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San Francisco razed its 'Harlem of the West'. Detectives seek those who lost homes [View all]
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San Francisco’s Black population peaked in 1970, at just over 13% of the city’s total population. Since then, it’s been in steady decline. In 2021, the city was just 5.7% Black. Many attribute this to the fallout of urban renewal, which James Lance Taylor, a professor of political science at the University of San Francisco who also sits on the city’s African American reparations advisory committee, described as “the single greatest injury inflicted on Black San Franciscans”.
Now, the city is trying to make amends. Jasper, now 75, is one of those doing the work.
At the time of urban renewal, the city offered displaced families access to subsidized affordable housing options, but for a variety of reasons, these benefits were rarely cashed in, and many people chose to leave the city altogether. This past year, Jasper became part of a city-supported team of private investigators tracking these families down to let them know the offer still stands.
Jasper says she hopes this work, which comes as San Francisco also weighs reparations for Black residents, will offer some closure to a community that has suffered decades of intergenerational trauma and poverty as a result of urban renewal - as well as some economic relief for people struggling to find stability in one of the US’s most expensive housing markets.
--more--
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/09/san-francisco-public-housing-detectives-renewal
San Francisco’s Black population peaked in 1970, at just over 13% of the city’s total population. Since then, it’s been in steady decline. In 2021, the city was just 5.7% Black. Many attribute this to the fallout of urban renewal, which James Lance Taylor, a professor of political science at the University of San Francisco who also sits on the city’s African American reparations advisory committee, described as “the single greatest injury inflicted on Black San Franciscans”.
Now, the city is trying to make amends. Jasper, now 75, is one of those doing the work.
At the time of urban renewal, the city offered displaced families access to subsidized affordable housing options, but for a variety of reasons, these benefits were rarely cashed in, and many people chose to leave the city altogether. This past year, Jasper became part of a city-supported team of private investigators tracking these families down to let them know the offer still stands.
Jasper says she hopes this work, which comes as San Francisco also weighs reparations for Black residents, will offer some closure to a community that has suffered decades of intergenerational trauma and poverty as a result of urban renewal - as well as some economic relief for people struggling to find stability in one of the US’s most expensive housing markets.
--more--
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/09/san-francisco-public-housing-detectives-renewal
The history of these neighborhoods is more complex than an article like this can cover.
"Urban renewal" is often accomplished by unscrupulous means.
One of the triggering events here was the internment of the Japanese in adjacent neighborhoods during World War II. Black families from nearby areas moved into the homes left vacant by these Japanese families and ordinary city services were withdrawn. Slumlords let properties they'd acquired from Japanese owners under duress deteriorate. Black residents became justifiably fearful of police harassment. In the eyes of racist white developers the area thus became a target for lucrative "urban renewal."
I think the same sort of thing is being done today with San Francisco's homeless population. Instead of building homes for people (which ought to be a state and federal problem), the homeless can be used as a sledgehammer against neighborhoods that have been targeted for redevelopment.
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