Debate got pretty lively in the comments section of Monday’s post about the drive-by shooting at Farina. Frequent commenter zinzin lays out a compelling case, one we feel you all should read in its entirety. And remember to vote in November:
Iain, i could not agree more. we are 110% in accord. that’s exactly what i meant…more police presence, more dialog, more relationships, more efficacy. these gangbanger knuckleheads will respond to only 2 things in the short term: force, and a hit to their pocketbooks. More cops out there in the world can do both. deporting illegal felons, i could not agree more.
(and i certainly understand that these dudes are driven to “the life” by a world of circumstances not helped by oily hipsters (me in 1991) or yuppie scum (me now) stealing their hood block by block: lack of opportunity, lack of education, lack of services, lack of all the things that enable me & my ilk to enjoy an $800 pesto at Farina. for sure, i get it and i wish it was different. that said, i CANNOT sit by & tolerate this kind of crap where families walk with kids. hipstery or not.)
that being said, marking some imaginary (sorry katie) line between the “hipstery” mission and the “yuppie” mission…or snarking about “Baja Noe Valley or Marina Annex” (sorry Josh) …is so totally lame. typical hipster apathy. these kind of views have got to be the most short sighted, immature, bullshit excuse for comments i have ever seen. this is our Mission, you lazy self-satisfied babies. you, me, the latino family on the corner, even the schitzoid homeless dude whose shit i clean up twice a week.
so you mean to say you PREFER shootings? you PREFER human feces all over the street? you PREFER crackwhores, and open air heroin markets? You say that’s keepin it real?
I say bullshit. You’re lying if you say you do. You say you “like the grit” because you’re still living in Jr High and you need to be “cool”. Fuck that. Most hipsters i know – including a younger me – are (over)educated, have decent jobs and ascribe to a surprisingly mainstream set of goals.
My guess is most of the folks commenting here do NOT live in the teeny activist stripe of the Misison hipster contingency. Most of them are probably cultural creative class, college educated, and buying lunch at BiRite along with the rest of us. Hell, most real activists and artists that i know moved out of the city along time ago….can’t afford even a place in the “hipstery” parts of the hood.
look for posts i have written in the past. unless some of this crap is taken under control, ALL of the Mission will become the “yuppie” part, because the city will sell the neighborhood to real estate developers. just like Times Square, or Williamsburg, or Astoria in NY.
Read the Eastern Neighborhood Plan that’s about to pass the Board (you all know we have a Board of Supervisors, right? And that the Mission District 9 Supe is up for election in November, right? Or maybe can’t take time out of shopping for ironic plaid pants to be educated?).
It’s going to enable – along with the usual bullshit low-income, tenants rights, mixed-use / light industrial progressive politics crap that makes the Mission a dumping ground for the city’s refuse – practically unlimited development of yuppie condos. 19th & Valencia. 20th & Valencia. 18th & Mission. The New College buildings. You watch.
so you can sit around and say “i like it gritty” or “this ain’t the mission no more” or “that’s the yuppie part of the neighborhood”. or you can open your fucking eyes and get off your lazy, entitled asses and do something to preserve the beauty, diversity and special qualities of the hood we have.
because if you dont, well, you’ll be living in West Oak. which is nice and gritty. and on the same trajectory, 2 or 3 years later. after that, i have no idea. as i have said before, there ain’t no Bushwick or Red Hook in SF, yo.
Link to comments section, if you need more context.
That “compelling case” was pretty confusing. So yuppies = good, condos = bad? I’m not sure how the cliched anti-condoism fits in to the larger “make the Mission safer/cleaner” point he was getting at.
Basically, some guy with a financial stake in the “cleanliness” and “safety” of the neighborhood wants tax money spent on these services, but doesn’t think other (perhaps differently dressed?) yuppies should have housing made available to them, and thus encourages the young yuppies to vote for legislation that will ultimately increase his property value by creating scarcity in the Mission housing market. Preserve the Mission’s “gritty” aesthetic but kick out the “grit” so the Cool Dads can raise their future art school students. Thanks, zinzin!
