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by PNN Staff
On Wednesday, April, 12th, Mission community
organiza-tions, tenants, and supporters met in front of
the former National Guard Mission Armory holding
the dot-com industry and real estate developers
accountable to the interests of communities of color,
working-class and middle-income residents,
neighborhood nonprofits, artist groups & local small
business. In the last year, two of San Francisco's
oldest neighborhoods, the Mission and South of
Market, have suffered incalcula-ble upheaval as a
result of: Ellis Act evictions, condo conversions,
live/work loft construction and the rising rates of
small business & light industrial dis-placement that
have accompanied dot-com development.
Fueled by the engine of this new economy, the
"sell-ing" of the Mission district is indicative of
city-wide gentrification, increasing radicalization of
the digital divide, and growing income inequalities in
San Francisco.
With last year's purchase of the BayView Building at 22nd
& Mission, over 40 local businesses and non-profits await
a July eviction. The Bryant Square Pro-ject slated for
retrofit & construction this year, will occupy an entire
Mission district block as a site for dot-com companies and
commercials lofts -- making the Mission a major
multimedia investment zone.
The City has failed to appropriately make dot-coms
re-sponsible for the displacement they cause. Moreover, in
February, Supervisor Leslie Katz proposed amending the
City's Planning code to reclassify dot-coms and
multimedia firms as research and development, not
of-fices. This legislative maneuver would substantially
reduce what firms would pay to meet the City's
requirement of building affordable housing and would
exempt multimedia firms from the voter approved growth
cap, Proposition M.
We are speaking out in front of the former Armory to
protest the displacement that will likely be caused by the
development of this landmark fortress by Eikon Ltd.
Eikon's intention is to develop 250,000 square feet in the
Armory for dot-com firms. Such development will greatly
impact the housing stock and ethnic di-versity of the
Mission community. When dot-coms compa-nies move
into low-income communities, their high-paid employees
scour the neighborhood looking to buy or convert available
housing, realtors speculate existing properties and
corporate ancillary services follow -- all this leading to the
displacement of tenants, local small business and the loss
of blue-collar jobs. |
