The Rise and Fall of North Beach Place

Abstract

Chapters 10, 11, and 12 describe a fourth form of HOPE VI poverty governance—one centered on the role of not-for-profit housing developers and community organizations in San Francisco. Chapter 10 charts the rise and fall of North Beach Place, demonstrating how the city’s Nonprofitus constellation burst forth from the cataclysm of urban renewal. Completed in 1952, the 229-unit development near Fisherman’s Wharf initially housed whites but gradually gained substantial African American and Chinese populations. With urban renewal, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA)—under the heavy-handed direction of Justin Herman from 1959 to 1971—displaced thousands of San Francisco’s blacks from the razed Fillmore District. Coupled with antihighway protests and other neighborhood backlash, San Francisco developed a broad constellation of neighborhood-based organizations determined to help low-income households remain. As a dysfunctional San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) staggered, North Beach Place declined, becoming a dangerous eyesore in a high-visibility tourist mecca.