Comments on: The Mission – Bringing You Blight Since 1945

By: Dave D.

Dave D. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:09:43 +0000

The 1940′s planners have marked North Beach and Chinatown as ‘F’. The key says the median year built (of the substandard buildings and not the area) was before 1894; curious, considering the entire area was destroyed in 1906. Damn those time machines, blighting the freshly built neighborhoods that rose from Phoenix’s ashes!

By: Noe Valley – Bringing You Blight Since 1945 « Burrito Justice

Noe Valley – Bringing You Blight Since 1945 « Burrito Justice — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:14:30 +0000

[...] Valley – Bringing You Blight Since 1945 Oh, Noe, you looked down upon the Mission and thought you were blight free. But 1945 [...]

By: Eric Fischer

Eric Fischer — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:23:29 +0000

Speaking of million-dollar teardowns, you might also like this illustration from the report using Noe Valley as an example of how blight disfigures San Francisco.

By: johnny0

johnny0 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:36:12 +0000

Thanks Eric. Yeah, I remember the overly optimistic, Bernal-crushing "California Avenue" plan on various older maps, including the 1920 and 1899 city maps you previously posted. Pretty amazing how plans like these perpetuate, despite their WTF qualities. I imagine the landslide on Bernal in the 1936 was a wakeup call.

By: Eric Fischer

Eric Fischer — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:53:45 +0000

The 1940s planners didn’t actually want to build those streets on top of Bernal Heights. They had been planned as part of the original subdivision of the area but never had anything built on them because they were impossibly steep, yet they had never been formally withdrawn from the street system either so were still shown with dotted lines. You can see a similar situation in the original Diamond Heights grid and in McLaren Park. The 1940s attitude to streets was more exemplified by Bernal Heights Boulevard, which added a level-contour street around the peak in the 1930s.