Rod & Gun Site Gets a Makeover

SFPUC's $88 Million Clean-up is Complete, What's Next for Lake Merced?

by Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai

“Lake Merced has drawn humans and wildlife to its shores for centuries, initially as a brackish lagoon and more recently as a coastal freshwater lake. It has endured many challenges, but today the heart shaped park in the southwest corner of the city breathes life into our metropolis as a significant natural habitat and recreation area.” Laura Thompson - Hoodline August 27, 2016

Shaped like a heart with four ventricles and arterial conduits created by man and nature, modern Lake Merced prevails as the largest wetland habitat and coastal freshwater lake between Marin and San Mateo counties. Lake Merced was the major supplier of drinking water to San Francisco beginning in the 1860s until Hetch Hetchy reservoir in the Sierras replaced it in 1934. Lake Merced serves as an emergency source of non-potable water for city residents.

CEQA Process

    The Lake Merced West Project proposes construction of new recreational areas in the 11-acre region at 520 John Muir Drive, “serving park users of all ages, fitness levels and experience at this unique and natural waterfront setting.” Publicly accessible recreational elements include picnic areas, walking paths, a boathouse, ropes course, bird watching areas, multi-purpose sports courts, a playground, skateboard park and a community center with restrooms and a restaurant. San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department has taken the lead in issuing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Lake Merced West Project as required by the California Environmental Quality Act.

CEQA informs decision makers and the public of a project’s potential environmental effects, engages the public in the environmental review, discloses significant impacts generated by the project and offers mitigation measures to reduce or eliminate those impacts. The Lake Merced West Project EIR is expected to be released for public comment later this year.

The San Francisco Planning Department issued a Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the proposed EIR in June of 2021 and a virtual community scoping meeting was held on June 23rd. The Lake Merced West project has historic and archeological impacts stemming from its eligibility for listing on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Watch the Video - A Day on the Lake: The historic Lake Merced West Region.

Adverse impacts of planned tree removal on natural habitats and ecological niches promises to incite environmental protectionists along with proposed demolition and construction along Lake Merced’s southwestern shoreline.

Suggestions from the scoping meeting include enhancing public transit access to Lake Merced West via an L train shuttle to reduce motor vehicle traffic.  Muni transit lines #57 and #18 stop nearby.

The most significant project impacts, however, center on potential human health effects from activities of the former tenant. The Pacific Rod & Gun Club operated at 520 John Muir Drive from 1934- 2015. According to Jackie Suen - Rec & Parks Project Manager for Lake Merced West: “From 1934 through 1994 the Pacific Rod and Gun Club used lead pellets as shot which resulted in about 27 tons of lead in the lake per year. Lead pellets and targets containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have also been found in the upland areas.” (Lake Merced West Project EIR Scoping Meeting 06/23/21)
Watch the video -Lake Merced West Project Scoping Presentation.

In May of 2015 San Francisco Public Utilities Commission began a one-year remediation of the site, excavating 88 thousand tons of “contaminated” soil to depths ranging from one to 10 feet. The contaminated soil was hauled to a landfill and backfilled with clean soil at a cost of $22 million dollars. The Regional Water Quality Control Board released the property for unrestricted use.

In 2017 the Pacific Rod & Gun Club “forked over” $8.25 million to settle a court battle with the City of San Francisco, accepting its role as the principal “discharger” in the region.

In 2016 Rec & Parks issued a request for proposals for a 20-year lease of Lake Merced West that “prohibits recreational activities resulting in direct deposit of any waste, hazardous material or foreign substance at the site.”

SFPD Firearms Training - Lake Merced Range November 5, 2012

The San Francisco Police Department, however, conducts firearms trainings from 7pm to 11pm at nearby 700 John Muir Drive generating peak noise disturbances above 160 decibels - toping the list of undesirable impacts to romantic restaurant diners!

The Beginning…

  “At the end of the last ice age 15,000 years ago, the ocean flooded Merced Valley creating a small inlet or bay. At that time Lake Merced extended further east and was open to the ocean.” ... Vivian Matuk and Nick Salcedo - Geography Students SFSU 
Watch Video - A Day on the Lake: Entering Lake Merced Watershed

      A watershed is an area of land with rivers and streams draining into a larger body of water. Lake Merced is a watershed. Healthy watersheds provide clean drinking water, fisheries and outdoor recreation areas that support our environment, economies and quality of life through water capture, water storage and water release.  

    Lake Merced’s role as San Francisco’s water source changed as surrounding neighborhoods became more developed and surface runoff to the lake became more polluted. The southern portions of the original watershed were diverted from flowing into the lake. According to SFSU graduate researchers water quality in Lake Merced suffers from turbidity, alkalinity and high phosphorus and organic content.

     Described as “an island of wildlife habitat in an ocean of urban environment” by SFSU geographer Elizabeth Proctor whose graduate thesis details the dwindling diversity of Lake Merced’s mammal, reptile and amphibian species over time due to water pollution and human disturbances… including shooting ranges and golf balls!

Lake Merced has been deemed San Francisco’s “Birding Jewel” by the Audubon Society boasting 267 species and multiple excellent birding areas.
Watch Video - Red hearted black birds at Lake Merced at

Ahimsa Sumchai Porter, MD, West Portal, Medical Director Golden State MD Health & Wellness is a longtime neighborhood and environmental activist

July 2021

Why Are Five Republican States Afraid of Critical Race Theory?

