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Hunters
Point, named after a local family during the nineteenth century, is
located in the extreme southeastern part of San Francisco, strung along
the main artery of Third Street from India Basin to Candlestick Point.
Bayview-Hunters Point, known to many San Franciscans as "HP," is a
predominantly African-American area. The neighborhood has a population of
20,322 and is roughly 60% African-American.
Hunters Point is home to many family businesses, community organizations,
home recording studios, and churches that have thriving congregations.
Many of the African-Americans in the area are the children of the massive
Southern migration of the 1940s, during which thousands of
African-Americans came from Southern states for job opportunities at the
burgeoning war industries at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Between
1940 and 1950, the population leaped from 16,500 to 147,000; the
neighborhood's predominance of African-Americans is a legacy of the
restrictive housing practices of the past. Many prominent rap musicians
such as Cold World Hustlaz and RBL Posse hail from hunters point.
Many consider Bayview-Hunters Point a marginalized community because it
contains nearly one-third of San Francisco's toxic waste sites.
Additionally, the area is plagued with crime, prostitution, gang and drug
activity, as well as a high murder rate. Until the late 2000s the
community did not even have a single supermarket serving fresh and healthy
foods, but community gardening is increasingly popular in the area. The
Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood's population is changing — a
traditionally Black-community originally established the Hunters Point
Shipyard and blue-collar factory jobs.
Many community groups, such as the India Basin Neighborhood Association,
the Quesada Gardens Initiative and the Bayview Footprints Collaboration of
Community-Building Groups work with community members, other organizations
and city-wide agencies to strengthen and improve this diverse part of San
Francisco. Bayview-Hunters Point is also home to 2 of the most notorious
gangs in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Westmob (located on West Point
and Middle Point Roads) and Big Block (located on Harbor Road) gangs. The
neighborhood is one of the most crime ridden neighborhoods in the bay
area.
Courtesy of www.wikipedia.org |