SF supervisors approve PHL cultural district 

The board of supervisors of South Francisco has approved the creation of the Filipino Cultural Heritage District in the South of Market neighborhood of the city after nearly a decade of work from its Filipino proponents.

A report on CBS San Francisco said the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (SFBS) adopted on April 12 a resolution that would create the heritage district, also known as SoMa Pilipinas, in the neighborhood.

SFBS supervisor David Campos told CBS SF that the creation of the district will help make Filipinos part of the decision-making process in the city's plans for the South Market neighborhood.

“The Filipino community should be a part of every single issue that comes before this neighborhood," the report quoted Campos as saying.

Filipinos relocated to South Market and the Filmore district after first generation immigrants were displaced from their homes in what  eventually became San Francisco's Financial District between the 20's and 30's.

In October 2015, Filipinos appealed with the SFBS to prevent the construction of several luxury condos that would have displaced the working-class community in SoMa.

The same fear of displacement and the need to preserve its culture spurred the Filipino community to plan for an ethnic cultural center with the Western SoMa Citizens Planning Task Force in 2007, a report on KQED in 2015 said.

“They want to work on stopping and preventing displacement of  families, seniors, residents, as well as small businesses that they are worried are leaving South of Market due to how expensive real estate is becoming,” Supervisor Jane Kim told KQED.

A proposal submitted in 2009 stated that SoMa Pilipinas aims to a) protect and preserve basic cultural values compatible with Western SoMa District; b) foster a new, thriving ethnic cultural district in the Bay Area; and c) maintain a separate cultural identity from other districts.

SoMa Pilipinas will be developed within the perimeter covered by Second Street to the east, 11th Street to the west, Market Street to the north, and Brannan Street to the south.

Among the planned spaces in the subarea include educational centers for Filipino children; children, women, and senior citizen clinics; an employment center, and a Filipino-American counseling and treatment team at SoMa Mental Health Services. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News