Today, POOR Magazine, a grassroots nonprofit, will host the “Anti-Gentrification Arts Market in the Gentrified Mission District of San Francisco.”
The Anti-Gentrification Art Market will feature an art exhibit by artists who have experienced the negative effects of gentrification, such as evictions and displacement, as well as include live performances and a prayer by Ohlone First Nations People of the Bay.
“There has been a war on poor black and brown folks, and for us to even be here as artists and as poor folk is an act of resistance in itself,” according to Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, of the PoorNews Network.
POOR Magazine
2940 16th Street in San Francisco
4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
There is nothing wrong when a run down area improves. Glad to see the Mission as well as Bernal Heights positively upgrading. I would not have bought a home here otherwise. Recently 3 homes on the block sold for over $1.2Million. Not too long ago you could barely give these places away. Most of the homeowners have improved their property, converting back to single family homes, putting yards where it had once been paved over, planting trees, getting to know their neighbors, being part of the community. Vast improvement to not hear gunshots on a daily basis, nor having to worry about getting mugged or worse while walking home from work. Bring on the gentrification.
The Mission Local troll “is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
Pity the troll
Diversity in a community or ecosystem makes it healthy. This is not a healthy neighborhood if it is overwhelmed by poverty, drugs and violence. But it is not healthy if the top feeders are overwhelming the economics of this neighborhood.
Gentrification is extremely complicated. Having lived Williamsburg, Brooklyn in the mid 90s to 2002, I saw this happen first hand. The artists and artisans are the ones who make blighted and marginal areas interesting and rich. Their creativity is what allows them to see and create beauty and possibilities where others just dismiss it as waste. But this also makes the community more attractive and desirable to the consuming classes/folks with lots of disposable income. And other people who also bring value to the community (just not monetarily) –families, artists, artisans, educators, teachers, community workers, public servants, laborers etc–get squeezed out.
People aren’t good or bad in this, they are just people. But unless we start envisioning a community that doesn’t just serve the wants and lifestyle of one class, lots of people will suffer.
MsB, I agree that diversity includes affluent white people as well as poor black people. Many here miss that and think that diversity somehow means a lack of white affluent people. Wrong.
I’m not sure how you claim that artists are somehow what is interesting about a neighborhood. There are boring artists and interesting coders. The real problem, surely, is trying to assert that some people are intrinsically more interesting than other people based solely on the job they do. This “artists are good; coders are bad” idea is as divisive as it is misguided.
The Mission is more diverse now than 20 years ago because, 20 years ago, there were few affluent, successful people, and far less whites and Asians.
Its not about boring or interesting. When I say artists and artisans, I mean creative thinkers. Many in the tech industry, and others are creative and are artists at heart or on the side. But the income that the tech industry pays, while not intrinsicallly bad, also brings people whose interests, consumption habits, and values don’t support the Mission as a miixed income neighborhood. That is the fear that many who live here have.
Nice work stencil artists, thank you!
And thank you “John” for being the best friend the Left could ask for with your (almost) comedic right-wing rants. Unlike carefully crafted Chevron propaganda, your off-the-cuff comments are actually your truth – and as such, they boldly illustrate the selfish, narrow minded, anti-community philosophy of the investor class.
If John is Left than you are just Fucking Lazy. Seriously.
I’d love to know what you do and how you justify this city, or the world, owing you one goddam thing.
I’m glad that I amuse you, nutrisystem, but while you are chuckling, your colleagues are being evicted.
So I ask you – who is really winning this battle? You with your smug self-serving ideological bromides? Or me with my relentless focus on the truth and reality of what is actually going on in the word and an analysis of the factors that drive that?
Doesn’t this idea rather presume that gentrification is a bad thing.
I was on a block earlier today that, 15 years ago, I recall was strewn with used needles, abandoned cars and hookers.
Now it has a cutting edge food and drink destination and the most common car I saw parked there were Audi’s.
This is bad why exactly?
Are you just trolling or are you willfully ignorant?
OK, Nick, so you offer no counter argument at all? You are so certain that you are right that you somehow think there could not possibly be anyone who disagrees with you or holds a contrary view?
But yes, I believe that the Mission is orders of magnitude better than it was 20 years ago, precisely because of the lowering of crime, the higher quality of the housing stock and the upmarket restaurants, stores and other destinations.
I realize there may be a few people who preferred the old, gritty, grimy, high-crime Mission but I continue to believe that they are a disgruntled, vanishing minority.
The Anti-Gentrification Art Market will feature an art exhibit by artists who have experienced the negative effects of gentrification, such as evictions and displacement…“There has been a war on poor black and brown folks, and for us to even be here as artists and as poor folk is an act of resistance in itself,” according to Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, of the PoorNews Network.
It’s right there.
That’s why I asked if you were being willfully ignorant. The statement is clear. Crystal clear.
So again, i ask you: Are you trolling and hoping to get a rise? Or are you willfully keeping yourself from processing information so that you can stay on the ideological plane of “More Audis means a better Neighborhood”?
Ah, nick, so in other words your position here is based on a massive assumption.
You assume that these “artists” and “evictees” are somehow more valuable to the community than the new arrivals who (by implication) replaced them?
Put another way, you prefer people who are more like yourself more than people who are less like yourself?
Nothing wrong with that viewpoint as long as you recognize it for what it is – an entirely personal and subjective opinion.
And if you can accept that subjectivity, then you can easily accept how and why others disagree with you.
(I’m disregarding the throwaway “brown and black” line as typical card playing. If anything the Mission is more diverse now because I see a lot of Asians and Whites as well as browns and Blacks.
Not that it matters wither way unless you have target racial quotas.