Gentrification and Personhood

The gentrification of the Tenderloin District of San Francisco epitomizes how those “entitled” possess space which displaces the mostly minority, original inhabitants of the community. I will be analyzing gentrification through a wider processes of inequalities in personhood, where the possessive individualism of some is defined by the denial of personhood to others. I will be in dialogue with “Feral Theory: Editors’ Introduction,” by Kelly Struthers Montford and Chloë Taylor, to construct who is viewed as “unruly” subjects, who don’t “own” or “regulate” themselves. In addition, I will also use Aimee Meredith Cox’s Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship, chapter titled “Narratives of …show more content…
As detailed in Robinson’s expose, “as redevelopment and rising rents eliminated low-income housing units across the city, the deteriorated Tenderloin absorbed the displaced. Accordingly, the Tenderloin population [grew] over 20%...absorbing the highest concentration of the impoverished, the service dependent, the drug addicted and the criminal” (Robinson 487). The Tenderloin section of San Francisco is rumored to have gotten its name from “Police Captain Alexander S. Williams around 1931… when corruption was rife in the area, and it was said that officers who accepted bribes could then afford more expensive cuts of beef [i.e. tenderloin] for their dinner tables” (Tischer). These statistics paint a grim picture of the Tenderloin, however, one cannot overlook the geographically desirability of this area, as it is “one of the last underdeveloped areas within striking distance of corporate downtown” (Robinson 489). In turn, in 2011, San Francisco offered corporate tax incentives which amounted to “$56 million just for Twitter” and lured companies such as “Twitter…Yammer, Spotify, Square and Zendesk” to the area (Levy, Hardy). In addition, the implementation of the Ellis Act, “allowed landlords to legally oust tenants,” and enabled the gentrification of the Tenderloin to commence (Nawaz). This legislation, along with “San Francisco's tech boom...sent home prices soaring, but it's also fueled an exponential increase in evictions, many of whom have lived in their homes for decades and pay below-market rent.” (Gonzales). In one year alone, the number of evictions in San Francisco “shot up to 86%” (Nawaz). Add