While not specific to the Haight, this post about San Francisco's current crisis on Alex Castle's blog was super relevant to the neighborhood.
First up, go read his post San Francisco is Eating Itself. He takes on the Google buses, the tech boom, the housing crisis, and the stigma around the techies who are at the center of it all.
First up, go read his post San Francisco is Eating Itself. He takes on the Google buses, the tech boom, the housing crisis, and the stigma around the techies who are at the center of it all.
“Techies are entitled, elitist assholes” This is the one that really bugs me, because I have seen it so many times, slipped into so many comments about details like the buses or rent control. Certainly, SOME techies are entitled, elitist assholes. Some stockbrokers are entitled, elitist assholes. Some artists are entitled, elitist assholes. Some baristas are entitled, elitist assholes. What’s entitled about accepting something you’re being offered? What’s entitled about working somewhere that values what you do enough to give you those perks? How is riding a bus elitist? What sounds elitist to me is writing off a whole section of people because they’re not cool enough to live in your city. And expecting a city to stay the way you want it, even as time marches on is more than a little entitled. I would have loved to keep the life I had in San Francisco circa 1999-2000 frozen in amber forever, but the world just doesn’t work that way."He argues for a big-picture view of the changes in the city, and specifically says that the people complaining about what's happening now are the same people who came here in the 90's during the last big change in San Francisco - the last dotcom boom.
But the way things are set up there, falling in love with San Francisco is kind of a devil’s bargain: you get everything SF has to offer, you get to live among all these crazy, creative, driven individuals and do and see and hear and read all this amazing stuff and express yourself in any way you see fit but unless you make a lot of money or are at least working toward it, you know (or should know) the day will come that you can’t afford to be there anymore. The only real, true rent control is owning the building; otherwise your landlord will eventually die or get divorced or decide to sell the building and retire to Costa Rica and all of a sudden you have to go to the back of the line and pay newbie rent like a schmuck. You can’t afford newbie rent, you’ve been here since 1994, you’ve set up your whole life around paying 1994 rent, so now you’re fucked.If you think about the Haight on a micro-scale, we certainly know what it's like to have groups of new people come take over the neighborhood while those who have been here for a decade or so try to adjust to them being here. Sure, the people who come here are not riding Google buses, but they are coming here because they heard it was a great place to be, and they'll move along when it doesn't work for them anymore. Also, the article made us remember this. Relevant? Totally off base? Take it to the comments.
