FREE//GRATUITO
Vol. 44 No. 10
Publicado por Acción Latina
Laura Waxmann
C
Laura Waxmann
16TH ST. BART PLAZA
El Tecolote
ommunity members and organizers gathered at the Victoria Theatre to express deep concerns about a looming development project across the street at the 16th Street BART plaza. The meeting on May 16 was the first community-organized forum about the development project, and attendees were eager to vocalize their disapproval of a plan activists say would put gentrification in hyper drive in the area. “The construction crane is the city bird of San Francisco because there is so much marketrate development happening,” said Maria Zamudio, a housingrights campaign organizer at Causa Justa::Just Cause. Zamudio guided attendees through the project plan that would place 350 market-rate rental units at the congested transit hub. “The reality is that this project is monstrous and it’s going to continue to destabilize our community,” she said. Though not the first marketrate development project to creep into the Mission in recent years, the proposed two, 10-story buildings and an additional five-story building make this the largest development plan to ever hit the neighborhood. According to information pulled from the project preplanning assessment report, the project will make room for “luxury” condos projected to rent at $3,500 monthly and over. The development plan comes months after a campaign called “Clean Up the Plaza” was launched by a “coalition of residents, merchants, and visitors” seeking to improve “transportation corridors,” according to the campaign’s website. Opponents of the campaign point out that it promises to improve and beautify the scruffy plaza by pushing out many of the homeless and low-income residents that congregate there, while increasing police presence. “I think that the idea that development is going to be cleaning up the neighborhood is a little bit of an angle for those who want
Mayo 22–Junio 4, 2014
El Tecolote
RENOVATION SPARKS CONTROVERSY AT COMMUNITY MEETING
tiva, PODER and the Housing Rights Committee. The coalition is determined to intervene as the development plan enters a review process with the San Francisco Planning Commission. The force behind the project is the development company Maximus Real Estate Partners, which reportedly bought the property for $32 million. According to Zamudio, the developers have a “long history of destabilizing communities.” See meeting, page 4
Vea reunión, página 4
COMUNIDAD EXPRESA RECHAZO A PROYECTO DE CONSTRUCCIÓN
La voluntaria comunitaria Erin Andrew escribe durante la reunión convocada por el grupo Plaza 16, una coalición comunitaria que se opone a los planes de construcción en la plaza del BART de la calle 16. Community volunteer Erin Andrew writes during a social activity at the Victoria Theatre, Thursday, May 15. The public meeting was hosted by Plaza 16, a community coalition that’s protesting the proposed development at 16th Street BART plaza. Photo Santiago Mejia to see this happen,” said Paula Tejeda, owner of Chile Lindo, an empanda shop at 16th and Capp streets. “We need to find a way to make the city responsible so that people living in the conditions in which we see our citizens live, start getting humane treatment. That has to be a major priority.” “The ‘Clean Up’ campaign is an astroturf campaign that wanted to name itself a grassroots campaign—just like astroturf is fake grass, this campaign is fake grassroots,” said Zamudio. “It was created to bring city and pub-
Unas 100 personas se reunieron en el Teatro Victoria en oposición al proyecto de construcción en la plaza del BART de las calles 16 y Misión. Approximately 100 people gathered inside Victoria Theatre, Thursday, May 15 for a public meeting against the proposed development at 16th Street BART plaza. Photo Santiago Mejia
lic support for this development project, which came right after. One of the major impacts of the campaign was seeing less people in the plaza and an increase in police presence and violence against our homeless neighbors.” In response, housing-rights groups and community activists concerned with the project’s impact on the people and culture of the community have united to form the Plaza 16 Coalition Some of these groups include Causa Justa, the Mission SRO Collaborative, La Colec-
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iembros de la comunidad y organizadores políticos se reunieron en el Teatro Victoria para expresar su profunda preocupación por los planes de un proyecto de desarrollo urbanístico junto al teatro, en la plaza del BART ubicada en las calles 16 y Misión. La reunión del pasado 16 de mayo fue el primer foro organizado por la comunidad en torno al proyecto urbanístico, y los asistentes no se aguantaban por alzar la voz en desaprobación de un plan que los activistas dicen aceleraría el aburguesamiento del barrio. “Las grúas de construcción son los pájaros de la ciudad de San Francisco porque hay tanta y tanta construcción de viviendas a precio de mercado sucediendo ahorita”, dijo María Zamudio, organizadora de la campaña por el derecho a la vivienda de la organización Causa Justa :: Just Cause (CJJC). Zamudio mostró a los asistentes los detalles del proyecto que colocaría 350 unidades habitacionales de alquiler a precio de mercado en un área ya de por sí congestionada. “La verdad es que este proyecto es monstruoso y va a seguir desestabilizando a nuestra comunidad.” Aunque no es el primer proyecto de construcción de viviendas a precio de mercado que sucede en la Misión en los últimos años, la propuesta de construir dos edificios de 10 pisos de altura y un edificio adicional de cinco es el proyecto de construcción de mayor envergadura que jamás se realizaría en el barrio. Según información extraída del informe de evaluación previa a la ejecución del proyecto, éste abrirá la puerta a la construcción de departamentos ‘de lujo’ que se estima se alquilarían por $3.500 al mes o más. El plan de construcción se produce meses después de que una ‘coalición de residentes, comerciantes y visitantes’ iniciaran la campaña ‘Limpien la plaza’ (CUTP por sus siglas en inglés) con el objetivo de mejorar los ‘corredores de transporte’, con-