Read the full article in the SF Examiner linked below.

TODCO GROUP IN THE NEWS!

How redevelopment was used to restore a community with affordable housing, community centers, a park and a school…

Several months after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake damaged a half dozen red-tagged South of Market warehouses and SRO’s beyond repair, The TODCO Group’s President John Elberling and Deputy Mayor Brad Paul went to Mayor Art Agnos with a shocking proposal: “Let’s make Sixth Street an Earthquake Recovery redevelopment area to replace all the lost housing and build new neighborhood facilities for its 2,500 SRO tenants and the longtime SOMA Filipino-American community.” “Are you sure you want redevelopment on skid row?” asked the surprised mayor. “We have to,” Elberling replied. “If we don’t start to build our future Sixth Street community now there will never be one.” “Ok,” Agnos responded, “but responsibility for the consequences will be on you.”

TODCO was the community nonprofit housing company founded by “TOOR,” the strident opponents of the Yerba Buena Redevelopment Project and its bulldozer demolition of thousands of SRO units for the Moscone Convention Center 20 years before. Since then, TODCO had built three senior replacement housing residences in Yerba Buena nearby, two named after those founders, Woolf House and Mendelsohn House. That’s why Mayor Agnos was so surprised to hear TODCO’s bold proposal to use the intimidating powers of redevelopment for SOMA community building instead of downtown expansion and commercial development as usual. 33 years later the results of the two decade “South of Market Redevelopment Area” project, which ended suddenly when Governor Jerry Brown halted all redevelopment statewide, are the foundation for SOMA’s lower-income communities today.

Click the button below to learn more about the Sixth Street Redevelopment Project and how it proved the power of community-driven visions!