By Tim Redmond
The supervisors will vote Tuesday on whether to allow high-end condos and (another!) Walgreens in the Mission at 3400 Cesar Chavez. Leftinsf has a good summary of the issue. I live in the area, and I can tell you: the last thing we need are more condos for the rich and another damn Walgreens.
This is insanity; The site, like so many in the Eastern Neighborhoods, ought to be preserved for community-based affordable housing. There aren’t many places left to build housing of any sort, and every time you turn one of them over to the get-rich-quick speculators and developers, you lose a site for housing that would allow working people and families to stay in the city.
Sup. Tom Ammiano wants affordable housing on the site, and typically the supes defer to the district representative on these sorts of things. But this time, both Jake McGoldrick and Bevan Dufty may be leaning toward the developers.
It’s true that there isn’t, at the moment, a community alternative with the funding to move forward. But if the private developers take this site over, there never will be. It’s worth delaying the process to give affordable housing a chance.