Ascendant Community Power
The Cultural District Movement is Legacy and Resistance
Written by Bobby Shijia Lu, Edited by Robin Abad Ocubillo
“Success in our district would mean thriving businesses and non-profit organizations in our community, it would mean decreasing the income disparity, stable housing for families, elders, students, and adults. Our working-class community, newcomers, teachers, and artists wouldn’t have the fear of displacement, and would be able to purchase homes in the city to build equity… A world-class performing art center to share and teach our culture and language. We’d be recognized and celebrated for our contributions to the city, the state, and the nation. We’d get a seat at any table that is worthy of interest, and we would be valued and welcomed to it. “
— Rachel Lastimosa, SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District
SoMa Social Landscapes was a program of film screenings, panel discussions, and artists’ talks presented on Saturday, September 25, 2021, by the SF Urban Film Fest (SFUFF) as part of the exhibition Echo Location: The Cultural Geopolitics in South of Market. The final program of that day was a panel discussion moderated by Robin Abad Ocubillo, exhibition curator, and three three esteemed community leaders. The discussants were Rachel Lastimosa (Arts & Culture Administrator with SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District), Honey Mahogany (Co-Founder, The Transgender Cultural District), and Bob Brown (Vice President, LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District). Robin Abad Ocubillo. The discussion followed the premiere of the short film “The View from Langton Street” by Bay Area-based photographer, Janet Delaney and artist Laura Graham; and a conversation with writer Jeantelle Laberinto and artist Fred Noland about their collaborative research on San Francisco’s Cultural Districts.
San Francisco is the first of several cities in the US to have established a Cultural District program to preserve, maintain, and develop unique cultural and historic assets. The Districts are also an economic development tool to promote tourism, incubate businesses and entrepreneurs. What’s unique in San Francisco’s Cultural Districts program is that it further recognizes the risk of displacement or gentrification many vulnerable communities face. The Districts also wish to pursue amendments to zoning and land use regulations, promote affordable housing opportunities and home ownership within the Districts (San Francisco Administrative Code, Chapter 107). Cultural districts are acknowledged as an attempt to counteract the displacement of family, artists and arts organizations, and small businesses. Currently, there are eight official cultural districts in San Francisco, including the world’s first Transgender Cultural District; and the world’s first LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District.
While establishing cultural districts in San Francisco has, to a certain extent, increased the visibility of these vulnerable communities, and enabled them to self-organize and to access more monetary and political capital, they are still faced with many challenges. When asked by the moderator about the top one or two policy transformations they would like to see, the three panelists agreed that there is currently not enough funding support. Currently, public funding is tied to the hotel tax revenues (Proposition E), which is an unstable source during an economic downturn or a crisis like COVID-19. Even in fully funded years, tax revenues generated through Proposition E are not enough to fully implement each cultural district strategic plan. Under the current funding structure, Cultural Districts also find themselves having to compete against each other for the limited funding while trying to work together collaboratively.
Affordable housing is another aspect that the panelists all highlighted as priorities for their respective Districts. Culture is above all about people, so these cultural districts’ leaders are well aware of the importance of helping community members stay in the district. Honey Mahogany mentioned the need of funding support for land acquisition for small housing sites, group housing sites, and the need to uphold living standards in SROs. Bob Brown called for more teeth when negotiating with developers. I believe funding and regulatory support for targeted vulnerable and marginalized communities is absolutely necessary. At the same time, this affordability crisis is a city-wide, region-wide issue. The city, region, and the state also need to continue eliminating those land use and zoning policies that are rooted in racism, and make housing more affordable in general.
Cultural districts are formed to give greater voice to the communities, yet hearing panelists asking to have a seat at the table, I wonder how effective this program has been at enabling communities to meaningfully participate in the planning process. While the planning field uses phrases like “robust community engagement”, “advance racial equity”, and others in its discourse, as a planner myself, I have witnessed how hard it is to move beyond providing translations and conducting in-language meetings. But cultural competency is more than that. How do we as planners lift up the voices of the communities intentionally? More importantly, how do we step back and give power back to communities? How do we collectively cultivate generations of community leaders, city planners, and developers that work together, with trust? To create a society in which all members of the society are thriving, not just surviving?
When Robin Abad Ocubillo, the exhibition curator and panel moderator, posed the question of call to actions to the panel, ‘showing up’ and financial donations were among the answers offered. Without denying the importance of ‘showing up’ and money, I question this narrative of putting the onerous burdens on members of vulnerable and marginalized communities, most of whom are working-class, hustling more than one jobs, and /or raising families. I will show up. I will donate. As a member of the Asian & LGBTQ community myself I will march in the streets, in alliance with other communities. But when can we stop asking for a seat at the table? When can we flip the table? When can we break the table and build something new?
Cultural Districts combine the ideas of culture production¹, cultural resistance, defined here as the practice of using meanings and symbols to contest and combat a dominant power², and spatial resilience, defined as the dynamic capacity to cope with disturbance and avoid thresholds at scales larger than individual ecosystems³⁴. In other words, Cultural Districts afford communities the space and platform to use their unique cultural assets and processes to claim space, resist erasure from systemic racism and inequitable planning practices, and adapt to changes.
At its core, cultural resistance is a way of reclaiming our humanity, and celebrating our work as individuals and communities. They inspire us to own our lives and invest in our communities, while building capacity for local leadership.
— Cultural Resistance: The Arts of Protest (New Tactics in Human Rights)
Robin Abad Ocubillo closed the panel by describing a future that the panelists and audience seemed to concur with: “…a post-poverty, post-scarcity, post-monetary future where capitalism is not the principal driver shaping the human experience.” Yet the panel discussion left me with more questions than answers. As I am writing this now, I remember how moved I was during the screening of the short film “The View from Langton Street” earlier that afternoon. I remember wanting to visit the artist’s studio, to play with the kids on the street, to laugh with the neighbors at their dinner parties, to fight against their displacement. There is no doubt in me about the power of telling the story of communities, of telling the truth, of reclaiming our humanity with force and gentleness. And neither there is doubt in me about whom I will stand together in solidarity with, in crisis and prosperity.
- Read here for more references on Cultural Production and Circulation.
- Duncombe, S. (2007). Cultural Resistance. In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, G. Ritzer (Ed.). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosc178
- Nyström, M., Folke, C. Spatial Resilience of Coral Reefs. Ecosystems 4, 406–417 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-001-0019-y
- Rachel Brahinsky, Miriam Chion, Lisa M. Feldstein, “Reflections on Community Planning in San Francisco”, [« Réflexions sur le Community Planning à San Francisco », translation : Guénaëlle Marquis], justice spatiale | spatial justice, n° 5, déc. 2012-déc. 2013 | dec. 2012-dec. 2013, http://www.jssj.org/
This event took place on September 25, 2021 at YBCA in San Francisco. For more information about the SF Urban Film Fest, visit our website.
Echo Location: The Cultural Geopolitics in South of Market
is an exhibition and programming series centering the experience of two historically marginalized groups essential to the heritage of San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood (SoMa): Filipinx and LGBTQIA+ communities. Featuring visual arts, film, and theatre, Echo Location reflects on the power these communities hold, overlapping both culturally and geographically over time. Echo Location is curated by Robin Abad Ocubillo and organized by the SF Urban Film Fest, in partnership with Filipino International Cine Festival (FACINE) and Bindlestiff Studio. Co-presenters include Kultivate Labs, Kapwa Gardens, and SoMa Pilipinas. The exhibition is on display at the YBCA Galleries through October 23rd, 2021.
