A Changing Mission: To Whom Does San Francisco's Oldest Neighborhood Belong?

[@hungsingkwoonusa650]

I'm watchin this video and crying my eyes out. Because I am a true son of the Mission, born and rasied. What the tech indrustry has done and big money has completely destroyed the neighborhood i grew up in for people with money. This is the ONLY TRUTH.....You can take a man out of the Missioin but you can't take the Mission out of the man!!!!!!! Sons of the Mission for life.

[@664theneighbor5]

Tough shit. It’s not your neighborhood anymore. Cry about it

[@Zeyev]

Thank you very much. My father was brought up in The Mission, near the corner of 23rd and Alabama. He sold newspapers on the steps of Hibernia Bank (now Social Security) at 22nd and Valencia. Like his siblings, he went to Mission High. He left in 1933 when he enlisted in the Army on the Presidio. I have no idea what he would think about the change since it was an Irish/Italian/Jewish neighborhood in his youth. My grandmother lived in the house until her death in 1941. This sort of change is happening nationwide. In the city of Washington, where I live, stable African-American neighborhoods are being destroyed by similar market forces. Here, it's called The Plan and was predicted decades ago. It's hard to explain to newcomers that the area may have been poorer but it was home to many people. How does one balance the economic pressure against the stability and the culture of an area? I have no idea. But I'm glad you showed the struggle in micro.

[@leftmyheart8376]

Our problem is here in SF we have a corrupt school board. And wouldn't you know it? One of the biggest bullies on the school board owns a skyrise condo development company.

[@randomoverpopulatedworldid3286]

So it was an Irish/Italian/Jewish neighborhood? Sounds like capitalism continually changes the landscape of who lives where. Instead of allowing multiple generations of families to inherit the wealth of property, they are instead creating mortgage systems & capitalistic systems where everyone eventually looses the one thing that means everything; home. My grandparents owned a home in the Sunset, and my other grandparents and both my parents owned homes in San jose and if we'd kept just one home in the family instead of selling out, we'd be millionaires just by owning the property. Now I want to buy but feel I'm taking over another cultures neighborhood, when my family has been in the bay since the 1800's. The only area I can afford is a condo in Beyview or like Oakland. My grandfathers home was in east Oakland off 74th (I believe,) and he sold it in the 50's for like 50k. Now it's like $400,000 for a 2bd 1bath tiny old home in the old military housing of Oakland. Housing is a right we all deserve. It was just so much easier for our grandparents.

[@nereidatorres7613]

WHOA, I LIVED IN ALABAMA TOO. OH GOD HOW I LOVE AND MISS SAN FRANCISCO AND MISSION STREET. BUT IT MAKES ME SO SAD AND IT BREAKS MAY HEART TO SEE THE DOWN FALLIT IS IN. SUCH A BEAUTIFUL CITY, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY IN THE WORLD. I HOPE THAT SOME DAY THINGS EILL CHANGE FOR THE BEST.

[@escothecommish]

I miss the old mission not the crime but the culture.....its not the mission anymore.

[@escothecommish]

@@VigilantEagleVictim absolutely bro absolutely. Right on!!!! Well thank you for you service.....when we're u in?

[@escothecommish]

@@VigilantEagleVictim right on man I was 97-03 USMC

[@AndrewChristian-bg6vr]

@@escothecommish Semper Fi devil, 09-13 myself. Grew up in the east bay and always had love for the mission. I live in the suburbs of sac now with my own home and family. It’s too different down there for my liking now.

[@OtomoTenzi]

Are any of you familiar with Dolores Park? That whole entire neighborhood back there is reputed to be HAUNTED... Cuz I used to attend Mission High School back in the 1990's, and both me and my fellow classmates (plus a few teachers and staff) have all seen a ghost there on the 4th floor... The ghost is that of a former teacher or student who usually appears to students who are in their Senior year or to janitors working there late at night. There are like some supply rooms and a few old disused classrooms or workshops on the 4th floor that were closed off while I was attending there back then. From the best of my memory; it appeared to look like a semi-transparent female figure of short stature, dressed in winter attire (a red and white Christmas-patterned sweater and brown bell-bottom corduroy pants), and sports a bowl-shaped pageboy hairstyle, holding a binder against her chest. She looked like someone from right out of the late 1960's or early 1970's. We couldn't quite see her face cuz she had her head down (as if she was in despair) and all her hair was covering it. This was during our lunch break period at noon, and we had noticed her standing down the hallway for quite some time. What's odd was that she was standing at the opposite end of the hallway from us, right by the stairway and away from the big glass windows that allowed for the sunlight to shine through on the 4th floor. She didn't move or even say a thing, and just stood there that whole time while we were there. It didn't strike us that she was a GHOST, until we had made our way back down to the ground floor by the courtyard area. And when we finally DID realize what we had just saw; we grew pale in the face, hauled our asses right outta there and ran all the way back to our classroom at like TWIN-TURBO SPEED!!! There are rumored to be ghosts also in the gym areas and even the locker/shower rooms as well, but I'm not gonna get into all that spooky shit. I heard that the school was built right over an Indian cemetery. Early builders who worked on building the school way back then, have even discovered the bones of Native Americans!

