BY:LEON KWASI KUNTUO-ASARE

The fact is the San Francisco Ellis act is a smack in the face and wallet of residents

who love this city and have through good and bad times remained solid

Anyone who bought into the slogan and theme of the San Francisco dream

Corporate thieves and political greed have turned the San Francisco dream into the San Francisco nightmare

Full of evictions and despair for lifelong residents forced to beg like peasants!

The current tech boom in San Francisco is bringing back both the economic prosperity and social-economic devastation of the dot.com boom of the late 1990’s, as many landlords are now forcing out many longtime residents of the city by the bay.

In areas of the city like the mission district ( a predominantly Hispanic and immigrant area) and the Bayview-Hunters point district ( a area with a largest African-American population in the city ) , two regions of San Francisco with a rich ethnic history and unfortunately an economically disenfranchised past. Many low income families are being forced out of the city. According to a Newsweek article by journalist Joe Kloc, from April 15, 2014, Joe writes: “In many cities, people are pushed farther from the city center and must grapple with longer commutes, higher crime rates and a drop in services. But in San Francisco, where Silicon Valley’s tech boom has driven up evictions by 115 percent.” Leaving the newly vacant apartments available to be rented by highly paid tech company employees, who can afford the over priced rent that obviously many long time residents can’t afford, unless they take the risk and use services like Airbnb, which allows tenants to rent out parts of their apartment to complete strangers, which can help them pay their rent.

What ever politicians in San Francisco needs to keep in mind, is that every boom or bubble will burst, so eventually that same thing is going to happen to the tech boom that happened to the dot.com, sooner or later the gold rush always ends. The city by the bay may want to think twice before allowing its longtime loyal residents to be forcefully sent off from the city like inmates to Alcatraz, because they committed the crime of being economically disenfranchised!