Fifty years ago the entire area of San
Francisco known as the Western Addition was demolished by the 1950s
agency euphemistically called the Redevelopment Agency. Known to
insiders as the Wipe Out The Colored Neighborhoods Agency.
The Agency turned part of the area over to groups that promised to develop a Japan Town to replace an authentic Japantown that was wiped out by WWII Internment.
The rest of the Western Addition was turned into public housing built by many non-profits using senior citizen funds and other government subsidies. After most of the area was built up, Fillmore Street was supposed to be made into a business development strip.
So what happened in fifty years? Most of the area was vacant for decades and much of it is still empty. There has never been any business vibrancy except for two tiny spots. On one end is a movie theatre and on the other end was a McDonalds.
The movie theatre is about to close (for reasons related to anti-trust in a buyout) which has toppled the entire Japan Town. The main buildings and malls in Japan Town are now on the market. Two thirds of the businesses in Japan Town never broke even in fifty years. Turn-over was always high.
McDonalds
has recently closed. This is a mystery. No press coverage. McDonalds
had a good location and a McDonalds almost never closes down. Could it
have been that 24 of the 96 murders in S.F. last year were within a
seven block radius of that McDonalds? Could it have helped that the black
kids standing around the restaurant were always wearing prison
clothes? Could it just be that Redevelopment never worked?
Could it be that the black community committed suicide?
The main black reverend in the area, Amos Brown, just filed a complaint about the police dissing him. The black community is so PC it never made a fuss about losing McDonalds.
Could it be that black retail business depends on Koreans and other Asian proprietors who are afraid of black neighborhoods and black anti-Asian racism?