We recently caught up with Elijah Dale, the San Francisco native who pays homage to the past, present, and future of Bay View Hunters Point.

Interview Conducted by Stetson Hines

What neighborhood did you grow up in?
Bay View Hunters Point, San Francisco, CA

Do you think people are the product of their environment?

I think people are the product of their environment and circumstances. You can be a part of the environment, and that environment can inspire you, or it can set barriers that are hard to overcome. So it’s about the community that your in and the people around you who shaped the person you become.

Was it a lot of crime where you grew up?

There was a lot of crime as a youth, but I think once I got older, seeing the process of gentrification and things like that not in good nature, you started to see crime go down. Hunters Point is definitely changing into a place that is trendy nowadays.

When was the first time you witnessed a crime? 

Theirs a lot of crime that I’ve witnessed just having my peer group. You don’t want to say you're a part of it, but your definitely there when you see it. It’s not so much avoidable. The first time I was exposed to it and just watched it happen was in middle school 6th grade. Just throughout the neighborhood, having a mom who worked in the Non-profit industry, you see that stuff from the day you're born.

Did you lose any friends growing up?

A lot of friends, some of my closest friends, whether that’s to the system or through violence that is the way I shaped life too. The reason why I don’t have a lot of close friends a lot of them either ended up going that way or passing. That’s part of it.

Are your friends still around?

Some of them some I still talk to about what they need to do to get by. Some of them are doing great things in life. They took advantage of some of the opportunities they had. Those are the people I try to be the closest to. Then theirs some of my friends who have passed and some of my friends who’ve gone on to do bigger and better things. I would say their rich culture in Hunters Point that we may get one side of things, but theirs also a strong body of people here that are doing great things I’ve come to appreciate.

How does that make you feel?

At first, it’s sad, but you start to get numb to it. You just start looking at the patterns of friends that you lose. They have similar patterns in the decisions they make and the people they surround themselves with. So the friends I lost to violence, I would say while you do feel empathetic for the loss, you feel more sympathy for the family and the people who experience that loss. For the friends that you actually do lose theirs has to be a sense of understanding. Well, they made these decisions on a regular basis. Even though I’m sad that this happened to them, I also do understand, and they understand why things happen. Not to say it’s a good thing, but that’s just the reality of the situation.

What made you choose a different life?

I had a lot of strong influences in my life. They go beyond in my household. One of the programs YCD, which I’ve been a part of since I was a teenager. I had a lot of strong mentors being a part of Hunters Point Family, YCD, and Omega Boy’s Club and just taking part in all the youth programs some don’t exist anymore but SFC Boxing as a youth, SF PAL Seahawks as a youth, and Brown Bombers as a youth. All these organizations keep people in the right direction as a youth, so I was motivated to play football. Football has been the primary reason why I choose to go a different route.

Suppose you could talk to your friends and family that you lost to the grave or jail. What would you tell them?

I would try to get to a point where I would use my influence on them whether it be small or large,e try just to tell them there is someone who car. There is somebody who wants to see a better route for them. I think many people I have lost in the past really don’t see the people or feel that they have that support system. That is why they make the decisions that they make. A lot of these people I feel think that their alone that they have to get it on their own—a lot of time,s that’s not the case. If someone makes the decision to rob somebody on one end,d we see that this person is robbing because of their thug. But then theirs that other side this person committing a robbery because they're hungry and they haven’t eaten in two or three days, that their shoes are dusty, and their shoes are talking, and they're walking around in puddles. they're being made fun of in school because of that, and that’s one of the things nobody talks about, and no one can talk about being a young man that being a sensitive feeling, but also just an issue your not suppose to talk about about about outside the home. So I think having that support would be different having somebody to t, talk to not being so hard, not being that guy who’s covering everything, and being transparent. I go through this too. The fewer people feel alon,e the more they can progress, and the more motivation they could feel. I’ve always felt motivated by people who have told me that they failed, and those are the same people that I look up t. Youu told me that you failed. So I’ve seen that well,l if he failed to do this t,oo I could fail and still be successful.

How has San Francisco shaped you to become the person you are today? Due to violence, friends, and family members being locked up?

I think San Francisco has a wide variety of people to be around,d being that it’s such a small compacted city you could be on one block and be in one of the most broke neighborhoods and go to the next block and be in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city. I think the greatest thing about San Francisco you have to find a balance in terms of your communicati. You can’t talk to the people in city hall the same way you talk to people in the street. Partt of that is the level of respect that you get just the form of communication. So I think being able to do that,t and I think everyone is able to do that in this neighborhood whether they choose to do it or n,ot is a different question, but everyone is fully capable of speaking in a manner that can get through to the total public theirs also this lingo within that everybody uses that’s similar so things like code-switching you become talented with. Everyone in this city can be in a room with a different walk of lif. That’ss one of the key components to diversity that you not on such a one-track type of lifestyle. That you can pick anybody from Bay View Hunters Point and bring them to city hall and they’ll be able to speak clearly if they want to. The issues that go on in Bay View Hunters Point that everyone experiences they can communicate that to city officials and city officials can understand that. The issue is that things don’t get done, but I would say that everyone baseline of communication that everyone has and that everyone understands. But in the current day in age, I don’t know because we have a lot of transplants and we have a lot of people who are not from here. So it’s not that level of understanding,g but growing u,p I would say people understood each other that’s why I think something as simple as the high school you went to becomes such a great value. If you say Lincoln, Thurgood, or Balboa, everyone knows about these schools and had memories of going to them.