A pathetic display of political cowardice at the SF Planning Commission

The Planning Commission demonstrated two things today: The appointees of Mayor London Breed will almost always side with developers, no matter how terrible a project is—and Wiener, Yimby & Co. have done serious damage to vulnerable populations in San Francisco.

The commission was considering a challenge to a massive luxury housing project at 2588 Mission Street. The developer, Hawk Liu, wants to build 181 new units in a ten-story building in the heart of the Mission, which has faced massive displacement in the past decade.

Pretty much everyone in the community, and most of the commissioners, agreed this was a bad project. The Yimbys aren’t even pushing it.

That’s in part because this site used to house around 60 low-income tenants and 23 community-serving businesses, until it burned down in 2015. One person died, several were injured, and all of them were displaced.

In past hearings, some commissioners and community members have suggested the fire was arson; at the very least, one lawsuit alleges, Lou did not properly maintain the structure. Community members speaking at past hearings said that smoke alarms weren’t working.

Over the course of the next ten years, Lou racked up a long list of building code violations as the place sat empty. It caught on fire twice more. The city attorney got involved.

In other words, the commissioners all agreed the owner was not a good actor here.

And yet, Lou is back with a plan that, if it gets financing and goes forward, could make him millions of dollars, while adding to the displacement pressures on the Mission.

Although the Yimby line is generally that more housing will eventually bring down prices, we didn’t hear many people say that in public testimony. This housing will not bring down prices.

In fact, there’s ever-increasing evidence that building high-end housing in low-income communities increases displacement.

The Mission community has opposed this from the start. “Since 2016, the community has been fighting for affordable housing on that site,” said Commissioner Theresa Imperial, an appointee of the Board of Supes.

By some accounts, Lou told the late Mayor Ed Lee that he would sell the building to the city. But Lee died, and so did that idea; in fact, since Mayor London Breed refused to allocate the affordable housing money approved by the voters, buying it became difficult.

“There are things the mayor and the Board of Supervisors could do. I feel like out city did not do enough due diligence to find resources for affordable housing,” Imperial said.

Part of the problem here: The city’s own Housing Element, which talks about equity and avoiding displacement, conflicts with the rash of new state laws authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener and his Yimby allies, which don’t allow cities to consider the impacts new luxury housing could have on displacement.

Commissioner Gilbert Williams cited chapter and verse of the Housing Element, which mandates that the city seek to prevent displacement in Priority Equity Geography areas, of which the Mission is one.

“This whole project is more of the same,” Williams said. “It’s unaffordable, doesn’t work, doesn’t build community, and harms the residents.”
Commissioner Kathrin Moore, also a board appointee, called the project “unsettling.” She said: “2588 Mission is in a Priority Equity Geography, and that’s a land-use fact.”

She said that, given the displacement that has already occurred and the likely future problems, “this is exceptional and extraordinary.”

But Lou’s lawyer, David Blackwell, said none of that mattered: The Yimby state laws that take away local planning discretion trump even the strongest local anti-displacement policies. In their mad dash to force cities to approve more housing projects, Yimby, Wiener & Co. made no exemptions for situations like this one.

Moore argued that the narrow exception, for projects that have unavoidable public safety and health impacts, applied here.

The four commissioners appointed by the mayor disagreed.

It was a pathetic display of political cowardice: One by one, the commissioners said they didn’t like the project. “I am disappointed,” said Derek Braun. “This is a scar on top of a scar on top of a scar. I feel your pain,” said Commissioner Sean McGarry. “It’s a very sad day and a sad moment,” said Commissioner Lydia So. “None of us are feeling happy.”

Both Braun and So chided the developer, saying he could have tried harder to work with the community. “You reap what you sow,” So said.

Then they proceeded to vote, 4-3, to allow the project to move forward.

If not for the state laws that, as even the commission’s city attorney admitted are “one size fits all,” the four pro-development planners would have lacked an excuse to vote for something hardly anyone except the developer, who owns several other buildings, wants.

This is what some of us warned about when the state Legislature started setting mandates for new luxury housing. It’s now come to pass.

Or maybe is hasn’t: Nobody’s loaning money for these projects right now, and maybe after Lou waits a year or two for financing, the Lurie Administration will come to its senses and use the Prop. I money to buy him out.

Otherwise, these luxury apartments and the displacement of existing residents and small businesses will forever be part of Wiener’s legacy.