Dear Randy,

I am writing in response to your article today on the opening of Yoshi’s in the Fillmore. I certainly agree with your general assessment of the failure of the Redevelopment Agency to repair the devastation it brought upon the Western Addition in San Francisco and the trauma it caused to thousands of African Americans who formerly lived in the neighborhood. The article rightfully recalls the vibrant African American cultural scene that existed prior to ‘urban renewal’ and the Redevelopment Agency. But I think the article only told a part of the story.

By the accounts of those who grew up in the neighborhood, the pre-redevelopment neighborhood was much more racially complex. Redevelopment also destroyed much of historic Japantown, wiping out hundreds of family businesses and cultural institutions and evicting more than two thousand Japanese Americans—a community that was only just recovering from the concentration camps of World War II. In place of the core Japantown district—a block up the street from the new Yoshi’s-- the city tore apart the neighborhood with the construction of the Geary Expressway. The crippling impact of that process has left the remaining Japantown neighborhood struggling to survive ever since.

To recall the presence of Japanese Americans community in the Western Addition should not minimize the injustice perpetrated against African Americans. Rather it should remind us of our shared losses and how our communities shared space, cultures, and destinies. For example, jazz in the neighborhood was not played only on Fillmore. “Bop City,” one of the leading venues with acts like Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, was located on Post near Buchanan in Japantown.

And to recall the losses of Japanese American communities is not to suggest that the opening of Yoshi’s is some act of restorative justice. Yoshi’s will need to prove it can be an inclusive member of the neighborhood. There is some room for hope on this point. Yoshi’s in Oakland regularly hosts benefits for public schools and music programs. And its audience can be more diverse than many jazz clubs in other urban centers. We should wait and see whether Yoshi’s can develop a similar relationship and audience in San Francisco But even if it does, you are correct to assert that one jazz club in the neighborhood cannot by itself legitimize what has been a decades long public policy disaster.

Regards,

Gen Fujioka
Director of Programs
Asian Law Caucus



Mr. Shaw,

Your article talks about the damage to and ineffective redevelopment of Fillmore/Western Addition by the Redevelopment Agency. On my daily walks down the Fillmore from Sacramento to Golden Gate, I see a world of change as one approaches Geary along Fillmore from Sacramento walking south. From vibrant stores & store windows, street cafes, and people walking about. At Sutter, the street starts to die. Burger King, Goodwill and a Dollar Store. Some stores such as an tropical fish store and a African-American book store try to give some life to the block between Sutter and Post.

Then one crosses Geary, and you see few people, even though you have those high-rise apartment buildings all along lower Fillmore, with the neighborhood becoming shabby, overcast, and dead. As I understand it, the old Fillmore had a lively Black, AND Japanese community with jazz clubs, barbershops, mom & pop business, human scale buildings and walk-ups rather than nondescript stucco/concrete high rises. Important words are: human scale. Developers want big buildings, big stores, so they can make a lot of money fast. A real neighborhood is organic it takes time.

It is hard to build a neighborhood with these cold big box apartment complexes (think of cold, devoid of life high rise "cities" in Russia, and the 1960s prefab highrises in the UK, before the UK decapitated many housing high rises, to make them and their neighborhoods "human scale" to bring back vitality, pride, and safety to the districts.

So that brings up the point: Why don't we kill off the Redevelopment Agency which is basically a parking place for political hacks and for patronage jobs, so they don't do any more damage?! Look at Market Street. They are developing it, telling the SFRA to get lost!

And while we are at it why not get rid of the Transportation Center Joint Powers Agency to replace the AC Transit Terminal? The Agency is only in existence to fund patronage. Look at the director as a prime example. The cost of the Transportation Center has ballooned from $500 million to $4.5 billion with only $300 million committed. It will never get built.

Build a modern bus terminal for $500 million. The trains should end at 4th and Townsend with a new enclosed terminal, with a direct connection to the T-line to downtown (which has short and long haul trains) with space for the "supertrain/TGV" if it ever gets built, and goes to SF, in our lifetime. The Transit Center is a political boondoggle.

And those highrises? Not because they are good. As I understand it the 80+ story monstrosity public funding goes to keep the Transportation Center Joint Power Authority in business with new cash flow. Pays their and their favored "consultants" for a few more years. The JPA is running out of money. And the other envisioned high rises? To fund the Redevelopment Agency, and the JPA, but nothing or drips for the City and the neighborhood(s).

Yours,

Stephen K. Leslie
San Francisco



Randy,

I am currently reading "The Yerba Buena Land Grab" by Chester Hartman that you referred to in your article today about the failure of redevelopment in the Fillmore. I have likewise explored the area around the new Yoshi's. What I saw was a ruling class enclave that is rapidly expanding its tentacles from Hayes valley north westerly and southward down Fillmore. How long before the Fillmore looks like Union or Hayes Street?

It is interesting how many parallels there are to redevelopment then and now. On page 43 of the Hartman book the SF Planning and Urban Renewal Association, official Citizens Action Committee warned (in 1966) that if the trend continues the population will move closer to “standard White Anglo-Saxon Protestant” characteristics. What is old is new. The protracted land struggle continues. Even back in the 50s community activists were fighting against gentrification. The (spray) painting on the wall is not being read because it is being painted over ...

James Chionsini
San Francisco



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