User:Jkaur95/sandbox

Gentrification of San Francisco

Gentrification Debate

Gentrification has both negative and positive effects, though it benefits the wealthy more than the poor. Those who advocate for gentrification believe it decreases crime rates in neighborhoods, creates new jobs, and allows for more innovation. Furthermore, pro-gentrification academics argue that gentrification is proof that cities and neighborhoods can progress upwards rather than deteriorate in quality downwards. Gentrification is good for the city in general: increasing the number of affluent people who live in a city will also ensure that more residents are able to pay their rent, taxes, and buy local goods and services thus contributing to the local economy. They argue that low-income communities losing housing because of increased rent prices is not due to gentrification itself, but due to the fact that the government fails to provide its residents with affordable housing. It is also viewed as a simple change in economic state: gentrification is the result of economic changes, in which there is "an increased demand for housing in some cities beyond what the market can supply to formerly marginal neighborhoods.

Gentrification is a term that is regularly used in negative connotation because it benefits the wealthy at the cost of the poor. Most low-income families and small businesses are displaced as a result of gentrification because they cannot afford the higher rents or competition from large corporations. Thus, many individuals and families lose their jobs and homes. There are also arguments stating that neighborhoods do not need to be gentrified in order to be revitalized.

Regional Analysis on Gentrification in San Francisco

As the fourth most populated city in the United States, San Francisco has multiple regions that experienced gentrification during different time periods. Below are a few of the areas that have been most gentrification in San Francisco.

Gentrification in Chinatown

Chinatown, San Francisco is an area in which many immigrants and small business owners reside and have been subject to mass gentrification. Due to the free landscape and convenient location of Chinatown, large businesses are attracted to the area and many small businesses in the area have been unable to make ends meet as a result. There have been multiple attempts through policy initiatives to try to preserve cultural value in Chinatown and slow down gentrification. The Chinatown Resource Center made an attempt to prevent developers who want to purchase land in Chinatown to create offices; however, 1,700 previously occupied residential units were still converted into office space. As a response, the Chinatown Resource Center created a proposal to make structural changes in land use policy to decrease or slow "revitalization." Furthermore, Chinatown Core's Planning department created the 1986 Rezoning Plan, which prohibited demolition and converting residential buildings in Chinatown Core for alternative needs. However, all other parts of Chinatown, such as the Chinatown North and Polk Gulch were not protected by this plan (only Chinatown Core was). Thus, many Asian communities in non-Chinatown Core areas suffered from threats of buyouts and eviction. For example, the amount of Asian residents in Chinatown's Polk Gulch neighborhood decreased from 3,519 to 2,527 from 1980 to 2013. In addition, majority of these Asian residents were replaced by white residents. Though policy iniatives have slowed down gentrification in Chinatown, it has not prevented it.

Resistance to Gentrification in Chinatown

Both Asian American Chinatown residents and Asian American individuals who do not live in Chinatown have protested gentrification in the Chinatown area in order to preserve the culture and history of the space. Many community-based organizations have also worked together in protest. For example, the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) and the 1,000 member Community Tenants Association work together on cases such as evictions towards elderly or people with disabilities in Chinatown. Furthermore, many Chinatown residents use their own social networks to preserve culture in their spaces. Local Chinese newspapers are often utilized to notify community members of open places for rent as opposed to mainstream outlets such as Craigslist to ensure information is safe and protected amongst community members only.

Gentrification in the Mission District

Mission District, San Francisco is heavily populated with Latino communities and has historically been subject to gentrification from growth and expansion of technology. For example, the cost of living and rent prices in the Mission District increased in the late 1900's after the Dot-com bubble boom. The Mission District was chosen as a place for many higher-income, white tech workers to reside because of the culture of the Mission District, the high density of the neighborhood and the multiple forms of transportation infrastructures available in the area to the Financial District and Silicon Valley. Along with an increase in rent prices, the value of the Northeast Mission Industrial Zone (NEMIZ) decreased and was replaced by tech-based work. The dot-com boom is also known as the Mission District's first wave of gentrification. After the dot-com bubble burst, the Mission District experienced less gentrification during the period of economic recovery, however, it remained an area with an increasing influx of high-income, tech workers. Since 1980, the Latino population in the Mission District decreased from 44% to 38% in 2013. This was coupled with an increase in the population of white folks in the Mission District from 36% in 1980 to 43% in 2013. Furthermore, the amount of residents in the Mission District without a high school diploma decreased from 41% in 1980 to 17% 2003, while the amount of residents in the Mission District with a four-year college degree increased from 18% in 1980 to 52% in 2003.

Resistance to Gentrification in the Mission District

The Mission District, known as an area filled with historical culture, has responded to gentrification through a variety of organizations, movements and artistic expressions. There is street art on roads and alley-ways in the Mission District that express the negative effects of gentrification on people that tourists visit while in San Francisco. For example, there is street art on the corner of 19th and San Carlos street that of ten sea turtles that says: "Latino Art Only," indicating discontent from gentrification and the influx of white folks in initially primarily Latino neighborhoods. The Mission District is also the heart of San Francisco's protests. The Google bus protests occurred in the Mission District, to fight against gentrification and displacement caused by the tech boom, as well as the rising prices.

Google bus protests

To many Google bus protestors, Google buses are part of the process of allowing for tech companies to enter San Francisco.