I think it has something to do with finding happy mediums. That’s why I like it anyway. Life’s never black and white, you know.
ha. this is a little out of context without the other comments i was…uh…commenting on. totally agree it’s disorganized. it’s a rant, not an editorial. sorry.
really i feel the need to get a rise out of people on this site. there’s so much at stake, and my people, we can just be so lazy.
you’re right tumbledore, i do have a financial interest in the betterment of the hood. as does any homeowner in any hood – even at the corner of Capp St & crackho, where i live. no crime in that, i dont think. (why so hostile, btw?)
what got me ranting was the usual snark-without-backbone.
when snarky hipsters SAY they value the hood and all it’s gritty treasures, and they do NOTHING but sit while their purportedly important diversity shrivels away to nothing, i think that’s lame.
when someone’s only comment about a shooting – A SHOOTING – is that it didnt happen in the “hipstery” part of the mission, and that Farina’s pesto is overpriced anyways…that’s lame.
when someone complains that the mission is becoming like noe valley or the marina…that things aint like they used to be…offering nothing else….shit man. that’s lame.
i agree the anti condo sentiment is cliche. i personally am all for the condos. what the hell. maybe folks that care about the hood will buy em. but lots of folks are against the condos (or say they are….maybe it’s jealousy)..and do nothing about it.
far s the legislation…i am encouraging people to be educated and proactive. i didnt say folks should support anything in particular (OK maybe i took a shot at progressive SF politics. it’s a sham).
but really, i am asserting that guilty liberal hipsters will vote progressive because they think they have to in order to “keep it real” and “be down with the hood”, without even understanding what it means (in my view, it means buying into a status quo snake oil political machine that’s not interested in them or anyone else). The Eastern Neighborhoods Plan is 9 years in the works….it means condos are coming.
far as “Preserve the Mission’s “gritty” aesthetic but kick out the “grit” so the Cool Dads can raise their future art school students”…i think that’s your editorializing, dude, not mine. i don’t think i said any of that.
my point is, if you like the grit…don’t just sit there and complain that it’s going away. do something to keep it around…you lazy, self satisfied babies (that part i meant). this means be involved, be proactive. clean up the neighborhood, lest someone (ie real estate developers) cleans it up for you and kicks you the fuck out.
me, i’m gonna put up some of those “please don’t crap on my sidewalk signs” and sweep the syringes away from my door so my kid (future neurosurgeon, i am hoping) won’t play with em.
wow, this sounds exactly like one of my rants. zinzin, read this: http://missionmission.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/hipster-douchebag-mission-district/
shock! awe!
More police? Have you ever tried to walk through the filthy alley accross from the cop shop on valencia?
Maybe this is just karmic retribution for Anna’s Danish Cookies closing?
you mean the alley by the elbo room? not in a while. why would i? it’s fucking disgusting. and it’s that way because of the 16th & mission cesspool / area of tolerance. has nothing to do with the cop shop…
the Board of Supervisors doesn’t believe the Mission needs to be safe. never have. they need somewhere to shoo bums from Civic Center, somewhere to drop off recently paroled felons, somewhere for gangbanger knuckleheads to live, somewhere for nasty ass drug & ho industry to run “quietly and contained”.
so…more cops? fucking A. these poor saps are totally hogtied by the city’s progressive bullshit…consistent refusal to prosecute, organizations dedicated to protecting illegal felons, and a blind, hostile citizenry bedazzled & guilt ridden by irrelevant & dated snake oil politics, living in fear and feces.
let em do some head-banging on the bad guys, i say.
then take a look at that alley.
zinzin, I could have written that post if I was a better writer.
I moved to the Mission in 1987 as an ‘oily hipster’ filmaker and now own a home and business here. I live and work here and love my neighborhood.
The Mission is great because it’s a chaotic & experimental place where people from all over the world come to try out an idea on a shoestring. It has a dynamism most neighborhoods and cities pay huge money to try to attract. It’s a real place all right. It is this that makes the Mission so real, not the shootings, the robberies, the human shit and the garbage. Cleaning it up won’t ruin it. It will only give the Mission some much needed respect and make us feel more like wandering around late at night.
Don’t worry hipsters. The rich people don’t want to move here. Even if we clean it up a little.
