Editor,
I have a small business at 18th and Carolina streets. Many of my business neighbors are being evacuated for the 1601 Mariposa project; yet another residential monster which we don’t have the infrastructure to support. On a San Francisco Giant’s “game day” those of us living and working on Potrero Hill are unable to get off the Mariposa exit to come to work or leave the area. Despite the existing traffic mess, another stadium has been approved nearby.
The Eastern Neighborhood Plan is being ignored by the San Francisco Planning Commission; our Supervisor doesn’t return phone calls from concerned constituents. There’s been no comprehensive traffic study done for the thousands of units approved and not yet built. We continue to call these developments “residential housing” but according to the SF Business Times billions of Chinese dollars have been invested in local real estate and the amount is increasing. Are these homes or investment properties for foreigners looking for a safe place to put their money? In New York, which is experiencing the same issues, many of these investment properties, or second and third homes, sit vacant, according to The New York Times.
Maybe the development emperor disguised as “housing” has no clothes and should be referred to as investment property. Please discuss this elephant in the neighborhood in the View, and the concomitant impact on the economics and quality of life for Hill residents and businesses.
Deborah Lardie
The Lardie Company
