Gentrification in the Mission

Journalism I: Beginning Reporting

April 25, 2013

Stephanie Casey

415-328-7461

sacasey@dons.usfca.edu

GENTRIFICATION- Casey. Gentrification in the Mission District has caused hitches in commercial and residential rent prices and has resulted in a vast number of evictions of Mission residents. The neighborhood’s vibrant culture and basis of strong community is now being overhauled by developers and realtors, resulting in the displacement of the Latinos, artists, and small business owners who made the Mission into a destination.

There is a place in San Francisco rich in community and art; an area deeply rooted in the warmth of the Latino culture; a neighborhood lined with small businesses and adorned by walls that host a visual feast of mural art. To some, the Mission District is a destination filled with delicious Mexican cuisine or great deals on thrift shop clothing, but to many others the Mission is a place called home.

However, the current displacement of artists and the Latino community is ridding the neighborhood of the artistry and history that made the Mission so appealing in the first place. Since the dot.com boom, affluent tech workers have flocked to this district of constant urban renewal, forcing low-income residents out of their homes.

This dot.com boom created a cultural and economic shift prominently seen throughout the neighborhood and is reflected in the struggles of tenants fighting skyrocketing rent prices and the hardships of small business owners watching their livelihoods crumble. According to the City and County of San Francisco Rent Board, rent in the Mission increased by 29% in just one year from 2011-2012. The statistical analysis of rent prices in the area for 2013 has not yet been released. In addition, the median home sale price has increased by 21.8% in the past three months with the average listing price of homes for sale in the Mission at $1,259,889 as of May 1^st.  According to Coldwell Banker Real Estate, the neighborhood has a median household income of $59,360, a 21.8% increase from the medium household income back in 2000.

The neighborhood’s vibrant culture and basis of strong community is being edged out by developers and realtors to supply wealthier residents with high-end dinner and drink venues, chic boutiques, and newly renovated residential spaces. C.W. Nevius, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, has covered Bay Area politics for nearly 20 years. “There’s a new crowd of people coming in and these people have discretionary income and they’re going to spend it,” he said. “There are a great number of people who realize it’s terrible and it’s tearing apart the mission. But you know what, these new people have the money and they’re coming in and it’s happening.”

Small business owners have been hit hard by this gentrification, struggling to keep their doors open while wealthy investors buy out neighboring establishments. Erick Arguello, head of the Neighbors and Merchants Association on Lower 24^th Street, has been a Mission resident for 50 years.  “One of the things that’s happening is there are these people with a lot of money in their pockets, usually investors, who recognize that there are cheap businesses in the area, and they buy them out and take over them,” he said. “So these mom and pop business are not able to compete with these new businesses that are causing rent to go up.  And commercial space has no rent control, so these small businesses are very vulnerable right now.” 24^th street boasts 130 businesses with 79 run by Latino business owners. “Latino business owners run the majority of small businesses in our corridor,” said Arguello. “I can’t say that’s true for the rest of the neighborhoods in our district and that’s the biggest problem with gentrification in the Mission. It’s wiping out our mom and pop businesses and it’s important that we slow it down now before its too late, which could be very soon.”

But these new shops and restaurants are not going anywhere so long as they remain successful, which they have been. “This is still a capitalistic society,” said Nevius.  “If people did not want those restaurants, then they wouldn’t pay for those restaurants and they would go out of business. But they’re definitely successful. On Valencia there’s something like sixteen restaurants in a two-block area, those restaurants are booming.”

Rigoberto Hernandez is a student reporter for Mission Local, a project of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Hernandez, who has covered the Mission for four years, described the typical gentrification process. “It begins as an immigrant, low income community,” he said. “Then the artists arrive, the people who want to experience culture. After the artists leave then come the culture hawks. They work in cafes, they’re students, and they don’t have a lot of money; they’re transient. During this process, the neighborhood has already cleaned up; crime is reduced, there are more cool restaurants, galleries, record shops, and bookstores. And so then the young professionals who can afford it all move in.”

In order to make room for this new class of young professionals, former residents are being forced out of their homes in a number of ways. The Ellis Act permits landlords the right to change the use of their building. When a landlord evicts the tenants in the building, he or she can convert these rental units into condominiums or single-family homes and sell the property for more than could be earned as rent-controlled property. According to the Rent Board Annual Report on Eviction Notices, there was an 81% increase of Ellis Act evictions as of March 2013 and a 46% increase in owner-move in evictions. Owner move-in evictions allow the landlord to evict the tenants on the promise that he will live in the unit for three years.