I live at 6th & Minna. I make probably 3 times the median income for SF but I choose to live there. It’s amazing to see you complain about the state of the Mission when I see what I see in my own neighborhood everyday. First off, you guys are pussies. Second, is this really about gentrification or just the City not doing its job at all? I’ve lived many places and SF is clearly the worst city government I have ever seen. Period. Let’s not blame white people for moving into cheaper areas of SF because the whole city is way too expensive. Let’s blame the politicians who do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that they are supposed to do. Where are all the cops? They are sipping espresso in North Beach. They are giving out seatbelt violations to make it look like they’re doing something. They are telling the homeless downtown and in the wealthy areas to “Go down to 5th st”. Yes, I’ve heard that. That’s where the shelters and cheap hotels are (conveniently).
The city is broken. Newsom sucks. You suck for not knowing your head from your ass.
Do you think families want to move to places like that? Have you tried to look into buying real estate in or around the city? The problem is Muni. Imagine if transportation and parking were less ridiculous in and around SF. People would have more options of where to live. Prices would come down. But instead, the head of Muni, with his $300k salary, spends his time looking for bus advertisers like Sprint or on raising parking fines. They can’t pay for Muni because they can’t raise property taxes because property taxes are already too high because the city pays for too much stupid shit (like $6000/mo to house each illegal immigrant criminal given sanctuary, or the salaries of PR people on Newsom’s staff).
That’s my rant. I’m moving out of SF within a year. It’s a ridiculous place, and overrated compared to cities like Austin, Portland..
Good riddance.
Anon, did you just “good riddance” yourself? Thanks for saving us the trouble. Oh no, you saw some poo on the sidewalk? You’re right, gang killings are no big deal compared to the nasty HOMELESSESS you’re forced to look at.
thanks quake for the kind word. i agree with you, a cleaner safer Mission is still our Mission.
Good luck Anon. your points are well taken, my opinion. (well, maybe with the exception of Mission hipsters being pussies. we’ll kick your SOMA ass! <>)
6th & Minna is a fucking disgrace, i walk there every week, just like 16th & Mission. I’ve heard the same thing “Go to the Mission”. Same deal, fucking SROs.
best comment: “Let’s blame the politicians who do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that they are supposed to do.”
my reason why: hollow, snake oil progressive politics has bewitched most of the guilty liberal citizenry, allowing sleazebag, self-interested career politicos to hold the BoS – and the city – hostage.
this ain’t 1975 any more. we need true ACTION, not bullshit PHILOSOPHY.
i meant to say
Good luck Anon. your points are well taken, my opinion. (well, maybe with the exception of Mission hipsters being pussies. we’ll kick your SOMA ass! {{joke}})
Portland is gaining a lot of the problems SF has had. Their homeless rate is through the roof these days. Worse economy than here, I think. But at least the northwest rain washes away the excrement faster.
Incidentally, I just noticed in this SFist interview that the guys from successful local band Two Gallants, when asked what the best concert venue in THE WORLD is, answered “16th and Mission”: http://sfist.com/2008/08/21/interview_redux_two_gallants.php
Lived in the mission since the 80s, and used to love it. I will take my chances with bullets and shit on the sidewalk. it is the self-satisfied stroller-&-Dosa crowd that have me looking seriously at Houston and Phila. Please, by all means let the cops bash some heads and create a safe environment for hand made handkerchief pasta with genovese basil pesto. And feel free to park in the median. It is yours. You are entitled to it.
Murder at 26th & Folsom. Actual murder. No handkerchief pasta in the vicinity.
Ill bet all of the people making comments and ranting are white. With out it being said, all of the negative rants and comments about the “grit” and “violence” is aimed at people of color. Hippster artist dressing dirty on purpose you opened the door for the tight and white yuppies. Hippster unless you are political and are down to fight for affordable hosuing, against the market rate condons, stand against the ICE raids and police B.S., then your nothing but an image, one that in many ways is by design the opposite of the yuppies, you are also part of the problem. yuppies your economic status is based upon the explotation of the working class and Imperalism.
I just don’t like handkerchief pasta. And I am sort of pinkish brown.
Also, while we are at it, let’s create a safe space in which to play BIKE POLO. Assholes.
The problem seems to be that you can’t get those clean streets without gentrification hiking costs and displacing people. It’s frustrating.
