“Treasure Island and Ecological, Infrastructural, & Racial Justice – Atomic Maneuvers, Toxic Legacies, and the Current Housing Crisis in the Bay Area: For Whom and When is Treasure Island Habitable?”
San Francisco’s Treasure Island, constructed for the 1939 Gold Gate Internal Exposition, was given to the US Navy on the eve of World War II. While under the Navy’s dominion, the island because a simulation site for training soldiers to handle disasters. Following the testing of the hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll in 1952, Treasure Island became ground zero for training exercises on radioactive contamination. These “simulations” leaked into the real world, contaminating the Island with toxic and radioactive substances (Dillon, see background reading). When the military left Treasure Island they gave it to the city of San Francisco. Treasure Island, a toxic site, is inhabited by a majority of people of color, who are now being threatened with eviction in order to accommodate the city’s plan to build 8500 new housing units.
The inseparability of ecological, infrastructural, and racial justice will be a central theme of the presentations, asking: For whom and when is Treasure Island habitable? There will be plenty of time for conversation, and there will also be refreshments.
Convener:
Karen Barad (Feminist Studies, SJRC)
Participants:
Lindsey Dillon (UCSC Sociology, SJRC, EDGI)
Topiary Landberg (UCSC Film & Digital Media, SJRC fellow)
Smadar Lavie (Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley, resident of Treasure Island)
Erin McElroy (UCSC Feminist Studies, Co-Founder of the San Francisco Anti-Eviction Mapping Project)
For Background Reading, please email Lindsey Dillon:
Lindsey Dillon, “Pandemonium on the Bay: Naval Station Treasure Island and the Toxic Legacies of Atomic Defense”
Background on the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project:
http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/anti-eviction-mapping-project-an-interview-with-erin-mcelroy/
November 29, 2017 | 4:00-6:00 PM | Science and Justice Common Room, Oakes 231