— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
I'm mostly interested in the “Google bus pinatas” (I love candy), but the rest of the copy reads:
In the last several decades, thousands of people have been displaced from the Mission District due to evictions, high rents, rising cost of living, transportation costs, and a lack of access to employment and education. In the last several years, rent for many has almost doubled. This Cinco de Mayo, (May 5th), join with Mission residents to speak out and gather to build a culture of resistance against gentrification in San Francisco and beyond.
Comments (162)
What about that thing where we have rent control and the rent *can’t* double unless you move? Not trivializing the issue or anything, but that seems like a silly argument. I’m also not sure how transportation costs have gone up? Muni increased what, $4/month the last two years? Lack of access to employment? Compared to when? The economy is booming in this part of town…
A lot has happened during the “several decades” quoted in the flyer. I’m sorry The Mission District couldn’t stay frozen in 1992 for the rest of history.
Ugh. I don’t have a solution to the problem, but is it really necessary to keep villianzing those who have skills in demand by the tech industry? I know plenty of tattooed, punk, awesome dudes working at Google. They’re smart as fuck, but they’re still nice, down-to-earth people. Should they not be allowed to live in SF because they have a nice job? If they didn’t have the shuttles, it would just add thousands of cars to the roads instead.
Muni Fast Passes were $45/month including BART in 2008. Rent control doesn’t apply to new apartments. Evictions from rent controlled buildings are up so dramatically that the Housing Negotiation Project at the courthouse can’t find enough lawyers to mediate pro bono.
I realize the poster for this event is whiny, but even those of us professionals with good-paying jobs should UNDERSTAND that Mission residents have real grievances. As for your last paragraph, Google and other companies rely on shuttles because they are based in exurbs to avoid the taxes that would pay for comprehensive public transit. Shuttles remind us of that.
Well there’s that, and then there’s also the fact that there is no building in San Francisco that could house all 25,000 of Google’s employees. “Silicon Valley” is also a real place that predates the Mission gentrification by a few decades. So you can’t really blame them for not having SF headquarters.
If it’s a real place, why put it in quotation marks? I don’t need to “blame” companies for being located in low-tax or no-tax areas far from where their employees want to live; it’s a matter of fact. Nothing is wrong with that from your point of view, probably, but you can see why people resent shuttles. Furthermore, Silicon Valley and its insular communities have under-funded Caltrain (it’s still run on diesel) and prevented BART from extending through San Mateo.
I guess it would be much better if everyone making more than $50k went and lived somewhere else instead. It’s not like San Francisco profits at all from sales tax and property tax. No, lets push out everyone with any purchasing power, and see how businesses go then.
Now you’ve gone way beyond the parameters of this discussion. No one is advocating this. I understand why shuttles are a target for resentment, that’s all. And, yes, public transit has gotten more expensive and less comprehensive. And, yes, evictions for rent-controlled apartments are up.
What *are* you advocating? I am not seeing any solutions mentioned, just a general distaste towards anyone who have even a slightly well-paying job. What exactly are we trying to do, other than complaining?
No one is denying that people are being evicted, but what the fuck is there to do? Enact more laws giving property owners even less rights over what is ultimately their property? SF already has the most tenant-friendly laws in the country. Add a city income tax? Increase taxes all around? Muni fund-raisers?
Please, tell me.
Nothing. These people have nothing to offer other than incessant whining and resentment. If you are new to the City, you will learn to tune them out over time.
spoken like the new-to-town douche I’ve come to expect on the other side of the argument.
I’ve always tended to dismiss the whining of “community preservationists” as people who want someone else to pay the bills for them, but there’s a total lack of respect for what it took to make this city a place where you wanted to come and live, long before either you or I got here, and there’s a respectful conversation to be had between adults about the real issues facing us as a city if we can keep from hurling epithets like “these people have nothing to offer.”
Consider, for a moment, that this person does have something to offer, or at least consider the position of your adversary before making the presumption that he or she doesn’t.
What happened to chachalito? I am interested in his/her suggestion.
They also have real estate brokers that call ahead and scoop up available apartments for their new employees site unseen, so they can move here from wherever, without any concern or awareness of market rates (which are pushed up by the very same practice). Landlords always jump when Google calls because it’s a reliable tenant. But it does seem unfair to all us ordinary folk, without the benefit of a huge corporate concierge.
This isn’t true by the way. This is a fair discussion to be having, but let’s stick to facts.
I admit I’m repeating what I’ve been told by others, technically an unverified rumor, but I’d like to know why you’re certain it’s false. I’m happy to be corrected.
Because I work at such a company, and we do NOT have this “service”
Some companies keep a block of apartments at short term pre-furnished ‘corporate housing’ complexes. I moved out on my own dime so I’m not too familiar with the particulars other than that it’s a 1-2 month crash pad until you can find a place of your own. The story probably made its way through the grape vine and lost that detail somewhere along the way.
This. I work for one of the big tech companies. What we have is assistance with apartment or house hunting IF you have a paid relocation package. It pretty much boils down to having someone drive you around and give you a tour of the area and suggest apartments you might be interested in. And there’s generally 30 days of paid corporate housing, either in a hotel or in a pre-furnished corporate housing place.
Actually, this is sort-of true. Look no further than “She Moves You” for an example of a wildly successful business that performs rental concierge services for transplants. It’s quite a racket.
The landlord of a building down the street says he only rents to the commuters. Supposedly they’re more reliable and conscientious.
Rent control doesn’t apply to post-1979 construction. Walk around the neighborhood and see how much of that you find.
I googled Mt View and San Francisco taxes and couldn’t find much information in the short time I looked. It appears that SF has a payroll expense tax and Mt View does not. If that is the case, you’re mixed up in the head. SF should be reducing its tax burden across the board to make the city more attractive to business instead of pushing them away. City policy has as much to do with what’s going as Google and Facebook. It tries to pick winners, like Twitter, and is hostile in general to even what one would think are acceptable businesses like restaurants and clubs. The good people of SF are ill-served by it’s government. I hope that the influx of new folks will change the body politic and we can flush the entrenched political machine into the bay where it belongs.
