La Mission

Gentrification has become a major issue in San Francisco. Native San Franciscans will tell you that that city’s ambiance has changed. It is more than just the Hipsters or Yippies taking over the Mission District (which is where I will be focusing on). It is the skyrocketing prices to buy and even rent a home as well as the displacement of the low income community.

The Mission is a very densely populated area and had a very cheap housing market. This made it easy for the Latino community to culminate in the area. If you walked down 24^th street and Mission in the early 2000’s, you would see murals, mercados, and a plethora of Latin American restaurants. The apartments were filled with familias playing music of their homeland. Now the streets are filled with independently owned, organic coffee shops with free wifi. Now you are lucky you can afford to live in the renovated apartment buildings that cost an arm and a leg compared at what the previous tenants used to pay.    

What some may not know or chose to ignore are that the people, the low income people of color to be more specific, are being displaced at alarmingly high rights. The Ellis Act completely aided in this, giving landlords the power to evict tenants and business owners for any reason, big or small. Not only that, but, the Latino culture that was created there is slowly being pushed out. I’ll give you some examples.

 Right on the corner of 24^th street and Mission is a McDonalds which looks completely upscale, with a boring minimalistic style. Before this drastic change the establishment was covered with wonderful murals created by the children of the community and flower beds. It was an unpleasant change representing the need to begin conforming to the new people living there. The mission also was known for its small businesses. One of those long standing businesses belonged to Mia Gonzales, owner of Encantada Gallery, which she owned for over 30 years. Gonzales was given a 30 day eviction notice, but there was no reason for the eviction.

Gentrification has single handedly removed the communities of color throughout the Bay Area. The wiping out of small businesses, wrongfully evicting tenants and erasing the art work of the community is not only morally wrong but is taking away the history that was created here. It also doesn’t really help when the mayor accepts money from the corporations that are monopolizing the buildings and bus stops as well but that is another more controversial issue.

There need to be more proactive work being done to remove or amend the Ellis Act to protect tenants. Members of the community have been rallying against the gentrification but with out the support of public officials this will not be a feasible goal. What can our local government do for us to help stop displacement of our people? Can the Mission ever go back to how it once was?