There’s a lotta anxiety in the Bayview these days. You know the story by now: artists and condos are moving in, longtime residents are being evicted or priced out. It used to be affordable. It’s not anymore. The character of the neighborhood is changing — for the whiter, the more sanitary and squeaky-clean.
BayviewLIVE, a block party getting underway on Saturday, Oct. 22, aims to celebrate the Bayview amid this time of transition with hip-hop, graffiti, DJs and more.
And in many ways, BayviewLIVE is a microcosm of the neighborhood’s tension. A day-long festival of art and music meant to reflect the community and instill regional pride, and headlined by community-minded musicians like Jidenna and Equipto, BayviewLIVE is also prominently sponsored by companies like Airbnb, Facebook and Twitter — the very entities propelling, in one way or another, the Bayview and Hunters Point’s overhaul. [Full disclosure: KQED is also a sponsor.]
It will be interesting, then, to see what sort of words might be spoken from the stage by S.F. rap legend Equipto, who earlier this year went on a much-publicized hunger strike as a member of the “Frisco Five” to protest a spate of police shootings in the city. A longtime resident of the Fillmore (where a multimillion-dollar revitalization effort largely failed), Equipto knows all to well the potential perils of urban renewal.
