom line God looks after us all if we put our FAITH in values that are not tainted with blood money and false values coated with deceit. One person can make a difference and I have proved it again and again. Watch out San Francisco Port Authority you have a Title VI class action coming and so do you San Francisco Department of the Environment.

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