Please explain how the city is “picking winners” with regard to Twitter.
SFgate.com is a great web site for commenters who enjoy discourse like yours. Check it out!
Take your right-wing codswallop and cram it where the sun don’t shine, skippy.
I am pretty sure that SF is exactly one such place where the sun don’t shine.
the payroll tax was repealed, and replaced with a gross receipts tax.
“I know plenty of tattooed, punk, awesome dudes working at Google.”
Bahahahahahahahaha.
Seriously. And how many latinos from the Mission do you know who work there?
Admittedly not many, but responding with incredulity to the idea that somebody could rise from a latino working-class background to a high-tech career sure isn’t helping.
I worked at a job 10 years ago in tech and a supremely talented Salvadorian came in. His last job was at a nursery. He worked with plants. He was overly religious and 3 of my coworkers dismissed him. The talent was obvious. Any other objection was clearly personal. In fact, he was overqualified for our shit job. I loved him. I pushed until we hired him. This good soul now makes good money. But I had to push hard to make it happen and he’s climbingly *slowly* up the ranks.
you are a hero and obviously not a gentrifier.
How many local Bay Area people even work at Google and similar companies at all? This displacement to some degree is happening all over SF and down the Peninsula.
What can or should be done about it if anything is a different story but there is quite a demographic change going on
r u joking? tons of latinos work in the mission.
I would guess the number is zero
True, but I’m guessing many of these people have lived here longer than two years. If you compare the cost of Muni today to ten years ago, it’s doubled in price ($1 transfer, $35 Fast Pass.) How many other things can you think of that have doubled in price since 2003? Aside from rent, of course.
Not for everyone. Like most of California, blue collar jobs have been largely pushed out of San Francisco. Remember Levi’s? Remember the lock factory? Or what about the hundreds of tiny garment factories that used to line the Mission and SOMA?
I suppose we could have instituted rent control on commercial buildings, but that would have just been a stopgap. The larger economic issue isn’t confined to San Francisco’s border.
“hundreds of tiny garment factories”?
Yes, we’ve had a terrible loss of non-benefit paying, wage-and-hour law violating, mom-and-pop sweatshops.
When the bills come, having a shady job is better than none.
” If you compare the cost of Muni today to ten years ago, it’s doubled in price ($1 transfer, $35 Fast Pass.) How many other things can you think of that have doubled in price since 2003? “
How about gasoline?
Gasoline prices bit $1.72 a gallon, near record high - Mar. 10, 2003 - http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/10/news/economy/gas_prices/
It’s almost as if these transit systems run on fuels that must be purchased on an open market where prices can go up over 10 years. And all this time I thought that muni was run on corruption and body odor.
Oh come on, you can go read Muni’s budget yourself, it’s only a couple of clicks and will immediately dispell your theory about the price of gas being a huge drain on Muni’s budget.
the electric buses and LRVs run on electricity generated by the Hetch Hetchy water system ,which is why we a) have any water at all b) why it is clean and doesn’t taste like crap and c) why Muni, and all city buildings have electricity.
What about the jobs created by the booming businesses in the area? I’m willing to guess that all the well-to-do stores on Valencia have created a great number of jobs. They might not be factory jobs, but Sales Associates, Line Cooks, Waiter are jobs too – jobs that rely on shoppers and diners with purchasing power to exist.
In similar fashion, all the startups in the city don’t just hire software engineers. They also hire secretaries, assistants, researchers, copy writers, artists, even cleaning ladies and dish washers. You won’t be making as much as the software engineers, but fuck it, they are jobs that pay a living wage, as opposed to the sweatshops you mentioned.
The economy is booming, sure, if you’re a software developer 20- or 30-something dude.
Okay. Let’s go over this for the umpteenth time. Because as “enlightened” as you fuckers like to think of yourselves (holy shit, you’re so above it all), know that “jobs everywhere” break into mostly two categories here. Jobs that allow you to pay rent here and jobs that do not.
Plentiful food & service jobs ( even when hiding a lot of your income from the government) do not allow a person to afford rent here right now.
The second type of job is in this bullshit tech space and it’s heavily a networking circle jerk. It’s easy for you to get a job but don’t delude yourself into thinking you represent everyone. You don’t. I live and work in that bullshit industry and I know it first hand.
Lastly, get this. You’re likely young and don’t understand what gentrification is and how it’s successful. It’s not making any area better through increased money. Money is the driving force, but it’s how and why the money comes in. A fisting of money into a virgin, dry anus means a lot of blood. One finger into a well-lubed tunnel? Now we’re making progress.
So many of you come here presuming you understand how the world works, or more rightly, how it should work. But you have spent a gnat’s existent understanding how it already works. Take a breath and then tell me why I’m an asshole. You owe it to yourself to not look stupid to future generations.
Now go watch a TED Talk on why you’re so brilliant.
There are plenty of well paying jobs outside of tech.
Wow. And *I’m* the one who is an entitled asshole?
I’m glad you’re the authority on what jobs let you get by or not. Thanks, but my minimum wage-making ass is perfectly able to make rent. We might be struggling, but service job employees are still making it happen, so thanks for your input and judgement.
Anyway, I don’t give a shit anymore. You’re fighting a losing battle. It sucks the Mission isn’t as cool as it used to be in 2005, but get over yourself.
Clearly you underestimate the political effectiveness of Google bus Pinatas.
Ellis Act evictions are one but more so people forming new families from the neighborhood. Rent control really favors those who can live frozen in time. It is really bad for local blue collar kids when they need to move out of Mom’s place
enjoy the riot when the sun goes down
Yeah, this, 1,000 times. The group putting this block party on has used this exact same tactic before. I guarantee you, once they get a bunch of dumb punk rockers good and liquored up and the sun goes down, they’re going to cause indiscriminate mayhem and property destruction, lots of which will impact the long-term residents that anti-gentrification activists say they’re trying to help.
