As we were driving past one of my old neighborhoods, my friend tells her girlfriend, “And Johnny used to live here when this place was called Western Addition, before it became NoPa.” We then began to mock the name change because it marked the official sign of a gentrified neighborhood. There was something about this particular gentrification that we didn’t like and didn’t articulate at the time.

GentrificationNina interviewed Mark Brand, a prominent architect here in San Francisco who mentioned that, “Western Addition has long been the subject of gay and lesbian gentrification as far back as the late 70’s or early 80’s.” When I lived there in the early 2000’s, Western Addition was a relatively gritty part of town and unsafe. It still is.

To me, nothing has changed about Western Addition except that the areas with the recently opened upscale restaurants, shops and new residents have either been annexed by adjacent neighborhoods with more cache to their name (Pacific Heights and Hayes Valley), or they’ve been given a new name like the NoPa (North of the Panhandle). Western Addition is still a neighborhood, but now refers to a smaller part of town with mostly housing projects. I couldn’t help but think that all this intricate carving out of neighborhood names and territories of Western Addition was centered around some unspoken racial or cultural divide. That got me thinking about some ethical concerns and causes of gentrification.

The relationship between LGBT residents and gentrification is well documented. Even so, I’m not exactly sure why or how it happens, but Keith Boykin’s theory is that, “In neighborhood after neighborhood across the country, white gay urban pioneers are taking back the cities after decades of decline and blight. Aided by access to capital not available to many of the long-time rental residents in the communities, many of the newcomers are quickly changing the neighborhoods, for better and for worse.”

I never had capital to make changes in the landscape of Western Addition, and neither did many of my other young and mostly white neighbors in my building. I moved there because it was very affordable, and it was close to work and other neighborhoods where I liked to hang out, but couldn’t afford the rent. And yes, Western Addition had some up and coming bars and restaurants that I would sometimes patron. But was I partly responsible for making a part of Western Addition renamed, and now a more expensive to live?

I’m wondering about this as I’m writing from my apartment. Outside the front gate of my building are glorious palm trees; beautiful homes and buildings; countless restaurants, bars, galleries and shops. My neighborhood is known as the Mission, which was mostly populated by Mexican immigrants a decade ago. My neighbors now: young, affluent gays, lesbians and families, largely white.

As an upwardly mobile gay male, striving to reach my financial goals and still have an enjoyable life, I’m wondering what impact my lifestyle has on the community around me. It wasn’t too long ago that I was struggling to get by on my income and pay rent. Now that I’m a bit better off, I wonder if I’m making it harder for other people to get established in the city, or if I’m unintentionally making diversity harder to accomplish.

Boykin nicely sums up the issue: “Gentrification, by itself, is not necessarily problematic. It’s how it’s done that matters. In parts of Harlem, residents live without access to important cultural and social services available in most of the rest of Manhattan. You won’t find many outdoor cafes, late night restaurants or corner organic grocery stores in most of Harlem, but you will find plenty of churches, liquor stores and hair weaving salons.

“Gentrification is already starting to change the pattern in Harlem, although too slowly for some new residents and too quickly for many longtime residents. The challenge in gentrification is to provide important new services and facilities for the community without altering the culture of the community or forcibly relocating most of the longtime residents and businesses.

“It’s not an easy thing to do. While new residents may pine for more coffee shops, older residents may simply want clean, affordable laundromats. The decisions we make on these simple issues will have longstanding consequences.”

What would you do? Would you consider the long-term impact of gay gentrification to a community before moving or purchasing a home? I’d love to hear your thoughts.