Things looking up in gritty area of S.F.

LaVonne Spencer owns a beauty shop in a part of this tourist mecca that rarely sees out-of-towners -- or even people from other neighborhoods.

For decades, Bayview-Hunters Point has been a social and economic outcast. The largely poor, minority area south of downtown is known for its high rates of violent crime and infant mortality -- and as a bleak industrial wasteland with 325 toxic sites awaiting cleanup.

But Spencer, 53, looks out the door of her shop, past the iron security fence, and sees hope.

In the middle of her block is a platform for the new Third Street light-rail project that officially opens today, connecting the area via high-tech trains with such tourist haunts as Chinatown and North Beach.

Spencer and other merchants hope the $648-million project, which includes new public art and spruced-up streets, will lure money and energy to a gritty main strip that has more liquor shops than grocery stores.

“I’ve already seen the changes,” she said as she monitored several women sitting beneath hairdryers at her Windings Beauty Mart. “Time was, you never saw white folks on this street. But now you see ‘em -- walking their dogs. Seems like people may be changing their opinion of our neighborhood.”

That fact troubles Willie Ratcliff. The publisher of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper calls the rail project part of a land grab designed to eventually take inner-city properties from black residents.

The new light-rail line, he says, will bring rich developers and their political allies looking to capitalize on one of the last untapped housing markets in a city where fewer than 20% of residents own their homes.

“They’ve got plans that don’t include us -- the people who have lived here for years,” he said. “But this is a fighting community. We’re not going.”

Everywhere he looks, Ratcliff sees the evidence. Mayor Gavin Newsom recently announced plans for a new stadium at the nearby Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. New town houses and condominiums are in the works.

Dwayne Robinson, a community activist and owner of the Bayview Barber College on Third Street, also is preparing for an invasion of new residents.

He holds the cover of a weekly newspaper showing a cartoon drawing of Bayview-Hunters Point’s potential future: White people riding a train called “urban renewal,” plowing black pedestrians out of the way.

“Hey, it’s like that old saying, ‘There’s gold in California!’ Well, there’s platinum in Bayview,” he said. “They’re coming!”

Angelo King can only laugh at what he calls conspiracy theories. “This is San Francisco, Calif. Those changes were coming anyway,” said King, chairman of the Bayview Project Area Committee, a community advisory group.

“The redevelopment dissenters need to know that you can’t have one without the other. The light rail has improved our streetscape so we’re an attractive community. That draws new people. That means change.”

And because Bayview enjoys the city’s fourth-highest home ownership rate -- about 51% -- new buyers and rising housing prices could be good news to many middle- and lower-income African Americans, King said.

“People talk about black flight, but those who leave the black communities like this one don’t go because they get priced out; it’s because they get a good offer and choose to go.”

Officials expect 25,000 people a week to ride the new line, which is 5.4 miles long and has 18 stops, many of which will be adorned with community art. Many blocks feature new trees, streetlamps and repaved sidewalks.

The line, which took five years to build, tore up Third Street and forced some businesses to close and others to absorb major losses.

But Vince Lorenzo, who says he lost $100,000 in business during construction, hopes that all those headaches are gone.

“Everyone’s hoping for the best,” said Lorenzo, a co-owner of Mazzei and Sons Hardware, which opened in the 1930s. “But for this to work, the violence has to stop. You can bring in all the rail lines you want, but people are not going to ride them if they fear for their safety.”

For years, Bayview-Hunters Point has recorded San Francisco’s highest murder rate. A recent city study showed homicide as the area’s leading cause of premature death.

Robinson, the community activist, said crime could be curtailed with more jobs. But he complained that the city’s redevelopment plan included precious little money to help business owners improve their storefronts to bring in customers and boost employment.

He also worries that the arrival of retail chains such as Starbucks will shutter homegrown businesses. “We need some corporate input here, but nobody wants a Starbucks on every block.”

King, of the advisory group, called for compromise. “I don’t want lots of big businesses either, but targeted businesses have their place,” he said.

“I’m not crazy about Starbucks either. But I’m also not crazy that I can’t get a cup of coffee in my neighborhood after 5 p.m. What are you going to do?”

LaVonne Spencer knows what do: wait for the new business she hopes the light rail will bring. She already has had a few new walk-in customers at her beauty shop. She might make enough profit to do some renovations.

“I might even take down those security bars,” she said. “Now wouldn’t that be nice?”

*

john.glionna@latimes.com