Gentrification is a lot like art it seems; hard to explain but you know it when you see it. For those of you who would rather have the Dictionary.com definition of Gentrification: Gentrification: the buying and renovation of houses and stores in deteriorated urban neighborhoods by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, thus improving property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses. Now, for those of you who would like to hear what Gentrification is like on the ground, where it is happening, in this case from someone who is experiencing it, please…pull up a chair. On Natoma Street, Gentrification is when the amount of Human feces on the sidewalk on a Friday or Saturday Night is less then or equal to the amount of vomit… Now, mind you, I am a friend of small business… and am all for a lively nightlife in this little corner of the SOMA. It is proven that a lively well established nightlife makes a community safer at night, but wouldnt it be nice if EVERYONE, from every income level could evacuate their collective bowels and stomachs somewhere else? Just an idea…
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There are “levels” of gentrification. I wouldn’t want the place to be like Union st., but it could be be more like say Polk and Bush . I don’t want to see low income people displaced but there are a number of creeps that need to not only be run out, but also locked up.
You’re assuming a lot of facts in your post. For starters, you assume to know what any one is doing any where, and there social-economic background as well. I have news for you, I am the “evil white man from a so called well-off family,” I got the news letter (As I do every week, along with the subscription to Klans man of the month and Naked Nazi Babes.), and I can assure you….. No one moves to a crappy neighborhood, to attempt to eject and gentrify. It’s more along the lines of, you’re used to a certain standard of people not pissing on everything or smoking crack in broad day light in the street, and think “How can I help?”
Why? Here is the thing. On my block, the residence tolerated that lifestyle for so long, no one wanted to try (Less they fail). Granted SF’s Finest did most of the work, but you’d be surprised at the level of good which can be accomplished when people don’t fear the police, and the community works with them. Your whole gentrification theory is awesome. Write a book, cause I hate to be the bringer of bad news….. It just doesn’t happen. About the only time my neighborhood, my block not included is thought of, by those back home, is when they come to pick me up. At which point it is always the same. “How do you live hear?”
“Quite happily,” I tell them. See instead of pointing fingers at evil “Whoever they/we are in your head,” and blaming others. My neighbors and I started a neighborhood watch, got out the word, worked with the police, and after about a month the word on the street is “That block is hot.” Good for me, back for those whom use my street as an open air toilet, smoke crack under our windows, yell all night, and actually rob people.
You seem passionate, but you’re not sure about what. How dare those damned middle class families send their youth into a neighborhood, paying rent, buying things, and attempting to clean up their little part of San Francisco in their own way. We are truly truly evil. I castrate myself before you, and beg a thousand apologies for being proactive, instead of a finger pointing, ignorant, whom assumes a bunch of facts which are unknowable, generalizes, stereo-types, and actually complains because crime rates drop???? I guess that was your argument. Any way, good luck being angry. It’s not for me.
I used to work on Natoma/7th and remember the poop and vomit every day walking to work. It’s a struggle balancing the inevitable NIMBY gentrification of the area against having a diverse neighborhood. Most people I know from that era moved away (including businesses) and maybe romanticize the grit of the area. It’s not easy working or living a normal life in the alleys.