BeyondChron's Paul Hogarth dares to go where many fear to tread: all up in Elisa Stephens' grill. Again. Hogarth writes about the Academy of Art College's plan to swallow up even more of San Francisco's prime real estate.
TenderNob/downtown buildings such as the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, the St. Brigid Church, and perhaps the building you're in this very second, have been gobbled up by l'Academy of Art College. Preferring the taste of rent-controlled apartments to that of building their own student housing, the Academy's "corporate colonization" has posed a problem for many in SF, especially to citizens defined as low-income (i.e., most all of us.)
What's more, the school of enfant terrible-ism plans to increase its enrollment over the next decade. Hogarth says that "[t]he Academy anticipates doubling their student enrollment in the next ten years. Even if you take out the increase among online courses, that would still be an increase of 6,000 students who will attend the San Francisco campus in person." That is a lot of angular haircuts on the streets of SF, folks. A lot. Beware. (An aside: have you seen Stephens' limousine? The one with that personalized license plate reading "We [heart] Art"? Pft.)