I really want to want to participate in this event, but I’m not going anywhere near it. Station 40 is not a good actor in the neighborhood.
i’d like to imagine their email was originally @ gmail before they realized the irony of it and opened a yahoo account.
Ironically, Yahoo has private shuttles too, which stop right at 15th & Mission. Oh gasp, we actually use all the services created by those evil shuttle riders!
Una Musica Brutal, by Gotan Project: from Buddha Bar IV.
One of the key reasons for this effect is that these
types of music utilize a tempo between 55 and 85 beats per minute.
It was the perfect place to meet friends after work, have a few drinks, and
unwind.
Last gasp
Lol @ how many people at this event will be white & under 40.
gentrify the fuck out of the mission. who cares?
Me. And everyone who has lived there for over 8 years. Many who have lived there far more than 20.
When you moved to the Mission 8.5 years ago, I’m sure there were plenty of folks upset at the gentrification then too.
I like how the bus says “yuppies”, when really it’s filled with all the geeks that got beat up in high school for playing D&D and spending too much time on computers. Talk about revenge of the nerds!
That may have been true for the first dotcom wave but this generation but I doubt that was this case these folks. The war on nerds was well over by the time they reached puberty and video games and computers were ubiquitous tools.
I’ll disagree. I was born in 1990, so far too young for the first dot-com boom, but the same age as many of the tech workers today. My middle school years were spent being tormented for my fascination with computers and ability to make websites. Blogging is trendy among 14 year olds today, but it sure as hell wasn’t 10 years ago.
Does anyone know who is putting this on? Whether it involves any of the groups actively working to keep affordable housing, and less than geek wages working people and families in the Mission along with the geeks? The “bloc(with a c)partysf” does make me wonder.
yeah, the “blocparty” does make me think it’s gonna be a hide your cars (if you are a horrible gentrifying yuppie and have one) kind of party.
My roommate and I live at 21st and Valencia. He is Latino and Mission born and raised - 3rd generation.
He also went to USC and came back to San Francisco (and the Mission) with legitimately more money than he had when he left. He now has a very good paying job and we pay a ton for rent in our apartment.
Is he gentrifying the Mission? Keep in mind that gentrify is a financial term.
Well, not a financial term – but is defined by income levels.
The issue here is that most of the tech kids descending on places like the Mission don’t intend to stay and become full participants in the community. All they bring with them is the short term ability to throw money at establishments that employ low wage workers. Bottom line: living and spending money like they are at Disneyland (which is what San Francisco is becoming- aka not a place regular folks can actually live), doesn’t really do anything to build the culture or strength of a community.
More importantly, what I see missing from this conversation is a more long term and holistic understanding of what will happen in the medium term. The very things that lead rich young techies to want to live in the Mission will be wiped out by their mass entry. It is a similar phenomenon to what happens when white people “discover” a relatively unknown beautiful outdoor location or park. Eventually, as a result of their Anglo-Saxon cultural proclivity to flock toward whatever seems to be the “it” outdoor place, the said place becomes so crowded and unpleasant that it becomes undesirable (air pollution in Yosemite?). The problem is the wreckage left behind. This is particularly a Californian phenomenon.
Debates about gentrification need to also focus on the role of culture. The reality is that it isn’t the ubiquitous metal and glass front cafes and restaurants that are attracting techies to the Mission- lots of places (including Silicon Valley) have these type of cookie cutter high end “hip-chic” establishments. Rather, it is the CULTURE of the Mission that draws this particular group of privileged white people to move there- they see themselves as different than the wealthy white kids who prefer to live in isolated enclaves with other boring rich white people – think Orange County, Malibu, San Diego-(La Jolla / Gas Lamp), or the Marina for that matter. What draws this breed of white folks to the Mission is the authentic “ethnic feel” of the neighborhood, the presence of fuzzy warm brown people that makes them feel like they aren’t just average rich boring white kids– they are fucking down with THE PEOPLE! They eat super burritos, drink Modelo, and can use the 20 words of Spanish they know to converse with the workers serving them! Deep self consciousness about being a boring rich suburban white person? Not if you live in the Mission!
Gratuitous bashing does strengthen the argument, or increase the chances it will be heard.
does not. oops
“White people”? “hips”? What the fuck, I work there, and many people are from working class parents. Myself for example, my father was a cooker (now retired) and my mom stayed at home. I am not anglosaxon (I am European, Spanish), but white, not mexican (note for the Americans). It’s true that working class where I was born are much more protected, and, in general, they are not as ignorant and dangerous as in the USA (public education, public social security which it is much better than the private one, now with the crisis it’s slower, but still great).
We have earned to be there. Our parents didn’t pay us a MBA, I studied for free (grants, which are easy to get if you passed the subjects nicely), so we are not yuppies or high-class, everything is product of our effort.
This is similar to my situation. I’ve lived on 15th street for 5 years now, as a broke-ass student barely getting by on a diet of bean burritos. I’m finally graduating from school, and I was able to get a pretty well-paying job in Palo Alto. Does this mean I have to leave the Mission now that I have money to finally support myself and the local businesses around me?
Other than supporting Los Coyotes, I haven’t had money to do shit. Now I will. Do I have to take it with me to Palo Alto or can I, y’know, stick around where my loyalties lie and take the shuttle every morning?
Sadly, now that you have a college degree and a decent job, you are essentially the equivalent of a terrorist. You’re gentrification of the neighborhood is ruining it for the 20-something year old folks who moved here from the middle of the country and their upper-middle class families. Furthermore, you are ruining the sense of holistic San Francisco they have created.
You will no doubt lead the charge in changing the Mission from a hip and popular place (which it has always historically been, like forever – because in no way has the Mission evolved over a very long period of time) to what is essentially a rural strip mall selling corn dogs and Walmart socks. We don’t want your education or dedication to the community here, go back to Noe Valley or Rockridge or Istanbul or something.
Or just take the shuttle, be nice to people, support local businesses, and don’t be a loon. Whatever.
Best comment in this thread!
Please stay, I started in the Mission in 1992 at $13.00 an hour. I’m now very comfortable. I ain’t going nowhere and neither should you.
$13 an hour when minimum wage in 92 was $4.25. You’re a shithead.
21st & Valencia? It’s okay, you can keep it.
Don’t really think it is mine to keep, but I appreciate the sentiment. It may not be good enough for you, but I like it.
Let’s just admit those buses are good for job creation - pinata job creation.
Uncomfortable discussions can be the most interesting. Thanks for some thoughtfulness.
opposing gentrification is like opposing gravity.
what goes up must come down?
The shuttles *are* “access to employment”.
Also, how are Google buses related to police brutality?
Economic development and gentrification are ALWAYS done in parallel to increasing pig activity, harassment of homeless and the poor, gang task force units, profiling, etc . ALWAYS.
Jesus. Yall are fucking blind.
Fuck the pigs, fuck the gentry, fuck the condos and restaurants, gentrifyers and anyone who supports them.
Here is what I see happening, should the private shuttle buses be banned from SF:
Scenario #1: Tech workers all decide to move closer to work because of the inconvenient commute. They spent their money in Palo Alto, making the South Bay even more prosperous. San Francisco misses out on millions in sales tax and property tax from the only people who are actually capable of purchasing property in this city.
Scenario #2: They stay in the Mission, but decide to buy a car to make their commute more convenient, since the nearest Caltrain stop is pretty far away. They can afford garage spaces, so parking isn’t a problem. Thousands of more cars are added to the already strained roads in our neighborhood, traffic on 101 becomes even more of a nightmare, and it’s all retardedly unfriendly to the environment.
How is either of these options a solution to any problem San Francisco is facing?
Well, scenario #1 would actually decrease the housing costs back down in San Francisco. You do realize they’re so insanely expensive precisely because all of these folks have inordinate incomes, right? And there’s no such thing as direct sales tax prosperity. The fact is, 20 years ago San Francisco had a much lower tax base, but the quality of life in SF has not drastically shifted in that time. In fact, our local and daily shops have been slowly going out of business, replaced by high-priced boutiques and restaurants. Finding walkable groceries, hardware, bakeries, butchers, seafood, etc. has become harder over the years. If the city makes more in sales tax income, but our daily needs aren’t as easily met, I don’t see how this is a good thing in the long run.
Scenario #2, however, sounds like hell.
What problem? The shuttle buses indicate there’s a problem with living in Silicon Valley – what we’re seeing here is a symptom of that, not something caused by San Francisco.
the SFCTA did a big study on the private buses. the conclusion was without them, traffic would be a nightmare in the City and on the peninsula. they recommended some ideas so they work in harmony with muni, etc. see, everyone wins.
Sarah- Your first scenario misses the entire point of how the cycle works- when you say “the only people capable of purchasing property in this city”, you fail to recognize that it is precisely because wealthy tech workers have chosen to live in San Francisco that housing prices have skyrocketed. Remove them from the equation and property prices would undoubtedly be lower. You act as if prices were the same before they arrived, and they are savoirs because they can help out those poor old property owners by enriching them. Now, I’m not saying prices were cheap before this latest tech orgy, I’ve never been able to afford a house, except for a small window in the early 2000s after the dot com crash and in 2008 (a friend of mine landed a nice TIC for $280k in Bernal heights). But, prices were indeed lower- all statistics show that. What is happening now is a self-fulfilling prophecy- once you create policies- as the Mayor has done-that attract high paying tech companies, you are accepting that housing prices will rise dramatically, precisely because owners are able to demand higher prices. The result: many people will be priced out (like me) who might otherwise have been able to afford a place. I left to work overseas in 2008, thinking that I would come back and buy a place (at the time, prices were relatively doable), but the insane spike that has taken place in the past 2 years has once again excluded me from owning a home. Oaksterdam, here I come.
Hi, Sarah, “San Francisco” is not the sum of its sales taxes. San Francisco is a city full of people. You know, like human beings? Brown people, poor people, old people, families. People who don’t give a fuck about sales and property taxes because its clearly not going into the maintenance of their schools or neighborhoods and really has no material bearing on their lives.
Meanwhile, you’re basically advocating for rich people to come in and buy all available property (and in the process, push the poor people and people of color who actually live here out). This called gentrification. Or if you have a really good analysis, settler-colonialism. But you don’t have any kind of political analysis.
Read the whole thing and was loving it until all of you started to lose steam. Thanks for helping me kill some time.
I’m a 46 yr old administrative worker at a shrinking non-profit that’s been around for 100 years, making $40k because I have marginal skills that are more or less outdated.
Anyone know of any job leads? I can alphabetize and give great phone.
I figure I should start saving money for retirement soon.
My husband makes a bit more than I do but he’s really good at spending dough on tech gadgets that pretty much comprise our vacation fund.
No kids. We don’t drive. We do rent - in fact we’ve been in the same small (not quite one bedroom) apt in Hayes Valley for 10 years and pretty much have to stay here since rent would increase by at least $500 per month (unless we want to move WAY out somewhere and without a car that would make living difficult).
Oh - our parents are in the process of dying. We aren’t going to inherit anything but will incur more debt to participate in their dying days / funerals.
Maybe I should get a drivers license and learn to drive a Google bus….hmm….
I live in a building with people who are exactly like this. The only thing you missed is the constant complaining about “yuppies” and “hipsters”. In their minds they are the true San Franciscans, which is really a complete joke as they’re just the gentrifiers from 20 years ago.
I love how nobody has a snappy answer for you. I’m in a very strikingly similar position, myself.
similar situation, except the parents dying, instead its an old dog with crazy vet bills and myself with a crazy amount of student loans- stuck in a non-profit that finally gave me a 2% raise after 6 years…if we ever decided to move we would have to move very far away and look for even less paying gigs…the problem is that people are feeling trapped in what they have, couples can’t explore moving in with each other because the risk of loosing that punk house that was supposed to be temp 8 years ago and is way to precious now- you can’t risk changing jobs or exploring other options- making art takes away from working 2 jobs to pay the bills- yes little people problems- i get it, however these are real issues that most haven’t been forced to deal with- costs are in flux and pushing long time residents and people who make this city interesting out- but trust me, once the art, music and cutty culture go- so does what makes this city breath as well….stop biting the reason why you want to live here in the first place, otherwise you will end up being forced to party with a bunch of socially inept techies who think good food means over priced white man tacos and waiting in line for anything…..when that happens it’s time to pack up and flee….
Professional musicians and artists get paid when there’s more money in the local economy. OK, so they might not all live in the trendiest parts of the Mission or Oakland.
I work with professional musicians as a profession. Most gigging (pianists, cover bands ect) pay for hire musicians have mostly left san francisco, come to think about it of the 60+ people who I work with all but maybe 10 still live in SF, and most of them started moving out in the last 5 years. Yes, when the money comes it can be good, but most full time musicians and artists make their actual day to day income from private lessons, teaching classes or a totally other job- they occasionally gig, but the next time you attend an art show, or a show ask the people in the band if that is their only job- you will be laughed at- and just because someone sells a painting for $500 usually 50% goes to the gallery- if a cover band is paid 5k for a google xmas party and there are 7 people in the band and a manager, and of course taxes you aren’t rolling- The money isn’t spreading like you may think-
The city is growing. There is money to be made with all types of skills, provided you are willing to adapt. Of course, it’s not just going to fall into your lap. Stop making excuses!
Trust me, the young techies are coming here because there a ton other motivated young people with a plan who are getting shit done, not because of washed up never-quite-made-it “artists” who signed up for a load of student debt without even thinking about how to pay it back.
You’re thinking of your cultural descendants, the ones who are still trying to ride the coattails of nostalgia for a time they were never even a part of.
Just wait….
I realize I’m about to sound like one of my loser parents, but I’m gonna say it anyway: In twenty years “the young techies” will be singing a different fucking story.
Not all of them are going to still be in demand. Most of them will no longer be doing the work they are doing now. Many of them will be deeply in debt, possibly with families, and trying to figure out how they are going to afford to live in SF keep up with the next round of “young techies” that are more free to work / party / throw money around like nothing and then they will be wondering how the fuck they got where they are.
This isn’t some new goddamned phenomenon. The young assholes of today are the old shitheads of tomorrow.
Best longterm plan for young people who want to stay in SF: stop blowing your money on stupid crap and save for a down payment. Very few owners feel threatened by the recent changes, in fact, they benefit from them.
Send these scum back to Silicon Valley!
I bet this is going to be the Whitest event in the Mission.
I’m here now, and its definitely not. Try 14th and Valencia for white on white condos, coffee and boutiques full of useless shit.
There are beat cops everywhere. I can only imagine how many undercover cops there are.
How many people are dressed in black and wearing backpacks?
with Anarchy patches?
And how many of them are from middle class backrounds that moved here from out of state on mommy and daddys money?
I walked by about an hour ago. Probably 30-40 protesters, a dozen-ish unrelated people there for the free food, and 40+ cops stationed in pairs around a one block parameter. There had to have been 15 of them around the 17 Reasons building alone, plus a pair guarding Uptown.
Also, there was no Google Bus Pinata, and thus no free candy. So I left.
Cops must love all that overtime pay.
The pinata was there and clearly visible the whole time. I learned about this site because of the coverage of the 17 Reasons building. I mistakenly confused it with journalism, rather than the unfounded ramblings of attention seekers.
Gotta say that a site administrator revealing someone’s facebook page over the weekend (whether or not I agreed with his commentary) was a real turn off, so this will be my last comment.
A lot of these teenage protesters here would feel better about the world if they took a bath.
This should be held on May day.
Every neighborhood evolves. Remember the Mission was Irish before it was a LAtin neighborhood . I’m a third generation San Franciscan and my grandmother lived in the Fillmore when it was a Jewish Neighborhood. I worked out in Irving Street in the 70s and hung around Clement Street. Neither were Asian neighborhoods like they are now. In the 80s I had a great apartment on Broderick and Hayes and it was sketchy then and now its NOPA!! I dave my mine , we had a song and bought my home on Florida Street @ 21st. in 1991. Friends thought I was crazy but I loved the weather and the neighborhood. Gangs and dealers were hanging on the corner for the first 5 or 6 years. No More. 22 years later , my son is almost 23 and her grew up here. Did I help Gentrify ? Maybe a bit. I took pride in my new neighborhood. Called the cops on the dealers. Renovated my home and covered up graffiti regularly. I sweep the side walks even as some still trash them but we have a great block which is mixed. Many should have bought as they were renting or at least tried to years ago. There are still many older rentals here since most of the buildings predate 1979. Yes there are new ones and we all get along.
I understand the gentrification dilemma, but the neighborhood is cleaner and safer than ever. I don’t think that is a bad thing. Supply and demand raises rents. Three years ago is was a renters market. SF is small city with limited space but there are still plenty of other neighborhoods that are still reasonable if you want to venture there and wait till changes happen .
I had a similar situation: my friends thought I was crazy for investing every cent I had to buy a home in a violent, gang controlled neighborhood. Now this area is changing and improving faster than many had expected, and my family will directly benefit. Of course, I understand the dilemma, but prefer the present over the past. Best of luck.
The answer is: 42
I bet this event will draw a lot of people that don’t live in the neighborhood, or even The City. They probably come from middle to semi-upper class family’s. There will be a lot of yelling for white men to go home. Large amounts of trash will be left behind. Random groups of cowards dressed in black and covering their faces will vandalize things that belong to others. Please fix your own areas problems before you come here and try others how and where we should live. Thank you, A 41 year City resident.
