San Francisco's Japantown Better Neighborhood Plan
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Japanese Journal of Human Geography 66―1（2014） Preserving and Revitalizing an Ethnic Urban Neighborhood in Transition : San Francisco’s Japantown Better Neighborhood Plan ODA Takashi Miyagi University of Education Abstract This study discusses the history, transitions, governance, and planning of an ethnic urban neighborhood, as exemplified by San Francisco’s Japantown in the United States. It presents a variety of challenges in urban ethnic neighborhood governance, including gentrification, redevelopment, heritage preservation, and the participatory public planning process. In response to economic neoliberalization, recent urban planning policies have inspired a diverse network of urban actors, including individuals, private corporations, and nonprofit community organizations to banded together to preserve their community’s cultural heritage in the face of market-driven redevelopment and perceived gentrification. In San Francisco, recent movements have aimed to preserve the ethnic and cultural heritage of the city’s Japantown. While the community has nurtured and been enriched by many different cultural and ethnic groups, San Francisco’s Japantown has historically been represented by primarily Japanese American community organizers and postwar Shin Issei （first-generation Japanese immigrants） business owners and residents, marking it as a culturally diverse space. However, partly because of this diversity, recent community discussions on preserving Japantown have been divisive. While the general agreement is that the neighborhood’s heritage should be preserved, many disagree as to how to balance preservation efforts with economic revitalization to ensure the community’s sustainability. Using interviews and field observation, this study analyzes the strengths and challenges of one such movement, the Japantown Better Neighborhood Plan. Analysis of the campaign’s implementation reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the plan and makes recommendations for future community governance. Key words : participatory planning, urban design, redevelopment, consensus building, Japantown I Introduction This study examines the historical origins, recent transitions, and planning of an ethnic urban neighborhood, as exemplified by San Francisco’s Japantown in the United States. This analysis presents various challenges in urban ethnic neighborhood governance, including gentrification, redevelopment, heritage preservation, and the participatory public planning process. 1 Many articles that deal with specific ethnic neighborhoods （including my own） focus on the ― 1 ― 2 Japanese Journal of Human Geography 66―1（2014） distribution of ethnic residents, businesses, and institutions using quantitative and spatial data and GIS analyses. However, few have used qualitative methods to examine decaying former immigrant neighborhoods that require preservation and revitalization to maintain their cultural and ethnic character and sustain economic vitality. Over the past few decades, the devolution of state power has shifted urban management from central government control to local, more participatory governance （Kodras 1997 ; Pierre and Peters 2000 ; Hajer and Wagenaar 2003 ; Hague and Harrop 2004 ; Yamamoto 2007）. This involves the political participation of a network of diverse urban actors （Putnam 1993）, including individuals, private corporations, and nonprofit community organizations. Existing studies in geography, however, have paid little attention to the socioeconomic process of, and the challenges faced in, creating alternatives to traditional urban government and management. In response to the Western application of neoliberal policies such as privatization, deregulation, and devolution throughout the 1980s, North American neighborhoods have transitioned drastically and dramatically. Some urban politics studies have examined coalition building among diverse stakeholders to accelerate urban growth, redevelopment, and gentrification. Movements against urban growth, specifically the anti-high rise movement in the 1970s and 1980s, contributed to some growth regulation in the US ; however, very few achieved the goal of forming an entity to collectively contest the expansion, commodification, and gentrification of urban neighborhoods（ Mollenkopf 1975 ; Ross et al. 1991）. San Francisco, California, with a population of over 800,000, is a classically liberal “left coast city” （DeLeon 1992）. Influenced by neighboring Bay Area counties and universities such as the University of California, Berkley, the city has seen countless counterculture movements influenced by issues such as the Vietnam War, civil rights, free speech, Japanese American redress, environmental issues, and same-sex marriage. In this political