Don Crean has owned his home on Lexington Street for nearly 11 years. He talked about how the residents on his block have changed in the time he’s been living there. “Mostly everybody who lives on my block now are owners of their apartments or buildings, whereas when I first moved in at least three or four of the buildings around me had rental properties,” he said.

Other renters have another issue threatening their living situations. Marissa Howser, a student at the University of San Francisco, splits her rent with four additional roommates. They thought they were getting a good deal until they found out a year later that they were paying well above market rate. “We pay $5,000 for our apartment. And our apartment is radically more expensive than any other apartment in the building. Our neighbors, apparently, only pay $1,000. They have the exact same layout. But our rent gets marked up,” she said. Victims of rent control might not be facing notices of eviction, but the intent of those in control is still the same: force out current residents and charge higher rent on new tenants.

It can be argued that the gang violence has decreased since the start of the gentrification process. But make no mistake, crime rate and gang violence are still prevalent in the neighborhood, and it won’t be leaving anytime soon. “Honestly, I don’t think gentrification is going to change the gang violence,” said Nevius. “I think it’s a long and complicated issue. I don’t know if it’s dramatic or not but I would still say there needs to be quite a bit more work done about it.” Luis Padilla of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts believes it’s going to take more than displacement of the Latino community to rid the neighborhood of gang violence. “Its still here and I don’t think it’s going anywhere,“ he said.

Padilla noted that the more obvious change that has resulted from gentrification are in the demographics of the neighborhood. “I don’t want to affiliate it [changes in the population] with race because what’s really changed is the socioeconomic aspect,” he said. “I mean there are more affluent residents moving in and it’s creating a huge gap in in the population.“  Arguello has also taken notice of this gap, predicting there is no future for the middle class in the Mission. “What I think is going to happen down the line is there will be only the wealthy class and the poor,” he said “No in-between.” He sited the expenses of parking and restaurants to support his claim, as well as the poor conditions of their schools. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of things working against the middle class. I don’t think the Mission is really deigned to cater to that demographic,” he said.

 “What I’ve seen is that more people are jogging,” said Hernandez. “Seriously though, that’s a very noticeable change. Before this recent displacement, this used to be known as a prostitution area [Harrison and 17^th Street] and now you see families jogging.” Howser also noted similar changes occurring on her block. “What I noticed the most is the stop in prostitution, especially on my street. 19th and Capp was the place to go for prostitution for a long time,” she said.

There is a high price to pay for these societal changes, a price many are struggling to afford. This displacement is causing drastic changes on the Mission’s art community. “I think the murals are already being disrespected and being erased,” said Arguello. “There are new people who are moving into neighborhood who feel that art is not permanent, art that has been on our walls for decades. There are art institutions that are being moved because of the spike in rent prices, so I also feel like there isn’t much protection for the art in the Mission.” Artists who can no longer afford their out-of-control rents on studio space are relocating to Oakland where larger amounts of space are made more accessible. “A lot of the art scene is moving out of the mission and moving to Oakland,” said Padilla. The Mission just wasn’t helping them anymore. I think that’s one of our greater losses to gentrification.” With the absence of the artists in the Mission, the Latino culture is finding it hard to preserve and promote their culture. “There’s a significant gap especially cultural and its really reflected in the art. You have the modern art galleries and then traditional art galleries. And its interesting because they’re both very sensitive of each others work, and they’re making sure their not fusing their art because they want to preserve their identities their cultures.”

It seems that those who do remain in the Mission no longer belong. The Mission’s strong authentic cultural allure has transformed into what Hernandez calls a “fake diverse” amongst the Latino community and the new young professionals. “They live side by side and there’s no meaningful interaction,” he said. “A good example is Mission and 16th. It’s a hellhole, its deteriorating; people are just dying on the streets there. And then across the street are people getting on their Google or Apple bus. And I watch it happen, these people step onto their protected buses, oblivious to what’s around them, and it’s like, do they even care?” Padilla also blames the cultural gap for much of the destruction caused by gentrification. “If they would just acknowledge one another, accept and respect their cultures, then I think we would see some positive change,” he said.

“I’m going to give the neighborhood maybe ten years before its become predominately upper class, before the Mission is no longer the mission.” Said Padilla. “But then again, I could also give it ten years for the Mission to revert back to its old ways. There’s time for change, its just we don’t know which direction its going to go.” Whether or not social awareness and concern for the evolving neighborhood and its locals are prevalent amongst these new residents, it becomes a matter of what is being done to halt the gentrification in its tracks. “You have to be organized, very organized,” said Arguello. “You need a lot of people behind you. And it’s a lot of work. We’ve been at it for fifteen years. Some people get tired of fighting and they let it go. We’re watchdogs for the community.”