OOOH YEAH BROTHER!!!
THE HULKSTER WANTS TO KNOW… YEAHHH…..
WHATS THE OVER-UNDER ON WHITE PEOPLE ATTENDING THIS PROTEST?
THE HULKSTER PEGS IT AT 98%.
For the first 6 years or so after we moved to purchased on Florida St there was a wonderful LAtin Family living next store renting. About sic of them in a three bedroom flat. We helped each other out then in about 97 the had saved up and bough tan entire house off of Third Street near Candlestick. Not the Mission but my point is the pulled together and made it happen. We continue to visit each other and they too take pride in their home and hood. And now newer condos and houses are being build a few blocks from where they live.
It would be better to protest some of the violence that still is around a bit and clean up the streets that are contantly littered unlike some of the other neighborhoods.
The neighborhood still smells like piss, there’s still human shit and trash everywhere, and there are still gangs swarming the streets.
I’m patiently awaiting further gentrification.
I’d say this one wins the thread. Classic.
Amen to that brother!
Its high time we clean up this city
It bears mentioning that there are also games and simulations available to those wanting to learn to trade stock index
futures. Say you’re doing as well at Chemistry, and as you are doing at Maths Extension 2, then instead of splitting your study time equally between the two (just because they are both worth 2 units each), you should spend more time on Extension 2, simply because it scales higher. t love the unself-conscious little boy or girl, the undaunted miniature explorer who moves with unbridled enthusiasm to experience life.
A large portion of the perceived tax benefits are mitigated by the sweetheart deals that the City gave to these companies to move here. Several have a deal where they pay no corporate taxes for the first 6 years with no incentive or requirement to stay any longer after that. Coupled with the City just handing over prime downtown real estate to them, virtually free, and it’s understandable why many people are a bit resentful. In a few years, when their tax honeymoon is over, Twitter and Google are most assuredly going to bail back to the South Bay leaving in their wake a bunch of empty restaraunts, high rents and a dead art and music scene.
I’m glad I bought a house in Oakland when the price was right.
I understand many hate this but my guess is that most if these companies will stay after six years as their employees will demand it. These companies do invest in the betterment of these neighborhoods is so many ways and their employees all spend their good money in San Francisco which in tern pays others in bars restaurants, shops and everything else. They add nicely to our economy and some of what they pay goes towards helping others (since the city puts out alot more) . They have fixed up dilapidated buildings when nobody else would. There are more befits to this than not and it IS what all major cities do to entice businesses to move in..
Good city planning should not be based on guesswork.
yeah let’s just continue to rely on only the pure-of-heart capitalists to revive the midmarket area, instead of all that awful ‘guesswork’ involved with companies who are taking a risk on revitalizing a crappy part of town in exchange for a temporary tax break.
Exactly how the City pisses away the money it gets from all the tech-driven sales and property taxes is a different issue though…
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Hipsters to Tech Yuppies
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Hispanics to Hipsters….
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Irish to Hispanics….
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Spanish Missionaries to Irish…
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, American Indians to Spanish Missionaries…
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Hipsters to Tech Yuppies
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Tech Yuppies to Cyber-Yupsters
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Cyber-Yupsters to Transhumans
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Transhumans to Sentient Mutant Crabs
“Stop the gentrification! Our culture was here long before you!”, Sentient Mutant Crabs to Virus Lords
ah the mission gentrification “discussion.’ where everyone can yell, scream, and the dumber, the louder.
news flash, you don’t have to live in the mission to live in SF. there are other places too.
just don’t move to the westside please kthxbai
Two things that are rarely talked about when people whinge about high rent:
1. The inventory in SF is insanely low partly due to so few units having been constructed here in the last 20-30 years.
2. Rents are high in part because of rent control. People are not motivated to move because the difference between their rent stabilized/controlled space and the market price is so crazy. The units that go to market go way up because I low inventory (high demand) and the need for landlords to recoup costs for long termers in low rent units.
Please, forget all of this and go back to villifying people who do no wrong other than living in SF and making a good wage.
What can you do about the lack of inventory? SF is already a mature city with not much empty land to build on. Sure, you could level the entire place and “redevelop” it into Manhattan, but I don’t think you’ll win to many votes with that one.
As for 2, if rent control is what leads to sky high rents, then please explain why rents in the rest of the Bay Area – even in places that don’t have rent control – are also sky high.
I love rent control. I probably pay half of what you suckers pay. And I work part time! LOL.
It wouldn’t be an overnight solution, but there’s plenty of room to adjust zoning laws to encourage infill development and reduce parking minimums. You don’t even have to touch height limits, necessarily - zoning constrains the number of units that can be built on a property.
It’s part of the reason it feels like so much new construction is all high end luxury housing - once you’ve paid for the land and development rights, you’re still only allowed to build X units regardless of how big each one is. This is a simplified example: you might be able to physically fit 50 studio apartments on your parcel, but if the law says 30 units is the maximum allowed, you’re gonna build 30 2BR units.
Washington DC over the past 10 years is a pretty good case study for a city that’s handled major population growth without majorly increased housing costs. They’ve still gone up, but it’s been mitigated pretty well.
I am sure that if the city were still suffering from the problems of 20 years ago – areas decaying, services disappearing, and so on, in the popular ‘flight to the suburbs’, people would also be complaining. Shuttered storefronts, fewer or no bus lines, rare street cleaning, poor policing, and so on.
Face it, everyone wants to live cheaply in an area with wonderful shops and services that never have any lines, clean/safe streets but low taxes, and so on.
Housing for low-income people is a real problem; apart from the moral imperative that the people I rely on for services should be able to live with a roof over their head, and so on, is the self-interest; there won’t be waiters, bus drivers, street cleaners, and so on if they can’t live within reasonable reach. And values will go down again as businesses close.
City planning is not easy, and not nearly as easy as knee-jerk pinata-bashing. This event is almost self-parodic.
