San Francisco, California
San Francisco, while not present in the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s top seven list, is notable for its high levels of black displacement. While the city grew by 21% since 1990, its black population saw a 27% decrease in their numbers in the same period of time. This city is still very notable in its unaffordability. With almost half of its renters paying a third of their household salaries monthly just to live in the city, people are constantly forced to move away. Neighborhoods that were once culturally diverse are becoming richer and more privileged as time goes on.
The Mission in particular has always been at the epicenter of gentrification in San Francisco. It is the residents of this neighborhood who have been pushing back on large developments, such as one particular proposal to build over 300 luxury units at 16th and Mission. These activists have formed United to Save the Mission, an effort created by nonprofits, businesses and individuals, that includes the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, the Redstone Labor Temple, Our Mission NO Eviction, HOMEY (a youth empowerment group), and more. Pictured: The New Mission theater in 1936. Built in 1916, the theater showed a variety of different films until its closing in 1993. After changing hands several times, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain saved the theater and reopened it in 2015. [Photo Credit: The San Francisco Public Library]
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