Yerba Buena Center For The Arts - History and Controversy

History and Controversy

The idea of building a conference center, under the name Yerba Buena Center, in downtown San Francisco was a further development of the idea stemming from the late 1950s to redevelop the city center, particularly the industrial areas that were gradually falling into disuse. At the heart of the proposal was the vision of the city transforming from an industrial to a tourist-conventioneering city. The idea of the Yerba Buena Center itself first emerged in the early 1960s. At that time there was a concern about how development could occur in the downtown area. The South of Market area offered hundreds of acres of flat land at low land prices and to the corporate eye, expendable people and businesses. Various corporate committees were founded to lobby for the redevelopment, which would also include high-rise office buildings, a vast parking garage, and a sports center. At the center of operations was the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) first headed by Joseph Alioto, who would go on to become mayor of the city in 1968. The area of the development was regarded as a blighted area of the city, even referred to by local media, local business and city officials as 'skid row'. However, the developers did not figure on the persistence of the local community, the vast majority of which were aged, male, ex-industrial workers who lived alone in the many cheap hotels in the area. Together the latter formed the Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment (TOOR). Their demand was to be rehoused in the area in low-rent housing. The case went to court where the judge, Stan Weigel, judged in favor of TOOR. The working-class community were accused of delaying the Yerba Buena project, yet the SFRA had no interest in fulfilling the court order and used both intimidation to remove the community while playing a waiting game on the start of even planning any low-cost housing knowing the aged community were gradually dying off. Things only really changed with the election of a new city mayor, George Moscone, in 1976, when the entire project was re-reviewed and cut back in its ambitions, leading to the construction of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.