This is what made San Francisco special and it’s disappearing fast

By Gillian Garaci| SF Chronicle | August 4, 2024

San Francisco has always been a place with so much culture — and counterculture. When we talk about the city today, however, the most common images that come to mind are the “doom loop” and the masses of homeless people on our streets. 

People are right to say we have lost the spark, but let’s acknowledge what really caused it to fade. 

When we look at San Francisco’s history, this was a place where revolutionaries, artists, queer folks and working-class immigrants flocked for a haven. What the city forgot is how much culture and politics rely on working-class and low-to-middle-income communities. 

When we talk about the “missing middle” but then provide housing for professionals making over $120,000 (which isn’t even close to a teacher’s salary, let’s be honest), we are pushing out the people who made the city vibrant. 

When we stop prioritizing luxury housing as a solution to the affordability crisis, the same people who built San Francisco will come flocking back. 

When did we decide to shun and dehumanize the tired, poor, unwashed masses that made the city as unique and memorable as it is to the rest of the world, anyway?