I used to live in a San Francisco neighborhood that was gritty, now gentrified. The police and elected officials were happy to maintain the status quo in our neighborhood and pretty much ignore our constant complaints except for that one or two times a year when a show of force was put on for the sake of the media or some election. However, when the rich folks started moving in, oh, that’s when all that shit was suddenly unacceptable and Something Had To Be Done Immediately — and it was. What a great way to be disenfranchised from your community: “Oh, hey, now we’re interested in addressing all those problems you were telling us about, too bad your building is going TIC and you have to move out of the neighborhood!”
MissionNative, as a fellow Mission native I agree completely.
mission native, you almost had me. i agree with so much of what you say. Morally empty hipsterism, etc.
but the idea of standing up against anything that’s called “market rate” smacks of living in lala land. market rate means market rate. market rate means “reality”. hows about making the yuppie condo devs contain below market units as well? a proactive, future-looking solution, not a weepy lament for days gone by?
the problem isnt “hipsters” or “yuppies”…it’s that Our Mission has no voice. we’re not important enough for the city to keep our streets safe and clean.
Far as “yuppies your economic status is based upon the explotation of the working class and Imperalism.”…well, i respect your idealism, but again, this is an arcane viewpoint not based in the current reality. it’s based in an ideological textbook. not practical for todays living. it leaves you completely impotent to do anything but make empty speeches (believe me, i know how that feels). again, dogma vs. action.
lastly, and most importantly, please…play the race card lightly. i mean seriously. don’t go hating on white folks with such eagerly applied fervor.
most people i know – including me – live in the Mission BECAUSE it’s one of the few truly diverse hoods in the city. my guess is that NONE of these comments about “grit” or “violence” is racially motivated in any way. i bet NONE.
Al Pastor…you’re saying you’d rather have bullets and feces? Please. That’s a load of…uh…feces.
You just need an outlet to hate on yuppies. that’s cool man. Hate on us. We ‘re self-centered assholes or the most part. we park in your driveway while we shop at BiRite. we suck. Straight up. no need for subterfuge. it’s all good.
But don’t make like you PREFER shootings and feces. That’s just silly.
Do people seriously think that the Mission, or San Francisco even, is all that diverse? Really? Where are you people from? I guess if you’re from Des Moines it could seem diverse, but if you’re from say, LA or NYC, not really.
The whole flap over gentrification really seems so pointless. Do people think that they are actually entitled to live on property that they do not own? I mean, come on! We’re all at the mercy of the free market, grow up and deal with it.
i think that’s an excellent point, misterpharmacist. free market is reality. plain & simple, like it or not.
that said, we all do live in SF, right? this whole debate is all about living in a city we love….so while the city on the whole is certainly whitey-ville…there are pockets of diversity. the Mission is one of the few.
I am saying I preferred the shit and shootings in the neighborhood before the introduction of people who think the main issue with them is that it interrupts their enjoyment of handkerchief pasta and fixie polo and makes their post dinner happy hour decisions difficult. I am saying your calls for more police action do not decrease the actual violence, or shit, for that matter, on the street, they just direct it away from you and allow you to enjoy your cycle polo and handkerchief pasta in peace. Which is a fine and defensible position, just don’t act like it is anything else but using your privileged status to make the neighborhood into your playground.
I am saying I prefer the bullets and shit SANS handkerchief pasta and self-righteous whinging. And, you might think it is silly, but, yeah, I moved to the neighborhood BECAUSE there were heroin dealers and tranny hookers here and few SUV strollers and refried beans with lard and Mexican pharmaceuticals at the Evergreen. The neighborhood was more fun and more interesting in those days. But, times change, I understand. Go ahead. Park in the median. You are entitled.
Al Pastor…so hostile. And so personal.
i agree with your basic premise, and that’s why i moved to the hood myself. i certainly bought by share of xanax at the bodega on my corner, and enjoyed a drink at the old man bar that became Dalva. i smoked More cigs (the long brown ones) with the Red Man at the old Dr. Bombays in the middle of the day, and i bought pizza at the pizza place that was there before that. my rent at 16th & Guerrero was $100. we lived in a beautiful flat. ah, the good old days. they’re in the past….
beans with lard still abound, though, and the hood is by and large still Our Mission, man. Esta Noche is still there. So that’s a nice tranny fix for ya. far as hookers, still a lot of em on my block if you go at the right time. and you’ve certainly got plenty of grit in the 16th & Mission cesspool. plenty of low quality chiva to be had…quite easily.
that said, wanting the neighborhood cleaner and safer doesn’t have anything to do with “privileged status”. self-interest maybe…i own my home and i hate the smell of human feces (anf gunpowder). but really, i want it for everyone.
