The Symposium is organized by the Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD), UC Berkeley, in collaboration with Oxford Brookes University and the Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) community. It brings together community activists, non-profit organizations, journalists, and academics to explore the multiple urban injustices afflicting the BVHP neighborhood and discuss potential areas of collaborative, action-research that might involve the community, students and faculty at UC Berkeley.

Bayview Hunters-Point, San Francisco, is home to a long-standing struggle for urban justice, environmental, racial and health equity, housing affordability, and access to employment. Today, the neighborhood hosts the ‘biggest redevelopment project in San Francisco,’ known as the Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard Redevelopment Project. However, the long-term environmental clean-up of past military and industrial activities at the Hunters Point Shipyard were revealed to be fraudulent and data were falsified. Residents and others are demanding transparency, community oversight, and environmental justice.

PROGRAM

12:30-1:30 pm Lunch and Registration

1:30-1:40 pm Welcome (Prof. Jason Corburn; Director of IURD)

1:40-2:00 pm Community Member Introductions

2:00-2:30 pm Bayview-Hunters Point: An Introduction (Dr. M. Reza Shirazi, UC Berkeley)

2:30-3:30 pm Panel I: Combating Urban Injustice: Struggles and Achievements(Facilitator: Dr. M. Reza Shirazi, UC Berkeley) Panelists: Michelle Pierce (BVHP Community Advocates); Laura Waxmann (SF Examiner), Leaotis Martin (BVHP Mothers and Fathers Committee), Dalila Adofo, (Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice)

Panelists will discuss different dimensions of urban injustice in the BVHP, initiatives and measures taken at the city and community level to tackle them, challenges and achievements of community activism, and the present and future of the Shipyard project.

3:30-4:00 pm Break

4:00-5:00 pm Panel II: Community-University Collaboration; Opportunities and Challenges (Facilitator: Prof. Jason Corburn, UC Berkeley) Panelists: Bradley Angel (Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice); Ahimsa Porter Sumchai (President & Medical Director Golden State MD); Prof. Michael Mascarenhas (UC Berkeley); Prof. Charisma Acey (UC Berkeley)

Panelists will discuss opportunities and challenges for action-research collaborations between the university and community stakeholders, lessons from previous collaborations and experiences from other places, institutional and practical challenges, and potential resources to support community-driven urban justice research between UC Berkeley and BVHP stakeholders.

Lunch will be provided.