[@jeffreyhotchkiss9451]

There is an old old value that says we should learn how to walk softly on the earth. When I lived in the Mission for a short time long ago, that's what I tried to do every day. Land is not a thing to be traded.

[@sunchylde]

Loving this comment ❤️

[@paulboy741]

All good thing's come to an end.. change is inevitable. 😞

[@harrymah2786]

The Mission succumbing to outside pressures, is a changing landscape. A common history amongst all human settlements.

[@raymondammay]

Someone offered Phil 1.64 million for his house and he turned it down. Respects to Phil for wanting to stay. I don’t know if I would’ve done the same thing...

[@chillywilliedfw9093]

I wouldn't for sure. 1.6 million where do I sign 🖊.

[@larrydickman8834]

Bro I would of took that offer lol💰💵

[@naqwnaqw3712]

You’re gonna have to move out of the Bay Area with that money. Maybe you can afford a condo in sf.

[@mossshady847]

I could play "I remember....." all day long.!! 5:25 I remember when Philz was a liquor store but I bought eggs and butter there cus they were the cheapest I could find. This whole video breaks my heart. 😢

[@randolphgarcia3494]

BRIEF BLOG 8/22/2023: Just a passing thought, but this documentary, now about 3-4 years old is so compelling & thought provoking, the producer(s) should do a follow-up documentary as to what has happened since this time. I read that Phil's coffee shop on Mission has closed up or is about to due to changing demographics in the Mission as well as the post Covid-19 aftermath in that Mission corridor area. I hope another updated youtube documentary is made soon or is in the planning stages.

[@snoopu2601]

All San Francisco is like a ghost town I have a friend that has to deliver goods to S.F he's says it's not the same San Francisco back in the 1980s when everything was hassle and busal everything was busy. Totally different now a whole lot of business have shut down.

[@lenchasanchez5158]

I can almost 100% guarantee you, that no one has ever called the guys at that deli and said, “What’s a Jewish deli doing in ‘Mexico Town’?!” I’m calling kosher-bullshit on that one.

[@MarkJones-si2bb]

I can understand some newer immigrants from Mexico saying that.

[@jacquelinemanzano9328]

This is a sad situation for those long time renters. I am hopeful that these people will realize that this property dilemma was all done by design. This has been in the making for quite awhile. The rich will take over and the poor and less fortunate will forever be at their mercy. That is why the SF DA & Mayor has decriminalized drugs and other petty crimes, because that is the foundation of the beginning of a new start for the Rich to buy up property. Hence the phrase "You will own nothing and be happy!" This is coming to every City soon., but first things first; Depopulation!! I suppose that if the deadly covid vaccine don't kill you the fentanyl will finish the job. This is unbelievable how the streets are filled with homeless people and drug addiction. SF was once a beautiful thriving city.

[@antdezbayarea]

It belongs to the city of San Francisco, the state of California and the US government. 🤔

[@maximegrossman2146]

excellent

[@FiveMissiles]

in a capatalist society it belongs to whoeever has money

[@justinabata6257]

100% cherry 100% champagne

[@snoopu2601]

Yes I used to catch the Bart train to go school cloths shopping in the 1980s it has changed the last time I went out to the mission ten year's ago not the same Mission I remember most of the clothing store's and little shop's are all gone. It used to be a really busy place. I hear it's like a ghost town that everyone either died or sold there home's. I have to admit everything changes every where even the little town I grew up in. Nothing stays the same. Oakland and San Francisco turn into shit holes ran by GREED.

[@zaincuriel]

My city Goofy and Blinky 22nd hogs the toughest and the Mission district. 👍🥇

[@itzdasav4247]

NORTEÑOS

[@jordansaipaia4467]

They're just tourists.

[@jasonhawkins4654]

RVs are a form of domicile. Not homelessness.

[@cop39fl]

have no idea how to answer this, it happened in chicago good and quiet to nasty and crime ridden, sometime the forces in society does not do anyone but the power brokers good never the people.

