How Middle-Class Anti-Gentrifiers Obscure San Francisco's True Problems

In San Francisco, the relatively affluent are vocal in their denunciation of the "gentrifying" effects of the more affluent. This debate clouds the city's fundamental problems in housing its poor and working class residents, says Ilan Greenberg.

1 minute read

April 15, 2013, 11:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


San Francisco Homeless

davitydave / Flickr

In San Francisco, "the debate [over gentrification] is dominated by fierce new champions of the anti-gentrification cause who aren't concerned so much about the truly poor being forced from—or tempted out of—their neighborhoods," writes Greenberg. "In their view, the victims of gentrification are also affluent, just less so than the people moving in."

“Middle-class people being bought out by upper-income people—that may be a political issue, but it’s not what we would call gentrification,” says Robert J. Sampson, an urban sociologist at Harvard University. “The affluent moving in—that’s an urban battle, but not gentrification.”

But for Dawn Phillips, co-director of programs for Causa Justa, a neighborhood organization responding to resident displacement in Oakland, and other advocates for the disadvantaged, these debates among the relatively affluent obscure the city's more significant problems. 

"In Phillips’s world, the urgent issue isn’t whether the Bay Area’s new wealth has the same perspective and experience as the old. Nor is Phillips losing sleep over where in the city middle-class people are supposed to live," notes Greenberg. "Rather, for Phillips, the gentrification problem concerns government policies that for decades disinvested in neighborhoods, only to turn around and encourage real-estate investment when richer neighbors moved close. This, Phillips argues, systematically pushed vulnerable, disadvantaged people to the geographic margins, where there is little work, community resources, or personal networks."

Friday, April 12, 2013 in The New Republic

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Use Code 25for25 at checkout for 25% off an annual plan!

Redlining map of Oakland and Berkeley.

Rethinking Redlining

For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

May 15, 2025 - Alan Mallach

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

May 21, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Rendering of California High-Speed Rail station with bullet train.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself

The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

May 19, 2025 - Benjamin Schneider

Two Rivian trucks charging at Rivian branded charging ports.

US Senate Reverses California EV Mandate

The state planned to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, a goal some carmakers deemed impossible to meet.

May 22 - CALmatters

Metal U.S. Geodetic Survey marker in stone in Arizona.

Trump Cuts Decimate Mapping Agency

The National Geodetic Survey maintains and updates critical spatial reference systems used extensively in both the public and private sectors.

May 22 - Wired

Close-up of 10 mph speed limit sign.

Washington Passes First US ‘Shared Streets’ Law

Cities will be allowed to lower speed limits to 10 miles per hour and prioritize pedestrians on certain streets.

May 22 - The Urbanist