Tag: Sunset Neighborhood

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‘No Slums In The Sunset’: Backlash over affordable housing development intensifies in western S.F. neighborhood

By J. K. Dineen : sfchronicle – excerpt

In early January, anonymous attack posters were slipped into mailboxes and left on doorsteps in San Francisco’s Sunset District.

The poster read, “No Slums In The Sunset.” It informed residents that a “7-story, 100-unit high-rise slum” was planned for the neighborhood and predicted that within two years the property in question — at 26th Avenue and Irving Street — would “become the best place in San Francisco to buy heroin.”…

…A Mid-Sunset Neighborhood Association survey of 133 immediate neighbors found that 82% opposed the project, 15.7% supported it with modifications and just 2.1% supported it outright. About 80% said they were concerned about crime and safety, 70% about property devaluation, and 81% about lack of infrastructure, especially parking. Nearby public transit in that part of the Sunset consists of the Muni Metro N-Judah light rail, one of the system’s busiest lines, and the 29-Sunset bus line.
Opponents say a seven-story building would be out of scale with neighboring structures, which are mostly single-family homes. Several neighbors said they would welcome a three- or four-story building with 50 units and sufficient parking but not a 90- or 100-unit complex with only 11 parking spots. They say it would cast shadows on backyards, overcrowd Muni, and take street parking away from merchants and their customers…
It’s not the nature of the people who would live there we are against, it’s the nature of the building.”…(more)
This looks like too much too soon. A gradual approach to change might be the best solution. Also consider building more larger family style units instead of small crowded units. Someone needs to look into the actual density of people in the family units compared to the density of the microunits. 3 kitchen and bathrooms instead of a shared kitchen and 1.5 baths should cost less to build as the plumbing is the most expensive part of the job. Less bathrooms in a larger, more flexible living space may be a better fit for humans and cost less to produce.