[@lenchasanchez5158]

Actually, I’m pretty sure that racism/segregation and inequality in all its forms, are the very specific societal forces responsible for the current state of affairs in Chicago.

[@abw48]

Once upon a time the Mission was mainly Irish and then they moved to Marin or Tracy on Santa Rosa,San Jose, but they didnt complain that their neighborhood was changing, as all things are in a state of change and now we have the Google Boys who are in their 30s, maybe early 40s, and they have lots and lots of spare cash, they may work in Silicone Valley but as young men they dont want to live there. I lived in the Curtis Hotel, Guerrero and 17th in 1984 then I moved to Noe Valley, 24th and Noe, which at one time was a rather poor Spanish speaking neighborhood, all things change, and not always for the best, not always for the bad either. Spanish speaking people do not own The Mission anymore than they owned Noe Valley. Carlos Santana lived in the Mission and Janis Joplin lived in Noe Valley, Jimi Hendrix lived in the Haight, that was 1960s, today is now...

[@justinabata6257]

Burrito Distrik I love Frisco She ain't cheap tho

[@andrewlikestrains4138]

Tech bros ruin everything.

[@almondgarfield]

I live in this neighborhood. 2 blocks away from the profiled stretch of the city. Well, I hate to say this, since I really do wish there was more content about SF in general but poorly researched video. It's clearly a story where the creater already had an opinion and went out seeking interviews and narratives that fit this existing opinion. For example the trope "tech guy" included was clearly designed just to be the enemy, pandering to stereotypes overall. Sf chronicle - it's really amature reporting. Not going to comment on the overall cultural tension, since its complex and controversial. However will say that if California in general and the bay area was more permissive in allowing more construction and housing we would see less displacement overall of established groups in neighborhoods. I am talking about a cohesive regional plan that adds more housing. As much as new wealthy residents say they want to live in up and coming areas the truth is if there was available housing in let's say Marin, people with wealth would gravitate there. But issue is people already in Marin who are even more wealthy push policies that keep out the less rich. The way they can do this is by using the excuse of " local control" and saving the "character" of the neighborhood. The truth is that the wealthy are able to use these local control laws better then the less wealthy. It's a trickle down where displacement is pushed to areas that are least able to absorb it. A comprehensive regional housing plan that forces wealthy and lower income areas to accept denser housing is the only way out of this mess. Although I empithise with these personal stories, I think it's risky to focus on only those vs the macro issues, because it almost pulls at heart strings to promote more local control over planning when we need less. We're in a housing deficit crisis people, the answer is for all of us to work together to promote housing in all parts of the city especially in already wealthy areas.

[@almondgarfield]

I was looking at the charts on the SF chronicle webpage article. It shows rents and home prices increasing in the mission in lock step with SF citywide. The entire city is gentrifying because there is not enough housing, not just the mission districts. But this is exactly my point, article and videos that try to frame this as a wealthy people moving into a specific neighborhood are missing the macro issue of lack of number of housing units. This video makes it seem like this problem can be solved by halting evictions when the only really solution is building more newer housing in already gentrified areas. SF chronicle, where is the reporting on what's so broken about this area, that in the highest home price area in the country SF can't build new housing in already wealthy neighborhoods? Is it the city planning? Is it the permitting fees? Is it too much local control? Please your city needs leadership in reporting here.

[@rypatmackrock]

almondgarfield I also grew up in the San Francisco Bay area. Born in the CPMC on California Street in 1995, I lived my early childhood in the Richmond District until 2001 when my family moved to Marin for me to start kindergarten. From there, if you’re familiar with any Marin towns, or neighborhoods; I grew up in Greenbrae from kindergarten to my first two years of college. I grew acquainted with local housing prices in my high school years. Thank goodness we are renting out our house for now, so we can move back at any possible time. Our house is also worth between 1 and 2 million which I agreed to except as the norm for Marin and the bay area at large. In high school, it became evident to me what the cost of living was in Marin, and it became evident to me that people should just be compensated justly no matter what their job is to keep up with the cost of living, and that is why I am very supportive of labor unions. Long story short, I feel very much for the people of San Francisco and anywhere in the Bay Area since I feel that my heart was born and cultivated there from the very beginning. I currently live in San Diego, I definitely plan to move back in the long run with a solid game plan, yet there are so many people in San Francisco that need help with the fight to be able to call their neighborhoods home, and the communities that built them over the years. Learning a thing or two about San Francisco’s history, particularly the story of Harvey milk, the LGBT community he fought for, and the Castro neighborhood as well as the story of the international hotel near the financial district and US history at large all serve to me as clues for where to take San Francisco from here, by engaging in the messy debate that is free speech like we are doing right here. That is why politically, I am entirely supportive of Shahid Buttar for Congress the more I looked into him and his critiques of Almighty Nancy Pelosi that represents San Francisco in Washington DC. Please tell me what you think of Shahid Buttar if you ever heard of him as a fellow San Franciscan, and please feel free to continue this conversation as I sometimes yearn to talk to longtime residents about what they love about the city, the greater SF bay area, and what are your ideas for improving the city from here.

