The return of Valencia Gardens
Valencia Gardens officially opened this week. I’d like to take a few moments to talk about why this is a bad thing for San Francisco’s ethnic Mission district.
It’s worth taking a look at a the Chron’s take on VG, as well as their photos. I’ll summarize their article with my own comments.
On Valencia/Gurrerro and 14th/15th street there used to be a block of projects built in 1943. They were torn down for many good reasons, namely poor design (central squares with no purpose), outdated plumbing, electrical, as well as rodent and gang infestation.
In 2005 the project was flattened, as all good government housing should be, and replaced with something only slightly better: suburban housing. $66m later, we have 230 units, complete with modern electrical, backyards, parking, and one way streets. The last two items making this a suburban sprawl in a 5-acre block of the Mission.
Suburb sprawl in the city?
Now this is a mixed blessing for the Mission. Having 230 new units available to lower middle and lower class families is certainly helpful, and you should go take a peek on Craigslist to see if perhaps you qualify for such housing (I don’t). Problem number one: condensing all the city’s poor into one area. At least leaving a quarter of the units available to middle class families, those making around or above the median income of SF, which is about $80,000, would help mix up the culture of the neighborhood.
Second, parking and streets. I don’t have any numbers on this, but walking around the Valencia Gardens revealed an awful lot of concrete for people to store their cars. Now if they are lower middle and lower class families, why are they wasting money on cars? The Mission is a very transit rich area, and if we are short on low cost family housing, why waste it on one way streets and parking pads? At least fill in space for a garage if you must have parking; no doubt part of that $66m could have built a garage.
In short, Valencia Gardens is a good idea in a good part of the city to live, but horribly executed. Inward facing front doors and blank walls attract crime. A well worn sidewalk and access to the action of day to day humanity prevents crime. Motor cars and parking only leave more space for vagrancy to occur.
