Dear Hillary Ronen, Et al.,
When you blocked and eventually killed the Lennar housing project at 1515 South Van Ness, you also prevented them from planting trees all along 26th Street between Shotwell Street and South Van Ness Avenue. Those trees would have been six years old now. Instead of a tree lined street with 157 units of housing and below market rate artisan ground floor studios, we now have a blighted block with construction netting around a Safe Sleeping (referred as SSA herein). The SSA regularly kicks out residents who do not follow their rules onto the sidewalks in front of our homes.
There is now an encampment on the corner of Shotwell and 26th Street that started on December 7th when a woman was kicked out of the SSA. The encampment has completely engulfed a tree that was lovingly put there to beautify our neighborhood by the owners of this property with the help of the Friends of the Urban Forest and neighbors.
The encampment now stretches across two property lines and regularly sprawls over the entire sidewalk blocking any access. It is a site of lawlessness where drugs are used and sold. Their dogs bark day and night, and one of them lunges at passersby. They are a textbook nuisance. Numerous calls have been made to the police and 311 over the past few months by me and my neighbors, but we inevitably come up against a bureaucracy that has no concern whatsoever for the needs of this community. We are shut out, made invisible, and thoroughly dismissed.
This tree is part of our green space— our neighborhood canopy. This tree is now a metaphor for how you and the city of San Francisco are actively destroying any beauty in our community. It is a metaphor for the exploitation of the immigrant, working class, and POC families who you have forsaken. This tree is a potent symbol of who you are: a crass and uncaring politician that has degraded our community to advance your agenda. This tree is us, and it is a striking portrayal of how you absolutely do not care about our lives.
Sincerely,
Francesca Pastine, Captain
Anne Burke, Co-Captain
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