Visitacion Valley

"I never experienced gun violence while I was living in east Oakland, but since I moved to I’ve actually had guns pointed at me."

By Jasmenda Brown

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Homicide rates are up in San Francisco’s Bayview, Potrero Hill, and Visitacion Valley. Youth Radio’s Jasmenda Brown recently moved to Visitacion Valley from East Oakland. She says the Sunnydale housing projects where her mother lives are a far cry from the City’s tourist brochures.

I always thought to live in any part of San Francisco would be wonderful. I had this vision that every part of San Francisco looked like the houses on Full House or the new and improved Fillmore, but my Oakland tourist thoughts were horribly wrong.

I moved to San Francisco’s Sunnydale Projects from East Oakland sometime in January of this year. That was a huge change for me. I was so used of hearing about Oakland being so “ghetto” and having a lot of shootings, but Oakland doesn’t compare to Sunnydale. To me, personally, East Oakland is like Piedmont compared to Sunnydale.

I never experienced gun violence while I was living in east Oakland, but since I moved here I’ve actually had guns pointed at me. After just a few days of living in Sunnydale I heard gun shots and my mother told me to duck, very calmly as if she was use to it.

There was another incident that happened maybe two weeks later. My mom and I were on our way home coming from the BART station and she decided to go another way so she could go straight down Blythedale hill. As we were driving down two guys came out of nowhere and pointed guns at my mom’s car. My mom had to speed up and started to swerve.

Luckily one of the guys shook his head to let us know they weren’t targeting our car. As soon as we hit the stop sign we started hearing the gunshots. We made it home but it was my mom’s first time down that hill, and she said she will never drive that way again. Welcome to my neighborhood.