New Housing In San Francisco In Conflict With Sustainability

As San Francisco's Mission Bay and other eastern areas sees a burst of new housing and other development, housing activists see massive displacement, especially of African-American residents and businesses.

1 minute read

October 28, 2005, 2:00 PM PDT

By Irvin Dawid

â€œThis is what developers and some city officials see as San Francisco's future: high-rise, high-end condominiums, islands of serenity near transit corridors with ground-floor shopping and cafÃ©s. In this vision, some 40,000 new units, perhaps even more, will be built over the next 20 years, enough housing for 100,000 new residentsâ€¦. But all but a fraction of those new units will be at what the city calls "market rate," meaning the very cheapest of them â€" tiny one bedrooms â€" will go for half a million dollars.â€

â€œIt is, housing activist Calvin Welch says, a "socially psychotic plan.... We're becoming a gilded bedroom community for San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties."

"If the goal is a sustainable city, a sustainable economy," Welch argues, "then existing housing is the most valuable, existing jobs are the most valuable, and existing residents are the most valuable."

Thanks to Metropolitan Trnasportation Commission library, Oakland, CA

FULL STORY: The fate of the eastern neighborhoods

Friday, October 28, 2005 in The San Francisco Bay Guardian

Social / Demographics California

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