Condos Coming to Heart of Tenderloin

BeyondChron is reporting this morning that a developer has purchased 130 Turk Street with the intention of building market-rate condominiums.

"A three-story condo project proposed for the Tenderloin has local residents skeptical about its viability. With the neighborhood’s high crime rate and low median income, why would anyone want to build affluent condominiums there? Perhaps even more importantly, would anyone really want to buy them once they’ve been built? "

"[Neighborhood resident Marvis] Phillips and fellow long-time resident Michael Nulty, land-use chair for the TFC (Tenderloin Futures Collaborative), insisted that they are not against the project or against development at 130 Turk St. in general. The site previously was home to a bathhouse, but for years it has remained vacant after the building was gutted in the late 80’s said Phillips. All the vacant buildings do add to the blight in the neighborhood,” said Nulty. “Seeing something positive come out of this would be great, I just know I couldn’t afford to live there.” "

So, it's OK to build condos in some neighborhoods and not in others? Why aren't the activists fighting this one? And since they're not fighting this one, why fight so many of the projects that have come up recently? There are numerous neighborhoods that residents would like to see cleaned up or made safer (like Mission @ 14th/15th Streets), but somehow the activists feel that they should fight to limit or prevent the construction of new housing.

Where's the quote from our good friend Ted Gullickson this time? Doesn't he have something to say about this? This is in Chris Daly's district, doesn't he have something to say about this? It's all very curious, indeed...