San Francisco's Mission District Gentrification

The Mission District, located in San Francisco, was home to many immigrants and minorities. Before it was gentrified, it was an Ohlone, Spanish, Irish, Italian, and German neighborhood, to name a few (Garofoli & Said, n.d.). In Amanda Boston's article, Gentrifying the City: From Racialized Neglect to Racialized Reinvestment, Boston mentions how African Americans were one of "the longstanding communities of color" there in Brooklyn, New York. African Americans helped shape their community. In relation to Boston's article, immigrants who migrated to the Mission District in San Francisco were the pioneers of the district, and they helped shape it. Since job opportunities were available in San Francisco around the 1940s, immigrants moved to the city (Bucheli, n.d.). They were able to find vacancies and live there. As time went on, the Mission District soon became "the city's Latino stronghold" (Garofoli & Said, n.d.). The neighborhood was colorfully diverse. Its Latino residents were embracing their culture, expressing themselves through murals, and traditions were spreading. They were the majority of the population in the Mission District.

Phillip Clay's model of the progression of gentrification identifies the third stage as the point where massive investments are put in said area. In Boston's article, this was seen with the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, with millions being put into it without any regard for the locals (Boston, 2020). In the Mission District, this takes place in the form of investments by big real-estate companies and investors to build new apartment complexes. This only works to displace minority communities from their homes. One example is Avant Housing, built by a development company run by a global commercial real estate investor (The Registry, 2013). This process has led to the displacement of those who most likely cannot afford to live in these new properties, which are often made into luxury condos. The Ellis Act has been a contributor to the continuous displacement of people from these communities by allowing landlords to evict tenants from many buildings before selling the property (Bowlin, 2020.). Some of these properties are also available for buyers to purchase a percentage of the property. Having big technology companies being placed in San Francisco has increased the value of properties which mostly only benefits landlords if they think of selling their properties.

The fourth, final stage of gentrification is the step when the transplants have ingrained their affinity for profits over the locals. In Boston's article on Brooklyn, she explains that this phenomenon is also usually connected to racial oppression and segregation. In Brooklyn, the largely black inhabitants can no longer afford to live in their homes. The middle and upper classes are often white people. They disregard the systematic cycles of oppression black occupants face and how gentrification can displace them (Boston, 2020). The Latino pioneer residents of the Mission District experience a similar disregard. Pogash's article explains that the new wave of non-Latino, often richer white transplants are pushing out this neighborhood's original dwellers. Some of these transplants have been brazenly evicting the Latino families that have homes and businesses, creating sketchy bans on affordable housing, and starting large development projects that the original residents cannot afford (Pogash, 2015). A local non-profit, the Mission Economic Development Agency, maps this mass expulsion of Latinos. As depicted, there have been massive changes in the Mission District's Latino population in the past few years that gentrification has taken place. Some of the newly wealthy areas have had a 50-71% decrease in Latino residents within the 2000s when gentrification really took full swing (Fukumori, 2021). This is a far cry from the original, predominantly Latino stronghold that was once an "undesirable" area. The new residents seem to care more about investing and expanding the financial gains from the area rather than keeping the integrity of the neighborhood. The hard work and pioneering of Latino-Americans that set the framework for this once-ignored borough are taken for granted. These families are seen as a financial hindrance in the eyes of richer, whiter transplants rather than an integral part of what makes the Mission District.