Lennar Corporation (Wikipedia) is a housing developer that has been found and accused of developing housing over industrial and military waste sites despite knowledge that they would be putting their residents in danger. In typical fashion, their developments disproportionately effect poor folks and people of color.
This article is a placeholder and needs a lot of work...there is a ton of information on this developer out there on the Internet and in the minds/writings/photos/etc. of the people and organizations that have rallied against them. Please take a moment to fill in what you know, and add links to other articles on the wiki and elsewhere that can give us a full historical context of what's going on. Citations are best but not required!
Examples of abuse
-
Hunters Point Shipyard Development: Lennar Corp. built a housing development in Hunters Point right over the decommissioned Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. This is a "Superfund Site", or a place that the federal government has designated as a major toxic waste site that they apply funds to for its cleanup (for another example of a superfund site, read about the one in West Oakland). In the case of this site, the waste in question is nuclear: ships would be sent out into the Pacific to test nuclear arms, and then would return to port covered in nuclear residue. This residue would be hosed off at the base, effectively contaminating the entire base and the area surrounding it. Black residents of Hunters Point have accused the city of exposing youth to toxic dust and pushing black folks out of the city center and into the worst possible real estate in San Francisco in the desire to gentrify San Francisco.
-
Read more!
- Wikipedia: "Hunters Point Shipyard development"
- Indybay (August 2009): "SF Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is one of the most toxic SUPERFUND sites in the Nation"
-
Read more!
- This same corporation built housing developments in Florida over sinkholes that had been filled with toxic waste.
- They have also been accused of building homes over former military weapon testing ranges that still contain live rockets and bombs.
Who are these people?
- Keith Jackson, a former education official for the city, was a representative of Lennar Corporation. He is one of the people arrested in late March, 2014, in an anti-corruption sting for his role in a murder-for-hire scheme. More on that on the SF Chronicle.