As I wrote in the article comments, you don t have to pay out renters to get rid of them from a sing

Neighbor Peter Orner is a bold-faced name in the literary world  and an esteemed Citizen of Bernalwood. From his home in North Bernal, he has been an eyewitness to the increasing glamification of Precita Park — a process that has included a recent home sale that displaced two renters (he calls them Josie and Steve) who have been mainstays of the neighborhood.
Our neighborhood, at the base of Bernal cheap hotels in rome Hill, has been changing for years, becoming more and more upscale. Lately, the realtors have begun calling it "Desirable Precita Park." We now have all the necessary amenities: a comically overpriced organic convenience store and wine emporium, a new coffee shop with toddler play area, and yes, our very own pop-up restaurant. The playground at the east end of the park, which doesn't need to be renovated, is being renovated. Celestially fit women march down our sidewalks with yoga mats slung over their shoulders like muskets.
It wasn't always like this. Precita Park used to be a lot funkier, in a militant hippie sort of way. In 1975, Patty Hearst's kidnappers were caught a few doors down from my apartment . A longtime resident once told me that the F.B.I. agents staking out the place wore long hair and beads and sat in their car smoking dope, and still everybody on the block knew they were cops.
In Precita Park, the loss of this one family may not be calculable in dollars. But I fear that the more affluent this area becomes, neighbors — people who look out for each other — will become fewer and farther between. Lately in San Francisco, we seem to be comfortable tackling every progressive cause except for the question of where middle-class people like Josie and Steve, and so many others, are supposed to live.
I also live in Bernal Heights. I am an owner. I find that the people who are most involved on my street are the owners, and the people who are least involved are the renters. I realize that there are renters who care about their neighborhood, cheap hotels in rome but I do take issue with Mr. Orner s characterization of owners. New owners in my neighborhood, including me, formed a neighborhood association and worked with the city on street beautification and traffic calming. We care about our neighborhood.
I know how the author feels. It s not easy to see good neighbors and friends leave the neighborhood. And San Francisco, for all its charms, cheap hotels in rome is a place where you re constantly reminded cheap hotels in rome of how much money you do NOT have.
But as a resident of Bernal, I really think he needs to get out more and meet more people who own houses in the area. Many of them, like me, aren t rich. In fact they pretty much sacrificed all disposable income to buy in the neighborhood. I take on as much freelance work as I can scare up in addition to my regular job to pay my mortgage. As a result, I don t have a lot of time to hang out in Precita Park reading E.M. Forster and stereotyping people. For a writer, he makes a lot of unfair assumptions about owners, lumping them all together when there is vast income disparity in Bernal among homeowners. [...]
Having grown up in a dying automotive town in Michigan, I guess I take a different view of Bernal. Having seen what happens when the housing market collapses completely, I know there are much worse things than a few yuppies moving into a neighborhood.
I grew up in Bernal cheap hotels in rome Heights. Born at St. Luke s Hospital blocks from Precita Park. I swam at Garfield Pool on Army (now Caesar Chavez) for 10cents in the 60s. My generation was gentrified out of SF in the 1980s so I find it hard to feel sorry for the displacement of today s generation of gentrifiers. Very few of my generation can afford to live in our native city.
I love the dream that a place could be your home because you feel deeply connected to it, whether you own it or not. We experimented with exactly this living in a house in Bernal Heights that we did not own, but were meant to own. But it didn t end up being ours in the end, because it s not ours. We knew deep down that no serendipitious moment cheap hotels in rome would change this in reality, but it seemed wise to give it a shot and trust the fates; we enjoyed our time there immensely. In the big picture, there are many factors that go into what makes you happy in the place you reside, and there is also a very random nature to the place you land in a competitive market like San Francisco.
Whether an owner or a renter, folks who moved in or bought in to a neighborhood in 1971, or 1989, or 2009, or yesterday all have the same right to contribute to their neighborhood and be embraced by their community. I see people feeling great ownership and entitlement over neighborhoods because of their longevity, but that isn t more legitimate than your new neighbor next door, and isn t categorically what s right or best.
The message in my mind is to focus on what it means to be a neighbor and part of a community, however you landed there, and for however long you stay. Our city will continue to change that s the nature of urban life, and that dynamism is part of what we love about it. You can t have one without the other.
