If one neighborhood exemplifies San Francisco’s bittersweet attitude towards development, it’s the Mission. Even as the closure of longtime community hubs like Esta Noche and the Lexington signal the end of an era, new condos are in the pipeline all over the neighborhood, and the Valencia corridor has become synonymous with a bustling food and nightlife scene. Anxiety over the Mission’s future is really a desire to safeguard the neighborhood’s cultural heritage, which many see as under siege by a new generation of young, white residents.
District 9 supervisor David Campos has a solution — kind of. On Friday he announced that he’ll lobby for stricter limits on development in the Mission and may even propose a moratorium on market-rate housing. Campos is especially keen to protect the area around the 24th Street BART, which in recent months has become ground zero for real estate companies looking to replace industrial buildings with hundreds of market-rate housing units. Campos is working in conjunction with the neighborhood coalition Calle 24.
Last year, the Board of Supervisors named the area in question a Latino Cultural District and “the spiritual home of the city’s Latino community.” Such a designation was meant to “stabilize the displacement of Latino businesses and residents” and “preserve Calle 24 as the center of Latino culture and commerce.” As the San Francisco Business Times notes, between 2010 and 2012 white residents moving into the Mission outnumbered Hispanic residents for the first time in three decades, underscoring long-simmering alarm about the Mission’s affordability.
In lieu of issuing a moratorium — a move that planning director John Rahaim calls “drastic” — Campos could push for the area to become a special-use district, which would privilege new regulations over existing zoning laws. He could also impose interim zoning controls, as supervisor Jane Kim did for new retail in mid-Market in 2013.
According to the SF Business Times, about 500 units have been approved for the Mission but only 34 are earmarked “affordable.” Prop K, passed in November, aims to make one-third of housing in the city below market value. (It’s worth noting that some analysts dismiss Prop K as a ceremonial gesture with no real policy impact).
Last week, Emeryville’s city council narrowly rejected a similar proposal to halt residential construction of 1,200 new units. The public hearing attracted tenants and developers from Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco, many of whom see a domino effect in regional housing: rents go up in one city and residents are displaced to another.
News of Campos’s proposed moratorium was largely mocked on Twitter:
More magical thinking on housing from SF “progressives”: @DavidCamposSF wants to limit Mission development: http://t.co/rzDUjYEDnT @SFBTCory
— Andy Bosselman (@andybosselman) February 16, 2015
In what world can SF afford a housing moratorium along a BART line? http://t.co/9WcCuVrVu3?
— David Snyder (@davidhfe) February 16, 2015
David Campos GO AWAY! You’re not making the SF housing situation any better — on the contrary.. http://t.co/NWZGsn3Die via @SFBusinessTimes
— Vilde (@privildeged) February 16, 2015
SF progressives lather, rinse, repeat: Supervisor wants Mission market-rate moratorium on #housing http://t.co/zh3UDbAIaA
— Anthony Lazarus (@Sr_Lazarus) February 14, 2015
From the annals of “This Will Not Help”: SF supe to push for Mission development limits, may pitch moratorium. http://t.co/hoAkPJYgod
— Sarah Fine (@fineplanner) February 14, 2015
Supervisor Scott Wiener, an advocate for development, told the SF Business Times, “Every neighborhood is unique and is both fragile and resilient, and so is the Mission. It’s surviving and will survive.”
The question isn’t whether the Mission will survive, but whether those who’ve lived there for generations will survive with it.
[via SF Business Times; photo courtesy of torbakhopper/Flickr]
Got a tip for The Bold Italic? Email tips@thebolditalic.com.
