My anger comes from this: I don't believe that any community built upon going in and tearing out an old one is a good community. I believe the key is integration, not disintegration. Don't tear out the only local mini-grocery and replace it with an expensive gourmet market. Consider everyone in the community, not just the VCs and startup kids you're trying to attract. Especially if you're ambitiously tearing down much of what was there long before you arbitrarily decided to move into the area and start playing Sim City.
I don't think that's too much to ask.
I think most communities that have undergone significant change have done so with some asymmetry in power. If Hsieh deigns to consult with the locals, it will necessarily take the form of charity. How is he to run these negotiations? The local mini-grocery wants to stay, and Hsieh wants it to go. The decision is binary and rests entirely on him. Asking Hsieh to consider everyone's needs is difficult, especially given that he has all the bargaining power. I was surprised your article did not more concretely enumerate the community's concerns. I would hazard a guess that they are not nearly as organized.
As for dis/integrating as a viable strategy for improving neighborhoods - I think a lot of us here in SF would be mighty happy with a major, ground-up overhaul to a lot of the city structure. You can't cross a chasm in two leaps, etc.
The use of self-deprecation and the "I'm no better than the people I'm criticizing" apologism seems to justify the use of a broad range of ad-hominem attacks. There is a lot of condemning the current approach of the Downtown Project, but I'm not sure how it should be better run. The people that the author suggests be consulted are by his own admission, "human scum." Should Hsieh and co, build more affordances for poorer people? Should they also build charitable social housing? Is merely being transparent enough?
I assume that Hshieh aims to build, essentially, a community that he himself would be happy living in. If such a community is antithetical to the needs of the current tenants of that area (which seems almost tautologically true, sugarcoating by all parties involved notwithstanding), how should this conflict be resolved? I think the core of the author's complaint is that Hsieh and his compatriots are able to do what they like because of their wealth. I submit that this is at least no worse than our other standard approaches to solving conflicts at this scale - complaining or cajoling.