CREEKS AND LAKES IN SAN FRANCISCO

It is a shame in the year 2004 our San Francisco Board of Supervisors have no idea about the natural and archeological history of San Francisco. Have no clue about the Ohlone, the Miwoks, the Pomos or for that matter anything pristine, natural, and wholesome that was San Francisco before the strangers came and destroyed most - everything. The same holds true for our San Francisco Planning Department, the Mayor's Office of Economic Development, San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, San Francisco Environment and of course the Mayor and the young Turks that surround him - feeding him all the misinformation and leading him in the wrong direction. Daily we have to deal with Supervisor Sophie Maxwell who for all the wrong reasons makes choices that are failed choices each and every time. It is because of such uneducated people our City and County of San Francisco that is worse off today then it was yesterday. We had in place a Black Mayor Willie L Brown Jr. This man destroyed the moral fabric of San Francisco and brought in lobbyists and other evil trends that helped crooks like Catellus Corporation and Mission Bay. Today Catellus has cut its losses and taken a hike. Today we have developers who have tarnished the pristine land that once was San Francisco. The wetlands and the marshlands are no more. The many creeks have been filled in. The few lakes we have today are suffering. The once pristine watershed that spreads its wings from Lobos Creek in the Presidio of San Francisco to San Mateo County is being adversely impacted and polluted. When the strangers came to San Francisco around the 1770s they found many clans living around the many lakes, rivers, creeks, marshlands, wetlands with plenty of food and lots of good nourishment. The animals, bird, fish, and plant life flourished and the clans all lived healthy and happy lives. They were here for over 10,000 years. Sometimes the White Folks I talk to think that this is not a fact. While we have archeological maps and documents on human remains and artifacts found all over San Francisco. As recently as 1972 human remains were found on a site called SFr-25. Human remain dated back to 1300 years at the Presidio of San Francisco. If one looks at the map at the beginning of this article one can gauge for oneself and see how pristine the land was and that too when over 30% of San Francisco was developed. It is very difficult to go to the original times but I know for sure the fog was thicker, the vegetation richer, lots of frogs, birds, animals, insects, and thousands of native plants most of which have disappeared because of greed. The Spanish brought the cows and the cows feasted on the native plants many were used as herbs and had medicinal properties. The creeks and rivers were clean with fish and in the Bay one could find an abundance of Abalone, Shrimp, Herring, and a hundred other varieties of fish. The strangers who destroyed it all seem not to care - they did not care about this before and they do not give a hoot today. Today we have Lake Merced, Pine Lake in the Golden Gate Park, and Mountain Lake at the Presidio of San Francisco. We still have Lobos Creek at the Presidio of San Francisco and a small rivulet that was part of Islais Creek River in Glen Park. We still have parts of rivers and creeks running underground a reminder of the days when things were better and the watershed and all living things above healthier. Today, our San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the Mayor has no clue of the natural history of San Francisco - the Patwin, the Yokuts, the Ohlone, the Miwoks, the Pomos - no notion of a dialect called Penutian that was commonly spoken all over today's Bay Area. My friends if we do not know our common shared history on the land, the air, and water we breathe then how can we really care for Mother Earth and our Environment? We have the San Francisco Environment, The Human Rights Commission, we have the Mayor and his cronies, we have the San Francisco Board of Supervisors - daily by their actions they contribute to the adverse impacts we see all over our City and County of San Francisco. We have Federal, State, and Local laws that mandate that we keep our watershed clean. The same with our air and the few remaining Lakes, Creeks, and the Bay. Today more then ever before those elected officials choose to harm our environment. Our officials think nothing of building thousands of units and adversely impacting our environment. We have over 900 miles of broken pipes daily leaking and polluting our watershed. Thousands of tons of pollutants dumped on land and in our Bay that have killed our fish and made eating any fish and other vegetation harmful. The runoff from the old mercury mines continues to flow into the Bay. Our Phelps Raw Sewage Treatment Plant is the worse in the world. Not even third world countries have one in the middle of the neighborhood. Daily the stacks fire pollutants into the air. Added to that the stench emitting tons of pathogens into the air. Our infants are dying and no one cares. The old toxic spewing power plants each spews one and half tons of toxins into the air. Now the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission under the direction of Susan Leal wants to place 3 Combustible Turbines burning very expensive fossil fuel and spewing particulates and pathogens - killing infants. The San Francisco Health Department with Mitch Katz is worse then the Nazis. When educated citizens reveal the truth to him he turns a blind eye. So does his sidekick Rajiv Bhatia who puts down the community living in Bayview Hunters Point and encourages crooks to build 1600 housing units in the middle to Chernobyl. This is crime and against all moral and ethical principles. Our San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Bevan Dufty, Aaron Perskin, Alioto-Pier, Sandoval, Elsbernd, McGoldrick, and the worse of them Sophie Maxwell are agreed to permit Lennar BVHP LLC build 1600 units on Parcel A which is toxic. Only Supervisors Chris Daly and Matt Gonzalez stood for the community and for the truth. Gone are the days when we had women and men that cared for the community and San Francisco. The present bunch of politicians love to run their mouths. They sometimes can talk for hours about saving elephants and just two minutes when it comes to saving the lives of infants. Especially if the infants are people of color. Once there were two Shellmounds on Hunters Point. These were Sacred Shellmounds. The United States Navy leveled these two hills and desecrated the human remains of the First People - the Ohlone. Once on Hunters Point there were many rivers flowing into the Bay - two still run underground - but now all of the watershed and underground rivers have huge amounts of radiological elements. Some one must remind the fools that they ought to look beyond the beyond. Some must remind the fools that they cannot continue being immoral and unethical. Some one must remind the fools that they cannot do wrong all the time and NOT be accountable. Look at the map and tell me why most of you who make the immoral policies should not go to jail? Once the Ohlone lived in peace with all around them being good. Then came the strangers and stole the land. No one ever sold the land and all around the land to no one. Today the Muwekma Ohlone are alive and the City and County of San Francisco has 3 standing Resolutions and more paying respects - it is on paper and well documented. For the unbelievers they are Resolution Number 624-92, Resolution Number 489-02, Resolution Number 433-98. The Clerk of Board has them on record and I have the copies of them all. Look at yourselves those of you who continue to harm Mother Earth and ask yourselves - why do you continue to do so? Let us not talk about sustainability, recycling, conservation, and other such ideas when in your hearts and souls you foster greed and all the evil that evilness perpetuates on innocent human beings. The worst agency San Francisco Environment (SFE) which positions itself to waste money from grants and bond measures. The City Controller better pay heed to this agency. Mr. Harvey Rose and Ed Harrington where are you on this one? One of the worst agencies that pollute our precious land, air, and water is San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Heading this agency Susan Leal and the gremlins that follow her dictates and her evil life style. Nothing good will come from this agency linked with the Capitol Improvement Project (CIP), the Energy Policies, our Watershed, our Reservoirs, Clean Drinking Supply and Demand Policies, upgrading and repair of the Hetch Hetchy System - unless this woman goes away. Her $300,000 salary plus perks is an eye sore but more pathetic are her qualifications and lack of common sense. She talks the talk but cannot walk the walk.

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