What once housed hope now hopelessly empty
“In a time of housing crisis, it’s not acceptable to have these empty buildings hanging around.” Gabriel Medina, policy director, Mission Economic Development Agency
For a city with a housing crisis, San Francisco sure has a lot of empty buildings.
One of my favorite strolls had been along Mission Street from 15th to Cesar Chavez streets. But recently I had to stop doing that, because the empty storefronts and abandoned lots pockmarking the street had become too depressing.
It’s depressing not only because I remember what was there, but also because I look at the buildings and imagine their owners turning down the offers that have come their way, waiting for the craft brew pub or the high-end barber shop they’ve decided must come, will come.
In the meantime, the neighborhood waits.
There’s little escape. Lately, I’ve hopped over Cesar Chavez and started strolling up Mission toward Bernal Heights. Sometimes I’ll loop down to Precita Park and amble down Peralta Avenue.
But now the warehouse at 968 Peralta Ave. is empty.
This week, the sheriff ’s office officially evicted the artists’ collective that lived there, Bernalhaus. It was one of the Bay Area’s first court-ordered warehouse evictions since the horrific Ghost Ship fire killed 36 people in Oakland.
“I feel horrible,” tenant Nathan Cottam said on the day of the eviction. “It’s destabilizing. It’s a bad situation.”
The artists who lived there were responsible tenants: They paid their rent on time, they improved their living conditions and, after the Ghost Ship, they consulted the Fire Department for guidance on safety improvements and invested their own money in windows, smoke alarms and an extra exit door.
It’s also the site of a planned 49-unit apartment complex, valued at $7 million. The developer applied for a permit in July.
So the sudden protestations of the landlord, Ron Erickson, that he discovered people were living there in violation of their lease terms are awfully suspicious. (Erickson didn’t return my phone calls for comment.)
“We’ve been here for more than a decade, and everyone in the neighborhood knows we live here,” Cottam, who is a dancer and choreographer, told me. “Since (Erickson) purchased the property, he’s been trying to get this building torn down so he can put up condos. We fought for our rights.”
They lost. At least for now. The tenants’ two posttrial motions are set for hearing on Friday, May 5.
“These are residential units. They have been for a long time,” Cottam said. “The people in them deserved to be treated with dignity, not like this.”
Even the other side of Mission Street has tales of woe to tell.
Recently, I passed by the burned-out block at Mission and 29th streets that was the site of a five-alarm fire last year. The businesses that were there, including the 3300 Club, were beloved. And I can’t imagine the tenants who lived in the Graywood, a single-roomoccupancy hotel that burned in the fire, have had an easy time finding new housing. Yet there hasn’t been any rebuilding. That may be by design. Thanks to San Francisco law, the tenants in the Graywood have the right to return to new housing units when they are eventually built. But the longer it takes to build, the more those cash-strapped tenants are likely to drift away from San Francisco.
“The longer it takes, the less opportunity they have to invoke their right of return,” Gabriel Medina, the policy director of the Mission Economic Development Agency, told me.
Medina’s organization collected contributions for the fire victims and made an offer on the former hotel site, which is now for sale, in the hopes of building affordable housing. But ultimately, the battle is larger than one empty building.
“In a time of housing crisis, it’s not acceptable to have these empty buildings hanging around,” Medina said. “It’s not healthy for the neighborhoods or the people who have had to leave them.”
I concurred with him, because I feel like it’s not even healthy for the people who are just walking by. I guess I’ll try walking South of Market next.