Envisioning a Better Neighborhood
After ending last year reflecting on gratitude and thankfulness, looking forward I see a potential sea change ahead. Not only because it's going to be an election year, but honestly things would just get a little boring if they always stayed the same. So let us examine what lies ahead in 2024.
Big change, little change, good change, bad change. If anything, change is a constant and a measure of how well we as a species continually adapt to the change. This past year alone we've seen people becoming accustomed to the Slow Streets network, the weekend closures of the Great Highway, and the improvements to the 38-Geary bus route. These changes are not solutions to any one problem, but as I've written before, part of a spectrum of solutions to mitigate issues around traffic, safety and climate change. That also means they is no guarantee that they will all pan out as net benefits to the community.
Utilizing a Theory of Change model, we can think about short-term, intermediate and long-term outcomes while tying them to projects and initiatives to evaluate how well or not they are working towards the outcomes. Progress is not always a straight line, and moving forward can create new challenges. As time marches forward, solutions in the short term may no longer work in the long term. Knowing when to change course is just as important as staying the course if the outcomes are still aligned with the goals.
As a co-lead at Grow the Richmond, housing and housing policy are what is seen as the root cause for many of the other challenges faced in the neighborhood. By focusing on the causes of our housing shortage we can begin to see progress on small business, public safety, homelessness and other items. The fixes we advocate for will not directly solve all the ills of capitalism but are steps in the right direction that we are not currently taking.
Our neighborhood added only 49 homes in 2022, mostly by adding a unit here or there to existing homes; only four new homes were built from the ground up. This makes it clear the Richmond has not done its part to address San Francisco's housing shortage, and we are here to say "yes" to more homes.
The Richmond has assiduously avoided building homes over the decades, pricing out our neighbors and friends and leaving those of us who live here with fewer opportunities and a diminished neighborhood. To claim there are enough houses in the pipeline or a glut of vacant apartments as a reason that we should maintain these current policies deviates from what many of us have experienced with neighbors leaving for more affordable options. Do you see the vacant units here in the neighborhood? Additionally, almost all those pipeline homes are in other parts of the City and have been sitting unbuilt for years. Having more and newer homes in the Richmond will ensure the neighborhood remains vibrant as our population ages.
The Richmond is a great neighborhood. It can be even better if we make it easier for more people to live here, if we make it easier for long-time residents to age in place, and for new neighbors to become part of our wonderful community. We cannot do any of that without more housing.
Will this mean everything will be fixed with a "build, build, build" mentality? Obviously there will still be challenges as we adjust to new construction, new residents and new businesses. The hope is that we operate with an outward mindset that is not focused on our individual needs and wants at the expense of the collective. If we truly want to preserve our neighborhood's character, it will not come from keeping everything the same but with empathy for the people we interact with, whether they're friends, neighbors or even strangers on the street. Being open to feedback, listening actively and recognizing that our neighborhood character is not something we enforce through restrictions, but the opportunities we attract.
With that I'd like to reflect on a great Buckminister Fuller quote, "Human beings always do the most intelligent thing … after they've tried every stupid alternative and none of them have worked."
Brian Quan is a Richmond District native, co-leader of Grow the Richmond, president of the Chinese American Democratic Club, member of the Park Presidio-Sunset Lions Club and participant in monthly RefuseRefuse street clean-ups.
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