[@albertdowning8003]

Nobody put words in tech guys mouth. They don't give a FCK about the changes they're helping along

[@marciellopez5845]

Lmao

[@MarkJones-si2bb]

Closing our southern border, and limiting H1B Visas, would help.

[@RickDirt11]

❤..... omg

[@printerudell3604]

Neighborhoods change, and it's unreasonable to expect a neighborhood to stay stuck in time. Should the folks descended from the Irish and German and Italian folks who built the Mission resent the Latins who moved in in the 60s?

[@alh3206]

White flight was a choice. Much different then what is going on now.

[@obijuankenobi420]

Some Latin families moved in and all the white people ran for the hills.....its actually pretty funny.

[@PC-tan]

In those cases didn't they choose to move out? And they were not forced to move out? Isn't that what happened in New York and West Side Story? You immigrant families that move to a place and make a life there, once they have more money and raised their kids, they either stay there or move to a nicer place, based of what people said about crime and stuff I'd imagine that they moved to nicer neighborhoods. That's not what's happening here, these families are being priced out since they either can't move to a nicer neighborhood or they would rather just stay and live where they have lived since their younger days and it sounds like some of them are elderly and their children have moved away. That's also possible what happened to those German and Italian families that you are mentioning they were there, the children abandoned the parents and the parents refused to move, those parents died and rather than move back there, their kids chose to sell their home to some of these new immigrants families and others. Now you have people who are simply being priced out since they just can't afford the high price tag from all of these new people with a lot of money that are willing to pay millions of dollars. This has also happened in the past in other parts of the country as well and in some cases we just move on or the topic is hardly ever brought up.

[@RamBo-we9ii]

I'm a Mission born Latino. I have no sympathy for the couple who paid $420 - $613 in rent for 24 years. All that time and they didn't save anything to buy their own home? DO. FOR. SELF. You never want to be displaced? They should have bought a home. You can make excuses in life or sacrifice and earn a slice for yourself. The family that sold the home is a prime example of why our people rarely gain generational wealth. The man who bought his $30k home is going to die there, because the house belongs to him. I would be willing to bet his kids also keep the house and rent it out for short term gains, over the years. His heirs property tax bill is going to be the gift that keeps giving. They'll be paying a 3%, in property tax, of what their neighbors pay to own the same property.

[@RamBo-we9ii]

@Angel Jose Mendoza Homeowners.

[@RamBo-we9ii]

@@VigilantEagleVictim And I bet they worked hard and sacrificed to make that life for themselves. Everyone wants the prize, not everyone is willing to do the hard work to get it. 💯

[@suckafree6195]

@Angel Jose Mendoza people with common sense.

[@AlexCab_49]

Because it's cheaper. The video explains that the median income was $35,000 so for many it was cheaper to rent than buy and people at the time probably didn't expecf gentrification to happen.

[@de_pin5835]

Haha been in the mission since 1983 when it was very sketchy. The only way it improved was bc of the tech industry. Now that era is subsiding,the decrepit of lore is returning. Kool aid nostalgia

[@flameofthewest6196]

The Mission was Irish/Italian/German before the 60's, and a good place to raise families, low crime and no gangs. Sorry but it does not "belong" to any one group, it will always be changing.

[@1087shotwell]

What the fuck you talking about it belong to the natives learn your so- called American history.

[@cattcatt4522]

:(

[@yepYup22]

2 XIVers

[@paulstevens6043]

To Whom Does San Francisco's Oldest Neighborhood Belong? The lesbian presenting as a man who is running a bakery/tourist destination.

[@nereidatorres7613]

THE MISSION IS HORRIBAL. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE IN MEXICO. MY GOD WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO MISSION STREET.. OH MY GOD, IN THE 50'S AND 60 AND 70. IT WAS A SAFE STREET. WE USED TO WALK AT 12,1,2 , PM NOTHING NEVER HAPPY. BUY NOW I WOULD NOT WALK NOT EVEN IN THE DAY TIME. ALL THOSE DIFFRENT CULTURE HAS RUIN EVEY THING.