After discussing why there were protests against Google buses and what protestors believed:

On the other hand, Google buses ensure workers have a convenient way to commute to work everyday. They also allows for tech workers to live outside of the San Francisco area, populating different cities rather than congesting San Francisco. According to a report conducted by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency(MTA), ^[13] there are approximately 6,500 tech commuters who use shuttle buses such as the Google bus that take them to and from the city and their respective homes. About 49% of such workers in tech would have their own private car if they did not have these shuttles available to them, decreasing the amount of privately owned cars in the area.^[14] Shuttle buses such as that of Google serving the San Francisco area reduce approximately 11,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (or 25,581 barrels of oil) per year.^[15][16] In addition, Google buses decrease the amount of traffic congestion and increases the amount of parking spots available in the area.

Gentrification

Anti-Gentrification Protests

Movement for Justice in El Barrio

The Movement for Justice in El Barrio is an immigrant-led, organized group of tenants who resist against gentrification in East Harlem, New York. This movement has 954 members and 95 building communities. On April 8th, 2006, the MJB gathered people to protest in the New York City Hall against an investment bank in the United Kingdom that purchased 47 buildings and 1,137 homes in East Harlem. News of these protests reached England, Scotland, France and Spain. MJB made a call to action that everyone, internationally, should fight against gentrification. This movement gained international traction and also became known as the International Campaign Against Gentrification in El Barrio.

Cereal Killer Cafe protest

On September 26, 2015, a cereal cafe in East London called Cereal Killer Cafe was attacked by a large group of anti-gentrification protestors. These protestors carried with them a pig's head and torches, stating that they were tired of unaffordable luxury flats going into their neighborhoods. These protestors were primarily "middle-class academics," who were upset by the lack of community and culture that they once saw in East London. "Middle-class academics" in East London are also known as early gentrifiers, who moved to their neighborhoods because they were known to be cheap and "edgy," characteristics of an area that they see the upper class as destroying through gentrification. People targeted Cereal Killer Cafe during their protest because of an alleged news article stating one of the brothers who has ownership over the cafe said marking up prices was necessary as a business in the area. After the attack on the cafe, people on Twitter were upset that protestors targeted a small business as demonstration as opposed to a larger one.

Google bus protests

Google bus protests occurred in late 2013 in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States, protesting against Google shuttle buses that take tech employees to and from their homes in the Bay Area to workplaces in Silicon Valley. Protestors said the buses were symbolic of the gentrification occurring in the city, rising rent prices, and the displacement of small businesses. This protest gained global attention and also inspired anti-gentrification movements in East London.

Article Drafting

The last line in this article discusses changes in the number of households. I want to jump more deeply into the demographic shift in San Francisco from before and during gentrification. More specifically, I want to discuss where low-income folks moved to and the new income-level of those moving into gentrified areas in San Francisco. I also want to expand more on the statement that talks about rising prices, immigration and the tech boom as factors of gentrification to clarify moreso what the cause and effects were and why they were so (all these phrases seem merged together even though they all actually represent very different things).

There are many academic journals that talk about specific regions in San Francisco that experience gentrification the most and communities that have been affected. Thus, I want to hone in on two important ones: ChinaTown and the Mission District. If I see more a vast array of academic sitings that discuss other areas I will also expand on those.

1. ChinaTown: Chinatown, San Francisco is an area in which many immigrants and small business owners reside and has been subject to mass gentrification. The landscape and location of ChinaTown made large businesses attracted to the area and more and more small businesses have been unable to make ends meet in the area as a result. 2. Mission District: Mission District, San Francisco I want to talk about the street art in the Mission District and how this portrays much of the emotions evoked by those who have been gentrified. I also want to talk about more specific areas in the Mission District that have experienced gentrification and the very clear change in scenes as one walks from one street to the next (showing the constant changing landscape of the area). (As per edits - I will also talk about how the Mission District is the heart of the city's protests and discuss the Google bus protests that occurred there in summary.)

1) Why the tech industry believes it is revitalizing neighborhoods: Advocates of gentrification believe that moving the technology industry into the San Francisco Bay Area and revitalizing neighborhoods has the potential of fixing problems in the neighborhoods they are going into, problems that have not been fixed in the past. For example, Marc Andreesen, a venture capitalist and philanthropist, believes setting up Airbnb will reduce income inequality by allowing anyone who has an apartment or house to gain money by renting their rooms.

2) Some of San Francisco's biggest anti-gentrification movements

• Will link the anti-eviction mapping project once page is created
• Right to the City Alliance
• Heart of the City

Gentrification

I want to edit section 3.2 Social changes and talk about the ways in which the LGBTQ community specifically was and still is affected by gentrification at the end of the section. There have been many scholarly articles to discuss the relationship between the LGBTQ community and gentrification and why that community is directly impacted and targeted through gentrification.

Google bus protests

Google bus protests states that the protests were partly due to anti-gentrification sentiments, however does not touch upon the relationship between these protests and gentrification. I want to do this after the first paragraph.

I will also discuss the positive sides of Google buses.

Response to Suggestions

As a response to the peer reviews, I am going to add more information about the Google bus protests to make the page more neutral. More specifically, I will talk about the benefits of Google buses in taking employees to their destinations. I am also going to add the Google bus protests link to the Gentrification page and discuss how the two are related (because there are comments on talk pages that say they are not). I will also talk about the pros of gentrification and why the tech industry believes it will be most beneficial to society to add more balance. I have begun implementing these changes throughout my sandbox below.