{"id":27335,"date":"2023-07-13T12:14:47","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T19:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=27335"},"modified":"2023-07-13T12:14:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T19:14:48","slug":"hey-san-francisco-maybe-open-your-golden-gate-already","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/07\/13\/hey-san-francisco-maybe-open-your-golden-gate-already\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey, San Francisco: Maybe open your Golden Gate, already?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Owen%20Thomas\">By Owen Thomas | Examiner columnist<\/a><\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jul 11, 2023\u00a0<em>Updated\u00a0<\/em>20 hrs ago  (SFExaminer.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/assets\/v3\/editorial\/1\/1c\/11c68fec-2041-11ee-9304-a7b4f94bb579\/64ade3b394e48.image.jpg?resize=400%2C300\" alt=\"Golden Gate Bridge as seen through locks\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>San Francisco can do a lot more to open its Golden Gate, writes The Examiner\u2019s Owen Thomas.<\/em><em>Nicholas Klein\/iStockphoto<\/em><em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>San&nbsp;Francisco was built by taking in errant souls who made a home here.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/1zPdhavXzGjXUvoj3hoIjG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Judy Garland sang a whole song<\/a>&nbsp;about it: \u201cSan Francisco, open your Golden Gate, you\u2019ll let nobody wait outside your door.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We lived up to that anthem throughout&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/the-city\/barbary-coasts-red-light-reputation-drew-throngs-to-san-francisco\/article_095dca66-19aa-11ee-a5b7-2750f041f18f.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">San Francisco\u2019s history<\/a>. We were a boom town, growing about 2% a year from the late 19th century through the middle of the 20th century, except when the Great Depression and World War II slowed things down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our population reached around 775,000 in 1950, according to U.S. Census records, then went through a wrenching period of retrenchment as suburban flight took hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The dot-com boom \u2014 which coincided with a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/app.slack.com\/client\/T021GFZ6SKU\/D043F65CBL5#:~:text=3:51\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nationwide period of urban growth<\/a>&nbsp;as Generation X flocked to cities \u2014 reversed that trend, and by 2000 San Francisco had exceeded its midcentury population peak. By 2020, The City\u2019s population had reached 873,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know what happened next:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/bay-area-news\/how-sf-covid-response-still-leads-us-3-years-after-lockdown\/article_1f97082c-c443-11ed-88b2-bb9efb5c51e7.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A global pandemic<\/a>&nbsp;and a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/technology\/why-tech-leaders-say-the-remote-work-backlash-makes-no-sense\/article_8f3ac480-146a-11ee-b090-ef0210e6fe94.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">widespread embrace of remote work<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 nowhere more so than in San Francisco, where both the style of collaboration and the technologies that enabled it were largely perfected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet even with the flight to Zoom towns, San Francisco only shrank by 7%. At 808,000, The City\u2019s population in 2022 is still larger than it was in 2010. If this is the best Miami and Austin can do in luring people away, those cities have a lot of work to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth is that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/forum\/sf-doom-loop-narratives-belies-beauty-character-of-city\/article_cba51146-fff2-11ed-bb36-6f241486974c.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">San Francisco is still an incredibly attractive place<\/a>&nbsp;to live. Yes, the Tenderloin is a mess, as it was when Garland delivered her tribute to Jeanette MacDonald. But that\u2019s about 50 square blocks within 49 square miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of The City lives somewhere else, though that seems hard to explain to people whose&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/the-city\/san-francisco-doom-loop-narrative-obscures-complex-reality\/article_ff07bf3c-f69e-11ed-b6e5-fb8d460b2f3f.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">impression of San Francisco<\/a>&nbsp;is shaped by CNN or Fox News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need to fight the fentanyl crisis and shut down the open-air drug markets that make that neighborhood\u2019s streets threatening to the families and other ordinary residents who live there. But we can\u2019t think that dealing with The City\u2019s street conditions is the only problem we must solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deeper problem is that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/sf-housing-approval-permits-surge-in-may-but-red-flags-remain\/article_fde100f0-1b79-11ee-b9a8-47f2795e974a.