Ep. 24 — Frisco (Part II of III)

Quote: "When I die, I'm dead." -Eloise Westbrook About: Three horizontal stripes, red, black and green, add color to the streetlights and poles in and around the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. These Pan-African flags are a relatively new addition to the area.

 
“When I die, I’m dead.”
— Eloise Westbrook

About

Three horizontal stripes, red, black and green, add color to the streetlights and poles in and around the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.

These Pan-African flags are a relatively new addition to the area. They were painted just about a year ago thanks to an initiative spearheaded by the neighborhood's local city supervisor, Malia Cohen.

“This is about branding the Bayview neighborhood to honor and pay respect to the decades of contributions that African-Americans have made to the southeast neighborhood and to the city,” she said in a statement.

But when compared to what’s going on in the neighborhood, these painted flags inadvertently serve as reminders of what this neighborhood once was and what it now isn’t. This used to be a place where you could be Black and thrive. You could find work and own a home. Now, not so much.

In Part II of this story about the term Frisco, we try and find out what happened.

Show Notes: 

1. [00:35] More on “Wild Wes” and Wild SF Tours

2. [03:30] “Kid Kodi” by Blue Dot Sessions

3. [06:10] For reference: Map of San Francisco and its neighborhoods (San Francisco Association of Realtors)

4. [06:40] More on Dr. Raymond Tompkins (San Francisco Bay View Newspaper)

5. [07:40] “Allston Night Owl” by Blue Dot Sessions

6. [09:30] “Roundpine” by Blue Dot Sessions

7. [12:00] Light reading on environmental conditions of Bayview-Hunters Point:

  1. Health Inequities in the Bay Area

  2. San Francisco Community Health Needs Assessment 2016

  3. On the 14 year life expectancy gap (San Francisco Chronicle)

  4. Pollution Problems in Bayview-Hunters Point (Greenaction)

8. [12:30] “The Yards” by Blue Dot Sessions

9. [13:00] “Why I Love Living in Russian Hill” (The Bold Italic)

10. [13:20] On the naming of Russian Hill (FoundSF)

  1. Related: the naming of other San Francisco neighborhoods (Mental Floss)

11. [13:50] Light reading on old history of Bayview-Hunters Point

  1. Additional reading on the sale (Bernal History Project)

12. [14:30] On the formation of Butchertown (FoundSF)

13. [15:15] Further reading on history of Hunters Point Shipyard development and community (City of San Francisco)

14. [15:30] Light reading on history of Chinese shrimping industry in San Francisco (FoundSF)

15. [15:55] Light reading on Oscar James (Museum of African Diaspora)

16. [16:40] “D-Day” by Nat King Cole

17. [17:00] Light reading on San Francisco’s shipbuilding and war time history

  1. World War II Shipbuilding in the Bay Area (National Parks Service)

  2. “A Day’s Work” (FoundSF)

18. [17:20] Newsreel footage

19. [17:30] Light reading on the Great Migration:

  1. “Great Migration: The African-American Exodus North” (NPR)

  2. The African-American Migration Story (PBS)

  3. “Why African Americans Left the South in Droves” (Vox)

  4. The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration (Smithsonian)

  5. “The 'Great Migration' Was About Racial Terror, Not Jobs” (City Lab)

  6. “The Second Great Migration: A Historical Overview” (University of Chicago Press)

  7. United States Census

20. [18:20] Light reading on the War Manpower Commission

21. [18:40] The war effort impact on Bayview-Hunters Point

  1. And on the population increases (San Francisco Chronicle)

22. [19:00] Excerpt from The Highest Tradition (1946)

23. [19:30] Light reading on treatment of African Americans in the war effort (PBS)

  1. Additional reading on A. Philip Randolph

  2. Light reading on Executive Order 8802

24. [21:50] Light reading on how the Japanese internment shaped San Francisco (The Culture Trip)

25. [22:40] Light reading on the history of the Fillmore District (KQED)

26. [23:00] Light reading on Jack’s Tavern (KQED)

27. [23:20] Light reading on Marie Harrison (San Francisco Chronicle)

28. [24:00] “Take Me Back Baby” by Jimmy Rushing

29. [24:30] On San Francisco’s role as the “Harlem of the West” (NPR)

