Despite Calle 24 SF Merchant and Neighbors Association’s distribution of 2,300 flyers, roughly 45 people showed up on Saturday for the first of three community meetings on the Latino Cultural District. Just under a year ago, a similar event attracted more than 100 people.
Those who stayed for the three-hour meeting at the Brava Theater came to hear about Calle 24’s progress since the area between 22nd and Cesar Chavez Streets and Mission and Portrero Streets was made an official cultural district – a recognition also given to other neighborhoods in the city including Chinatown. The point, those involved said, is to help curb the process of gentrification on 24th Street.
“We were hoping to get input from the community on solving problems and solutions to what we face in the neighborhood as far as gentrification and housing issues. I feel like we did succeed in that,” said Stacie Powers Cuellar, executive director of Brava Theater and a council member of Calle 24’s Merchant and Neighborhood Association. She repeated throughout the afternoon that Calle 24 wants to avoid the dramatic changes of the Valencia Street corridor.
Cuellar said that while they had hoped for double the turnout, the event’s organizers were happy with the quality of conversation.
“I think there was a clear movement from this year to last year. Last year, there was a lot of outrage and people were shocked. People have now moved out of shock,” Cuellar said. “Now, faced with reality, we have to step back and really problem solve, and that’s what this was about.”
District 9 Supervisor David Campos took an opportunity to announce legislation he plans to propose this week to protect legacy businesses.
“This is to make sure that we protect these institutions.” he said to a loud round of applause. He defined legacy businesses as those that have been in the neighborhood so long, that “you can’t have these neighborhoods without these businesses.”
The S.F. examiner reported in December 2013 that the Our Mission No Eviction Coalition, which formed last fall, proposed legislation of this type to Campos in mid-November of last year. The Coalition suggested that landlords receive a tax break when they offer “legacy,” or longtime, businesses leases of 10 years or more. At that time, Campos told The Examiner, “We hope to come up with something in the next few weeks.”
On Saturday, Campos asked those in attendance to help spread Calle 24’s message of protecting the Latino culture of the Mission.
“I’m appreciative that you are here, but it is clear that not everybody who should be here is here,” Campos said.
During the second half, the meeting became a moderated, general open forum in which people asked questions about the organization and city laws and aired grievances about impending evictions, the number of high-end restaurants, and Airbnb, the company that helps people to rent out their apartments for short periods of time.
Carlos Gonzalez,a member of Calle 24, an artist, and a probation officer, asked Calle 24 to consider the undocumented population of the Mission.
“It could have been a better turnout,” he said of the event. “But of the people who came, there were a lot of good ideas.. we need to create something more cohesive.”
Miles Pickering, owner of Pig&Pie and also a member of Calle 24, said this meeting was the first part of a long process and that most of the commentary during the open forum was what you would expect to hear.
“It’s stuff we already know,” he said.
The next meeting will be on November 1st, and the third will take place in early December.
So many comments about the aesthetics and the needs of new residents for food or products or services they want being more important than work-a-day businesses — this ignorance and entitlement is one of the most infuriating and pernicious parts of trying to have meaningful conversation about the impact of gentrification.
^ yes, violent crime isn’t a problem in the mission. thank you, Norteño spokesman.
is there an online invite for the next one?
We will put up a post and the organizers may see this. Best, Lydia
Really, reduce it to what? We have the lowest murder rate in 50 years. There were 16 homicides in first 6 months of 2014. We have record low murder rate and violent crime. Nice try. Try again.
“divisive” meaning he cares about the people who have been living here for 10-20-30 years. Clearly you are of the gentrifying class, which is fine, but your disdain for the neighborhood is somewhat repulsive and you sound like just a very bitter, negative and poor quality person. 24th St is great IMHO. Valencia is a boring assortment of overpriced boutiques that you can find on Hayes St or in the Marina. 24th st still has some local character but I’m sure that will go away. That is just the way things go….
Campos is our representative; he should care about EVERYBODY. The local character, to me, is an appealing mix of cafes, restaurants, taquerias, hardware stores, barbers, and used bookstores. It’s not an ethnicity…St. Francis Fountain and Pops and Zoes and yes, even Local Mission Eatery are part of the local character. Businesses.that appeal to significant numbers of people in the neighborhood will survive. There is PLENTY of room on 24th Street (including lots of vacant space, still) to serve lots of different people and needs.
Pretty much the normal course of events regarding things like this…people get fired up, then some smoldering happens. Could be for different reasons. Personally, some of my friends who live here find SF appearing less and less like the city they love, so their “passion” might wane. Some are looking to leave (or have left for various reasons) as they feel that, for SF, the bus has kinda left the depot. Also, one could argue that gentrification could cause “quality of life” issues for those it affects adversely. Just another perspective….
Calle 24 is racist nonsense, so maybe that’s why not many people showed up. How about trying to reduce the murder rate rather than create racial division and stop new businesses?
the legacy business definition is quite vague…..if a business is not able to pay their rent because there is not enough demand for their product…..they need to rethink things and not be subsidized. So I hope when they are crafting the criteria for a legacy business – they look at their business as a whole – their marketing plan, their past and projected sales, their management….
I believe the legacy idea comes partially from those stores that sell religious things and are leased from of St. Peter’s church…just not sure those are businesses that should be artificially proped up….
There are plenty of poorly maintained corner (liquor) stores, enough taquerias, enough hair places…so as Calle 24 makes it more difficult for ‘white-ish’ businesses to be on 24th – I hope they also put energy into some of the existing ones that are poorly maintained physically and poorly managed.
Exactly…there are so many “legacy” businesses that are pathetic. Like it or not, the “market” picks businesses that people actually patronize. Is that such a horrible thought?
“We were hoping to get input from the community on solving problems and solutions to what we face in the neighborhood as far as gentrification and housing issues. I feel like we did succeed in that,”
If they succeeded, it would have been great for this article to tell us what those solutions are. What did they come up with? Are they. Going to try and implement any of the ideas? Other than campos’ tax plan, what is this group for?
Campos isn’t even from here. The uninformed impoverished religious minorities that he caters too barely even vote and probably think he is going to hell for being gay. They are using him and he is using al of them and the mission as a whole as a stepping stone to move on to bigger and better opportunities. I cant wait for this guy to be gone.
wow, typo city.. apologies…
The culture of looking away when someone gets stabbed or shot is what needs to change. How many people need to die before the community finally stands up to these thugs? Campos has been disastrous to the Mission through his divisive politics.
We need less needy slackers in SF and more creative and self enabled !
So, Campos attended this meeting, but not the Central Mission community meeting. Seems a good sign that he’s more concerned about gentrification than crime or quality of life in the neighborhood.
Of Course campos is more concerned with gentrification. Crime isn’t a concern. Once the dynamics change in the mission he will be out of a gig.
Campos is a very divisive politicians. I cannot think of any other supervisor who so nakedly divides his constituent population into two groups – the ones he likes and the ones he doesn’t care about.
I almost want him to beat Campos so that he quits and Lee can appoint a more unifying and less polarizing person who can represent all Mission residents and not just his favored few.
More generally, however, I think people are starting to see gentrification as a trend that has many benefits and advantages, particularly in those very areas you identified – crime and quality of life. As well, of course, as some great shopping, dining and entertainment options. Which is why prosperity is generally seen as a good thing and is actively sought.
Personally I do not see what is attractive about 24th Street. It’s a rather grubby collection of unattractive looking businesses, and if it becomes more “Valencified”, I won’t shed a tear.
But at least Campos is looking at tax breaks rather than even more over-regulation.