The Geneva Towers Community Outreach Project for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

IMLogo coordinated an historic, grass roots community outreach campaign for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regarding the demolition of Geneva Towers, two 20-story buildings, located in the Visitacion Valley section of San Francisco.  This low-income housing structure had come to symbolize the social, economic, and underserved community problems that had plagued more than 18,000 residents of Visitacion Valley.  How its demolition was handled was critical to future community redevelopment and the facilitation of better and long-term community/ government relationships.  Because the community included many ethnic, social and economic divisions and was challenged by Asian language difficulties, the task was complicated. 

HUD, which had already evacuated and relocated over 1000 residents from Geneva Towers, understood well that they needed to build consensus for the best method of removing the existing structures to accommodate the new housing complexes. This was essential to working effectively with and for the community. Two methods, wrecking ball and implosion, were to be presented to the community for their choice and their decision regarding the best method for their community’s redevelopment.  This kind of community consensus had never been sought and will represent an historic participation and collaboration between residents and government/HUD.  With these goals in mind, IMLogo coordinated this first time collaboration.

A Multi-cultural Community Challenge

IMLogo was charged with three objectives: building community awareness of the impending demolition of Geneva Towers, educating a multi-cultural, multi-lingual community on the two demolition methods, and achieving consensus on the preferred method of demolition. With these objectives, they implemented a strategic grass roots campaign of community collaboration that represented every faction, neighborhood, and community group in Visitacion Valley.  The IMLogo team brought together more than fifty community leaders in an advisory task force, representing the schools, social services, neighborhood activists, small business, ethnic support groups, senior citizens, city agency and HUD leadership.

Ground-breaking Community Education Outreach

Multi-lingual community meetings were conducted by IMLogo and HUD, with the Chinese translated community meeting drawing together more than 200 residents.  Eleven local elementary, middle and high schools were involved with the IMLogo team utilizing elementary school assemblies, classroom presentations, school-wide votes, and parents/family votes.  A special curriculum and video was developed by IMLogo for middle and high school classes, involving more than 3000 students and parents. Because of tight regulatory deadlines this school outreach was done within two months.

Because so many members of the community participated in the phases of the campaign and determined how they were delivered, the methods used were successful and supported community wide.  These methods included multi-language flyers, door-to-door neighborhood surveys, balloting, English and Chinese community newsletters, posters, school programs, senior center presentations, video showings, business displays and customer storefront interviews, and an intense local media campaign in English and Chinese. 

The Geneva Towers Community Outreach Project for HUD (cont.)

Community consensus was reached with implosion chosen, with 2,589 in favor of implosion and 216 in favor of wrecking ball; this represented a higher voter turnout than had been recorded during presidential elections. Because of this documented voting method and demonstrated consensus building efforts, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which had promised to fine HUD for the demolition of the Geneva Towers, did not fine them. This was the first time an agency was not fined for this type of demolition.

Coordination of Implosion Event

Community members joined together in demolition events to celebrate major strides in the community’s redevelopment and, on May 16, 1998, all stakeholders participated in a ceremony to mark the implosion of Geneva Towers.  IMLogo coordinated the mammoth event surrounding the historic implosion with HUD, dignitaries, community organizations and neighborhood groups participating fully, over 5,000 people attending. Unique partnerships with event planning and funding benefiting community groups and schools were also coordinated by IMLogo so that the event and Visitacion Valley Neighborhood Day were folded together and was truly successful community event. 

Because of the groundbreaking achievements of this project, IMLogo was also commissioned by HUD to develop a commemorative video and book chronicling the history of Geneva Towers, the community, and HUD’s efforts to “uplift the neighborhood.” These are currently being showcased internationally.

Contact:

John Phillips, HUD, Community Builder, Geneva Towers Community Outreach Project

450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102  (415) 436-6446