And more importnatly,i think that it’s a KEY element to the hood preserving ANY of its character and preventing a wholesale drift into complete gentrification next 3 – 5 years.
if we don’t clean it up, and give a voice to the people that live here – all the people – i PROMISE, some savvy real estate developer is going to buy it lock stock & barrel. my guess is, for the right $$, you could get the city TODAY to sponsor a massive buy-out of the whole 16th & Mission corridor.
believe me when i tell you, the Mexican, Honduran and Guatemalan families on my block are fucking terrified of what goes on in the hood. and they’ve been in the hood a lot longer than you or me. so are all the yuppies. so are most of the hipsters, business owners, etc. that i talk to all the time. i could go on & on. the only people i have seen that don’t think a good clean-up is in order are drug dealers and living-in-the-past sour-pusses like you.
i mean, who the fuck would argue that they PREFER feces and shootings? and for a reason: because i don’t like my new yuppie neighbors? give me a break. you’re full of crap in my opinion.
what if things changed in the other direction, and a group of mad gangbangers moved in next door? or the flat under yours turned into a 24/7 crackhouse? or if you had to look every day at 8 unsupervised welfare kids living in the 1BR apartment next door?
what would you be saying then? gee, that would probably be a little too gritty, i am betting.
your arguments that “things should be just gritty enough for me” or “just like they always were” or “i’m pissed because yuppies are inconsiderate to me” is exactly the kind of self-satisfied intolerant bullshit that will get you fucking Ellis acted out of the neighborhood.
like i said, hate on yuppies all you want. i agree yuppies are for the most part reprehensible in their attitudes and appetites.
but don’t sit there with your arms crossed and just hate. go out and do something to preserve the Mission you love, along with hating. use it as a (misguided, misanthropic) fuel.
my view, cleaning up the neighborhood and being proactive about what goes on here is the way to preserve what we love. getting hipsters, yuppies and long-time families in the hood together – because we all mostly want the same things – is the idea. divisiveness is idiotic.
but hey, maybe you are doing something. maybe you do have a plan for how to get involved and be proactive. maybe you have some ideas for how to preserve Our Mission while living in the present and understanding the forces at work.
somehow, though…i doubt it.
I am getting personal? I thought we were all just talking like grownups. Your CV is unimpeachable zinzin. You are the future. Enjoy that handkerchief pasta.
Also, please feel fre to make any assumptions you like about me and my character, and please speak for me as a member of an ethnic group and/or social subculture of which you may or may not be a part. Thanks. See you around the ‘hood!
You smoked MOREs? Jesus. Are you my ex mother-in-law?
After several attempts to put the tobacco down, what really helped was switching to VANTAGE.
How pathetic.
A dirty street with crime = being a progressive, “authentic” neighborhood that is pro-diversity. A clean, green street = being yuppie, pasta-eating neighborhood “exploiting the working class”
Are you re-reading this debate? are you listening to your social studies 101 rethoric?
This city has never excelled for sophistication or real urbanism but this is really becoming cliche’ thinking at its worse.
Come on, every resident who knows what a REAL, healthy urban environemnt is knows that its publlic space include EVERYONE and that market and subsidized housing can both exist and that cleaning streets and keep them clean is safe for EVERYONE and that shooting gangs does not mean cool but failure of a neighborhood as an healthy community.
Grow up and take that pathetic “progressive” mask off and ask yourself what you are really doing to help the Mission besides standing aside and judging people who are trying to make it a real place for future generations.
“hows about making the yuppie condo devs contain below market units as well? a proactive, future-looking solution, not a weepy lament for days gone by?”
That’s the current law: a certain percent (15% i believe) of housing in all new developments of a certian size must be below-market (to varying degrees). The problem here is that a law guarantees that 15% of housing is affordable to those making below the median income also guarantees that 85% of new housing is only affordable to those making *over* the median income.
