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(music)
HIGGINS: Almost three-quarters of a million people
live in San Francisco.
They make their homes in famous neighborhoods
like Alamo Square,
The Castro,
and Chinatown.
But few San Franciscans and even fewer tourists
ever see Bay View Hunter's Point.
IRIZARRY: This is considered a very bad neighborhood.
How much sun did you see on the street today?
Right, right.
We got the best weather of the city.
We have a lot of talent here from the city.
And we have the worst pollution
and the worst criminalization in the city.
HIGGINS: The Bay View and Hunter's Point neighborhoods
are perched on the southeast edge of San Francisco,
just 10 minutes from downtown.
San Francisco built its first opera house here,
and its first major league baseball park.
The Navy shipped the atomic bomb from Hunter's Point
on its way to Japan.
Bay View Hunter's Point is home to more African-Americans
than any other neighborhood.
It's nurtured the budding careers of black talents
from politicians to movie stars.
EPPS: There's no place like home.
And I love this place.
The good, the bad, the ugly, or whatever.
You know, and it means so much to me
and I regard- see this is where I grew up.
HIGGINS: It's a mixture of contrasts.
Sweeping views of the city and the bay.
And a host of social, environmental,
and economic tensions.
(man yelling)
HIGGINS: Asthma is out of control here.
And breast cancer rates among women under 40
are the highest in the country.
HIGGINS: Despite its problems,
Bay View Hunter's Point
is one of the last areas in San Francisco
where housing is still affordable,
And today, after decades of neglect,
redevelopment is underway.
Will progress destroy
San Francisco's last black neighborhood?
(music)
HIGGINS: In the wake of the California Gold Rush,
two brothers, dairymen, and land speculators
arrived in San Francisco.
The Hunter brothers sold acres of land on a hill
that came to be known as Hunter's Point.
AGEE: Bay View Hunter's Point
really was undeveloped until the 1920s,
other than a few farms.
They started building up Bay View, which is much flatter,
during the 1920s, and a lot of single family homes.
It was an Italian, Maltese, French,
white ethnic community.
Hunter's Point itself remained largely undeveloped
until the 1940s.
In large part because there's this large ridge there
which is called The Hill.
(explosive sound)
HIGGINS: With the approach of World War II,
the Navy shipyard on the edge of the hill
drew workers from across the country,
including thousands of African-Americans.
After the war, they kept coming.
RATCLIFFE: And I just fell in love with San Francisco
and the first opportunity I got
boom, I came on out here.
HIGGINS: Willie Ratcliffe came from Texas in 1950.
RATCLIFFE: I even worked at the shipyard in 1951.
I started off as a rigger helper.
HIGGINS: And where did you live though, when you were out here?
RATCLIFFE: Fillmore.
That's where most the black people lived.
At that time.
HIGGINS: Today, he and his wife
live in this two-bedroom house at Third and Palou.
The business heart of Bay View Hunter's Point.
In it, they publish a local newspaper.
Their living room window gives a bird's eye view of the area,
which, in the 1950s, was an industrial zone.
RATCLIFFE: They had a slaughterhouse. And a meat packing area.
They killed cattle. They had cattle.
Do you know what I think about it?
The stench was terrible!
HIGGINS: Up on Hunter's Point,
the federal government had built housing
for its new workers, many of whom were white.
AGEE: You have lots of temporary housing
that's been put up.
Barrack-style housing that's been put up.
You know, sort of overnight, with not a lot of materials
because they're not expecting these to last too long.
Just, you know, these are five-year buildings.
HIGGINS: On the Navy base and in these barrack-style houses,
a city within the hill was formed.
AGEE: There was a wash house,
there's a bar, there's a police station.
It's its own little community.
And, Third Street really becomes
the commercial hub of the area.
It's an interracial community. There are blacks there,
not a lot, but a good chunk.
RATCLIFFE: They had some 22,000 people working at the shipyard
and about 10,000 of 'em was from this community.
So this is really what kept
the African-American community going.
(music)
HIGGINS: When the war ended, so did the jobs.
And the welcome for black workers withered.
RATCLIFFE: Well, once the war was over,
hey, go back to where you come from
or whatever you were doing
and that's what they wanted blacks to do in that effect.
They asked one of the black newspapers here,
well, says, the war's over now, blacks gonna go back south?
And they asked,
well is the Golden Gate Bridge gonna disappear?
No, they said, blacks are here to stay.
HIGGINS: But where were they going to stay?
It was difficult for African-Americans
to find housing.
RATCLIFFE: Because they had a law here in San Francisco.
Most of the property was set up where blacks couldn't buy.
That's how segregated and bad it was in San Francisco.
So they didn't want blacks out here. Period.
They was too good for 'em.
HIGGINS: As a result, many landed in public housing.
AGEE: The housing authority would shuttle them in certain areas.
And then renters would not rent to them or sell- buyers-
or sellers, would not sell to them.
HIGGINS: By mid-1950s, San Francisco's housing authority
took control of the Federal land
and its so-called "temporary housing"
and built more housing projects on the hill.
By the agency's design,
most black families ended up on Hunter's Point
and later, in Bay View.
AGEE: This is when it starts becoming an exclusively black community
on the hill.
Because of the housing authority.
I guess in 1950, the hill is 43% black
and in 1960, it was 75,
and then in 1968, it was about 97% black.