LITERACY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE JUST WON'T GO AWAY

Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) simply will not go away when it comes to making money from grants linked to Pier 98 which is the toxic dump by Hunters Point Power Plant and a dirty piece of property belonging to the San Francisco Port Authority. Now they are at McLaren Park doing the same.

LEJ which used every dirty trick in the book to get grants and arm twisting to get most White Folks to support its dubious projects in the Southeast Sector of San Francisco which is Bayview Hunters Point now wants to build a Living Classroom at McLaren Park on Open Space which clearly does not permit such a project.

Such policy violates Policy 2.2 of the City and County of San Francisco General Plan that prohibits placing any buildings in parks. The McLaren Park Master Plan does not allow it and most importantly the community wishes LEJ to go away. Sophie Maxwell the corrupt District 10 Supervisor backs LEJ and so do her cronies.

Dana Reid Lanza does not live in San Francisco and she does not live in the Bayview or Hunters Point. She does not live in the Visitation Valley or the Portola District. Why then does this woman always using the youth of the Southeast Sector as a ploy to make money preys in our neighborhood?

The San Francisco Port Authority has bent backwards because of Carol Bach to accommodate Dana Lanza. The City and County of San Francisco prohibit sole source bids. The Port is going out of its way to give LEJ a short-term sole source bid as its contract on Pier 98 runs out in June, 2004. The next SF Port Commission meeting will take up this matter. Time for the City Attorney and the FBI to step in.

The Recreation and Park cannot manage its own facilities and open space. Most everyone does not want LEJ at McLaren Park. Residents got their notice to attend a Public meeting two or three days after the Public Meeting was held. What a way to deceive the PUBLIC! Franco Mancini, Dwayne Jusino, Bill Carlin are three staunch supporter of all things good at McLaren Park who are at a loss as to why LEJ is now making McLaren Park their prospective hunting grounds.

Our youth deserve the best. They deserve good leaders who are honest. LEJ wasted over $200,000 at Pier 98. They could have spent this money - all of it Public taxpayer money on our youth. They wasted it.

Now it wants to take a failed plan from Pier 98 and bring it to McLaren Park in an area which should not accommodate any hindrance of any view with any obstacle much less a Living Classroom in a desolate area.

It is a shame when our youth are used as ploys. LEJ has been doing this for along time. There are several people who I can name and will name who once worked for LEJ and left LEJ in disgust. Many of them African Americans. LEJ exploits people of color.

LEJ has printed Espanola Jackson name on its newsletter as one of its benefactors when this was far from the truth. Espanola Jackson has told me several times that she does not want LEJ in our neighborhood - Bayview Hunters Point. Espanola has been an honest hard working activist for over 47 years in the Bayview Hunters Point. Espanola Jackson is very adamant about this statement.

Only the First People the Muwekma Ohlone know what a real marsh land, wetland, or clean lagoon means to those who love Mother Earth. It is amazing how White Folks because of money will brag they are saving wetlands when in the first place they destroyed all that was good in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

LEJ is very bad news. At the Park, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Committee (PROSAC) meeting held July 6, 2004 at the Senior Center off 37th Avenue and Fulton - PROSAC clearly stated that LEJ was pathetic and more so when it demanded that one of the members sitting on PROSAC be asked to recuse herself. I thought that was very arrogant of Dana Lanza who thinks that she can step on anyone.

LEJ has no place in San Francisco and especially in the eyes of decent, honest, hard working environmentalists. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that it is wrong to take young children and youth to a toxic dump that is Pier 98. LEJ did this again and again and continues to expose and put our youth in harms way.

The nearby power plant spews a thousand tons of toxins into the air 75 feet away from the shores of Heron Head Park. Mecury, lead, PCBs wash on the shores of Heron Head Park. The area is a Chernobyl.

LEJ now wants to break planning laws and defy the constituents of nearby McLaren Park by building a Living Classroom to cater to youth who will find it difficult to understand why the community did not like and approve of the idea in the first place?

Is is amazing how White Folks love to exploit the poor and people of color to make money. Dana Lanza does not live in San Francisco and would do well to build the Living Classroom in her back yard.

As to the White Supporters who support the White Dana Reid Lanza without valid justification I say shame on you. Anyone who can waste $200,000 of taxpayers money which was meant to help those most adversely impacted has no place in San Francisco. Dana got over $900,000 from the $13.3 million given to San Francisco to mitigate and help those at Hunters Point and neighboring area. She got thousands more from other agencies.

LEJ has the support of some corrupt forces at San Francisco Environment (SFE) a city department who has come to bat for LEJ. I have seen this at the SF Port Commission and also at the PROSAC meeting. This goes against the Sunshine Laws and Jared Blumenfeld better pay attention. Jared time to ask your staff who was at the June 22, 2004 meeting at the Ferry Building supporting LEJ and who was lying to the PROSAC on July 6, 2004. Two employees who had no business being there.

LEJ better go away the sooner the better. It is just a matter of time that so many people will gather signatures to send LEJ packing away. I have over 2000 signatures from the time Espanola Jackson collected when she went to Hunters Point and told the constituents there about LEJ. The constituents were shocked at what they heard and signed the petition to stop building the Living Classroom on Pier 98 which is a toxic dump.

Now the same thing is happening at McLaren Park and the constituents better rid off this plague that seems not to go away. We want decency and honesty. We do not want dubious activities and more encouraging our youth to learn convoluted tactics in the name of keeping and looking after our environment. Our youth deserve the best not the worst from crooks.

The Whites destroyed once what was all-good and continue to do so today. LEJ is no exception. LEJ can look you straight in the eye and lie.

top - back