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Since the Gold Rush, the SOMA distirct of San Francisco has been the focal point of very powerful, often opposing forces. Put simply, these are:
Top-Down forces from business and government
Bottom-Up forces from people who live and work there.
SOMA today represents a synthesis -- maybe "truce" would be a more apt term -- between these energies. In the brief history below, I've put the top-down pressures in white and the bottom up forces in green so they stand out more clearly. I mean no value judgement by using these colors. In fact, one of the most promising developments in recent decades has been the willingness of top-down institutions, such as the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, to listen to citizen groups and give them the leeway to handle matters as they see fit, and the willingness of free-spirited entrepreneurs and artists to work with government and private agencies with a vision of the greater public good.
Briefly:
SOMA IN THE 1990s takes its personality from four high-energy elements in the district:
1) The radically disparate population -- disparate in age, income, ethnicity, and expectations of what those who live and work there want from SOMA
2) The "official" Art, Culture, and Exhibition center of San Francisco
3) SoHo West, with an astonishing number of music clubs and
artist lofts interspersed with welding shops and storage warehouses
4) Multimedia Gulch
The SOMA Tale
During the Gold Rush era, wealthy folks put up mansions in SOMA. It was far enough away from the murders and heavy winds downtown, yet close enough to get there by horse-drawn cart. South Park , a lovely, enclosed oval park surrounded by upper-class dwellings modeled on English counterparts, was where the tonier families lived. South Park was the first land development scheme in San Francisco -- the first instance of local top-down thinking in exploiting the local landscape so that newcomers would fit into a pre-existing scheme of land development.
Then, in 1869, developers conspired with local politicians to level the Second Street hill -- cut it down 80 feet for better commercial traffic, left many houses on the edge of a cliff, and ruined the ambience. Current residents of SOMA were incensed, but failed to stop the move. During the opening years of the 1870s, the rich moved out, and the workers moved in.
The area was completely destroyed by fire in 1906. When it was rebuilt, it was a warehouse and low-rent district. In the reorganization plans of the 1920s , the city designated SOMA as a light industry and warehouse district. Housing was allowed, but not officially encouraged. In 1900, some 62,000 people lived in SOMA. But by 1910, the number decreased to 24,500 -- as one writer put it, "a neighborhood of lone men, for the most part, retired or unemployed." One writer nostagically looked back to pre-1906 SOMA life as a haven of old-fashioned virtues and values:
'Twas an old rustic hut 'way down South of the Slot,
'Twas a broken down hovel they say,
But I'd love to go back to that tumble-down shack,
And live there forever and aye.
'Twas a hole in the wall, yes 'twas battered and small,
Just a room and an old cozy cot,
But my mem'ry recalls, that old scene that enthralls,
My dear Mother -- down South of the Slot.
John J. Burke
There were exceptions to the new pattern of poor men living in isolation in the post-1906 era. SOMA became the center of thriving Filipino and Greek communities community, now fast disappearing. Laborer families lived there; and one of the sights of the 1930s was the infamous "slave market" between 3rd and 4th on Brannan, where unemployed workers would gather every morning in the hope of being picked up employers looking for day laborers.
In the 1950s, Big Money folks north of Market saw SOMA as prime, under-developed real estate, and started talking
about "improving" the area by building a stadium, parking garages,
high-rise office buildings, etc. But some human rights advocates , concerned that original residents would be forced out and left homeless, tied up the plans in court; and it wasn't until Mayor Moscone broke the logjam in 1976 that the district started to develop, leading especially to the Redevlopment Agency-directed Moscone Center, Yerba Buena Gardens, SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), as well as the California Historical Society, the Jewish Museum, the Ansel Adams photography center , and many more "bottom-up"-style institutions. Furthermore, there are more than 100 magazines published in this small area, ranging from Thrasher to PC World to Wired.Next year. Sony will have completed its huge entertainment complex, including theaters and a 3-D IMAX installation.
Though upscale townhouses are sprouting, there are still lots of
(relatively) cheap apartments and lofts off the sidestreets and alleyways
here. And the club scene is probably the densest in the world, with both
"official" and pirate venues. There are six in ONE BLOCK of 11th Street alone -- jazz, house, rock, and unclassifiable. In addition, the
warehouses are the site of lots of "unauthorized" parties that you can
only find out about by listening in on the right channels.
No one is sure just how many multimedia companies have their home in SOMA, though places the number at 400. Some, like Macromedia , are very visible and successful ($125,000,000
earnings last year). Others are mom-and-pop studios where one or two
people crank away at their homebrewed CDRom, by which they hope to strike
it rich. I don't think I've ever been to a coffee shop or microbrewery in
SOMA without overhearing some eager conversation about the dreams and
schemes to make and market the ultimate killer app or Killer Instinct
spinoff. San Francisco State's multimedia program in its downtown center
(in SOMA) is the educational hub of Multimedia Gulch.
