June 6, 2007
SFist Photo: Presidio Terrace, S.F.'s Gated Community
On patrol - a security agent stands guard to protect the short circular street called Presidio Terrace from whatever criminal element that might spring forth from the Presidio Heights neighborhood.
It might look like a public street but it's not, so the people that live on this small loop just north of Clement are free to hire a guard to keep out whomever they want. And not too long ago, the houses here all had restrictive covenants that prevented people of the "non Caucasian race" from buying or leasing on this street. An ad from the latter part of 1906: There is only one spot in San Francisco where only Caucasians are permitted to buy or lease real estate or where they may reside. That place is Presidio Terrace.”
The specific reason at the time was the prevention of members of the "Mongolian race", meaning people of Japanese or Chinese heritage for the most part, from "invading" the area. Racial covenants might still be in the legal paperwork associated with some of these houses (but not the former house of a famous Senator - she famously took steps to get rid of the language). Regardless, any such covenant is no longer legally enforceable.
The good people at Google apparently didn't realize Presidio Terrace is a private street so they just drove in one day and snapped away. Take a tour! Just click on "Street View" and pick up the yellow man (yes, the Yellow Man!) with your mouse and show him through the gate indicated by the green arrow. Then click on "Full Screen" and use the little white navigational arrows to move about and the smaller black arrows to sit and spin. Enjoy.
[Kids, this "restricted residence district" started about 100 years ago, yes, but the covenants have affected the makeup of the hood more recently, and arguably, the legacy persists. The first non-white family moved in when, exactly? Mmmm.]
|
man, what a boring street.
Just a minor quibble, but didn't Google license its street shots from Immersive Media? It's more fun to say "Google did this" and "Google did that" but isn't it this other company that deserves the credit for the awesome stuff (and the occasional blame for the sucky stuff) in those street shots?
That's a good point -- I wonder what Google's actual involvement was? Did IM know that Google was getting the data; were they knowingly acting as agents of Google; did they represent Google or just themselves?
"Agents of Google" is my new band name.
i actually stumbled across this garish gated community last month. my first reaction: "i bet in this town, the people who live there still consider themselves Democrats."
god, i'm obsessed with presidio terrace. thanks for pointing this out, because several times i've tried to get inside of those gates to look around, but was shooed away right-quick.
Ironically, I staged a house in Presdio Terrace last year that was owned by a Taiwanese family, whose main residence was in Taiwan. Guess they managed to infiltrate that oh so prestigious cul de sac. And oddly, I didn't ever see a security guard at the gates in the dozen or so times I visited that "neighborhood". Bizarre place.
i want to live there. i don't see any homeless people!!!
what's it going to take?
i figure i can either pony up the 14mm minimum for a place on that street or execute on my clandestine plan to sneak lethal vials of crack into the homeless population
either way, i'd be happy
Anonymous, the SF pics were done by Google; the other cities were taken by IM. If you don't believe me, you can google it for yourself. It's easy to visually notice the difference since the IM pictures are lower res and the copyright is different.
Where is caucasia anyway?
1906 is not "not too long ago," it's a century ago!
Yeah seriously, no one is trying to keep anyone off that street. I got friends there, and they're good people. If ya got it like that, then throw down and buy a house. I don't know about all that "mongolian race" nonsense. That smells like the shoddy journalism of someone trying to push their dumbass agenda with an ancient, out of context misquote. If you got a problem with too much of whitey then just keep your diaper on, he'll be the minority soon enough if he isn't already. Meantime, don't worry about it.
Most rich people in America are white. Most rich people prefer to live in neighborhoods with other rich people. Therefore, most rich neighborhoods are full of white people. It might not be fair or tasteful, but it's not exactly a racist conspiracy.
And if the "only one spot" part of the ad is true, then San Francisco in 1906 was proably far ahead of the curve, since racial covenants were legal and enforceable up to 1948.
Its, its, its! "Got its start," not "got it's start," please.