SF legislation aims to save cultural enclaves from gentrification

A mural on York Street off of 24th Street in the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, October 22, 2017. A mural on York Street off of 24th Street in the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, October 22, 2017. Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 10 Caption Close SF legislation aims to save cultural enclaves from gentrification 1 / 10 Back to Gallery

The fight to protect San Francisco’s cultural enclaves against gentrification and displacement typically takes the form of opposition. Activists show up at public meetings to decry upscale housing, to bash new office towers, or to disparage chain stores or fancy restaurants catering to well-heeled newcomers.

But the speed with which these neighborhoods are changing suggests that it hasn’t been working very well.

Now Supervisor Hillary Ronen is betting that those fighting to save what’s left of San Francisco’s cultural districts would be better served by saying yes.

“We all agree that gentrification is happening — everyone is on the same page there,” Ronen said. “But mostly the response to gentrification has been to say no — to keep people out, to prevent new buildings from being built. It’s been no, no, no, no, no. I wanted to create a tool that helps us fight the displacement of the rich cultural districts by saying yes.”

On Tuesday, Ronen will introduce legislation that would create a process to designate cultural districts — and, she hopes, a set of tools to “preserve, stabilize and grow those communities.”

The legislation would direct city departments — Public Works, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, the Planning Department and others — to find ways to strengthen these districts. Those could include increasing affordable housing, attracting and keeping more businesses, putting up signs or public art, and changing street names.

It would also direct the mayor to create funds to help each cultural district. They would probably be paid for with a combination of money from the city’s general fund, grants and payments that developers make to offset the effects of large projects.

The legislation defines a cultural district as “a geographic area or location” that “embodies a unique cultural heritage.” To qualify, a district would have to have a “concentration of cultural and historic assets of culturally significant enterprise, arts, services, or businesses,” as well as a large number of residents who are members of “a specific cultural, community, or ethnic group.”

Groups hoping to have an area designated as a cultural district would need the backing of the mayor, a member of the Board of Supervisors or a city department. The proposed district would go through a detailed study — including an assessment of historic buildings and businesses — and would need the approval of several city commissions in addition to the Board of Supervisors.

The legislation recognizes six cultural districts that already exist or are being designated: Japantown, Chinatown, the Mission’s Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, Compton’s Transgender Cultural District in the Tenderloin, and two areas in the South of Market: the Filipino Cultural Heritage District, and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Leather Cultural District.

Ronen said she doesn’t have any preconceived notions about which other districts might be designated. But she said the Vietnamese American community in the Tenderloin, the Fillmore Jazz District and the African American community in the Bayview would be strong contenders.

“Every cultural district will look a little different,” Ronen said. “This is not creating a cookie- cutter approach.”

San Francisco’s ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Japantown and the Mission District have long attracted visitors and been mainstays of a $9 billion annual tourism industry, Ronen said.

Raquel Redondiez, project manager of the Filipino Cultural Heritage District, said residents and visitors are hungry for the only-in-San Francisco experience that ethnic districts provide. The response to the monthly Filipino night market her group started in August in the Old Mint building at Fifth and Mission streets, on the third Friday night of the month , has been overwhelming, she said.

“The first month we had 10,000 people show up — thousands couldn’t get in,” she said. “Families came all the way from Stockton.”

Although the South of Market has been losing Filipino businesses and residents since the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, there is still enough of a concentration to build on, Redondiez said. Establishing a formal cultural district would help focus attention and city resources on preserving arts groups and affordable housing, and would help businesses open and stay afloat, she said.

“SoMa is transforming before our very eyes, which represents both challenges and opportunities,” Redondiez said. “We want to make sure that as the neighborhood is built out, we don’t have a Filipino cultural district with no Filipinos in it.”

Supervisor Malia Cohen, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said discussions have been going on for years about what an African American cultural district in the Bayview might look like. The legislation will “codify what Bayview neighbors have been talking about for the last 15 years,” she said.

Cohen said the discussion will help define what the community values — everything from arts and music to entrepreneurship to medicine to the role African Americans have played on the industrial waterfront.

“We are going to capture the nuances and make it our own,” Cohen said. “What blocks should be included? What buildings? These types of questions have not been answered.”

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen