YERBA BUENA AND HIGH RISES IN SAN FRANCISCO
|
Before San Francisco was called San Francisco the first strangers noticed the Bay was surrounded by all sorts of herbs and healing plants that the Native Americans used daily and which were in abundance.
The called the land they laid their eyes on Yerba Buena.
Yerba Buena seemed to be a fitting name but as history would have it the town later city was named after Saint Francis Assisi. All this is well recorded by the Franciscan Fairs and the early Russian travelers. Yerba Buena - Healing Herb how paradoxical. The Board of Supervisors today as well as Mayor Gavin Newsom should be reminded that 18 treaties were signed between the First People and the United States acting on the behalf of the U.S. the Bureau of Indian Affairs and BIA agents like L. A. Dorrington who was so devious that he removed the Muwekma Ohlone from the Federal Register a perfectly legal tribe recognized up to 1927 - when the tribe was removed. The Muwekma Ohlone have patrimonial jurisdiction over much of the Bay Area and that includes for sure San Francisco. All of San Francisco was stolen from the Muwekma Ohlone. Now and then I remind the Board of Supervisors and the Mayors - both former Mayor Willie L. Brown and Mayor Gavin Newsom of this important fact. 300 years ago much of what we see today in San Francisco was pristine. There were numerous streams and rivers and all of them were clean with no pollutants, as we all know today. The water shed was not contaminated. There were lot of trees and shrubs bearing good fruit. Lots of animals, birds, fish, and other living creatures were found in abundance. 200 years ago much of what was pristine began to suffer the pangs of development. White folks most of who are greedy will not pause to respect Mother Earth. One has just to read history and where ever the White person has set his or her foot - there has been destruction of forest, pollution of rivers and lakes, in short greed has had no respect for Mother Earth. They killed the Buffalo, the elk, the bears, cut trees and wiped the fish. Here in San Francisco in the early 1970s we had a couple of high rise buildings. Today, we have so many and many more planned because the Mayors and the Board of Supervisors do not have a vision. They imperil the health and safety of the constituents they swear to preserve. Greedy developers will do anything to make money - they mostly live outside San Francisco and we the constituents of San Francisco permit these crooks to rape our land and pollute the air and the water. The City of San Francisco was first named Yerba Buena. Good Herbs. Today none of the herbs that grew wild and were used to heal can be found. Some White folks make big noises when it comes to artificial wetlands like Crissy Field. Crissy Field is a cesspool. Corrupt Community Based Organizations like Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) are given money to waste on a toxic dump like Pier 98 which White folks named Heron's Head Park in the year 2000. They have the full blessing of San Francisco Environment a City agency that is very corrupt. PCBs, Mercury, Lead, and water borne diseases contaminate Yosemite Slough. The Hunters Point Shipyard was the primary source of this contamination. Some White folks pretending to convert a dirty and polluted Slough into a fake wetland spend millions of dollars. Our infrastructure is so poor that over 50% of the sewage pipes leak. We still have miles of sewer lines made of brick and some of wood. We continue to add to the over 740,000 night population which increases over a million during the day. When the Giants play and when there are huge conventions plus the games - the population may grow over one and half million. Whites have not only destroyed the Yerba Buena the Healing Herb but have polluted the bowels of Mother Earth. Daily over one and a half million gallons of secondary effluents - most of which is half treated sewage goes into the Bay. During the raining season run off flows into the Bay and carry the most polluted chemicals in the flow. We receive all the sewage from Daly City, Colma, Brisbane, and Burlingame - yes all of it - and the treated sewage goes into the Bay. The City that prides that it knows how to use pesticides to kill rats and other creatures which eventually enters the Phelps Raw Sewage Plant and from there into the Bay. San Francisco Environment knows about this but cannot do a thing. The old mercury mines continue to send tons of mercury into the Bay via run off during the raining season. Some of these flows come all the way from San Cruz. In the Southeast Sector mostly on Port Property oil leakage, pollutant, dangerous chemicals flow with ease into the Bay. The City and County of San Francisco continue to allow filthy rich developers to build high rises. Thousands of people will live in these high rises and no one is paying attention as to from where will the electricity come, where will they get the clean water, and where do they think the sewage will go? No one thinks about the infrastructure and no one give a damn about mitigation and the adverse affects linked to the constituents of the Southeast Sector. It is a shame that the Mayors and the Board of Supervisors have failed this City. Right now we have a dog and pony show about 80 Natoma. We have passive meetings with developers and the Planning Department. Some filthy rich folks who do not live in San Francisco and yet want to pollute the little that is left of Yerba Buena. Enough is enough. |