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">we aren\u2019t building housing to accommodate newcomers<\/a>. The human faces of the housing crisis, the stories you read about, are often longtime residents who\u2019ve picked up and moved to Sacramento or Los Angeles or the ranks of the unsheltered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there\u2019s another constituency we rarely consider: Those who might long to move to San Francisco but get turned away. A 2019 study by the International Monetary Fund name-checked The City as a place that used to present opportunities for economic mobility but is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/-\/media\/Files\/Publications\/WP\/2019\/WPIEA2019122.ashx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hobbled by rising housing prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The very plot of \u201cTales of the City,\u201d in which Mary Ann Singleton turns her vacation from Cleveland into a permanent move as she easily lands a job, seems increasingly implausible today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today\u2019s Singletons would face a long wait at the gate at the rate The City is approving housing. From February to April, San Francisco approved an average of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/sf-permitting-paltry-number-of-new-homes-federal-data-shows\/article_f6883b26-0aed-11ee-a064-2f680cffa28d.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">eight new units of housing a month<\/a>. May was a little better, with 48 units approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/sf-housing-element-could-be-saving-grace-for-public-school-enrollment\/article_fa203d78-ce71-11ed-9dd7-07741f450408.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">state-mandated housing element<\/a>&nbsp;The City approved early this year, we need to build more than 82,000 new units of housing between now and 2030, or about 10,000 a year. That\u2019s more than 800 a month, or 100 times the pace we achieved at the beginning of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A pair of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/sf-sunset-skyscraper-proposal-has-sequel-twin-tower-in-soma\/article_90e4fc60-1b81-11ee-a0e8-b77508b3420e.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proposals for towering apartment blocks<\/a>&nbsp;in the Sunset and SoMa represents one vision for reopening San Francisco. The height of the projects, one 47 stories and the other 50, is already scandalizing some residents, recalling the fights against \u201cManhattanization\u201d in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, with a Board of Supervisors delaying the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/news\/housing\/nob-hill-housing-project-delayed-by-neighbors-shadow-cover\/article_3f6331ac-15f2-11ee-84f4-ab501b95c954.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">building of 10 apartments<\/a>&nbsp;in Nob Hill for casting shadows on a nearby playground, it\u2019s hard to imagine such structures going up without a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But we have little choice but to build upwards. As Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff once told me, \u201cThey aren\u2019t making more San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if we want to preserve The City\u2019s Victorians and other markers of past building booms, tall buildings with compact footprints seem like the best solution versus squat buildings that require bulldozing more existing homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before you start nattering on about converting underused offices to housing, let me stop you with these few words:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.propmodo.com\/many-office-buildings-cant-be-repurposed-due-to-excessive-tension\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">post-tensioned concrete slabs<\/a>. Look it up \u2014 it\u2019s the reason why it\u2019s impractical to turn most modern office buildings into apartments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The City is pulsing with visitors again this summer. I\u2019m convinced tourism is tied to our future in more than just economic ways: The more people who come to see San Francisco, the more who will conclude, as Garland put it, that it\u2019s time to \u201cwander no more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need more people making their own tales of The City. If we\u2019re to be a place where people come home again, never to roam again, they need to have a place to call home. And that requires building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem is that those who have yet to plant roots here have no voice in our political process. Those would-be San Franciscans can\u2019t cast a shadow, let alone a vote. The only representation they have is in our hearts, if we choose to open them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve done it before. We can do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Owen%20Thomas\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com\/sfexaminer.com\/content\/tncms\/avatars\/b\/6f\/58f\/b6f58ffc-b469-11ed-a906-df7a9990d167.5f7a62e5887f0b8dec23624f0c06480b.png?_dc=1677262264\" alt=\"Owen Thomas\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfexaminer.com\/users\/profile\/Owen%20Thomas\">Owen Thomas<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>San&nbsp;Francisco was built by taking in errant souls who made a home here.&nbsp;Judy Garland sang a whole song&nbsp;about it: \u201cSan Francisco, open your Golden Gate, you\u2019ll let nobody wait outside your door.\u201d We lived up to that anthem throughout&nbsp;San Francisco\u2019s history. We were a boom town, growing about 2% a&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/07\/13\/hey-san-francisco-maybe-open-your-golden-gate-already\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27339,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27335\/revisions\/27339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}