Why Critical Race Theory should be taught—in Biology!

by Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai

“Critical Race Theory recognizes racism is not a bygone relic of the past”

A Lesson on Critical Race Theory—American Bar Association

Let’s talk about race—although there is mounting evidence it does not exist. That’s why race is so uncomfortable to talk about. Race is an imaginary construct that has been delegitimized by modern science yet continues to fuel wanton fear, violence and disharmony among members of the human family. Critical Race Theory recognizes racism is not a bygone relic of the past according to the American Bar Association (ABA).

You may, or may not be familiar with Critical Race Theory or CRT. Some may not care about CRT and have no idea why the Florida Board of Education banned teaching it in schools in May. You may not know five Republican-led state legislatures banned critical race theory according to the Washington Post. Critical Race Theory, in my opinion, when accepted, will have more profound impacts on the advancement of humanity than the acceptance that UFO’s exist. The firestorm of backlash to its teaching in American schools most resembles the fierce obstruction to key advancements in science that humanity has witnessed throughout our collective history. The American Bar Association offers a Lesson on Critical Race Theory

Critical Race Theory, in my opinion, represents a continuum of the rancorous social debate over human evolution that has been substantiated by genetic research and weaponized by politics, sociology and racial injustice. Critical Race Theory is grounded in the science of the human genome that does not prove the existence of race!

     The Human Genome Project arrived at an astonishing conclusion:

 “Race is a fluid concept used to group people according to various factors including ancestral backgrounds and social identity. Race is also used to group people that share a set of visible characteristics, such as skin color and facial features. Though these visible traits are influenced by genes, the vast majority of genetic variation exists within racial groups and not between them. Race is an ideology and for this reason, many scientists believe that race should be more accurately described as a social construct and not a biological one.”

Get that? The human genetic code is basically the same for all members of the human family. We are hardwired to be similar, not different!

In a ‘Lesson on Critical Race Theory,’ the American Bar Association defines CRT as “a practice of integrating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal and academic fields and spread to other fields of scholarship.“

The ABA analysis examines why CRT has become a “firehose” of legal, sociological, educational, political and human rights debate in critiquing how race, as a social construct perpetuates a caste system grounded in skin color and physical variations that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers.

Business Insider reports CRT has become one of the most animating issues for Republicans nationwide, grounded in the belief that CRT teaches kids to “hate the US and each other.” The Florida guidelines apply to teaching U.S history, civics and government.

     To the best of my knowledge there has been no mounted dissent to applying Critical Race Theory to the field where it is most substantiated by genetic science—human biology!
 

In Where are We? Critical Race Theory in Education 20 Years Later, Adrienne Dixson and Celia Anderson explore the foundation of the trailblazing work launched by the 1995 publication of Toward A Critical Race Theory in Education.

Dixson and Anderson organize their review of CRT literature around six boundaries for CRT and education:

1. CRT in education argues that racial inequity in education is the logical outcome of a system of achievement precedented on competition.
2. CRT in education examines the role of education policy and practices in the construction of racial inequity and perpetuation of normative whiteness.
3. CRT in education rejects the dominant narrative about the inherent inferiority of people of color and normative superiority of white people.
4. CRT in educations rejects historical linkages between educational inequity and racial oppression.
5. CRT in education engages intersectional analyses that recognize ways that race is mediated by other identity markers (gender, class, language and citizenship).
6. CRT in education agitates and advocates for meaningful outcomes that redress racial inequity.

     According to Education Week, as of May 2021, 15 states have introduced legislation to restrict how teachers can talk about race.

     Teachers in Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma and Tennessee are banned from introducing concepts that one race or sex is inherently superior or that any individual is racist just because of their race and that no-one should be made to feel guilt or discomfort because of their race.

Critical Race Theory is a methodology, not an ideology. CRT is a work in progress in education with a mandate to improve educational access and equity and to create critical race research studies that are “theoretically grounded and methodologically sound.”

Critical Race Theory as a bridge in science training: California State University, Northridge Build PODER Program - an undergraduate biomedical research training program based on a transformative framework rooted in CRT.

 Critical Race Theory and the Health Sciences

Thought leaders in science, medicine and the allied health sciences are taking a more proactive approach in acknowledging that race is “conceptually underdeveloped in the health sciences and operates in these fields as nineteenth-century theories of human diversity that reify long discredited notions of racial typologies.

 “Within medicine and the health sciences, race is widely understood as a “natural” part of human diversity that scientists and physicians merely observe. These fields assume that the visual distinctions that align with social understandings of race reflect real and meaningful biological dispositions.
 “Tied to this is the assumption that these racialized genetic and physiological dispositions explain why certain racial groups may be sicker - or healthier- than others. From this standpoint, racism is thought to be an external social or political variable that has little to do with the processes that shape health outcomes or influence the measurement of human differences.

 “This perspective is not only woefully inadequate, but also affirmatively harms human health by perpetuating theories of biological race in the clinic, the lab and within our collective imaginations … Critical Race Theory offers science and medicine opportunity to examine how the biological consequences of discrimination shape our approaches to thinking about human difference and population disparities.”  Introduction: Critical Race Theory and the Health Sciences - Cambridge University Press January 6, 2021

Port Cities as Hubs of Diversity and Inclusivity

“Port cities are a particular type of territory and are long standing examples of resilience, bringing opportunities, wealth, and innovation to their nations and citizens. They have developed at the crossroads of international trade and commerce and the intersection of sea and land.”

I was fascinated by the human diversity I encountered in seaport cities like London, Frankfurt, Washington, DC, Nairobi and Ethiopia after traveling from San Francisco to participate in the international humanitarian relief effort in the Horn of Africa.

Some sociologists predict the intermingling of travelers bearing global passports that grant entry to the seaport cities of the world may ultimately produce the multiethnic human.

In the interim I have adopted the practice of checking off both African American and “Other” on forms and applications requiring racial designations. In honor of my Louisiana Choctaw maternal grandfather, my Korean cousins and my paternal grandfather who passed for white…in the near future, perhaps the “Others” will emerge as the one true “race”!

Ahimsa Sumchai Porter, MD, West Portal, Medical Director Golden State MD Health & Wellness is a longtime neighborhood and environmental activist

June 2021

To Mask Or Not To Mask — On the Streets of San Francisco!

by Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai

“We are not defenseless against COVID-19. Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus — particularly when used universally within a community setting. All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.”

CDC calls on Americans to wear masks to prevent COVID-19 Spread July 14, 2020

San Francisco is a very small city — but a very important town! In general a human settlement with more than 2,500 residents is considered a city while a town is defined as a populated area with fixed boundaries and a local government with limited power.

San Francisco can be colorfully described as a health and fitness “cult” with  769,000 immunization eligible members over the age of 16. A progressive “village” that in 2014,  launched the San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership, a citywide initiative designed to improve the health and wellness of all San Franciscans.

The SFHIP strategic plan identifies key performance measures that include:

1. Safe and healthy living environments
2. Healthy eating and physical activity
3. Access to quality health care and medical services
4. Redressing African American health disparities
5. Targeting maternal, infant, child and adolescent health measures
6. Prioritizing health needs of those at risk of HIV disease

 According to the UCSF Center for Community Engagement, these population health measures - when tracked and improved - create healthy communities where we can “live, learn, work and play.” In 2016, San Francisco ranked highest for access to exercise opportunities and lowest for smoking and obesity when compared with state averages. San Francisco ranked among the healthiest counties in California - well before the COVID-19 pandemic and the current “city family!”

As a health and wellness expert, I believe San Francisco County’s high pre-pandemic health rankings offer the best explanation for the cities low COVID - 19 prevalence.

An April 2020 UC Berkeley analysis by zip code showed the bulk of detected cases were concentrated in the cities Southeast quadrant with an overall case rate of 15 per 100,000 people. Researchers at UrbanFootprint independently mapped the city and identified low-income regions lacking access to grocery stores and automobiles to be most vulnerable.

Seventy-five percent of San Francisco residents live within 15 minutes of a fresh food grocery store. This fact alone is evidence that social determinants of health play a determinate role in why COVID -19 prevalence remains low and may be even more influential than early actions city leaders credit themselves for. Capitalizing politically on the relative ease of managing a population of 769,000 healthy people serves to bolster political careers for some.

A clear example is the May 11, 2021 twitter posting by Mayor London Breed applauding San Francisco’s 75% vaccination rate. This statistic deserves careful scrutiny, given the consternation generated by the May 13, 2021 announcement by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that “fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”

The reality is that of the 769,000 vaccine eligible San Francisco residents only 56% are fully vaccinated - a number slightly higher than the state average as reported by the LA Times. The glass is half full — only 434,000 San Francisco residents are ready to shed their masks and it’s too soon to toast and celebrate on the streets of San Francisco!

According to the New York Times article, Why the C.D.C. Changed Its Advice on Masks, the May 13, 2021 announcement that fully vaccinated Americans can go maskless in outdoor and indoor settings came as a surprise to both the public and to scientific experts and government officials. “Even the White House got less than a day’s notice,” press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed in a news briefing that Friday.

“The CDC, the doctors and medical experts are the ones who determined what this guidance would be based on their own data, and what the timeline would be … it was not a decision, directed or made by the White House.”

And that’s the way it should work in an independent federal health agency. Perhaps the CDC is flexing muscle and asserting its independence from the subjugating tyranny of the Trump administration — or perhaps it’s just deja vu all over again!

   Recall that in mid-May 2020 CDC was gagged silent about the benefits of wearing masks. It wasn’t until July 14, 2020 that the CDC issued a press release urging the public to wear masks to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 with the cheery message “Americans are increasingly adopting the use of cloth face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19, and the latest science may convince even more to do so.”

The best explanation for the guidelines issued by Director Rochelle Walensky MD, MPH is new research that shows while vaccines are not 100% effective in preventing COVID-19, few fully vaccinated people develop or transmit serious infections. 

You can observe a lot by watching and there ain’t no herd immunity in Major League Baseball!

     Breakthrough COVID - 19 infections in fully vaccinated MLB players shut down a Miami Marlins Florida training facility in April and a cluster of nine New York Yankees players and staff tested positive in May despite being one of 12 MLB teams to reach the 85% vaccination mark. The Yankees all received the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and most had no symptoms. The San Francisco Giants have reached the 85% vaccination rate and will go maskless in the dugout. Research shows the vaccines are effective against the range of variants. A surge in demand for vaccinations followed the CDC announcement serving to advance the debate surrounding the safety of immunizing children.

Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a recall challenge from critics demanding he set Californians free from masks. Newsom and state health officials were gagged silent the weekend following the CDC proclamation.

California Department of Public Health’s current mask guidance issued on May 3rd allows fully vaccinated people to shed their masks in outdoor settings except densely crowded events like concerts and festivals.

Newsom addressed the “complexities surrounding enforcement and lack thereof” and anticipates lifting the outdoor mask mandate with a full reopening of the state economy by June 15, 2021.

The CDC announcement drew immediate rebuke from the California Nurses Association, who pressured state health officials to reject the CDC guidelines. CNA President Zenei Triunto - Cortez called it a “big blow to the safety of nurses, front line workers and patients.”

The CDC proclamation amplifies smoldering concerns about civil liberty violations and the inevitable requirement for vaccine passports for travel, school entry and occupational safety, along with infringements on medical privacy laws.

Worse yet, it may unleash an environmental nightmare with the mass disposal of contaminated face masks, synthetic gloves and chemically treated personal protective equipment into our oceans, landfills and on the streets of San Francisco!

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over” - Yogi Berra

Ahimsa Sumchai Porter, MD, West Portal, Medical Director Golden State MD Health & Wellness is a longtime neighborhood and environmental activist

May 2021

Environmental Justice for Lake Merced

The Westside's Hidden Toxic Hazards

Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai

“Our Nation has an abiding commitment to empower our workers and communities; promote and protect our public health and the environment ... Where the Federal Government has failed to meet that commitment in the past, it must advance environmental justice.”

Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis - January 20, 2021 | Presidential Actions

Environmental justice is defined by the EPA as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color national origin or income in the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” Fair treatment means no one group of people should bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal and commercial operations.”

Underserved communities are neighborhoods faced with environmental health hazards and vulnerable populations that include children, people of color, low income, tribal, disabled and homeless populations.

I also view as vulnerable thousands of students attending schools in San Francisco’s western neighborhoods.

Many Westside Observer readers are aware of the environmental health issues residents of heavily industrialized southeast San Francisco face but may not recognize the environmental hazards present in seemingly pristine regions west of Twin Peaks.

The Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program is applying an advanced environmental mapping and screening tool to augment interpretation of human biomonitoring urinary toxicology screenings and geospatial mapping in identification of hazards residents and workers at a federal Superfund site face. That tool is called the EPA EJScreen.

It would be discriminatory for an environmental analyst to exclude a neighborhood under the assumption it is not impacted by hazards like air pollution, lead paint exposure or proximity to hazardous waste sites. Especially if that neighborhood is where the analyst lives, attended college and medical school!

San Francisco’s heavily trafficked westside neighborhoods are criss-crossed by major highways and roadways subject to high levels of diesel pollution and particulate emissions. Fine particulate matter air pollutants were linked to 1 in 5 deaths worldwide according to research released by Harvard University in 2021.

Lake Merced Boulevard was constructed during the Great Depression under the federal Works Progress Administration. Its creation supported the State plan to connect main highways through broad intersecting arteries from Sunset Boulevard around Lake Merced to Skyline, Junipero Serra Boulevard and Highway 101.

The EPA’s environmental justice screening and mapping tool is based on national data that combines environmental and demographic indicators to assign an EJ index for risk factors of exposure combined with six key social factors that include percent low income, percent people of color and children under the age of five.

The eleven environmental factors include particulate matter, diesel particulate matter, air toxics cancer risk, respiratory hazard index, traffic proximity, lead paint and hazardous waste proximity.

    The EJSCREEN Tool offers a creative approach to understanding health impact of environmental exposures and can be used by a school aged child to map their neighborhood. The YouTube video How to Interpret an EJSCREEN Standard Report is also available.

EJSCREEN Standard Report for the one-mile ring at Lake Merced Boulevard near Parkmerced. Note the EJ index for traffic proximity and volume, lead paint, hazardous waste proximity and wastewater discharge are greater than the risks 73 to 82% of Americans face.

         Using the EPA EJSCREEN mapping tool, we can easily analyze the negative environmental impacts residents of San Francisco’s westside neighborhoods face for lead paint exposure. The areas in red representing westside neighborhoods where the risk of exposure to lead paint approaches the 100th percentile compared to the population of residents living in the US. This 100th percentile range simply means the lead paint exposure risk is greater for westside residents living in regions colored red than 100% of people in the country!

The EJScreen mapping of San Francisco’s westside neighborhood for lead paint exposure risk. Simply type in the region in the upper right hand search bar and select one or all eleven environmental indicators to map.

Now let’s examine another important environmental risk factor westside residents face every day, traffic volume and proximity. The seven miles of city blocks between 19th Avenue and Park Presidio represent the crosstown route of State Highway 1, and it has been historically recognized as a notorious danger zone for pedestrians.

     Little focus, however, has been generated on the risk of exposure to diesel and fine particle emissions from vehicles stalled in traffic along major arteries coursing through westside neighborhoods.

       EJScreen mapping identifies Lake Merced Boulevard to be in the 95th to 100th percentile compared with the US population for traffic volume and proximity. Of greater impact on the environmental health of small children are EJScreen mappings of diesel particulate exposure. In the Lake Merced Boulevard region exposure risks to one of the most dangerous air contaminants approaches the 100th percentile!

Diesel exhaust contains a mixture of gases and small particles of soot made of carbon, ash, sulfates, silicates and heavy metals along with carbon compounds known as aromatic hydrocarbons. The California Air Resources Board identifies diesel particulate matter as containing 40 cancer causing substances. Diesel engine emissions are believed to be responsible for 70% of the states estimated cancer risk from toxic air contaminants. Most heavy and medium duty trucks are equipped with diesel engines as are school buses and heavy equipment such as bulldozers and tractors.

     Additional environmental hazards are posed by rising sea levels along western shorelines. A recently published report proposes strategies to enhance the resilience of San Francisco wetlands. 

On October 5, 2020 the Commonwealth Club of California and the Climate Reality Project Bay Area Chapter presented Climate Justice: Radioactive and Toxic Waste and Rising Oceans. I was a speaker at that panel event and invite you to view it on YouTube.

On April 17, 2021 I was awarded the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine Medical Alumni of the Year Award for the pioneering work being conducted by the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program and Golden State MD Health & Wellness. My profile is posted to the Medical Alumni Association website.

Ahimsa Sumchai Porter, MD, West Portal, Medical Director Golden State MD Health & Wellness is a longtime neighborhood and environmental activist

April 2021

Is BIG DOORBELL Watching Us?

Motion Sensing Floodlight Cameras-Security, Surveillance and High Tech Stalking

Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai

Ring cameras are turning neighborhoods into surveillance networks —Glenn Harvey NBC News

The new frontier of privacy war is being waged around the complex legal and regulatory issues stemming from the “terrifically addictive and widely engaging hodgepodge of voyeurism, suspicion and unease” generated by the rising use of motion activated floodlight cameras and neighborhood security apps. Amazon touts its $1.2 billion dollar investment in Ring camera technology as the “Evolution of Outdoor Security.”

     The ultra-bright LED floodlights are activated by motion detected within customizable zones with a 270-degree field of view allowing the user to detect motion around corners and in blind spots. The high-resolution camera can be coupled with a siren alarm and two-way audio allowing the user to speak with anyone…from anywhere!

     Combined with the Ring app, the user can flash lights, sound the alarm and zoom-in to focus on areas under surveillance. Additionally, the floodlight cam sends instant alerts to a smartphone or computer. The system costs up to $350.00 and is difficult to install. The Ring disclaimer identifies the device as a security… not a surveillance camera.

    "Neighbors" is the Ring app that allows users to share video feeds and receive dynamic updates from connected neighborhood watch apps like Citizen that operates in San Francisco receiving updates from 911 calls.

Max Read describes the “hyper-awareness” he experienced after installing a Ring security camera as “terrifically addictive, a wildly engaging hodgepodge of voyeurism, suspicion and unease.”

        A recently divorced man moved into a town home next door to mine during the Spring 2020 COVID 19 shutdown and, over the next six months, exhibited conduct that escalated to include trespassing, stalking and harassment.

By October of 2020, I had been swept into a whirlpool of controversy and aggravation after the “nuisance neighbor” installed a motion sensing floodlight cam directed towards my patio door to facilitate his 21st century high tech stalking.

      I get it! Sociological research on interpersonal attraction has determined propinquity - or nearness - to be a driving force in the formation of relationships between people. The propinquity effect describes the simple fact that nearness - in an office, organization or neighborhood - fuels the tendency for people to form friendships or romantic relationships with people they encounter most.

      Despite having accrued an archive of documentation submitted to the landlord and SFPD, during the dark winter months of 2020, the “nuisance neighbor” installed a Ring Motion Sensing floodlight camera on property - he is not the owner of - to monitor my early morning  activities. The high beam floodlight activated within six feet of my patio door fulfilling legal criteria for “light trespassing” and privacy violations as captured by the following Youtube videos: VideoOne, Video Two.

Some would argue a professional woman in her sixties should be flattered by 24 hours of unrelenting attention from a man half her age, but this intolerable situation has been scheduled for Arbitration by the San Francisco Residential Rent Board.

     Having researched the legality of a neighbor spying on me, I have a better understanding of issues the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) calls “A Perfect Storm of Privacy Threats.” Ring security cameras and neighborhood watch apps have the capacity to turn a quiet neighborhood into a digital network of anxiety, fear and paranoia.

      According to FBI annual crime statistics, violent crime and property crime have steadily declined since 2017. San Francisco crime data showed a steep decline in most crime categories in 2020 except vehicle thefts, burglary and arson.

     Vendors of high-tech home security use marketing schemes that rely on convincing homeowners their property is threatened by crime and that Ring cameras prevent it. Ring cameras send notifications to the users phone each time the doorbell rings or motion is detected, transforming the delivery man, an urban raccoon or low flying pigeon into a potential criminal. Additionally, they facilitate the reporting of “suspicious behavior” and the promulgation of high-tech racial profiling.

      Recent evidence suggests Ring security cameras distort how much actual crime is taking place in a neighborhood and may not help police solve major crimes at all. An NBC investigation found that since 2018, Ring has “partnered” with 800 law enforcement agencies offering them access to video footage recorded by millions of customers. Interviews with 40 law enforcement agencies in eight states that partnered with Ring found no hard evidence supporting Ring’s claim it’s cameras make neighborhoods safer by deterring and solving crime. Indeed, in 13 of 40 jurisdictions no arrests were made as a result of Ring footage.

According to the Washington Post, Ring partnered with law enforcement agencies to create the Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal. This portal allows local police
to map the approximate location of all Ring cameras in a neighborhood and request footage from camera owners. Police do not need a warrant to access footage. On March 17, 2016, Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff emailed a company-wide declaration of war on “Dirtbag Criminals.” “We are going to war with anyone who wants to harm a neighborhood.”

     Sam Biddle writes in The Intercept, “Ring’s internal documents and video demonstrate why this marriage of private tech corporations with public law enforcement has troubling privacy implications.” The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a nonprofit that fights excessive local and state level surveillance. It finds a “deafening lack of evidence any city has been made safer” by the use of Ring camera networks.

The lack of evidence that Ring cameras deter or solve crime amplifies “Big Brother” privacy concerns generated by Ring’s plan to incorporate facial recognition and biometric analysis into its camera lines to identify “suspicious” faces.

    In a February 1, 2021 press release, EFF obtained emails that show LAPD sent requests to Amazon for Ring camera video of Black Lives Matter protesters and refused to disclose what crime was being investigated and how many hours of footage had been requested.

 Ronda Kaysan writes in the New York Times about “grainy footage” from her neighbors security cameras uploaded in 30 second loops to the Ring Neighbors app and explains you don’t even have to own a Ring camera to join Neighbors and click on a video map within a five mile radius of your home for “fish-eye” views of feral cats, skateboarders and maintenance workers.

     As long as security cams don’t infringe on personal privacy and the footage is used for lawful purposes such as prevention of package theft or vandalism, it is legal for a private property owner to install security cams in plain view and visible from the street.

      The Connecticut Office of Legislative Research issued a Report on the Use of Surveillance Cameras in Residential Areas. The Connecticut statue CGS&53a-189a, best defines voyeurism as "a person is guilty of voyeurism who, with malice, knowingly photographs, films, videotapes or otherwise records the image of another person without that person’s consent, while that person is not in plain view and has a reasonable expectation of privacy. California lags behind on these basic privacy matters.

  The use of motion sensing floodlight cameras in apartment units, condominiums and congregate living settings is clearly unlawful when installed by a tenant for  the surveillance of another tenant! Landlords cannot use cameras to track a tenant’s personal life. Pointing cameras at a tenant’s private space can be a breach of a tenants quiet enjoyment, or harassment.

     Landlords can justify placing cameras in common areas out of duty to provide a safe environment. Everything you need to know about Apartment Security Camera Laws highlights the fundamental security camera issues as placement and location. In most states it is illegal to install surveillance cameras anywhere people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Tenants should obtain permission to install security cameras from the landlord codified into residential lease agreements.

 Neighborhood security apps can trigger “wild paranoia” about perceived crimes and threats but the measurable security they provide is negligible. A Hermosa Beach woman called the police begging for help after checking her Ring camera that appeared to detect a “stranger” walking through her front door. The police dispatcher asked her to check the timestamp on the video. It revealed the intruder had entered her home an hour earlier. The “stranger” in the security footage was HER and she had called the police on HERSELF!     

     What I have been able to glean from existing research about the legality of the growing use of home security devices like the Ring motion sensing floodlight camera, is that they are legally permitted for outdoor use by private property owners on their private property.     

     SpyGuy.com asks the question, is it legal for neighbors to point security cameras toward your property to spy on you? “The short answer is yes … if your neighbor is the property owner. Both of you are entitled to protect your private property with security cameras to thwart and deter burglars, vandals and package thieves.

     Security cameras can be placed by a property owner facing public areas including your yard, driveway or front door because you have no reasonable expectation of privacy there. Security cameras facing your bedroom, bathroom or lounge where you may be captured undressing or engaged in intimate acts are illegal.

     Jamming, disrupting or damaging a neighbor’s surveillance camera is fraught with risk and may legally constitute malicious destruction of property. SpyGuy.com recommends communicating with the owner of a surveillance camera you believe may be invading your personal privacy.

     Should that fail, seek third party mediators and contact police and a privacy law attorney. In San Francisco resources include the local BAR association referral line, the Residential Rent Board, the San Francisco Tenants Union and Legal Assistance for the Elderly.

       A simple, elegant and ecological solution is to block the view of a surveillance camera you believe is invading your privacy with beautiful trees and shrubs. Tenants have a reasonable expectation of privacy and it is illegal to install surveillance cameras inside apartment complexes. Ring video surveillance systems include two-way audio and under Federal wiretapping laws it is illegal to record someone without their consent.

     Washington Post Technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler concludes in The Doorbells Have Eyes: The privacy battle brewing over home security cameras: 

“We should recognize this pattern: Tech that seems like an obvious good can develop darker dimensions as capabilities improve and data shifts into new hands. A terms-of-service upgrade or a hack could turn your doorbell into a privacy invasion you did not see coming. “

Ahimsa Sumchai Porter, MD, West Portal, Medical Director Golden State MD Health & Wellness is a longtime neighborhood and environmental activist

March 2021

City's Toxic Shipyard Development Is Killing Us

Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai

Westside...Looking Eastward

In 1962 my grandparents quietly integrated a Mount Davidson neighborhood. “Mamma Roberta” was a petite model and fashion coordinator for a major downtown department store. My grandfather, George, gained a solid financial foothold by wisely investing his hard-earned salary as an ILWU walking boss, into residential real estate. Their three-story home on Teresita Boulevard was as impeccable as a museum and, during a period of adolescent turmoil, I went to live with them. I became beneficiary to quality education at San Francisco State and on the “shiny hill” of the UCSF School of Medicine Parnassus campus.

Those familiar with my twenty-seven-year advocacy for environmental health and justice in Bayview Hunters Point are surprised to learn that, while I grew up in public housing on the City’s east side, I am a “child of privilege” of San Francisco’s westside neighborhoods and institutes of higher learning. In the words of Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair…it’s had tacks in it, and splinters, and places with no carpets on the floor - bare.”

I was a Stanford Fellowship trained Board Certified emergency physician on staff with the San Francisco Department of Public Health and San Francisco Giants MLB, on the morning of February 19, 1992 when I discovered my father, George Donald Porter, in bed at the family home — dead at age 58. My Dad retired early due to medical disability following a proud and lucrative career as an ILWU shipping clerk and walking boss. Like many African American men of the 1950’s era, he was assigned to the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

As physician of record on his death certificate, I requested my fathers’ medical record and was amazed to discover his chest X-ray findings of pulmonary asbestosis. A wrongful death class action civil suit quickly settled that benefitted other exposed shipyard workers.

In January of 2019, the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program launched as the nations first human biomonitoring program dedicated to providing easy, low cost, reliable urinary toxicology screenings to residents and workers at a federal Superfund site. I serve as Medical Director and Principal Investigator for “HP Biomonitoring” and, from a westside/eastside bicoastal perspective I appeal to you now.

Biomonitoring measures pollution in people using state of the art biomedical technology capable of detecting 35 toxic and nutrient “ biomarkers ” using mass spectrometry.

Funded by the Packard Foundation and licensed by the Medical Board of California, HP Biomonitoring is detecting chemical and radioactive “biomarkers” of toxic environmental exposure. The elements detected correspond exactly with those documented to be present in shipyard soils and landfills.

By combining the findings of urinary screenings with EPA approved geospatial mappings, HP Biomonitoring has identified a cluster of screenings in which multiple radioactive biomarkers are detected in toxic concentrations in residents living along the shipyard’s historic main entry on 3rd and Palou traveling southeast along the radiation contaminated shoreline — site of the United States Naval Radiological Defense Laboratories (NRDL) from 1946 to 1969. The HP Biomonitoring “ROC” cluster includes 15 UCSF workers who occupy Building 830 at 75 Crisp Avenue on the radiation contaminated shoreline and a shipyard artist. Elements detected include uranium, cesium, thallium, strontium, vanadium, gadolinium, rubidium and the gamma emitter manganese. Manganese has a 100% detection frequency in shipyard soils and has been detected in 100% of urinary screenings conducted on residents and workers within the shipyards one-mile perimeter. The California Biomonitoring Program has detected manganese in only 19% of its urinary screenings.

HP Biomonitoring is the first human biomonitoring program to detect an “aggregate” of multiple radioactive elements in multiple screenings and, on January 27, 2021, will receivethe coveted KPIX/CBS Jefferson Award.

But how does it get in their urine you ask? As early as 1946, the Atomic Energy Commission allowed NRDL researchers of the post-World War II era to pour radioactive waste into laboratory drains at the shipyard, dump radiation contaminated materials and animal carcasses into the industrial landfill on the shipyards shoreline and burn radioactive fuel into the air from Operations Crossroads ships hauled back following atomic explosions conducted in the South Pacific in shipyard power plants.

“A federal Superfund site is, by definition, a property where the EPA used a Hazard Ranking System to calculate a score based on actual or potential release of hazardous substances curing harm to human health. On a scale of 1 to 100, a score of 28.5 or more places a property on the National Priorities List. The Hunters Point Shipyard has a Hazard Ranking Score of 80 overall and 100 for groundwater migration, corresponding to an 80 to 100% risk the “toxic stew” documented to be present at the shipyard will contact sensitive receptors via airborne, dermal, waterborne or ingestible routes. Thus, by legal definition and government classification, the Hunters Point Shipyard is a harmful property and negative health effects seen in residents and workers on and adjacent to it, under the Precautionary Principle, must be presumed causal.” Source

The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is the second most contaminated property on the National Priorities List. The shipyard is so contaminated it has spawned EPA designation of three federal Superfund sites including the 600-acre naval base, the Parcel E-2 industrial landfill and nearby Yosemite Slough. It is a federal Superfund System!

“Hunters Point is unfolding into the biggest case of eco-fraud in U.S. History.” Jeff Ruch - Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility 04/09/2018

Whistle blower complaints and the damaging findings of Tetra Techs’ own internal investigation of 2,500 anomalous soil samples fueled the EPA investigation conclusion that up to 97% of radioactive soil samples collected throughout the base had been improperly processed or falsified. Navy computers, which first detected the contractor fraud, determined there was a four year window of opportunity between 2008 and 2012 for resident and worker exposure to falsely cleared radiation contaminated shipyard soils. A letter sent by Tomas Aragon, MD - San Francisco’s Chief Health Officer, to Mayor London Breed in March of 2019 documented a 31% increase in lung cancer in men living in the 94124 zip code — weakly attributed to smoking!

The Hunters Point Shipyard covers an area of over 600 acres in Southeast San Francisco. It sits on a bed of serpentinite rock rich in asbestos and heavy metals that match what the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program is detecting, along with radioactive elements, in urinary toxicology screens conducted on residents and workers within its one-mile perimeter. Between 2006 and 2007, over 2 million tons of serpentinite rock was graded from the Hunters Point hilltop for an ambitious mixed use housing development project that created Lennar Corporations neighborhood on Parcel A-1. In 2006, BAAQMD fined Lennar $587,000 for failing to monitor toxic dust emissions following multiple notices of violation issued during the grading of the Parcel A-1 hilltop. Asbestos concentrations as high as 138,000 fibers per cubic centimeter were detected in 2008.

On May 27, 2020, a Resolution in Support of the Community Harmed by Toxic Substances and Radiation was adopted by the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee. Introduced by D10 resident Gloria Berry, the resolution was sponsored by Chair David Campos and 12 elected members. It was adopted that “The San Francisco DCCC urges the City of San Francisco, the State of California, the US Navy and the federal Government to halt all construction and further resolves that reparations be paid to the residents of Bayview Hunters Point in the form of healthcare to include toxic testing and personal injury compensation in order to begin repairing the damage caused by years of exposure to radioactive waste and environmental injustice.”

In June of 2020, by executive order of Mayor London Breed, earthmoving and excavation began at the fence line separating Hunters Point hilltop residents, schools and recreational centers from Parcel A-2 at the boundary with the most radiation contaminated regions of the base, despite “clear and present dangers” posed by the trifecta of a raging pandemic and high ambient air pollution amplified by the worst wildfire season in California history! A BAAQMD dust complaint with video evidence was  filed by hilltop resid ents. A Proposition 65 violation was filed with Attorney General Xavier Becerra by Attorneys representing the nine thousand plaintiff Hunters Point Community Lawsuit.

The Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program believes the finding of multiple chemical and radioactive soil elements in multiple screenings conducted on Hunters Point residents and workers is best explained by airborne transmission of toxic dust generated by corrupt on-going development activities on a contaminated property that is the site of extensive soil fraud.

On January 7, 2021 The Bay Area Air Quality Management District requested opportunity to review the findings of the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program that include screenings that include multiple radioactive elements detected in a Hunters Point resident who has lived a quarter of a mile from the shipyard’s main entry and has undergone surgery for breast cancer and multiple brain tumors — the editor of the Bayview newspaper — who publicly revealed she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer and has elevated levels of cesium, thallium and strontium in her urinary screening. A professional woman who grew up in and near the shipyard, she underwent radiation therapy for a brainstem glioma known to be induced by exposure to heavy metals. Urinary screening detected multiple heavy metals. 15 UCSF workers in Building 830 — located within feet of the shipyard’s radiation contaminated shoreline and industrial landfill — were voluntarily screened.  Arsenic was detected in concentrations five times higher than toxic and uranium was detected in concentrations 17 times higher than allowable levels.

The Biden/Harris administrations’ appointment of Michael Regan to lead the EPA and proposal to create a division in the Department of Justice with a mandate to pursue environmental justice violations brings sunlight and fresh air to communities like Bayview Hunters Point. The new administration updated Executive Order 12898 on Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations. Https://www.archives.gov/files/federal-register/executive- orders/pdf/12898.pdf

While elected officials at the highest levels of government have been incriminated in the political bulldozer driving the shipyards redevelopment despite mounting medical legal evidence of “collateral damage” to the Hunters Point fence line community, the “Elephant in the Room” at the Hunters Point Shipyard remains former Mayor Willie Brown!

I walk my dogs along Lake Merced and operate medical, fitness and nutrition practices from West Portal Avenue.

Sources

S.F. shipyard developer brings in government consultant team featuring Willie Brown San Francisco Busness Journal

Chairman Willie: Willie Brown's Not-So-Secret Connection to the Hunters Point Project SF Weekly

Firm tied to Willie Brown gets political boost for Hunters Point Reveal News

Valencia Developer Recruits Willie Brown to Push San Francisco ProjectsSCTV News

Ahimsa Sumchai Porter, MD, West Portal, Medical Director Golden State MD Health & Wellness is a longtime neighborhood and environmental activist

January 2021

Dangerous Crossroads: 19th and Sloat

Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai

A Master Environmental Impact Report Must be Conducted for 19th Avenue Development Projects

San Francisco is a small densely populated seaport city located on the tip of a Peninsula surrounded on three sides by water. It’s day time population of 1.1 million people is packed into a city that is 7 feet square in area. Automobile congestion, high density residential development projects and a suboptimal public transit system have contributed to a growing incidence of pedestrian fatalities citywide. One of the cities busiest and most dangerous corridors is 19th Avenue - a state highway.

19th Avenue connects with the Golden Gate Bridge via Doyle Drive and the $1.1 billion reconstruction of the approach to the bridge will influence traffic congestion along its entire route. The intersection of 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard has been the scene of several horrific accidents and has been designated one of the city’s “deadliest” intersections. Traffic speeds may exceed 45 miles per hour.

In March, upgrades and improvements began at ten intersections along 19th Avenue designed to improve public safety including pedestrian countdown signals, curb ramps, and coordinated traffic signals to avoid red light runners. Enforcement of speed limits on 19th Avenue has always been controversial because the California Highway Patrol and the Taraval Police have shared jurisdiction over the region. Ideas for calming 19th Avenue traffic flow include a proposal to route traffic westward around the less congested Lake Merced Sunset Boulevard corridor.

The California Environmental Quality Act requires that development projects with the potential for resulting in physical change to the environment or requiring discretionary decisions by the City must undergo environmental review. CEQA environmental review for all departments and agencies of the City is conducted by the Major Environmental Analysis division of the Planning Department.

Special studies for environmental review include a consultant prepared Transportation Study when adverse impacts to existing traffic conditions can be anticipated or when the project generates new traffic impacts by increasing residential units, changes off street parking, bus stops or loading spaces, sites new driveways or pedestrian and vehicular access routes to the project site.

Additionally, CEQA Guidelines Section 21090 identifies that a master environmental impact report should be prepared when components of large development projects in the same region produce cumulative impacts that may be found insignificant if each development project is analyzed separately.

CEQA prohibits the “piecemealing” of environmental reviews for large development initiatives which, when considered as a whole in a master environmental impact report, may have significant cumulative unmitigated impacts.

The myriad of commercial and residential development projects that have been proposed along the 19th Avenue corridor is a clear example of the need for a master environmental impact report particularly with regard to the cumulative traffic impacts on pedestrian safety, schools, air quality and natural habitats.

Private developers, Republic Urban Properties, are working independently in preparation of a project design for the Arden Wood project, located at Wawona and 19th Avenue that includes an entry and exit to the development at 19th Avenue. Approval for development projects with entry and exits along 19th Avenue must be granted by the state transportation agency, CalTrans.

The private developers of Park Merced have proposed increasing their residential units by 6000 in a development surge that will increase automobile traffic along the southern tip of 19th at the intersection with southbound 280 and 101.

The SF State University Master Plan for development proposes a highrise at 19th avenue at the Stonestown shopping mall that will increase both pedestrian and automobile traffic.

Another private mixed use residential and commercial development project located at 47th avenue across from the Zoo and Ocean Beach is moving through the Planning Department.

The cumulative impact effects at the study intersections of the various projects proposed along 19th Avenue will only be seen with a master environmental impact report that includes a master analyis of traffic flow, circulation, public transporation level of service and pedestrian safety.

A master environmental impact report for the deadly intersection with Sloat Boulevard should be conducted as a matter of life and death.

Ahimsa Sumchai Porter, MD, West Portal is an environmental activist

April 2008