NEMA presents itself as something new: a “highly-amenitized” apartment community in a new neighborhood for the new masters of a new city. Really it’s a straightforward if old-fashioned business: a high-end residential hotel. San Francisco has seen its like before, with apartment suites, expensive staffing, and common areas serving single adults who rarely cook their own dinners. It’s not up there with the grand old palaces in their heydays – not New York’s old Waldorf-Astoria or Plaza, nor San Francisco’s own Palace Hotel. It’s more what residential hotel geographer Paul Groth would call a “midpriced mansion.” Since residential hotels are barely recovering from skid-row stigma, NEMA’s promoters are wise not to call it one. But, well, look at it. There are some large apartments in the massive complement of 754 units, but then, for example, there’s Unit 608, currently described on the company site as leasing for $2510 per month. It’s a 486-square-foot studio (just over 45 square meters) offering a kitchen with two-burner stove, ensuite bath, washer and dryer. Spartan if not for the pool, clubhouse, concierge service, etc. As always with papering-over, grotesque moments result.

NEMA’s latest promotional video moved one of its own residents to protest in an embarrassed letter to the local SFist Web site, which was picked up on Friday by Atlantic Cities. The offending item is first on the property’s own video page. Titled, ‘A Day In the Life at NEMA’, it depicts willowy actors, almost all light-skinned (although the ‘legal’ text states that ‘models do not reflect racial preference’), enjoying a markedly heterosexual poolside social whirl as if on a cruise ship. This lack of diversity in their promotional videos strongly contrasts with NEMA’s marketing texts, which claim that “NEMA has the San Francisco lifestyle in its DNA – it is an authentic product of its time and place.” The snobbery isn’t just fluff. A family who qualified for city-mandated “below market rate” housing, at a rent they could afford, were rejected because of a low credit rating even after city officials raised money to help them pay debts. They did get into the building but only after pressure, publicity and, finally, city homelessness official Bevan Dufty’s personal commitment to co-sign (assume liability for) their lease.

Twitter and NEMA, next to each other.