Neighborhood Redevelopment
The economic and socioeconomic profile of San Francisco is largely a result of geographical boundaries. While San Francisco did experience suburbanization, the city will always be defined as the approximately 47 square mile region on the tip of the bay. This means economics will continually reshape the city from within, but will not likely shift its actual limits. Such economic reshaping has, and will continue to have, significant implications for San Francisco’s socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic diversity.
Partially due to regional shifts and area affordability, many San Franciscans have feared that the city will become primarily a tourist destination. Different approaches have been taken to promote the city’s livability while maintaining its character and charm. City planners and civic leaders have largely worked on the neighborhood-level at the onset of the 21st century, launching several initiatives to promote urban infill and renewal [8]. |
The Gentrification Debate
Neighborhoods of particular interest have included: South Beach, the Mission District, and Bayview-Hunters Point—all traditionally lower-income, post-industrial neighborhoods. While many San Franciscan activists would like to see these areas’ demographics, employment opportunities, and low-rent housing preserved, this has not often been the case. The conservative zoning and design codes, passed after the “Manhattanization” of the early 80s, have prevented high-density affordable development, and promoted less-dense gentrification [20]. This has created somewhat of a neighborhood inversion—where immigrant populations are moving into older, traditionally white neighborhoods, and young predominantly white groups are seeking out historically minority, now trendy, neighborhoods [8]. Not surprisingly, this causes tensions between existing residents and newcomers. Discussing San Francisco’s gentrification issue, researcher Gabriel Metcalf compares the city to Manhattan, saying: “As expensive as Manhattan is, and as far along into the gentrification process as the many surrounding communities are, there are still many places to go within the New York orbit to have an affordable, urban way of life. In the Bay Area, there are far fewer options that fit the criteria of walkable, transit-proximate and affordable,” [20]. This means that people can be priced-out of San Francisco fairly quickly, in comparison to other major metropolitan cities. Between San Francisco’s affordability crisis and the conflicts over gentrification, writers like James Goodno are quick to list “diversity” as one of their primary concerns for modern-day San Francisco [8].