Fog City Guide

If you have 15 San Franciscans in a discussion you’ll get 16 opinions.  Somebody can be counted on to have 2 opinions.

It’s strange how we can find our passions.

In 2004, in a meeting at my Coldwell Banker office an agent brings up the 2004 Housing Element of the City’s General Plan. He spoke against the increase in density along transit corridors in the plan. I reminded the office that as Realtors we take an oath to support home ownership opportunities and if we don’t support higher density then we are not supporting housing opportunities.

Naive and simplistic, but it did provoke discussion. For the next few years I worked on the Housing Opportunities Committee of the Association of Realtors and basically dip the tip of my little toe into the issue.

After I joined the Board of Directors of my neighborhood and was asked to be the delegate to the Coalition of San Francisco Neighborhoods (CSFN), I learned that the depths of the housing issue is full of rocky shoals waiting to sink the ill informed. I tried to enter a discussion about the Market Octavia plan which had just been passed by the Board of Supervisors. I found that I really knew very little and not at all qualified to discuss the issue.

Here, I’m a native son and a Realtor and I can’t discuss the City’s Housing Element of the General Plan. This plan is required by law and outlines the direction the City is taking on the issue of housing. The General Plan contains other elements but I’d like to believe that local Realtors know the housing element and are active in the vision. Guess what, not so much.

Since then I’ve studied, discussed and returned to SF State to study Urban Plannning. Last week I was invited to a gathering of local housing and neighborhood activists for the annual party. We discussed housing, planning, politics and other quality of life issues in San Francisco. Opinions ranged from smart growth advocates to no growth advocates, the discussion was lively, ideas and experiences were exchanged and discussed. Local personalities were parsed and history was revisited. If anything was resoplved it could only have been the opening of eyes and ears to different opinions and allowing growth.

San Francisco is at a very significant junction. The City has grown in population for the fist time in decades. the housing shortage is getting worse within the City limits event though condos are being created at a fast rate. San Francisco is building more “permenantly affordable housing” and calling for much much more in the 2009 Housing Element. We are finishing the rezoning of large areas of the City to meet future visions while looking at a future of non-oil dependant transportation.

My neighbors west of Twin Peaks are banding together to keep the life style and density of thier neighborhoods. Among the people that are concerned about the issues that swirl around housing issues and future development passions run very strong. When I sit and listen to developers, non-profit and profit, talk about where can they create more housing the western neighborhoods are clearly lusted after.