— By Jack Morse (@jmorse_) |
Calle 24 has already managed to to push the City Hall to consider a housing development moratorium in the Mission District and a temporary halt in the opening of high-end restaurants along 24th Street. Now the neighborhood association behind the city-sanctioned Calle 24 Latino Cultural District has released a report detailing the challenges facing the community it represents and a series of goals to preserve the corridor’s character.
The 93 page report, released this past Sunday, outlines the “major concerns among all stakeholders [surrounding] the lack of affordable housing and about the gentrification and recent eviction and displacement of long-time residents.” It also warns of a “rapid community transformation underway, with some saying they wanted to prevent another ‘Valencia’ (referring to the way Valencia lost much of its Latino culture in the 1990s and 2000s).”
Specifically, Calle 24 wants to see the 24th corridor, stretching from Potrero Ave. to Mission Street, “preserve, enhance and advocate for Latino cultural continuity, vitality, and community.”
“The Latino Cultural District will be an economically vibrant community that is inclusive of diverse income households and businesses that together compassionately embrace the unique Latino heritage and cultures of 24th Street and that celebrate Latino cultural events, foods, businesses, activities, art and music,” writes Calle 24 in its vision statement.
The report suggests numerous approaches the city should take to prevent the further gentrification of 24th Street, including:
- Regulate rents for housing and cultural spaces and explore models that preserve historical residents and merchants. […]
- Advocate for the development of affordable housing (for example, through early identification of sites that may be available for development and small sites development where existing units can be converted to affordable housing).
- Advocate for rent regulation for tenants, businesses, and non-profits. Engage diverse neighborhood stakeholders (residents, businesses, and non-profits) in affordable housing movement.
The report also suggests the creation of “certificates of preference that would allow long-time residents who have been forced out of the District by waves of gentrification to return to new housing opportunities in the District.” The report doesn’t outline the specifics of what this proposal would ultimately look like, but the idea not without local precedent.
Seemingly out of place, the report includes a call to “protect existing parking,” which is sure to irk local transit and street safety advocates. This call may have to do with allowing out-of-neighborhood shoppers and displaced residents to easily park and visit 24th Street, but the logic behind the suggestion is never flushed out.
The report, prepared by Garo Consulting and funded by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, is the result of “community meetings, one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and a review of other cultural district plans.” It paints a picture of a community in flux, working to “preserve the unique beauty and cultures that identify Calle 24 and the Mission.”
You can read the report below:
Comments (54)
While there might be some sense in creating a Latino version of Chinatown in SF, most of this reads like any other group of NIMBY property owners trying to cut out a larger slice of the pie for themselves while everyone else suffers.
But hey, I’m sure if I were in their position I wouldn’t mind building a Latin-themed Disneyland where Mark Zuckerberg and other billionaire executives can spend their money on tacos and tequila. Sucks for the employees, though.
you had me rolling on the floor with this!! Latin-themed disneyland… haha, is that like cabo?? Can’t wait for I’ll be your MS13 mugger today…
I wish Calle24 would focus more on issues like urine/feces on the sidewalk, chronic alcoholism and homelessness as opposed to which race of people live in the neighborhood, or what type of music is played in a bar.
+100
First person to get Calle 24 or David Campos to even acknowledge the increased urine/feces, public drunks, muggings or homeless gets a prize. Or is that already part of ”preserve historical residents”?
Did that really happen?? Since Valencia flipped, there certainly has been an increase of bar goers urinating publicly. The bar goers don’t often leave shits , but there has been a big upswing in dog shits left on the sidewalks. As the entertainment options have improved, there is an increase in public drunkenness. I mostly support that, but it does become tiring that the neighbor airbnb hosts clients come back at closing time making noises like they are on College Spring Break in Mexico, and the next day is a work day. Mugging, and Car Break in. that was a problem before, and still is. Same for homelessness.
That’s all part of the charm.
I agree with Calle 24, and I’m not Latino. Valencia Street is tacky and embarrassing. For the same reasons I don’t take out-of-town guests to Chestnut Street, I avoid Valencia.
24th Street, on the other hand, is real, and I’m quite partial to Roosevelt tamales. I go far out of my way for the Happy Hour at Puerto Alegre on 25th but can’t stand the bogus scene at the one on Valencia.
For the love of gawd, please don’t mention here any of the few remaining local establishments that haven’t been destroyed/colonized yet.
Quit trying to “keep it real” just makes your fakeness more apparent.
You’re very crunchy and very real! A true renegade San Franciscan who refuses to take your mythical visitors where they want to go!
If you guys hate the neighborhood so much, why the do you live here?
There’s a great nearby place without much or any “urine/feces, public drunks, muggings or homeless.” It’s called Walnut Creek. It seems you guys would be much happier there, so why not move there and leave us da fuck alone?
Are you serious?
Are you suggesting that only rich, white people should be able to enjoy urine and feces free streets, or that you prefer your streets with some urine and feces?
So people of the Mission deserve and should tolerate someone defecating on their doorstep or have a knife pulled on them for their wallet? Doesn’t matter what race or how rich/poor you are, this stuff isn’t good for any neighborhood anywhere. I saw a drunk homeless man on 24th Street throw a glass bottle at a 5yo kid recently. Thankfully he missed. I have no words if you think this is ok.
While taking my 6yr old kid to school, I have encountered an unpleasant individual who loves making remarks like “You know, Walnut Creek is a great place to raise kids” while trying to block us from riding on the pavement. Is two beers that person? Does two beers all believe that raising kids in the Mission is unethical? Seems to me that someone is in need of attitude adjustment.
I wonder what prompted the “unpleasant” individual to say such a thing about you and Walnut Creek.
It sounds completely beyond my experience as a parent. Its so random, that it beg the question of did something else happen to provoke the comment.. And the tone of your comment it suggests that you could be overly uptight parent. That its not your kid, but the parenting style that is being commented on.
For our family, the Mission was a great place to raise a child, and I believe that her exposure early on to diversity helps to make her the strong and confident person she has become
Thanks for shifting the blame. Yes, it is probably that I was uptight and deserved the comments. Could you give me some parenting lessons? You seem to know me so well already.
Ah, is the internet not a wonderful place…
If the advice doesn’t apply to you, don’t listen. I wasn’t there, but there is a tone that comes through the posting.
If in a quiet moment you think, sometimes I am uptight as a parent, then do, consider it to be Fuel for Thought.
And yes, there will be diverse opinions where people congregate and express their opinions. . internets, cities, etc.
Fuel for Thought … ignore the troll.
It is really strange how these so called tolerant people detest children so much. Drunks and bums? They’re ok though.
Uhhh…I’ve lived in the mission for 8 years and SF for 15 - I can’t afford to move anywhere else. Also, who the fuck is “us”?
8 years? In other words you are a carpetbagger that does not belong there. Please leave.
Ah, so you’re the one crapping on the sidewalk!
Be sure to check this out: http://open24th.com/
Brah- Open24 apparently represents the interests of upscale restauranteurs, nouveau riche gentrifiers, real estate agents, developers, and fliper/speculators: they’re special interests, too. Everyone is a fucking special interest. Open24 hides behind a faux populism that can’t conceal its own agenda.
I’d rather have everyone at the table than just Calle 24. Even merchants have (reluctantly) said that they’d prefer to not just become a Latino Museum.
But admit it, that’s a great headline.
Their solution is more rent regulations? San Francisco residential rent regulations have resulted in the highest priced rental market in the country (not to mention completely toxic relations between tenants and landlords). Also commercial rent control is illegal under State Law.
Read this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent-affair.html
Yeah, those several years of having rent regulations and anti-market thinking messed up San Francisco so badly that no one want to go to.
If Erick Arguello had his way only people born in Nicaragua could come to the Mission and be welcome.
Germany for Germans
I don’t understand why merchants wouldn’t see an influx of people with more disposable income as a threat to their business. Instead of being irrelevant, adapt. The result will be something unique and special. The panaderia on Folsom has done a good job of this.
In other neighborhoods moratoriums on certain businesses have only resulted in lackluster dining options where the grandfathered places have no incentive to serve good food or have good service. If you don’t have people coming to the neighborhood to eat, your pool of customers shrinks.
I’m all for preserving businesses catering to different income levels and ethnicities but I’m not sure this is the way to go about it.
