Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island Development By Jin Zhu and Carla Leshne

Treasure Island is a human-made island in the middle of the Bay. Adjacent Yerba Buena Island, upon which the foundation of the Bay Bridge rests, is the natural island from which the materials which formed Treasure Island were quarried. Built in the 1930s for the Exposition of 1939, TI was leased, then seized by the US Navy in the 1940s for use as a base for a Damage Control school which specialized in nuclear, biological and chemical decontamination. Ships from Operation Crossroads, the first atomic test explosions in the Marshall Islands, were docked at the base, and trainees practiced on the USS Pandemonium, a land- locked dummy ship loaded with radioactive material used to simulate fallout. The use of real sources of radiation left traces of cesium-137 still detectable on the island today. Since the closure of the base in 1997, ongoing remediation is preparing the site for redevelopment. Lennar, the largest homebuilding company in the U.S., will turn former navy buildings into approximately 8,000 of units of housing for 20,000–25,000 residents. Despite the presence of residual radioactive materials, island residents live adjacent to the waste piles, separated sometimes only by a poorly maintained chain link fence through which particulate matter can easily blow. While the Navy claims that the waste is fully contained and the area is safe, scans of areas near housing complexes and playgrounds in 2013 found objects radioactive enough to cause burns and hair loss if held for an hour. Tetra Tech, the multinational company awarded with the nuclear remediation contract for Treasure Island, is also responsible for the clean-up of nearby Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (HPNS), a Superfund site in the southeastern corner of San Francisco which the city hopes to turn into a further 12,000 units of mostly market-rate housing priced at $800,000 and above. Rebranded as the “Shipyard,” condominiums on a parcel of land declared to be “safe” have already been completed and occupied. As on Treasure Island, the new housing exists in a bubble within a low income community populated in large part by people of color. In recent years, former employees have come forward to report widespread faking of data samples at HPNS. Radioactive objects have been found near occupied residences previously considered safe. The whistleblowers' claims call into question the legitimacy of the work done by Tetra Tech on both sites and point to a failure of regulators and elected representatives to safeguard the communities living near them. These discoveries validate the concerns of long-time community activists like Marie Harrison, and the organizers at Greenaction and Bayview Community Advocates, who have worked for decades to bring the health concerns of neighborhood residents to the fore. Created in collaboration with artist Burak Arikan and the SFMOMA Civic Data Solidarity project using Arikan’s Graph Commons platform, this map outlines the relationships between elected officials, developers, financiers, state agencies, federal departments and the institutions through which their financial and political interests mesh. In visualizing the close ties between defense companies, real estate interests and politicians who influence the legislative and regulatory bodies, we surface the conflicts of interest which occur when investors who stand to gain financially from real estate development have close relationships with officials whose job is to protect the public. In the late 1990s, 's closed military bases posed an opportunity for the Florida based Lennar Development Corporation. While many of the bases were toxic Superfund sites, Lennar saw potential for profit. As the military was decommissioning bases throughout the state, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s nephew, Laurence Pelosi, who is also cousin to former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, was positioned as the Director of Acquisitions for Lennar. The company gained the development contracts for military bases across California, with many located in the Bay Area, including HPNS, Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, Naval Shipyard, Naval Air Station and Concord Naval Weapons Station. By 2009, Lennar had amassed large ranches for subdivision as well as the military property; the company was overextended. The Lennar subsidiary led by CEO Emil Haddad — Landsource Communities Development LLC — lost approximately a billion dollars of California Public Employee pension money after filing for bankruptcy. Just after the Landsource filing, Terry Fancher of Stockbridge Capital and Darius Anderson—both of whom have a large ownership interest in the Treasure Island development — were implicated in public pension losses. Five Point Communities — also a Lennar spinoff — was created, again with CEO Emil Haddad at the helm. Five Points was able to re-acquire the same bankrupt developments that Landsource was selling off, minus the billion dollar loss of CalPers public employee pension funds. Our research on Treasure Island/ Yerba Buena Island development began in the context of the mass evictions on Yerba Buena Island in 2015.1 YBI tenants were the first to be displaced for development. The Treasure Island Development Authority (the agency appointed to oversee the project) had allowed for the construction of market rate units on the stable island before the later phase of mixed and affordable housing on the Treasure Island landfill. Yerba Buena Island residents were given the opportunity to relocate to Treasure Island, though many refused and resisted their evictions. Another 1,800 current residents of Treasure Island will be relocated as the development progresses.

1“Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island Development,” LittleSis, https://littlesis.org/maps/897-treasure-island-and-yerba-buena-island-development? Treasure_Island_and_Yerba_Buena_Island_Development Members of longstanding political families in the region approved the opportunity for investors to implement the redevelopment plan worth $6 billion while simultaneously sitting on the regulatory bodies which oversee the remediation efforts. Tetra Tech receives its license to work with nuclear waste from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is overseen in part by the Senate Environment Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety upon which Congresswoman Pelosi sits despite her direct family ties to Lennar. While in office, former Boxer was a member of the Senate Environment Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight, which has the capability to oversee the Superfund program. The former Senator's son, Douglas Boxer, worked for Platinum Advisors, the firm founded by Democratic party lobbyist Darius Anderson. Through Platinum Advisors and Kenwood Investments, Anderson is a fulcrum which connects the worlds of political fundraising and real estate. A former treasurer for the Democratic party, with early access to grocery store tycoon Ron Burkle’s funds, he is now the owner of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. He holds a 100% interest in the Treasure Island Yacht Marina, and stakes in the funding LLCs for the development. Nancy Pelosi lobbied Congress to fast track the Area Regional Center to act as a broker for the EB5 visa program. The program exchanges green cards for half million dollar investments in the Treasure Island Development Corporation, Hunters Point Shipyard and other developments. Former Mayor Willie Brown, Platinum Advisor lobbyist/investor Chris Gruwell and attorney/investor Stephen Kay were all involved in the first Bay Area regional center to participate in the immigration for cash program. Given the tightly woven entanglements between elected officials and investors, the act of defining what is “safe” for residents and good for the community has been left to people with questionable interests and motives. Residents who have a long-term stake in the community have a lower threshold for what is considered acceptable risk for cancer and respiratory illnesses than the contractors or regulators who temporarily visit the site and have financial incentives to prematurely declare the site habitable. The collaboration between public servants and the complex web of local and international capital has put the community in harm’s way. The health and wellbeing of current Treasure Island and Hunters Point residents should be prioritized over return on financial investment. The complex web of interests and relations may continue to make that difficult.