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Hmmmmm...me luv me some frisco!

The Marina lacks diversity. I'm glad that our tax dollars are being used to create a vibrant and racially diverse enclave in that yuppie ghetto.

Hey Jimmy - are you suuure you're no longer bitter? Take heart: If you can't afford the Marina, perhaps you can get there via the Tenderloin via Pelican Bay via San Quentin?

Interesting. I live right around the corner from the Bridge Motel (literally) and while it's always had its share of shady characters, I can't say I've noticed a particular uptic in crime.

I would imagine a lot of the burglaries shown on the map are car burglaries, and it'd be tough to attribute them all to Bridge residents.

After reading the article, I am glad the owners are finally going to be held accountable for their lack of maintenance. It'd be nice to see a couple of businesses return to the ground floor retail space as well.

I am glad the owners are finally going to be held accountable for their lack of maintenance.

There's another dimension to this:

Rent control squeezes landlords out of their goodwill.

Long term tenants pay way less then newcomers and there's not much landlords can do against this. To compound the effect, the longer the lease, the more likely the tenant will want to stay, and the more likely the rental will stay dead money.

In the mean time their expense curve moves at or above inflation rate (materials, labor costs, low supply of workers in boom times).

This means the landlord income curve is way lower than the expense curve. After a few decades this gets borderline ludicrous. You can end up paying more in maintenance and taxes than collect in rent!

Long-term landlords therefore have no incentive in being pro-active on maintenance. All they do is look at cold hard numbers and often make the choice of deferring maintenance. There you have it: you want cheap lodging, you get cheap landlords.

huh? - While the fundamentals of your point are sound, I don't they should be applied tot his situation. My first question would be "when did the Patels buy the building?" If they bought it after rent control was enacted, then they should have known the financial constraints that rent control would have on their investment.

Secondly, did you read the SFWeekly article? I don't give a damn what your tenants are paying, there is no excuse for letting your property fall into the state that they allowed. The descriptions of the building are downright horrifying. If they were losing money then why have they left the two ground floor business spaces boarded up all these years?

I read the article, but there's always more than one dimension in these distress cases. SFWeekly loves catchy stories and if it's not catchy enough, they come up with a catchy front page (did you read the Screwed story? LOL! Talk about total waste of paper. I got conned into picking up their rag last week-end.).

As far as this landlord, I don't know what his situation is. Maybe he's a plain old scumbag, or maybe he's a honest guy who tried to make a living and had his dreams meet the realities of SF's market: too much cash chasing the same money losing assets, in addition to the different Governments entities' quasi land-grab with transient-occupied SROs and such...

I take hart in reading that the Marina is finally doing it's part to become a compassionate neighborhood while sharing in their social obligation (pain) we in the SoMa have done for years. Now if we could get other neighborhoods, like Pacific Heights, Sea Cliff or the Richmond to do their part to offer "assistance" housing for our city's socially challenged, we will all sleep better at night knowing that our neighborhoods have achieved the kind of social justice our elected officials at city hall have strive for over the last ten years. Somehow I feel safer in my SoMa home today knowing that these socially challenged folks have found a better neighborhood to prowl around in at night.

Is there no room left in Visitacion Valley?

You're not thinking big enough.

Modesto.

Forget Modesto. Trona is the place. Fresh air, wide open spaces. They even have a Market Street.

Speaking of Trona, one of my favorite street names is :

Trona Way

despite the name it is actually a pretty nice neighborhood.

I think they'd like being placed in Trona rather than the Marina. There's more going on.

http://www.tronamovie.com/trailer/trailer.html