An example of why San Francisco Urban Planning Doesn't Work

More so than most cities, San Francisco interest groups advocating in the housing and homelessness areas seem to do more harm than good. Redevelopment in some areas has been stalled for years because competing groups oppose every effort other than their own. At times, its nothing more than knee-jerk reacting in the name of advocacy. Cooperation and compromise are generally in short supply. Open mindedness is apparently not politically correct.

The following is a case in point.

Hunter's Point is a part of San Francisco in desperate need of redevelopment. Part of the necessary redevelopment is tearing down some old housing projects and replacing them with new construction of public housing units and market rate units. San Francisco has some bad history from the 1960's when the housing projects were torn down and the former residents were completely displaced.

At particular issue right now in a development called Hunter's View. Hunter's View consists of 267 units. 110 of the units are boarded up. Of the remaining 157, 116 of them are in danger of eviction for delinquent rent or other reasons.

The City and the Mayor, Gavin Newsome, have acknowledged problems with the eviction process and the calculations of rents. They also announced plans to deal with the problems. Despite this, both were criticized, sort of.

Sara Shortt, director of the Housing Rights Committee, a tenant advocacy group, praised the city's plan to get Hunters View residents up-to-date on their rent, but also questioned the mayor's motive.

"The city is stepping in and cleaning up the mess the Housing Authority has created, and that's a really positive thing," she said. "But at the same time, I think the mayor's working to prevent the political backlash that would occur if a flood of residents were evicted at the very first Hope SF project."

Source: SFGate

Note that Ms. Shortt cites no problem whatsoever with the Mayor's plan. She doesn't even have a helpful suggestion. Nonetheless, she feels compelled to question the Mayor's motives without any apparent basis for doing so. The last time I checked, wanting to avoid political backlash was a rather important part of the democratic process--its called making your constituents happy.