The Chronicle Discovers Gentrification in San Francisco

It is 27 years late, but the San Francisco Chronicle has finally discovered that San Francisco is becoming a city of the rich and poor. The paper’s June 22 banner headline “RICH CITY POOR CITY” discussed a Brookings Institution finding that middle-class neighborhoods are declining in urban America, and the Chronicle then found evidence for this thesis in San Francisco. But the Chronicle story left out some critical facts that undermine its conclusion that neighborhoods like the Western Addition have shifted from “middle-class” to “low-income.” The Chronicle story also fails to reflect the dramatic changes in San Francisco’s demographics in the six years since the Brookings study was completed. Since a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, here are the facts—and the even more troubling conclusions--- missing from the Chronicle’s analysis.