Links to information about SOMA:
USA Today essay on Multimedia Gulch
Brief account of the Filipino Community around South Park
Top-Down forces from business and government
Bottom-Up forces from people who live and work there.
Briefly:
SOMA IN THE 1990s takes its personality from four high-energy elements in the district:
During the Gold Rush era, wealthy folks put up mansions in SOMA. It was far enough away from the murders and heavy winds downtown, yet close enough to get there by horse-drawn cart. South Park , a lovely, enclosed oval park surrounded by upper-class dwellings modeled on English counterparts, was where the tonier families lived. South Park was the first land development scheme in San Francisco -- the first instance of local top-down thinking in exploiting the local landscape so that newcomers would fit into a pre-existing scheme of land development.
Then, in 1869, developers conspired with local politicians to level the Second Street hill -- cut it down 80 feet for better commercial traffic, left many houses on the edge of a cliff, and ruined the ambience. Current residents of SOMA were incensed, but failed to stop the move. During the opening years of the 1870s, the rich moved out, and the workers moved in.
The area was completely destroyed by fire in 1906. When it was rebuilt, it was a warehouse and low-rent district. In the reorganization plans of the 1920s , the city designated SOMA as a light industry and warehouse district. Housing was allowed, but not officially encouraged. In 1900, some 62,000 people lived in SOMA. But by 1910, the number decreased to 24,500 -- as one writer put it, "a neighborhood of lone men, for the most part, retired or unemployed." One writer nostagically looked back to pre-1906 SOMA life as a haven of old-fashioned virtues and values:
'Twas an old rustic hut 'way down South of the Slot,
'Twas a broken down hovel they say,
But I'd love to go back to that tumble-down shack,
And live there forever and aye.
'Twas a hole in the wall, yes 'twas battered and small,
Just a room and an old cozy cot,
But my mem'ry recalls, that old scene that enthralls,
My dear Mother -- down South of the Slot.
John J. Burke
There were exceptions to the new pattern of poor men living in isolation in the post-1906 era. SOMA became the center of thriving Filipino and Greek communities community, now fast disappearing. Laborer families lived there; and one of the sights of the 1930s was the infamous "slave market" between 3rd and 4th on Brannan, where unemployed workers would gather every morning in the hope of being picked up employers looking for day laborers.
In the 1950s, Big Money folks north of Market saw SOMA as prime, under-developed real estate, and started talking
about "improving" the area by building a stadium, parking garages,
high-rise office buildings, etc. But some human rights advocates , concerned that original residents would be forced out and left homeless, tied up the plans in court; and it wasn't until Mayor Moscone broke the logjam in 1976 that the district started to develop, leading especially to the Redevlopment Agency-directed Moscone Center, Yerba Buena Gardens, SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), as well as the California Historical Society, the Jewish Museum, the Ansel Adams photography center , and many more "bottom-up"-style institutions. Furthermore, there are more than 100 magazines published in this small area, ranging from Thrasher to PC World to Wired.Next year. Sony will have completed its huge entertainment complex, including theaters and a 3-D IMAX installation.
Though upscale townhouses are sprouting, there are still lots of
(relatively) cheap apartments and lofts off the sidestreets and alleyways
here. And the club scene is probably the densest in the world, with both
"official" and pirate venues. There are six in ONE BLOCK of 11th Street alone -- jazz, house, rock, and unclassifiable. In addition, the
warehouses are the site of lots of "unauthorized" parties that you can
only find out about by listening in on the right channels.
No one is sure just how many multimedia companies have their home in SOMA, though places the number at 400. Some, like Macromedia , are very visible and successful ($125,000,000
earnings last year). Others are mom-and-pop studios where one or two
people crank away at their homebrewed CDRom, by which they hope to strike
it rich. I don't think I've ever been to a coffee shop or microbrewery in
SOMA without overhearing some eager conversation about the dreams and
schemes to make and market the ultimate killer app or Killer Instinct
spinoff. San Francisco State's multimedia program in its downtown center
(in SOMA) is the educational hub of Multimedia Gulch.
Links to information about SOMA:
USA Today essay on Multimedia Gulch
Brief account of the Filipino Community around South Park
'Twas an old rustic hut 'way down South of the Slot,
'Twas a broken down hovel they say,
But I'd love to go back to that tumble-down shack,And live there forever and aye.
'Twas a hole in the wall, yes 'twas battered and small,
Just a room and an old cozy cot,
But my mem'ry recalls, that old scene that enthralls,
My dear Mother -- down South of the Slot.
John J. Burke
Links to information about SOMA:
USA Today essay on Multimedia Gulch
Brief account of the Filipino Community around South Park