The “Yoshi’s Effect”
In a bid to atone for its midcentury actions, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, beginning in the 1980s, set about planning a “jazz preservation district” to be located in the Fillmore neighborhood. Along with a program for small-business loans, the SFRA initiative originally took the form of a combined multiplex and jazz venue, pairing AMC Theaters with an outpost of the New York-based Blue Note club. While this first proposal was never realized, the SFRA did later succeed in launching a different mixed-use project that mixed affordable and market-rate housing with a branch of the Oakland-based Yoshi’s jazz club. Chapter 6 examines the economic and cultural challenges facing the Fillmore redevelopment district at the turn of the millennium.