By Elena Shao : insideclimatenews – excerpt
Some concrete plants and sand facilities in Bayview-Hunters Point have had only draft permits for years. An air district spokesman said finalizing permits have taken longer “than we would have liked.”
Raymond Tompkins thinks the high efficiency air filters in his old, gold Mercedes are among the car’s best features. They trap dust and tiny pollution particles, and they’re fitted with activated charcoal to help remove odors—an invaluable function for a longtime resident of San Francisco’s most polluted neighborhood.
“You know, I’m supposed to be dead,” Tompkins, 72, said. “Most Black men don’t live this long, here in Bayview. I’ve been going to a funeral every month.”
Living in Bayview-Hunters Point, a mostly low-income and minority neighborhood in the southeastern part of the city, means blinking away the dust from hills of sand and asphalt piled in industrial yards and ignoring the stench from a wastewater treatment facility and an animal rendering plant next door to their homes and schools…(more)