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Feds Consider Declaring Tenderloin A Historic District
KTVU ^ | October 12, 2008

Posted on 10/12/2008 4:59:17 PM PDT by nickcarraway

In the Tenderloin, corner stores sell more alcohol than food, drug-addled pan handlers shake paper cups at passers-by and churches vie for real estate with strip clubs.

Now, the federal government is on the verge of crowning this neighborhood a place of national historic significance. Each of the area's 410 historic buildings -- flophouses, parking garages, delis and theaters -- now awaits a gold-colored placard, proudly stating its vintage and history.

This month the neighborhood's bid for historic district status will be submitted to the National Park Service, following state approval of the designation in July.

The Tenderloin will join some 80,000 listings already on the National Register of Historic Places, a roster of locales throughout the country worthy of preservation because of their significance in American history, architecture and culture. Mount Rushmore is on the list. So are the boyhood homes of the nation's presidents, along with lesser known buildings, barns and cemeteries.

The Tenderloin was not always a tangle of parking lots, liquor stores and residential hotels. During the Gold Rush, the district was a stretch of sand dunes dotted with scraggly coastal grasses. A building boom began in the region after the 1906 earthquake and by the end of World War I, the blocks were crammed with single room occupancy hotels renting rooms to merchant seamen, young professionals, musicians and migrant laborers.

"Chicago, Seattle, New York, Boston, all modern cities had these cheap lodging houses around the turn of the century," said Paul Groth, a professor of architecture and geography at the University of California at Berkeley. "But San Francisco has always been a leader in preserving them."

The money and time spent to protect historic places, however, is often aimed at saving something other than a storied past, distinctive facades or ornate cornices.

"Very often what happens with historic buildings is that they are rehabilitated for low income housing," said Paul Loether, Chief of the National Register of Historic Places. "That is something we encourage."

The vast majority of the property owners in the Tenderloin district approved of the historic designation. Some were spurred by the federal tax credits that flow to such historic places. Others are committed to providing a roof to the homeless and working poor.

A few owners wrote letters protesting the fact that new development is curtailed once a property is listed on the national registry.

"This isn't about history. They're really just trying to preserve low-income housing," said Tien Lee, whose family owns a parking lot in the district that they had hoped to commercially develop. But low-income housing advocates contend aspirations like those can lead to gentrification.

Once officially on The National Register of Historic Places, the whole neighborhood will be celebrating the Tenderloin's infancy, when buildings rose triumphantly from the earthquake's rubble.

At last year's 100th birthday party for the Cadillac Hotel, the first built after the earthquake, a woman played a Steinway grand piano in the hotel's downstairs lobby. Christmas lights festooned the balconies.

Upstairs, Richard Mathena, 81, and his 83-year-old brother Robert have shared a room without a kitchen since 1965. The Mathena brothers say they remember that in those early days, senior citizens and young office workers would congregate in the hotel lobby to watch TV and smoke pipes.

But all that has changed, Richard said. "The new bunch who live here are homeless people," he said. "It's getting awfully loud. Everybody has those cell phones and they play boom boxes."

Now, the Mathena brothers stay inside most days to avoid the modern "riffraff." They watch black and white Bette Davis movies and savor the past.

Beneath their room, a neighborhood museum is planned for the hotel's ground floor, following the lead of New York City's Tenement Museum.

A few blocks south of the Cadillac, 57-year-old Ozell Williams stands on the sidewalk outside the Boyd Hotel, where he has lived since his wife died four years ago. He is jobless, with a criminal record, but he says he chases drug dealers away from the entryway and welcomes residents home.

"There are kids in here and old ladies," said Williams. "We all watch out for each other."


TOPICS: History; Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: aids; barneyfrank; bathhousecentral; california; gaypride; harvymilk; hiv; hivaids; homosexualagenda; perverts; queerbars; reprobates; sanfrancisco; sanfranfreakshow; soddombythebay; sodomites

1 posted on 10/12/2008 4:59:18 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: martin_fierro; NormsRevenge

Ping


2 posted on 10/12/2008 4:59:41 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

WHAT THE HELL?!

