L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014 www.italoamericano.com L'Italo-Americano 5 ELISABETH VASILE Who Gets to Live Here? This question is at the heart of a very live debate taking place in San Francisco today, as the city goes through what some would like to call a wave of "creative destruction", unleashed by the tech boom that has made the city a northern outpost of Silicon Valley. Others find little to call creative in the local impacts of this dizzying spike in economic growth. What is undeniable is that rents have soared and many long-term residents have been pushed out of the city, where a dramatic demographic shift is taking place. Young, well-paid, high- tech professionals are moving into apartments that previously housed renters of more modest means, including many artists, teachers, small business owners, and the elderly. At the same time, over 100 major construc- tion projects are underway – more than at any other time since the Great Earthquake and fire of 1906. These are largely a mix of commercial office and luxury high-rise residential buildings, and will change the visible as well as the social face of the city within the coming decade. Who gets to live here? San Francisco journalist David Talbot contends that this ques- tion has been at the heart of the city's civic battles throughout its history. The building of Italian North Beach, in the years fol- lowing the 1906 quake, offers one response from a different time, and a particular communi- ty. The Italian character of North Beach is more than the skin deep of signs and storefronts, more than superficial features on a substructure inherited from oth- ers. Uniquely among Italian quarters, nearly every visible structure in North Beach today – the houses, churches, parks, shops, social halls, and commer- cial buildings – was originally built by the Italian community, from the ground up. This took place in the wake of the 1906 earthquake and fire. The North Beach that burned to the ground was an ethnically diverse, work- ing class "Latin Quarter", so called for its mix of Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese residents. The neighborhood that was rebuilt was solidly Italian. In one short decade, between 1906 and 1915, North Beach rose from the ashes, the first quarter in the city to completely rebuild. Who got to live in the newly rebuilt North Beach? From the beginning, new devel- opment was inclusive of families of different means and situations, from working to middle class. The community's better-off property owners built gracious bay windowed flats of 2-3 sto- ries. Each flat had its own entrance from the street. Marble- faced exterior stairs and walls, and bay windows, especially round ones, were a sign of luxu- ry and status. The fronts received adornment of various forms, from pillars to brackets, frequently of the owner's or builder's own invention, with a whiff of the Italian Renaissance and a definite exuberance about them. Residents of more modest means could choose from a vari- ety of correspondingly more modest quarters in the same neighborhood. In the alley streets behind or bisecting the main streets, individuals built homes with plainer features, often designed to serve as inex- pensive rental properties. No bay windows here, and marble facing was a rarity. Another option for lower income renters was apartment buildings of up to 3 stories, the "Romeo flats", so- called for their balcony-style landings on the common central staircase and leading to each unit. These were on the main streets too, next to the more lux- urious flats. For the poorest families of the district, newly built two-story tenements pro- vided very simple affordable housing. Lastly, there was the rooming house, designed for the single laborer or the new immi- grant arriving without a family. In the aftermath of the quake, several of these were built to house single skilled workers needed for the rebuilding. The New California Hotel, still oper- ating today as the Hotel San Remo, was built by A.P. Giannini for this purpose. In later years, it housed skilled sin- gle workers from the nearby Del Monte cannery and the Ghirardelli chocolate factory. After World War II, the Italian families that had built North Beach began to move out in large numbers. The neighbor- hood became known for having some of the cheapest rents in the city, and many students, artists, and writers made their homes here. Today, North Beach ranks near the top of San Francisco's most desirable neighborhoods. In 2007, it won the distinction of being proclaimed by the American Planning Association, one of the "10 Great Neighborhoods in America". The quarter's harmony of scale and architectural style, combined with the rich mix of arts and eth- nic cultures -- not to mention restaurants -- has made it espe- cially attractive to the new wave of young, well-paid professionals who, with their ability to pay much higher rents, are creating a very different answer to the question, "who gets to live here?" Elizabeth Vasile is a historical geographer. She helps commu- nities and institutions build cul- tural heritage programs, and writes about the changing cultur- al landscape. An alley house in the Italian neighborhood of North Beach 650.400.4747 AdeleDS@aol.com www.AdeleDS.com BRE# 00911740 Certied Trust, Probate and Estate Specialist Expert in preparation, promotion, and negotiation! SELLING HOMES THROUGHOUT THE BAY AREA Adele Della Santina "e Right Realtor makes all the difference." Romeo flats on Stockton between Greenwich and Lombard

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