W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2005 "More than shelter": Community, identity, and spatial politics in San Francisco public housing, 1938--2000 Amy L. Howard College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons, Public Policy Commons, United States History Commons, Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Howard, Amy L., ""More than shelter": Community, identity, and spatial politics in San Francisco public housing, 1938--2000" (2005). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623466. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-7ze6-hz66 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. ® UMI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. Furtherowner. reproduction Further reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. “MORE THAN SHELTER”: Community, Identity, and Spatial Politics in San Francisco Public Housing, 1938-2000 A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the American Studies Program The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Amy Lynne Howard 2005 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy #-■■■*------------------------------- Amy Howard Approved by the Committee, April 2005 Leisa D. Mgfer, Chair IK M Maureen A. Fitzge Kimberley L.sPhillips (_ / H /f ------ line Use Orleck, Pro^ssor Dartmouth College ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For my parents iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements v List of Figures vii Abstract ix Introduction 2 Chapter I. “To Provide Simple, Safe, and Sanitary Housing 21 for Families of Low Income”: San Francisco’s Housing Authority Chapter II. “Peace and Prosperity Prevail Among Virtuous 75 Neighbors”: Chinatown’s American Project Chapter III. “The Best Project in Town”: North Beach Place 140 Chapter IV. “This Project Has a Long, Troubled History”: 204 Valencia Gardens’ Contested Mission Epilogue 270 Bibliography 282 Vita 293 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing a dissertation is a long, laborious, often isolating process. Fortunately for me, I had wonderful friends and family members who encouraged and supported me along the way. I want to express my appreciation to my parents, Donna and David Howard, who taught me the value of learning at an early age and made many sacrifices to ensure I received the best education possible. Their emotional, intellectual, and financial support helped me to fully enjoy graduate school and to appreciate studying full time. My sister Jennie, my brother Matt, and their families kept my spirits up through humor and at times cheerleading— thanks. I also want to extend my gratitude to friends in Williamsburg who made graduate school fun, interesting— better. Robert Nelson, Nicole Cloeren, Brian Geiger, Karen Northrop Barzilay, Gretchen Schoel, Jennifer Blanchard, Roxane Pickens, Helen Wang, Magali Compan, Tim Barnard and Hilary Marcus encouraged and helped me along the way. The members of the dissertation reading group, Robert Nelson, Brian Geiger, Steve Feeley, Andrea Westcot, Dave Corlett, and Amy Speckart, kept me on course and provided important feed back on Chapter Two. I am grateful to the American Association of University of Women for granting me a 2003-04 dissertation fellowship. The fellowship enabled me to draft several chapters. The American Studies Program at the College of William and Mary also provided financial support for me to do research in San Francisco. The Interlibrary Loan staff and Mildred Sink at the College of William and Mary’s Swem Library supplied me with books, articles, and other resources throughout the years. Special thanks go to the Environmental Design Library staff at Berkeley (and particular thanks to Waverly Lowell) and the Bancroft Library and San Francisco History Room at the San Francisco Public Library staff for their guidance. Angela Chu and Reverend Norman Fong at the Chinatown CDC graciously shared their time and wisdom as well as their files. I am grateful to them. Angela also took time out of her busy schedule to provide translation during my interviews at Ping Yuen. I owe thanks to Roberta Swan for sharing her wonderful Legacy Project interviews—and her passion and ideas— with me. Michael Roetzer at the San Francisco Housing Authority provided me access to the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission minutes and articles on the SFHA. I am indebted to the tenants I met and interviewed. They taught me much about public housing, life, and civic engagement. I am thankful for the time we spent together. Tad Ware and Keith Nitta made it possible for me to conduct research in San Francisco by sharing their apartment with me. Thanks for your friendship. I also want to thank Dr. Douglas Hicks, Betsy Kelly, and student coordinators Kerry Hutcherson, Chris Yeats, Stephanie Li, Tara v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sulzen, and Tanika Jackson at the Center for Civic Engagement for supporting me as I finished this project. No dissertation is perfect and there are many flaws here. The mistakes are my own. I credit my wonderful advisor, Dr. Leisa Meyer, and committee members Dr. Maureen Fitzgerald, Dr. Kimberley L. Phillips, and Dr. Annelise Orleck for helping me to work through ideas, see “the forest and the trees,” and imagine ways to improve this project in the future. Finally, I want to thank my partner Rob Nelson. His patience, love, and friendship lightened the heavy load of dissertating. Our evening walks with Sydney and Darwin provided much needed breaks and calmed my spirit. I am looking forward to taking longer walks now. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. San Francisco Neighborhood Map 9 2. San Francisco Housing Authority Map of Public 10 Housing Projects 3. Ping Yuen Housing Project, San Francisco 97 4. Ping Yuen Housing Project, San Francisco 98 5. People looking at Ping Yuen 99 6. Pailou Gate, Ping Yuen, San Francisco 100 7. North Beach Place, San Francisco 152 8. North Beach Place, San Francisco 152 9. North Beach Place, San Francisco 153 10. North Beach Place, San Francisco 153 11. The Martin Family at North Beach Place 163 12. Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 213 13. Butterflies sculpture, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 221 14. Cat with mouse sculpture, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 222 15. Cat sculpture, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 223 16. Mouse sculpture, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 224 17. Seals sculpture, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 225 vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 18. Penguins sculpture, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 226 19. Bear with cubs sculpture, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 227 20. Rabbit sculpture, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 228 21. Courtyard, Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 229 22. Valencia Gardens, San Francisco 252 23. Invitation to North Beach Place opening 279 viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT During the second half of the twentieth century, scholars and journalists documented the failures of the public housing program in the United States with a range of studies focusing on the Midwest and East. Problems such as displacement, criminal activity, high vacancy rates, racial segregation, and the isolation of tenants informed critiques of federally-subsidized housing for low-income tenants. These aspects contributed to the national image of “the projects” as high-rise ghettos, populated primarily by African Americans, and located in run-down areas. The realities of public housing with its position at the crossroads of national, state, and local policies, politics and practice, however, defies simple categorization. This study expands the history of public housing to the West and in doing so complicates the image of where public housing is located, what it looks like, and who lives there. Examining public housing in San Francisco, a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, politically liberal city, reveals the important role regional, local and spatial politics play in project design, location, and population. The three projects examined here, Ping Yuen in Chinatown, North Beach Place in North Beach, and Valencia Gardens in the Mission District, are located in thriving urban areas near public