That rat, mouse, roach, fly, bum, crackhead, and whore infested HELLHOLE is “historic”?!


3 posted on 10/12/2008 5:16:08 PM PDT by CE2949BB (McCain/Palin 08)
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To: CE2949BB
The Tenderloin was not always a tangle of parking lots, liquor stores and residential hotels panhandlers and gay bars...
4 posted on 10/12/2008 5:23:30 PM PDT by BigEdLB (Let's get serious - there is only one choice - McCain/Palin 2008)
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To: nickcarraway; 75thOVI; Abathar; alarm rider; albee; Alice au Wonderland; Amityschild; ...

No amateurs, please.
Send FReepmail if you want on/off ISHP list
The List of Ping Lists

5 posted on 10/12/2008 5:27:38 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: nickcarraway

This must be some kind of joke. I watched a cop show filmed in the Tenderloin District and the area was full of drug addicted bums. I think the show was called San Fransisco Blue. The district is a crime ridden dump that is infested with prostitutes, drunks, drug addicts and other forms of human scum. What is historic about a filthy place where bums are free to piss all over the place?


6 posted on 10/12/2008 5:28:29 PM PDT by peeps36 ( Al Gore Is A Big Fat Lying Hypocrite. He Pollutes The Air By Opening His Big Mouth)
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To: peeps36

Not a damn thing.

I grew up in the TL.

Nuke it.


7 posted on 10/12/2008 5:37:18 PM PDT by CE2949BB (McCain/Palin 08)
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To: peeps36

It saves the politicians from having to do anything to fix the problem.

And just think, once its historic you CAN’T change anything.


8 posted on 10/12/2008 5:40:24 PM PDT by driftdiver (No More Obama! - The corruption has not changed despite all our hopes.)
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To: nickcarraway
Very clever move by the Left. Developers are clamoring to tear down most of those ratty old buildings and replace them - by declaring the neighborhood "historic" they can't be touched, and the pathologies that keep the cash flowing to Leftist pressure groups will remain undisturbed.

San Francisco real estate values have held up relatively well so far - this might be a good exit point for the wise.

9 posted on 10/12/2008 5:42:41 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ("One man's 'magic' is another man's engineering. 'Supernatural' is a null word." -- Robert Heinlein)
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To: peeps36

..... What is historic about a filthy place where bums are free to piss all over the place?.....it is the soul of Sanfrancisco.

Pissing where you want is the ultimate freedom. All the rest is the height of San Fran social order.


10 posted on 10/12/2008 5:44:37 PM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. +12 . Off With her head.....)
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To: CE2949BB
I don't think that's the kind of thing you want to admit in a public forum, CE...

Cheers!

11 posted on 10/12/2008 5:53:56 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: nickcarraway
Ah yezzz, since it's now going to be ( lowering my voice in respect) “A Historic Area”, it must be preserved in all its pristine filth. Should it start to deteriorate into improvement more homeless bums and criminals will be brought in to restore it and preserve it for future degenerations.
12 posted on 10/12/2008 6:12:23 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: nickcarraway
Things haven't been going too well in the Haight, either:

Love and Hate Linger In Ex-Hippie District

From Hippies to Yuppies

13 posted on 10/13/2008 11:11:28 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (The Word of God is powerful. That's why so many people are afraid to read it.)
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To: nickcarraway

The last flophouse on the Bowery closed about four years ago. When I was a child, it was a mixture of punks and winos. Now it is lined with bars and clubs, with restaurant equipment stores on the southern stretch.


14 posted on 10/13/2008 11:13:26 AM PDT by Clemenza (PRIVATIZE FANNIE AND FREDDIE! NO MORE BAILOUTS!)
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