Fillmore District, San Francisco, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses of Fillmore, see Fillmore.

The Fillmore District, also called The Fillmore, The Moe, or Fillmoe, is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. Though its boundaries are not well-defined, it is usually considered to be the subset of the Western Addition neighborhood bordered by Fillmore Street, from which serves as its main thoroughfare and where the neighborhood takes its name, on the west; Van Ness Avenue on the east; Geary Boulevard on the north, and Grove Street on the south. By many definitions the western boundary is extended to Divisadero Street, creating what is commonly referred to as Uptown Fillmore. Some definitions, particularly older ones, include Hayes Valley and what is now known as North of Panhandle as part of the district and extend the western border further, although redevelopment — especially that which followed the Loma Prieta Earthquake and the collapse of the Central Freeway — has made these areas more independent and distinct. What is now Japantown also used to be part of the Fillmore. Overall, the neighborhood has been steadily shrinking for several decades. The Fillmore is almost entirely in San Francisco's fifth supervisorial district^[1], and is served by several Muni bus lines including the 22, 21, 38, 31, 47, 49, and 5.

The Fillmore was the site of a massive and controversial Urban renewal project begun in the 1950s, the last vestiges of which are still ongoing. It has an ethnically and economically diverse population, and is an historical center of African-American culture in San Francisco.

[edit] History

In the 1800s, the Fillmore was a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, with vegetable farms surrounding the developed area around Fillmore Street. Many Japanese immigrants also came to the Fillmore around the turn of the century. After the 1906 earthquake Fillmore Street, which had largely avoided heavy damage, temporarily became a major commercial center as the city's downtown rebuilt. During the 1910s-30s, sections of the neighborhood, particularly around Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard became home to thousands of Japanese immigrants as that area became part of Japantown.

In 1942, during World War II, President Roosevelt signed an executive order to relocate all people of Japanese origin to internment camps. The vacant homes in the Fillmore attracted African Americans migrating northward to work in the shipyards, as well as musicians, and artists. Soon, many nightclubs (the likes of Leola Kings Bird Cage, Wesley Johnson's Texas PlayHouse, Shelton's Blue Mirror, and Jacks of Sutter) were opened, bringing major musical icons to the neighborhood including Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday. However, neighborhood struggled economically, as sections of the neighborhood became blighted.

As a result of the urban decay, in 1948 the Fillmore was designated a redevelopment area. The city's Redevelopment Agency, led by Justin Herman, demolished most of the neighborhood's existing homes and businesses over the course of the next decade. In their place developers built large, mostly low-rise housing developments, along with some mixed-use buildings concentrated around Fillmore Street. Many of these developments included subsidized units for low-income residents. The project took longer than expected, however, with some plots remaining vacant until well into the 21st century. While the residents of the original homes were, in theory, entitled to return to the neighborhood, many did not do so. As a result of the project's displacement of residents and businesses, its mixed and arguably discriminatory economic impact, and its design (featuring mid-century renewal concepts such as superblocks and strict separation of uses), the redevelopment of the Fillmore is considered by most to have been unsuccessful and regrettable. Post-redevelopment, encroaching gentrification and the physical decay of cheaply-constructed housing complexes have led to a neighborhood of stark contrasts between rich and poor. The neighborhood has a population of 5,257 and is 27.3% White or Caucasian, 50.5% Black or African American, 13.9% Asian, 0.3% Native American, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 5.2% from two or more races and 2.6% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.1% of the population. 17.7% of families and 21.5% of the population were below the poverty line. [1] The neighborhood continues to struggle with crime. Of the 98 homicides in San Francisco in 2007, 7 occurred in the Fillmore district. [2] Many residents of the Fillmore were among those who moved to Guyana to join Jim Jones People's Temple where they later died.

In the 1990s-2000s, the neighborhood underwent another wave of urban renewal and gentrification in the form of a new "Jazz District" along Fillmore Street with mostly upscale Jazz-themed restaurants, and proposed condominium construction.

[edit] Points of Interest

Fillmore Street, the neighborhood's main commercial strip, reflects the Fillmore's diversity: family-owned neighborhood-serving retail mixes with chain stores, jazz clubs, ethnic restaurants of many varieties, and empty storefronts. Some of the stores, restaurants, and clubs lost to redevelopment are memorialized by plaques on the sidewalk. Other ties to the neighborhood's past remain as well; for example, the building that once housed Jimbo's Bop City—a nightclub frequented by noted jazz musicians of the 40's and 50's—was moved during redevelopment to Fillmore Street, where it now houses an Afrocentric book store, Marcus Bookstore.

Two prominent music venues are located in the neighborhood: the historic Fillmore Auditorium, and the San Francisco branch of Yoshi's jazz club. An exhibit featuring jazz in the Fillmore can be found in the lobby of the Fillmore Heritage Center. Just north of Geary Boulevard is the Sundance Kabuki theater and San Francisco's Japantown. A farmer's market is held at the Fillmore Center Plaza on Saturdays during the summer months, and there is a branch of the San Francisco public library located at Geary and Scott.