We could have an insightful discussion of housing policy and “free” markets (which are all artificial and only as free as we make them) but IMHO we’re not going to here. This comment format lends itself to snarky pedantic arguments… often little more than tired, xeroxed talking points.
Another reason I moved to the ‘hood in those days when Valencia Street was poorly lit and lacking the fortress-y copshop (Used to have nice visitor bathrooms that I always made a point of using when passing by; an excellent alternative to shitting on the street. Haven’t had occasion in a while, but heard it was closed because of the potential terror threat.), was that I was pretty sure I could avoid insightful discussions of housing policy and the free market.
My one plea for our neighborhood is that we use the word “procative” as much as possible. That, and the army of cops.
i did smoke MOREs, because that was what the RedMan smoked, and he offered me one.
they were gross.
i do miss smoking at the bar.
go Carla. live in the now. thanks.
I can live without inhaling other people’s smoke, but I do miss the Red Man.
Since we go way back like this, I think I have changed my mind. Let’s DO get that army of cops and occupy this bitch like Baghdad. I appreciate that you see the subtlety of my position, z, and recognize that in disagreeing with you, I am in favor of shit and shooting.
buddy, no one prefers shit and shootings. i get your nuances. (and i also get that you’re not actually being nice to me. i can deal with nuances, see?)
i am trying to get folks who read this blog to expend some energy on the hood (proactive energy), instead of just living here (or worse, getting displaced) and snarking about how as the hood changes, it doesn’t live up to their progressive / hipster / yuppie / immigrant / gangbanger / whatever ideals. poor fucking Mission. never good enough for anyone (me included).
you want to expend some energy, i am on your team. you want to disagree with me, i can deal, and i am happy to learn. i’m no fucking genius, lord knows.
but if all you want to do is sit on the sidelines and complain (which is mostly what you’ve done here, from what i can see), we’ll go ahead and try it without you. or you can join us later. whatever.
that said, i once went into the redman’s rooms he had on 16th in hose SROs that were between guerrero & valencia. he invited me there for a drink, because i used to buy him drinks at those bars all the time, and i asked him where he lived. both rooms were packed, floor to ceiling, front to back, with stuff. one room had a clear space for a single mattress and a chair with a TV on it, and a big box of (you guessed it) red makeup. we had a drink (vodka in 2 paper cups), in the hallway.
For the record, nobody is expending energy on the neighborhood by writing comments on this blog. If, after leaving the keyboard, you do no good IRL then examine your life. If you are a force of good, though, you can still leave snarky comments and chime in as irregularly as you like. The two are not mutually exclusive. Everyone agree?
Think I’ll go cop a one-&-one and spend the rest of the evening looking at kink.com. Refuse to accept either progressive or force of good labels. Didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, though, zinzin. I am a little bitchy. My blood sugar is low from too much cycle polo and not enough handkerchief pasta.
zinzin is right- the mish is changing, but it is still diverse, with lotsa characters. hating on new condos is misplaced jealousy. i’m OK with some yuppies, some hipsters, some crack ho’s, some latinos, etc. just because i came here in ’94 does not entitle me to bitch about home the hood has cchanged, how it was “more real” then, etc. this is just silly, myopic, feel goods.
hey, maybe we can get a non-shithead supervisor for district 9 in november (half the current BOS really sucks.) the cops arrest, but our pussy-ass DA releases. only recently have they tried cracking down on mish gangs…probably because the ‘yuppies’ and soccer moms actually complain.
this is plain wrong-
“Do people seriously think that the Mission, or San Francisco even, is all that diverse? Really? Where are you people from? I guess if you’re from Des Moines it could seem diverse, but if you’re from say, LA or NYC, not really. ”
SF is very diverse- about 33%asian, 20% latino/hispanic, 12% black. nyc and la are not more diverse. and thanks (sic) to rent control & SRO’s SF is economically diverse as well, inspite of the high market rate housing.
and this is just ridiculous-
“yuppies your economic status is based upon the explotation of the working class and Imperalism.”
um, i believe carl left the room, oh say sometimes in the 1980′s.
“hating on new condos is misplaced jealousy.”