environment, citizens feel empowered to regularly organize, voice their concerns, and exert pressure on local government. This political activism has regularly included many movements to preserve the character and quality of the city, such as the movement in the 1960s and 1970s to prevent the Manhattanization of the city （that is, to prevent the construction of densely built, horizon-obstructing skyscrapers）（ DeLeon 1992 ; Godfrey 1997 ; McGovern 1998）. These political factors are equally relevant at the neighborhood level. San Francisco’s Japantown（ hereafter Japantown）, with more than a century of history, continues to face numerous challenges in preserving and managing its existence as it evolves as an ethnic urban space. The neighborhood is currently in the vestige stage（ Sugiura 2013b） of an ethnic town, in that its ethnic population and businesses are spatially dispersed within a metropolitan area, while the ethnic town itself faces reduction and deconstruction. In this study, I look at Japantown’s spatial evolution and the struggle to preserve its identity. This article is based on my participatory observation between 2006 and 2008 of the planning process following the Save Japantown campaign, and in-depth academic fieldwork I conducted 2 from 2008―2009 at the University of California, Berkeley. In my analysis, I will revisit some key arguments and data from my previous articles on Japantown regarding the construction of an institutional framework for its preservation （Oda 2010） and quantitative spatial analyses of the term “gentrification” as it is used, felt, and defined by local people （Oda 2012）. However, this article pays more attention to qualitative aspects of the complex consensus-building process in Japantown’s preservation and planning, particularly with regard to the influence of the community’s history on its political process. ― 2 ― Preserving and Revitalizing an Ethnic Urban Neighborhood in Transition : San Francisco’s Japantown Better Neighborhood Plan（ODA） 3 Figure 1. Japantown, Chinatown, and A-1 and A-2 redevelopment areas in San Francisco Source : US Census, 2000 ; reprinted from Oda（ 2012） I will first summarize a brief history of the neighborhood and its recent transitions. I will then discuss the institutionalization and legitimization of Japantown’s participatory planning and preservation while identifying the major stakeholders involved. The latter half of this article examines the neighborhood’s institutionalized planning challenges, which involve diverse stakeholders with different backgrounds. The final section reports Japantown’s more recent neighborhood planning efforts. In this way, I evaluate the effectiveness of local participation in neighborhood planning as an alternative to top-down government planning procedures. II Japantown : its traditions and transition Historical origins and evolution Japantown has experienced different phases of growth（ consistent with other ethnic neighborhoods in the US） throughout its more than 100-year history. Settled by Japanese immigrants in the early 1890s, Japantown began to grow after the Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake （M7.8） destroyed previous ethnic clusters near the present Chinatown area, prompting many Japanese immigrants to move to the Western Addition district on Geary Boulevard（ Figure 1）. As with other ethnic urban spaces, Japantown has reflected local, regional, and international socioeconomic and political dynamics. At its inception, Japantown’s ethnic cluster served a defensive role to protect its recent immigrant population from discrimination. During World ― 3 ― 4 Japanese Journal of Human Geography 66―1（2014） War II, Japantown went through a phase of exclusion and eviction following Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942（ Kawaguchi and Seigel 2000 ; Graves, D. and Page & Turnbull, Inc. 2009 ; Oda 2012）. The order, which dictated the forcible removal of coastal-area Japanese Americans, labeled “enemy aliens,” to internment camps, led to the decline of the Japanese population in Japantown. After the war, some residents returned to the community to rebuild, only to find that the Western Addition district had been targeted for “slum clearance” under the postwar Housing Act of 1949. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency then designated A-1 and A-2 project areas in and around Japantown （Figure 1） describing the first and second phases of redevelopment that correspond to 1956―1973 and 1964-present. Postwar redevelopment proceeded despite Japanese Americans’ protest against these policies, ultimately resulting in the eviction of numerous residents and businesses from Japantown, particularly in A-1 project areas. This experience led the Japanese American community to distrust government policymaking processes, which continues to affect recent neighborhood