Subtle Racism and Explicit Nativism in Community Meetings
March 28, 2017 | By Andy Lynch
The racial undercurrents within San Francisco’s public forums.
There are a number of things that San Franciscans typically associate with our city: exorbitant rents, sourdough bread, pretending to listen to people talk about their startup. Ask any civic-minded San Franciscan and it won’t take long to hear another answer: community meetings. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of community meetings.
San Francisco loves community meetings to the extent that we hold them for just about everything. A discussion about keeping the lights on at a soccer field? We’ll show up wearing cleats. We live for this stuff.
Public debate and discussion is supposed to lead to better decisions, but there are consequences when too much influence is given to those who have enough free time to show up to public meetings. The result is housing projects continue to be held up while we are in the middle of a housing crisis and transportation improvements are delayed for years due to every possible concern a neighborhood group can conceive.
Another side effect of these public meetings is that they are, well, public. When everyone has a say in a decision the worst elements of our community also get to have their voices heard.
Take, for instance, a community meeting on March 17 that was organized by Richmond District neighbors regarding the opening of San Francisco Bay Restaurant, a new Chinese restaurant on 36th Avenue and Balboa Street.
According to three attendees, the meeting was attended by Supervisor Sandra Fewer and roughly 30 neighbors. Among the common concerns regarding noise and hours of operation emerged darker, more sinister complaints. Multiple neighbors said that the area has enough Chinese restaurants. Another resident raised concerns that the owner does not speak English. Yet another went even further, stating that the establishment could be used as a massage parlor or gambling hall because she doubted it could remain open without resorting to illegal activity.
A few neighbors voiced their support for the restaurant, stating that the commercial corridor was lacking in vibrant dining options and a new Chinese restaurant would be a welcome addition. Their support was met with suspicion by the rest of the group and, as is the case with many community meetings, the conversation quickly took a nativist turn. For those of you who haven’t attended a contentious community hearing, it doesn’t take long for an argument to turn into a question of residency: “How long have you lived here? Well I’ve lived here for (X+1) years!”
San Franciscans like to think of ourselves as separate and apart from the prejudice and intolerance that we’re seeing on a national level, but attend a community meeting and it’s not hard to find nativism and veiled racism in our own backyard. Community input is important and neighbors have a right to have their voices heard, but we give too much credence to the concerns of people who have the time to show up. What results are decisions by public officials that are responsive to the loudest (and sometimes most bigoted) voices in the room instead of those who have kids to raise, jobs to hold down, and lives to live.