A tale of two Ys
While developers plan a luxury YMCA on the waterfront, a neighborhood branch searches for much-needed funding.

By Matthew Hirsch

THE $200 million Mills Corp. development at Piers 27/31, which would feature acres of office and retail space and the country's largest YMCA, is supposed to create waterfront access for all of San Francisco. But a sluggish fundraising effort at the Bayview-Hunters Point YMCA has some observers saying, forget the sailboats and canoes – what's in store for their struggling branch?

When the Bayview-Hunters Point YMCA opened six years ago, it lacked its own building and offered only basic tutoring and recreational services out of the Mission District branch at 4080 Mission St. In June 2001 the Y moved into an old Catholic school at 1601 Lane St., a building that hasn't seen any major repairs since the 1950s. There's a gym, a few after-school programs, and community meeting rooms, but it lacks the sense of liveliness and commotion you might expect from a YMCA center in a heavily populated neighborhood.

Administrators believed it would cost less than $3 million to modernize the building, according to Barbara Kimport, YMCA of San Francisco's senior vice president for financial development. A more thorough inspection revealed the tab to be $8.5 million, which would cover only infrastructural changes – a seismic retrofit, accessibility for handicapped visitors, and new electric wiring and plumbing. And little of that money has been raised yet.

YMCA officials say they are about to begin a $1.2 million gymnasium renovation at the Bayview-Hunters Point facility, the first phase of an overhaul that was supposed to begin last June but stalled in the Planning Department, according to Kimport. She says the YMCA hasn't set a deadline to complete the Bayview-Hunters Point capital campaign, but fundraisers still need about $6 million of the $8.5 million total cost. "It would be great if we could get the work done in three years," Kimport says.

Meanwhile, YMCA fundraisers are scrambling for $30 million in pledges to finance the waterfront Y – which will become, essentially, a snazzy sports club for tourists and the well-to-do. If the Piers 27/31 project gets final approval from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mills starts construction early next year, it is likely the grand opening for the waterfront YMCA will take place long before Bayview-Hunters Point renovations are complete.

That's not acceptable to Sup. Sophie Maxwell, who represents Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero Hill. Neighborhood YMCA facilities such as Bayview-Hunters Point's should get funding before the new waterfront Y, especially given the need for safe spaces for young people and the elderly in her district, Maxwell says. The entire top floor of the Bayview-Hunters Point facility is off-limits, and visitors can't use computers until the next phase of renovations (not yet funded) is complete. The Bayview-Hunters Point YMCA is "not what it should be as far as I'm concerned, and they've got to pump up their efforts," Maxwell says.

Despite those issues, Bayview-Hunters Point YMCA executive director Cheryl Smith says the waterfront development can only help her struggling branch. Smith, who has worked at the Bayview-Hunters Point branch since it was created, says the YMCA has been forced to look outside its neighborhood for funding. The facility is still so new that a lot of people don't know it's there, and besides, there isn't a ton of money floating around in Bayview-Hunters Point for large endowments. The YMCA development at Piers 27/31 has helped attract new donors who became interested in the Y and decided to direct their money to Bayview-Hunters Point, the branch with the greatest need. "We don't have this huge constituency to fundraise from," Smith says. "Frankly, the only reason people are interested in this project now is because of the piers project."

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