+1
Just move to Oakland! Actually - please don’t. We don’t need no whiny buggers.
http://www.thebolditalic.com/oaklandlocal/stories/3133-if-i-m-a-gentrifi…
I rememner when the Mission and the Castro (Eureka Valley as we called it) was 95% Irish.
Should we push out all the latinos and gays and bring back the Irish from the Sunset beceuse change is bad? because displacement is bad?
San Francisco is an expensive place to live. Nobody has a right to live here. If its too expensive for you, you should move somewhere else.
The Irish didn’t leave because rich people moved in and priced them out of their neighborhood. The Irish moved because they didn’t like the Latinos - who were even poorer and lower on the social class ladder than the Irish – moving into their hood.
super LOLs, how long will it be before all of these hipsters get skeeved out by the crack heads that hang out at the 16th st. BART station…
I’m totally sorry that I was being paid $15k in 1997 in Cleveland to spend 80 hours a week on the phone with the telecoms, fix customer routers, snake cables, punch down patch panels, jimmy-rig servers and take shit from my bastard managers and didn’t decide to stay in that shithole when someone from the Bay Area offered me three times my salary to move to California.
I couldn’t have planned it better myself, this nefarious plan to dump a third of my salary into rent, and the rest into local businesses. True, in 2000 my noisy 2 bedroom (which slept 4 or 5 depending on the month) cost a mere $1500/mo back then for the privilege to live above Ti Couz (delicious!, RIP) and the neighboring tapas joint (which would routinely keep us all awake well after 10PM despite needing to schlep down to San Jose at 7AM to rack and stack Sun servers).
This self-satisfying need to decry us Midwestern carpet bagging crackers is… well it’s old hat, I suppose. It’s also lazy and stupid.
In the intervening 16 or so years I have come to call myself a San Franciscan, and I keep my mouth shut most of the time when the natives mouth off about how much the rest of the country sucks, and how if you don’t like it move back to where you came from and nya nya and whatever.
I don’t set the rent prices. I don’t even set the salaries. You all use the internet every day, and probably your mom too. Guess who makes all that work? Geeky kids like me who grew up getting pushed around by jocks in high school in the 80s and 90s.
I’m from Cleveland, people - I know what a shit city looks like (by the way, Cleveland is doing much better these days thank you). San Francisco was falling apart until the internet boom in the late 90s and anyone who can’t see that is a fucking tool-bag.
I am blessed to live here, and it’s a wonderful city, but don’t blame me for wanting to get out of the rust belt, and remember, I pay taxes here too.
Cheers,
I am from Wisconsin but was raised here, I played sports and tormented nerds and geeks, Next time I see you I will push you into a bar and buy you a drink.
Not that I really want to date with you, but I’m confused about your bio. Like you lived here for a gazillion years but were born with a cheesehead hat/
I have a cheese hat and a San Francisco tattoo, I am confused too.
Thank you for this.
I think it’s really easy for someone on the other side of this conversation to imagine all of us as being brought up wealthy and never having to work for anything and then just landing some cushy-ass six-figure job at a startup.
I don’t feel bad for doing what I do for a living and I don’t think anyone should. Especially those of us that decided to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and move out of whatever shithole places in the Midwest we came from with our entire support group two thousand miles away.
Next time somebody calls me a gentrifier, I’m going to ask them what they were doing when I was sweating away 50 hours a week in a factory running a press brake to put myself through college.
Credit to you that you worked hard and “succeeded” but there are many people who also worked very hard and didn’t have the college brains that you have. But they might have more understanding of life.
San Francisco was NOT “falling apart until the internet boom in the late 90s”.
that was a truly ignorant thing to say. even a random surface look at the older buildings in any neighborhood would tell you that.
unlike you, und1sk0, I lived here before that. Even with some faults, it was a wonderful place to live. the first and only place I’ve ever been able to call “home”. I’d give my left kidney to have it back, faults and all. a *lot* of other people would too.
Also, IRLOL at the email address on the flier. I mean, really? You’re welcome for the free fucking email address, jerk.
Replace Google with Black..
Might as well make some Rainbow hoodies and march in the streets shouting “Mission Power!”
This has to be the most hate filled prejudiced thing I have seen in a while…
OK OK, look waves of people have been moving to San Francisco ever since the Spanish put up the Mission and started torturing and enslaving the natives. And, the economy in San Francisco has gone through several boom and bust cycles. But, after the utter decimation of the Fillmore (due to something called “redevelopment”) and after the wholesale displacement of the working class in the tech boom 1.0 - can’t we have some “prosperity” for mostly-out-of town Stanford weenies without destroying everything that’s currently here? So far, the answer has been “no.” The google busses don’t just represent rising costs of living for the locals - they are the very real source of the rising costs and the influx of self-serving, culture-destroying douchebags that are overly entitled and temporarily really privileged way beyond their level of civility or life experience. Within the quarter-mile radius of every new google bus stop - rents start soaring. It’s just a fact. So, if you are stuck in a job … like a real job without tons of venture capital floating around or one that is swimming in the glories of constant tech innovations - you obviously don’t like seeing this pressure on rent and food and parking. Just think about for a second. And, the way big corporations play communities against each other (so as to pay the least amount of tax to the community … to receive the biggest subsidies … space at reduced costs .. etc.) - this is all also ultimately harmful to cities like San Francisco. One part of the solution is more controls on new housing developments and better zoning laws. And, we need to diversify the economic base, not narrow it down even more. Some part of the economy has to encourage community development (people staying where they live and gaining insights into the places they live and the neighbors they care about) vs. transient exploitation (people swooping in, real estate weenies making gazillions off of the new comer tech weenies with lots of disposable income - who come to town - make a mint and then end up splitting … taking the cash back to Madison, WI, or to Ohio or to other far off places … after they’ve driven rents through the roof here and basically left no rock unturned.) They swoop in like the whiney kid in the playground, who wants to play with every one else’s toys. But, they aren’t content to stay in the sandbox they just ran everyone fun away from … they then go looking for the fun kids again and they go and destroy that sand box too. … The only to fight it is with more shootings, more car break-ins, more graffiti and lots of real loud skateboarding and street urinating …
I’m definitely going back to Ohio, at some point.
Unfortunately it won’t be with much of California’s gold, but more likely because I’ve burnt out and got sick of “city living.”
Alternatives include Eugene, Boise, Dunsmuir or even somewhere in Canada.
The landlord, local bartenders and franchise Tac board get most of my money.
And lets be honest: Ohio and Wisconsin could use the money more than the world’s fifth largest economy. My one vote is my only culpability in the ineptitude of state and local government.
By the way if I do move back to Ohio it will be because a parent died and to care for a mentally ill family member. Thanks for reminding me! :):):)
Very well said, one of the best posts in this thread.
The irony of this type of trend is that the very reason why the latest wave of little tech emperors want to live in San Francisco rather than where they actually work, is because they find it hip, funky, cool, ethnically diverse, etc— YET, there very presence-en masse- is destroying that which they seek. And for the record, I do make a distinction with the first wave, who actually tried to build a community in SF, and contributed greatly to the art and music scene.
Things white people like: Mexican culture, specifically the beer, food, and focus on being festive .
Things white people don’t like: Mexican people.
Please spread the word … Oakland is very, very dangerous to high-paid white kids who went to Stanford or Cal … don’t come here … ever.
Shootings every night … no cool finger foods … fashions that are stuck in other decades … nothing for hipsters … noting to see here … move along.
Nice try, gentro man, but if this speculative tech bubble persists, its gentrifying effects will spread (or increase) in Oakland.
Remember a bubble is always biggest just before it bursts.
Money swashes around … developers make off with a bundle … communities get destroyed … https://www.baycitizen.org/news/development/redevelopment-agency-couldnt…
so far, this is how it has played out over and over again. Can we ever do something different? Not yet.
I know Eddie .. you are probably right … but, I’m trying here … I just can’t give up and move (again.) … Where can I move too this time? … OK, so what can be done? We have to ban restaurants and bars that ever want to put herbs or mint leaves in their cocktails. The minute that you see aged gouda wrapped in smoked bacon that has some arugula anywhere on the plate - smash that shit. It’s attracting yuppies like flies to poop. And, at the same time, start shooting people. … But, the shootings should become more random (less black on black in the strictly sketchy areas) and more about drive-by yuppie shootings. When you hear some youngster talking real loud on their smart phone, and you hear something like, “rotating adver-bots on the cloud server … ” - just shoot them in the knee. Whenever you see a real estate agent showing up in a 400+ dollar suit and putting up a sandwich board for the new condo units - menace their clients with really stinky, hairy car mechanics, or with loud skateboarders. Lie down on the curb and then get up and take a piss right there. This sounds extreme … but, it is the only way. We have to fight them with direct action as we have no friends on the inside. The Bay Area has always been hostile to locals with a memory. So, we must fight with urine … with bullets … and loud, hairy people. Totally entitled tech-worker weenies don’t like hairy people or shootings - never forget that people! Brandish your back hair … and your weapons … before it is too late.
You’re either a 14 year old or a complete fool.
I’m hella down.
Wow. Call off the search. We’ve found him: the stupidest thug on the face of the earth.
You are the reason I don’t mind paying 2600.00 for a 1BR apartment. The expression of outrage on your face is what I relish as I step into an Uber car while you wait for a cab in the rain—or better still, while you wait for the 22. I get on the bus that takes me to work and, as we glide away, onto the 101 South, I see you trudging off to whatever lame job you qualified for by being “cool” and making fun of kids like me that tinkered with computers. I especially love that you ogle my smart, hot girlfriend as we stroll past you and she points out the irony that you use the products that I help make to post your sub-intellectual drivel for everyone to see.
It’s what you think, isn’t it? May as well live up to your vision.
I hate to break it to you but $400 for a suit isn’t very much.
regarding public transportation fare increases in SF, newsflash people:
Boston - http://www.wbur.org/2013/03/05/boston-t-fare-scenarios
New York City - http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/transportation-nation/2013/feb/26/in-case-you-…
Chicago - http://gridchicago.com/2013/first-cta-fare-hike-in-four-years-begins-today/
EVERYBODY BLAME GOOGLE! dammit, where’s my piñata…
http://cdn.meme.li/instances/400x/39636109.jpg
I’m sorry to say this but there are way too many people here who are in complete denial that they are simply jealous.
many of the laws enacted to support affordable housing, don’t work. We need a fair policy. Now, property owners keep units off the market. It is estimated that 12 percent now are.t here are a lot of old timers who can leave them empty, and do - till they die to give to their kids so the kids can actually live in them, then or sell them at market value. or, they have inlaw units and are afraid if they have a crazy tenant next to them, they will never get the person out, or it will cost a lot. The people who most benefit from rent control, have been in their place/s 10, 20, 30 years. Some of them, are far from poor, or even middle class, some own real estate, within and outside the bay area. and some have a lot of money. “means testing” would be a way to more equitably distribute what is landlord-subsidized housing. … submit your 1040 annually, make over a certain amount or have assets over a certain amount, and you lose the apt. expand how people get assistance - tax all property owners equally and let those who actually deserve a break get it, from the money from these taxes. But wait, those who were here the longest hate this idea: they might lose living in the best and a very expensive city. They insist on no city studies of who is benefiting from rent control, and no means testing.
So, the solution for some is to: pass laws so they can never be evicted, regardless of their income or assets. Newcomers, regardless of need, have no chance, with no inventory. The old timer tenants are the most vocal, and the most greedy: they want what they have, to live in a great city. Who doesn’t. And, why not add the blame - landlords, googlers, banks, anyone, just so the squeaky wheel gets the grease and they are the squeaky wheel. At least, for now. … why do we let the supervisors cater to this misguided thinking?