Just when you thought the Marina could no longer surprise you with unyielding tastelessness, it ups the ante. Take, for example, the neighborhood's recent effort to stop a proposed plan for housing "aged out" foster care children. See, when foster kids reach 18, they are turned out on their own -- a difficult transition for anyone, more so for young adults without parents -- and San Francisco wants to help by providing transitional housing in the Mariana. Helpful, right? But the plan is being "met with a wall of resistance" by some Marina residents.
According to KGO, "the City of San Francisco wants to put two dozen kids who are either aging out of foster care or others who are at risk for homelessness at the King Edward II Inn, a bed and breakfast in the Marina."
"We have concerns on how this facility is going to interact with our neighborhood," John Millar, president of the Marina Community Association, explains to KGO. While Millar questions everything about the project (from the $9 million financing to LEED), let's face it: the real issue here is the kind of people said housing will bring into the tawny neighborhood -- namely, 18-year-old young adults who are at-risk for homelessness.