This is an extremely complicated issue that defies simple solutions, cheap hotels in rome and when you scratch the surface even the most absurd Bernal real estate stories often become  more nuanced than they might seem at first glance .
As a longtime Bernal homeowner, I have to take issue with the illustration that goes with the NYT article (and the massive cheap hotels in rome over-generalizations). I grow kick-ass tomatoes. In 2009 I paid my mortgage with my credit card. I have my neighbors key. My kids are the oldest and for a long time almost the only kids growing up around Precita Park. I love the new cafe and hope to go to the pop-up restaurant at least once in a while. Lots of people do come and go. This is still a good place.
I know the family he writes of, and it s rotten that they got Ellis Acted out of their home. One of the reasons my wife and I bought a house in Bernal is we didn t want to run the risk of being evicted in this manner cheap hotels in rome (for those of you not familiar with the Ellis Act, it allows the owner to evict the tenant if they intend to move into the house and use it as their primary residence). cheap hotels in rome It also happened to another family I know in the hood recently, and they d been renting the place for 10 years. Some owners cheap hotels in rome abuse the Ellis Act, for sure, but it s a reality.
I also disagree cheap hotels in rome with many of the generalizations in the article, that somehow those of us who buy as opposed to rent have less of an involvement or stake in the neighborhood. I bought 4 years ago at the height of the market, and struggle to pay my mortgage each month. But I m willing to do it because I want the stability for my family, and want to be in the neighborhood long term.
As I wrote in the article comments, you don t have to pay out renters to get rid of them from a single family home. You can just double their rent. That s how we re being forced out next month. See ya ll in the Excelsior!
Not all of us can afford to buy at the height of the market. Perhaps some of us come from families who have not traditionally owned or are not able to land the 20% down that helps new buyers, or perhaps some families never thought they d find themselves raising families here it just happened. I moved here over 25 years ago and I never wanted to buy. (Til it was too expensive!)
Formerly starter homes are becoming Mini Mc Mansions because a neighborhood is cute upcoming etc. The point is not who the characters are, what is and is not in the story (it s an opinion piece!) it s about the overall message. It s about change, gentrification, making choices that help a community without cheap hotels in rome selling cheap hotels in rome one s soul or the soul of the community. Think Spike Lee.
But seriously folks, fortunately we are not willing or able to encase the neighborhood in amber, stop time and prevent change in perpetuity. Good thing too because if we did the only people living here would be the Irish and Italian families who built and lived in most of the homes in BH.
I also feel deeply connected to Bernal Heights. We bought our house 7 years ago. The vast majority of those of us who have bought here are not rich. Many of us found our home in this area precisely because it is one of the only affordable neighborhoods left in the city. Of course, everything is relative, it s obviously not reasonable unless compared to much of the rest of the city. And it is hardly affordable. We too struggle to make our mortgage.
I have also found that it is primarily our neighbors who own that have reached out and made connections, including Barbara, the very elderly woman who lived next door and who used to find me when she needed something by going on her back porch and hollering my name until I opened my window to see what she needed. She broke her hip and has had to move to assisted care, so eventually her family will probably sell the house she has owned for over 70 years. cheap hotels in rome We will welcome cheap hotels in rome new people who will be interesting and invested in the safety, beauty, school and fabric of their new neighborhood. None of this is to say it is anything but sad that families who have put roots down here by renting are suffering as a result of the Ellis Act. It is a city-wide problem, not specific to our neighborhood, driven by economic forces and escalated by certain legislative acts. My heart goes out to them, but it is unfair to characterize those of us who have bought more recently unkindly. I can almost hear the hard-working laborers who occupied most of these homes before the hippies came venting their own share of misgivings about the change in the neighborhood then.
Orner s piece is xenophobia dressed up in eloquent pathos: fear of change, fear of newcomers, assumption of the worst about strangers,derisive dismissal cheap hotels in rome of cultural changes, a notion that justice only results in outcomes one favors. Who s he to sit in judgement of who has a spiritual connection cheap hotels in rome to Bernal Heights?
Hmmmm: As a result, I don't have a lot of time to hang out in Precita Park