If you think there are a lot of new construction cranes now, and too many people trying to move into San Francisco lately, take a look at this slightly alarmist newsreel from 1963 — part of a serious trove of vintage film newly uploaded by British Pathé on all kinds of topics from the 20th Century. SFist will be rolling out more of these relating to S.F. in the coming days, but let's start here, since our current population boom has been such a hot topic. Back the early 60's, S.F. was also "bursting at the seams," and the early days of "urban renewal" was being sold to the populace

As the announcer says, it was already then "a city so beautiful her worshipers hoped she would never change." He also refers to a complex of housing going in around the "wholesale produce market area," and that would have been around the current Embarcadero Center. The market was then moved to the Bayview in the early 60s as part of the redevelopment effort that brought low-income housing there and to the Western Addition. The film does not, obviously, get into any of the debate behind the controversial redevelopment of those areas, when the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency essentially killed the Fillmore District and its historic jazz culture for the better part of 40 years.