Six-Unit Apartment Building with No Offstreet Parking
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Easy to Get Around on Foot
Where the Density Is
The Mission District in the 1990 Census
San Francisco in 1999
The Mission District in the 1960 Census
The Mission District has been for a long time a diverse working class neighborhood -- subcultures of Latino immigrants, artists and others co-exist. At the time of the 1990 census only about 15.8% of the employed residents were professionals or managers in the main portion of the Mission east of Valencia Street. The median family income was a bit over $27,000 -- one-third lower than the city-wide median family income. As of 1998, half the households of the Mission District had incomes under $32,200 per year.
This working class population is under siege, with the highest eviction rate in the city. Between June 1999 and June 2000 there were over 600 evictions in the Mission District.
The Mission District is the commercial and cultural heart of the Latino community in San Francisco, home to about one-third of the Latino population of the city. The commercial corridors along Mission and 24th Streets provide numberous services, organizations, cultural venues, and small businesses that serve the city's Latino population.
Located a short distance from downtown San Francisco, the Mission's transit facilities and physical layout make it quite convenient for people who do not own automobiles. The neighborhood is compact, with small blocks. Sidewalks were originally 15 feet wide and still are on most streets. The district is served by two BART subway stations and a number of bus lines converge on the Mission Street corridor that runs through the heart of the neighborhood.
The Mission has a fairly high population density -- over 30,000 people per square mile on average. Nonetheless, there are relatively few large apartment buildings. The typical residential structure would be a duplex or triplex, or a small apartment building with four to six units (see photo below). There are still many rowhouses in the area.
The Mission achieves its high density by compacting many small to mid-rise structures into a small area. Lots are typically 25 feet in width, and most streets have only two traffic lanes. There are also many traditional mixed-use structures -- apartments over shops. Many residential buildings and businesses do not have offstreet parking (see below), which discourages use of cars for getting around.
Six-Unit Apartment Building with No Offstreet Parking
This mixed-use building at 23rd and Valencia also has no offstreet parking.
The groundfloor area houses
a produce market (run by Cambodian immigrants) and two eateries.
The upper floor has three apartments.
The white duplex next door also lacks offstreet parking.
The Mission district has a high proportion of households without motor vehicles -- four out of ten households at the time of the 1990 census. More than 61% of the employed residents of the Mission get to work by public transit, bicycling or walking (as of the 1990 census -- see below). Less than one out of three drive to work.
This reflects the neighborhood's compact design, high population density, relative lack of offstreet parking, the availability of a rich mix of services and venues in close proximity to where people live, modest income levels, and good transit connections to downtown and other areas.
These features are mutually supportive. Without the population density, there wouldn't be enough of a local market to sustain the many small businesses in the area, nor would there be enough riders to justify the high level of transit service. (Distribution of households without motor vehicles in San Francisco is shown in the map below.)
The features of the Mission that make it convenient to not have a car are also advantageous to those without a lot of money. The cost of owning a modest car (not a Lexus or SUV) in California is over $6,000 per year. If being forced out of the Mission means relocating to a suburban locale such as Hayward or Richmond, this may require having a car to have the same level of mobility, with the added financial burden this entails.
21st and Mission in 1940
The population density in the Mission district is not evenly spread but tends to be at its highest along the Mission Street corridor, where the BART subway stations are located. This area developed originally along the north-south streetcar lines (see photo above), and the residence hotels and larger apartment buildings are concentrated along this corridor. (See the density map below.) In the photo below, looking east on 21st from Valencia, we see a seven-story mixed-use apartment building on the other side of Valencia (ground floor level has a pizza place) and an 8-story building in the distance (non-profit housing). These are some of the few large apartment buildings in the Mission.
By 1999 the median family income in San Francisco had surpassed $55,000.
The proportion of households without motor vehicles had dropped slightly, to
29.5%. The proportion of employed residents who are professionals or managers
had increased to 39.8%. The proportion of workers who drove alone
to work had increased to 41%. The proportion of workers taking public
transit to work (including taxis) was 32%. The proportion who
walked to work was 9.4%. The percentage of residents with
college degrees increased to 41.5%. (
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