  1. Photos from back in the day. Note Bob Scobey’s ‘Don’t Call it Frisco’ jazz band in the gallery. (Timeline)

30. [24:40] “Ghost of Yesterday” by Billie Holiday

31. [25:00] Review of the Failure and the Harlem Renaissance argument (The Georgia Review)

32. [25:50] “Leave the TV On” by Blue Dot Sessions

33. [28:40] Light reading on Juneteenth

34. [30:00] Related: James Baldwin on Urban Renewal

35. [30:45] The Dynamic American City

36. [31:30] Related reading on Urban Renewal:

  1. “The Racist Roots Of “Urban Renewal” And How It Made Cities Less Equal” (Fast Company)

  2. “The Wastelands of Urban Renewal” (City Lab)

  3. Urban Renewal and Its Aftermath

  4. A Study in Contradictions: The Origins and Legacy of the Housing Act of 1949

  5. Urban Revitalization in the United States: Policies and Practices

37. [32:00] Audio of construction site (Freesound.org)

38. [32:20] Light reading on the legacy of the  Housing Act of 1949:

  1. Legacy of the Housing Act of 1949: The Past, Present, and Future of Federal Housing and Urban Policy

  2. Additional reading on the birth of slum removal and urban renewal

  3. Timeline of public housing projects in the US

39. [33:30] Light reading on the Housing Act of 1965 and 1968

  1. A Rundown of Just How Badly the Fair Housing Act Has Failed (Washington Post)

  2. The Legacy of the 1968 Fair Housing Act

  3. Residential Segregation after the Fair Housing Act (American Bar Association)

40. [33:45] Renewing Inequality Project (University of Richmond)

41. [35:00] “Our Digital Compass” by Blue Dot Sessions

42. [35:35] Inspired by this song

43. [35:40] Two tales of urban renewal’s impact on San Francisco’s black population:

  1. How Urban Renewal Destroyed The Fillmore In Order to Save It (Hoodline)

  2. Racism — and politics — in SF Redevelopment history (48 Hills)

44. [35:45] On the population metrics of San Francisco’s black population:

  1. The Loneliness of Being Black in San Francisco (The New York Times)

  2. San Francisco's Black population is less than 5 percent (KTVU)

  3. The Dream vs. Reality: On Being Black in San Francisco (The Bold Italic)

45. [37:10] On black home ownership in San Francisco (City and County of San Francisco)

46. [37:15] Related:

  1. On access to bank loans

  2. San Francisco State College protests (FoundSF)

  3. Job opportunities back in the day (FoundSF)

47. [37:30] The killing of Matthew Peanut Johnson (San Francisco Chronicle)

48. [37:50] Patrolman Alvin Johnson retelling what happened on the day Matthew “Peanut” Johnson was killed (Bay Area Television Archive)

49. [40:15] 1964: Civil Rights Battles (The Atlantic)

  1. Additional reading here

50. [40:35] Short excerpt of video from San Francisco’s 1966 riot

51. [41:00] Light reading on the Human Be-In Festival

  1. All the Human Be-In Was Saying 50 Years Ago, Was Give Peace a Chance (The Nation)

  2. Full program of the Be-In Festival

52. [43:00] “Passing Station 7” by Blue Dot Sessions

53. [43:50] Light reading on the Big Five  

  1. Footage of the Big Five supporting S.F. State Student Strike in 1968

  2. Public Hearing in Bayview Hunters Point with Robert Kennedy (KQED)

54. [45:25] Light reading on The Big Five’s March on Washington—Redevelopment and the Politics of Place in Bayview-Hunters Point (UC Berkeley)

55. [46:40] Andre Herm Lewis from Part I

56. [48:30] “Hunters Point Health Problems Called an `Epidemic'” (San Francisco Chronicle)

  1. San Francisco Department of Health Recommendations (2006)

57. [49:40] 'Appropriation At Its Worst': Supervisor Slams 'Bayview Is The New Mission' Ads (Hoodline)

58. [51:40] Light reading on the toxic state of San Francisco’s Navy Shipyard (San Francisco Magazine)

59. [56:20] Podcast Recommendation: American Suburb (KQED)