By Lee Hubbard

Bayview community activist Kevyn Lutton supported Sophie Maxwell in 2000 when she first ran for supervisor in District 10, an area of San Francisco that encompasses Potrero Hill, Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitation Valley, and parts of Portola.

"She was a working-class woman who lived close to me," Lutton told the Bay Guardian.

But early in Maxwell's tenure, Lutton said she was bothered by the way police treated the youths in Bayview-Hunters Point and that Maxwell didn't try to help. "I called Maxwell about police brutality and how the police act in this community," Lutton told us. "She never returned my call after several phone calls, e-mails, and mailed letters."

Maxwell has been a resident of Bayview-Hunters Point for more than 30 years. She was raised on activism as the daughter of the late Potrero Hill political icon Enola Maxwell. But Maxwell's upbringing hasn't translated into effective, responsive leadership, say community activists like Lutton, who sits on the Restoration Advisory Board for the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

"Sophie has been very unresponsive to issues out here," Lutton said. "There are a lot of issues out here, and it seems as if Sophie is not concerned."

So Lutton is leading a campaign to recall Maxwell, which hasn't attracted much in the way of money or support yet, but has brought together a diverse coalition of centrist and progressive activists that includes Espanola Jackson, Maurice Campbell, and Willie and Mary Ratcliff, publishers of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper.

Supporters of recalling Maxwell say the main issues driving the effort are the lack of economic development, slow progress on housing projects and redeveloping the naval shipyard, continued operation of the dirty Hunters Point power plant, and crime and violence in the community.

"Sophie has been in office for [almost] five years, and there hasn't been any improvement in Bayview-Hunters Point," said Mel Washington, president of the Black Chamber of Commerce and head of Bay Copy, a neighborhood business. "What has she done to bring jobs or any opportunities to Visitation Valley or the Bayview?"

According to Washington, Maxwell has been against or silent on legislation that could provide an economic boost to the area.

"One of the first things she did in office was to help defeat the Home Depot/supermarket/housing complex and housing proposal on Bayshore Boulevard in Visitation Valley," Washington said. "That project would have brought neighborhood improvements, jobs and economic development, to an area that does not have any of this today."

While Maxwell doesn't believe the nascent recall effort will gather the 4,000 signatures necessary to return her to the ballot before 2006, she said the campaign is damaging anyway.

"I think that it is misguided and unfortunate that they are doing this instead of working on things to help the district," Maxwell told us. "With all of the issues and things going on out here, they should be working on solutions to the problems. We don't have time for this."

Maxwell said the move to recall her is being led by a small group of frustrated people who are trying to blame her for problems beyond her control.

"The shipyard is in the hand of the Redevelopment Agency, and state law dictates this. Lennar was picked way before I got into office. The shipyard has been vacant for over 30 years. It is about time that something happens. It needs to be cleaned up thoroughly and then used and made a part of this community," Maxwell said.

Maxwell also said she wants to get rid of the power plants in Hunters Point and Potrero Hill and has been working to do so.

"We are looking at putting three [combustion turbine power plants] at Potrero at the old site and putting one near the airport. I want to shut down the Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero plants in some time. I have to come up with a solid plan to do this. I don't want to just be about talk. I want to come up with a plan to make sure that it happens," she said. "I think that the criticism is misinformed. They have another agenda."

In a district that includes rich, white Potrero Hill and poor, black Bayview, political agendas are molded by race and class issues, particularly at a time when many black youth are feeling harassed by the police and alienated from city government.

"It seems to me that she has done more for Potrero Hill than for Hunters Point," said recall supporter Esponola Jackson. "She does not stand up for Bayview-Hunters Point."

"There is a perception amongst a lot of black people that Potrero Hill put Sophie into office," said recall opponent Rev. Amos Brown, a former supervisor and the current head of the San Francisco branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "That tends to send mixed messages to people in District 10. There needs to be a sit-down with her adversaries in the community and others in Bayview-Hunters Point to tell them what is going on with her agenda."

Many African American activists from the area supported the return of district elections – parting ways with then-mayor Willie Brown and his surrogates in Bayview-Hunters Point – hoping to finally get a seat at the political table in San Francisco. So much of the current criticism of Maxwell stems from frustration that their voice has not been a loud or effective one.

"In general, Bayview-Hunters Point has been ignored in San Francisco," Lutton said. "The projects are ill kept.... The trash is hardly picked up. The streets can get really dark at night, and the attitude of the police out here is different than it is in any other part of the city."

Yet Maxwell said she has been fighting for her community and the criticisms are unfair.