This is not true, and i suspect is a reaction to too many conversations with people who can;t explain why rampant condo development and condoization are bad things. But they are. Housing policy in this city revolves almost entirely around the interests of the developers. As I said higher up in the thread, a housing policy that requires 15% affordable units also guarantees 85% unaffordable units. All progressives want is to stop giving the developers want long enough to come up with a real, comprehensive plan to build housing that meets the needs of the city, not of the developers. Developers can make plenty of money doing that, so don;t cry for them because they could have made more slashing and burning.
And our condoization process has serious flaws, the most fundamental of which is that it is the largest factor int he shrinking pool of affordable housing in the city, and especially in the Mission. To say nothing of how out of pace we are at building new affordable housing, to have a policy that encourages the removal of existing affordable housing is insane. Again, all progressives want is to stop the hemorrhaging. A tourniquet is not the solution, to carry the analogy further, but you need to apply one before you can begin to get anything done.
question: is it true that “All progressives want is to stop giving the developers want long enough to come up with a real, comprehensive plan to build housing that meets the needs of the city, not of the developers”? Really? every one, a heart of gold? seems a little unrealistic to me….
that said, i think the one thing that “progressives” fail to take into account – for all their flawless intent – is change. change in demographics, change in needs…all sorts of change.
while i agree 100% that protection of “affordable” housing is important for a million reasons (ie tenant’s rights, rent control, etc)….i also think that adherence to a dated idea of what’s “affordable” and “when” and for “whom” is not “progress”.
the general “progressive” view, as i understand it, is an arcane ideal, and – better or worse – will never prevail over a free market where there is demand and money to be made. no judgments there….it’s just the facts.
that’s why i see progressive politicians as full of hot air. they’re espousing an empty truth that can never exist. they make promises they will never be able to keep. they offer dogma, but no solutions based in the world we have today.
look at the D9 candidates. they’re largely “progressive” clones of one another, all fighting in a dogmatic way for largely “housing activist” causes. no real thoughts for safety issues, homeowner issues, business issues, environment issues, quality of life issues, growth issues…
D9 has changed a lot over the years…the rhetoric of D9 “progressive” candidates is exactly the same. they certainly don’t represent me & my needs (i know, i’m yuppie scum and don’t deserve representation)… i’d bet they don’t represent the needs of most of the folks on this blog (not all, obviously).
other hand, government – local or otherwise – in the pocket of business interests is also a bad thing. duh. so if it’s true that “Housing policy in this city revolves almost entirely around the interests of the developers”….well, that’s bad too. not unusual, mind you, but equally, hatefully bad.
but the goal should be to find a balance, no? see Carla’s post above. this should be the ideal…not one or the other. my view, “progressives” should strive to find a compromise, and loosen up on the dogma, because “conservatives” will never let up, and with money and demand on their side, well, let’s just say it’ll be really hard for “progressives” to prevail.
why not be realistic and live in the word we have? strive for balance and moderation?
(maybe because for progressives, even to maintain current position, without being eroded at every step by moneyed interests, they need to be rabid dogmatics, never giving an inch, always fighting. i do get that part, and respect it begrudgingly…it’s an unfortunate ecosystem…but if a “progressive” is all about “progress”…how about a new take on the system??)
so anyways, for me…
sleazebag real estate developers with an eye toward nothing but profit = bad.
AND
snake-oil “progressive politicians” living in the past and making empty promises = bad
to me they’re basically the same: parasites.
my advice (as if anyone cared): vote moderate.
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The Marina is where fraternity boys and sorority girls live in a cluster so they can reinforce their sense of privilege together. The younger ones go to Chestnut Street, the next older ones (yuppies) to Union St and they move up the hill to Pacific Heights as they get old. When “they” say those areas are “really nice”, they mean that there is no cultural diversity and that everyone looks just like them with small sharp facial features and blonde or black hair. They have “business clubs” called which make sure that they only do business with each other and don’t mix races or non-frat-house people into business deals.
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And he in fact bought me lunch because I found it for him.
.. lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!
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ze zachecajaco postawilam moich urodziny i ludzkich czy kreci krotkich
powaga furgonetki dniu promiennie nie Okazalo oczach sie Co w szkoda do zeby pytanie Tak dziwnie
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