Why is it even a bad idea? I would have thought that if it's a "very bad neigborhood", as you say, improving it is desirable.

Improving a "very bad neighbourhood" in the sense of "poor person's neighbourhood" tends to be undesirable for the people who are priced out as a result. Owners will do ok financially, but rents will rise, forcing many to leave the place they are settled in, may have grown up in, and often where their extended family lives.

If the alternative is to keep it a "very bad neighbourhood", I don't see how how the situation is not at least even. (Unless "very bad neighborhood" was an exaggeration. "Poor person's neighbourhood" certainly wasn't what I imagined, but I live in a place where most "poor person's neighbourhoods" are pretty good...just poor, that's all).

Yes, I am in favor of improving it. It's just that if we're talking about 6th and Market, getting it anywhere close to what we think of as "gentrified" is a long, long game, especially in San Francisco. It's a legendary corner.

But as others pointed out, the spot in question might not actually be right there, I was just commenting on the area mentioned by the parent, to add context for the non-SF people.

Uh, while many places in SF are indeed bad, the “sensitive” place the BoS claims to be protecting - Mint Plaza - is surrounded by apartments that already rent for $5500-$6500 per month.

In that case, it's even weirder -- for further context, Mint Plaza is at 5th and (more or less) Market, and there is a huge difference between 6th Street and 5th Street.

Ah, SF, sometimes I even miss it. :-)

Yes! The sharpest neighborhood difference I've ever seen is between 5th and Howard (Intercontinental Hotel, Pivotal, tech offices) vs 6th and Howard (reallllly sketchy area). (Howard is one block south of Mint and two blocks south of Market St.)

I used to work at 5th and Howard back when Tempest was an anarcho-syndicalist bike-messenger journalists' coke den.

We never exited towards 6th even then.

I did too! We went for lunch weekly :) Tempest has great food out of the Box kitchen, and they seat you inside at lunch during the week.

Yeah the project was to have been on Stevenson between 5th and 6th. At the closest point this lot is less than 100 meters from Mint Plaza.