For more than half a century, the progressives in SF have been right-and the developers wrong - 48 hills

"I was in Chinatown on Christmas Eve, walking around and looking at murals depicting community leaders and struggles, including the battle to save the I-Hotel. And as I hear about all the people affiliated with the Yimbys and the billionaires talk about how San Francisco has to change, and can't be "preserved in amber," I have been thinking about the 1970s and 1980s, and the I-Hotel, and redevelopment, when "progress" was a watchword and some of the same arguments echoed in the news media."

"And I looked at those murals of people and causes we now revere, and I thought: All those years, consistently, the progressives, the people on the left, the ones who fought uncontrolled growth and development and what was called "progress," and who tried to preserve existing affordable housing even when it made no "financial sense" and was in the way of a "better" city .... they were right."

"Walter Shorenstein, a greedy developer who later became enough of a philanthropist that some people respected him, bought the I-Hotel and moved to demolish it to build a parking garage. The left and the local community fought him. Then he sold it to a liquor baron from Thailand operating as Four Seas Investment Company, who wanted to demolish it for market-rate housing-and again, a huge campaign fought against him."

Murals in Chinatown depict community leaders and struggles, including the battle to save the I-Hotel. Conversations about Yimbys and billionaires assert San Francisco must change and cannot be "preserved in amber." The I-Hotel was central to Manilatown and housed Filipino and Chinese seniors. Developers Walter Shorenstein and later Four Seas sought demolition for a parking garage or market-rate housing. Progressive activists and the local community fought to preserve affordable rooms despite being labeled obstructionists. Despite demolition approval by Feinstein and supervisors, the site remained vacant for nearly a decade before being sold to the Catholic Church.

Read at 48 hills