Bingo.
Case in point: you don’t go to Chinatown for the best Chinese food anymore.
yeah but it’s kinda fun to experience a closed system/mini communist community. In Cuba you have to try a government run restaurant just once. Its guaranteed that you will overpay for a shity meal, but it’s culturally interesting. When we did it we went all out- this creepy place with heavy curtains that haven’t been cleaned for 50 years, very politburo like. likewize you need to overpay for a crapy tourist meal in Chinatown…for now it’s become the “real” experience as a sheer bit of irony. Shit, 24th st is already capitalizing and advertising “mission burritos” at $8-10 bucks each. El farolito raised prices again, relishing in greed and capitalizing on all the new white folks willing to pay.
I don’t know if you read the report, but they want to decide who can open a business based on their ethnicity and the percentage of employees who are Latino (see draft to understand the actual plan). Um…when did excluding people from a neighborhood based on ethnicity become a good idea? They stripped some of the more explicitly racist stuff from the final report that was in the draft, but notice it includes bringing back “displaced” residents and that the board has to be majority Latino (percent TBD).
IMO, the problem is a US capitalized mentality, wherein “haves” colonize like hermit crabs anywhere safe enough to be “cool” and ignore their own impact. Meanwhile earlier, genuine cultures that developed here are replaced by iconography - cool shit, skulls - and the breathing embodiment of those cultures is divested of meaning. Estadounidenses will consume everything, hasta ellos mismos, until they sit alone in a cafe, blankly staring into laptops, distracting themselves from the emptiness of cool.
That’s exactly the type of person I pictured making this type of post “sit alone in a cafe, blankly staring into laptops, distracting themselves from the emptiness of cool.”
this is racism pure and simple coming from calle24 and Campos. This is coming from a black male who has made his own way but grew up way poor. more diversity in the neighborhood should be cherished. this is SF. why keep out blacks, indians, chinese, caucasians, etc? and apparently also want to keep out kids and parents. what they should be keeping out are criminals, homeless, vandalizers, poopers, etc.
Oh please. You degrade the term racism.
This isn’t about keeping anyone else out - it’s because they are afraid that everyone else coming in will squeeze them out. Their solution to that problem is completely bogus, but it has nothing to do with racism.
“Racism” might not be the appropriate term, but xenophobia or nativism definitely fits the bill. There’s no reasonable accommodation for growth or natural change in the neighborhood in their vision - they explicitly declare their intention to be that new residents (barring a carefully selected few who might be “their type”) can never make a life for themselves the neighborhood.
BS! It’s completely racist!
i wonder how they’ll react if a minority black owned business (aka a brother, and not a Caribbean latinoesque one btw) wanted to open up a BBQ or fried chicken joint. There’s that new place on 23rd/Bryant but that’s more hipster/white/upscale/interpretation, so while its tolerated it doesn’t really count. But bring in Everett and Jones or something off 3rd street in Bayview, now that’ll be a real dilemma for Calle 24…it’s like shit, they’re not Latino but they are a bonfide minority too…guess we have to let them in…not like a hipster place we can all run around and protest…where’s Yaron when you need a hate target?
Calle 24 is a hate group.
Devolution. Spinning into inanity.
Mission Street business improvement district set to shut down
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Mission-Street-business-impro…
As part of his comprehensive housing affordability strategy, David Campos will initiate a special Neighborhood Destruction District (NDD):
No improvements to property will be allowed.
All trash and graffiti must remain in situ.
Housing priority for those with proven criminal history.
Prostitution and drug dealing empowerment zones.
Sounds about right.
Unbelievable that a supervisor wants his district to get worse. What a complete asshole.
We need to prevent Calle 24 on 24th street… .Valencia is the goal, Calle 24 slums should be bulldozed.
Thank you for spelling it out: class warfare is only acceptable when it’s top-down. When a targeted lower class attempts to fight back (to keep their homes/jobs/schools, etc), it’s unfair. It’s downright unsporting for working and middle class families to impede the grand designs of the gentrifiers.
onwards and upwards!
“certificates of preference” = SEGREGATION
there was a Calle 24 retreat held, at taxpayer expense for this report? I’d like to know more about that.