In This Issue

SO THE SAN Francisco Board of Supervisors, with only Tom Ammiano dissenting, has approved a big, out-of-scale high-rise condo complex for Rincon Hill. It's the sort of project you'd expect to see coming out of Willie Brown's Planning Department, which is exactly where it came from: as Steven T. Jones reports on page TK, the entire process is a case study in screwed-up urban planning.

But I think there's a larger issue here that has to be discussed. The Rincon Towers represent an approach to city planning that's become very popular of late (the neocon columnist over at the SF Weekly, Matt Smith, is particularly enamored of it). Even the progressives in S.F. politics like it.

The idea is to build high-density housing near jobs and transit corridors, to create vibrant street-level neighborhoods on the edge of downtown, and to get the developers to pay for public amenities that make the area feel all nice and green and lovely like the Vancouver waterfront. Density prevents sprawl, or that's the idea, and walk-to-work housing prevents car travel, all of which is good.

Of course, the Rincon Towers won't make anything in that part of town feel like the Vancouver waterfront. The buildings are way too big and bulky. I agree it's nice to have the developers pay for some 400 units of affordable housing (although apparently much of it won't be on-site). But here's my question:

Why is San Francisco building any new luxury condos? The city doesn't need more high-priced housing; we seem to have plenty of that already. I'd argue we don't need a whole lot more rich people moving in and gentrifying neighborhoods either. Why are we so enamored of an urban planning theory (which might not even fit so well in a city that's already among the densest urban areas in the nation) that we've lost any sense of proportion, size, aesthetic quality, and the real housing needs of San Franciscans?

Meanwhile, as Matthew Hirsch reports on page TK, Trinity Properties wants to demolish 377 somewhat-affordable housing units at Eighth and Market Streets to build more luxury condos. Sup. Chris Daly has proposed legislation that would ban that sort of demolition; it's part of a much more sensible approach to housing, which starts with what this city needs (more housing for people who aren't rich, so they can stay here and be part of this community).