Locally, the development of green spaces in the Bay Area is difficult. In Vallejo, the citizens' commission on the city's general plan wanted to make new open space along the city's waterfront, which is located in South Vallejo, the city's poorest neighborhood. However, when the citizens' commission presented their ideas at a meeting, the city attorney said that there was a pending project, and that industrial sites needed to be left as is. The city plans on dredging a shipping channel between Vallejo and Mare Island, as well as building a deep-water port and a cement processing plant. Residents have not only stated that this would have adverse effects on access to green space in South Vallejo, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bay Area, but that this would also cause many health problems for South Vallejo residents. City officials vow to continue with the project, and Vallejo residents demand more transparency and self-determination on city projects. In San Francisco, the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood has traditionally lacked green space, but the Bayview Waterfront Project was created to develop the area for retail, offices, and parks and recreational open space. However, some residents of Bayview have criticized such initiatives and say that, due to increasing gentrification of the area, the open space would not be enjoyed by Bayview's long-term residents and instead would be co-opted by newer, wealthier residents. Gentrification and the diaspora of black residents in the Bayview has increased in recent decades. In 1990, 65% of Bayview residents were African American; by 2000 black people no longer were a majority of residents.
