In addition to weighing the pros and cons of a 400-foot tower at Spear and Folsom, the Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to establish a Filipino Cultural Heritage District South of Market, the Examiner reports.

Moving forward, the area bounded by Second and 11th streets to the east and west, and Market to Brannan from north to the south, will be deemed the SoMa Pilipinas.

The idea of creating a district to honor and preserve SoMa's Filipino community originally sprouted in 2007, during the community process for the city's Western SoMa Plan, KQED reported last year. Fears that Forest City's massive 5M Project would displace Filipino and working-class residents in Central SoMa drove hundreds to the chambers of the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors at City Hall multiple times, where they called for the development to be put on hold until the heritage district was initiated and potential displacement was studied.

“The creation of a cultural district means that anytime someone is thinking of doing something in this community, they have to think about how what they are proposing impacts the Filipino community,” Supervisor David Campos said during the hearing. “The Filipino community should be a part of every single issue that comes before this neighborhood.”

For more on the Filipino community's heritage South of Market, check out our previous stories on the annual Pistahan Parade & Festival, the local olympian Victoria Manalo Draves, and community leaders' outlook on the neighborhood's future following the approval of 5M.