b'Introduction to the Mission DistrictOn Nov. 5, 2000, the New York Times published an article about the demographic shifts underway in the workhorse immigrant neighborhood of San Franciscos Mission District (hereafter referred to asTHE MISSION PERSISTS AS AN EPICENTER the Mission}. The Bay Area had become the center of the new dot-com economy, attracting mostlyFOR LATINO RESIDENTS, SMALL young, white and affluent newcomers. The Mission, with comparatively inexpensive real estate, was nowBUSINESSES, ADVOCACY AND SERVICE a hotspot. [A]rtists, nonprofit organizations andORGANIZATIONS, ARTISTS AND ACTIVISTS.working-class tenants, wrote journalist Evelyn Nieves, are being evicted in record numbers. These displacements signaled how desperate the real estate situation ha[d] become in San Francisco. While housing a diversity of working-class residents, The Times article described a trend that has onlyincluding LGBTQ and artist communities, by the late intensified in the two decades since. The regional1960s the Mission became well-known as a Latino housing and homelessness crisis has worsened, andneighborhood. After World War II, Mexican and the tech economy has taken root throughout theCentral American families increasingly flocked to the region. The Mission has continued to attract higher- area, and a community of Latino-serving businesses income transplants, luxury-housing development andand organizations created a strong support network. high-priced businesses. This influx has furtherThe Mission continued to draw new migrants in the imperiled the neighborhoods historicallyfollowing decades, becoming a majority-Latino marginalized community members, and hasneighborhood by the 1990s.threatened to sever the Mission from its rich legacySince the 1990s, however, gentrification has forced as one of the citys oldest immigrant neighborhoods. out many longtime residents, as the Mission has Following the 1906 earthquake, the Mission becamebecome a frequent target for redevelopment.a destination point for many European and MexicanAs more high-wage earners take the place of low-immigrants, who created a multiethnic urbanincome families, this turnover further threatens the community with a thriving business corridor alongresidents who have managed to stay in the Mission Mission Street. However, government and privatedue to deeper income inequality and steeper costsassessors redlined the Mission in the 1930s, pointingof living.to the neighborhoods low-income residents andDespite these myriad challenges, the Mission persists older housing stock. Mortgage redlining led toas an epicenter for Latino residents, small businesses, decades of public and private underinvestment, andadvocacy and service organizations, artists and prevented many families and entrepreneurs fromactivists. The neighborhoods survival is largely due to building wealth through property ownership. the resourcefulness, cooperative spirit and moral conviction of the community itself. The creativity and ingenuity of this community has also sustained the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) since we opened our doors in 1973. While the challenges we face have intensified in the past half-century, so has our commitment to building a more just and equitable future for our working-class Latino families. 4MISSION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY'