Filipino American historic hotel preserved as affordable housing

MISSION HOUSING

The historic Gran Oriente Hotel is located at 106 South Park Street.

SAN FRANCISCO rent is among the highest in the country. Rents have risen even faster and higher in the trendy South of Market neighborhood.

The city and housing advocates have succeeded in preserving the historic Gran Oriente Hotel, which  provides 24 single-room affordable housing for recent immigrants and their families.

“I think community members around the city and county of San Francisco and the Bay Area and beyond are watching exactly what’s happening in the heart of the Filipino cultural heritage district, and watching how the community is taking back its cultural assets, partnering with non-profits and housing organizations to really not only sustain but, in the long term, empower,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed during a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The preservation of the low-rent  property grew stronger when the hotel formed a partnership with Filipino community organizations and the Mission Housing Development Corporation, the hotel's 24 units of affordable housing will remain available and all existing tenants can remain.

Smack dab in the middle of it all is the modest Gran Oriente Hotel, owned by Gran Oriente, one of the fraternal lodges formed in the early part of the last century by Filipino men who worked in the hotels, Merchant Marine and the farm fields of California. Because of the racist laws of the early 20th century, Filipinos were not allowed to own property. However, that law didn't apply to lodges.

So the Filipino men (because of another racist labor rule that limited immigration of Filipinas) banded together to purchase property that included the hotel. They bought the hotel in the South of Market area, which at the time was a primarily Irish American neighborhood.

While across town Manilatown was devoured by the financial district, including the famous International Hotel unsuccessfully fought for survival, the Gran Oriente continued to provide an affordable home for Filipinos and South of Market was designated as a Filipino Historical District known as SoMa Pilipinas.

As South of Market property values skyrocketed over the years, the fraternal organization received numerous unsolicited, speculative purchase offers for the Gran Oriente Hotel. Community leaders wondered just how long the building could avoid being “gentrified” — sold on the private market, the units rehabbed and then leased at high rents.

“The Gran Oriente Hotel is a significant building to the Filipino community in San Francisco and for the South Park neighborhood,” said Supervisor Jane Kim. “It also provides 24 SRO units which provide critical affordable housing for the community.”

“I am honored to have worked with SoMa Pilipinas and Mission Housing over the last two years to facilitate its purchase through the Small Sites Program and ensure it remains a community-owned site.”

In meetings between the leadership of the Filipino Community Development Corporation, the Filipino-American Development Foundation, SOMA Pilipinas, the SOMA Stabilization Fund Community Advisory Committee and Mission Housing representatives, ideas were shared about how to honor the Filipino legacy of the building, and find a current and future co-ownership structure that involves the Filipino community.

The outcome: a Filipino organization will own or co-own the Gran Oriente by 2025.

Until then, Mission Housing  Development Corporation will be working with community members on rehabilitating the site, ensuring that all existing tenants remain, and utilizing the site for future community activism and support.

"I am committed to making sure that we invest more in small-site acquisition programs like this so that we can have incredible block parties where we are saving housing,” said Mayor Breed.

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AAPI VOTE 2018: SF mayoral ccandidate calls out reporter on her questions

Mayoral candidate Jane Kim, left, was instrumental in the creation of the
Filipino Cultural Heritage District in San Francisco.

ASAM NEWS

A REPORTER from the San Francisco Chronicle covering the city’s heated mayoral race lost her beat this week, after emailing Korean/American candidate Jane Kim a list of questions for a possible story.

The campaign’s response — in the form of a public Medium blog that included a copy of the reporter’s questions and Kim’s blistering responses — accused the Chronicleof inadequate research and biased reporting.

Most of the questions from reporter Rachel Swan revolved around Kim’s private school education and her family’s personal finances, in contrast with her liberal politics that seem to champion the middle class.

Some dove into the details of her childhood growing up in New York City, her parent’s luxury condo purchase in 1989 and records showing a “Jane Kim” was on the payroll of a company related to her father’s employer, Kiss Products. A follow-up question asked why she never disclosed that income.

Turns out, the reporter got the “wrong” Jane Kim.

“Kim is actually a very common Korean name.” Kim wrote. “Even though we received these questions less than 24 hours ago, my team Googled ‘Jane Kim’ and ‘Ivy Enterprises,’ called the company and spoke to this other Jane Kim who confirmed her employment. I would suggest the Chronicle also verify information received from opposition research in the future.”

Another question on the list: “Could it not be seen disingenuous to paint yourself as a hero of the people, when your father has this high-paying executive job [at Kiss Products, a global cosmetic company]?”

Kim included in her reply, “The way this question is asked leads me to believe this reporter has already pre-determined the outcome of this piece — which is why I am sharing the questions and my answers directly with voters.”

And to answer why she never discussed her dad’s financial success on the campaign trail, she wrote: “I’m rarely asked about my dad’s career … I believe most voters would find it very retro to measure a woman by her dad’s job.”

The next day, the Chronicle’s chief editor Audrey Cooper apologized in an editor’s note on May 4: “…those written questions were inappropriately worded and insufficiently researched. They failed to meet the journalistic standards of The Chronicle.”

Last month, the Chronicle endorsed candidate London Breed, originally the city’s acting mayor following the unexpected death of Ed Lee in December, who previously held the post.

The election for San Francisco's mayor is June 5, 2018. If no candidate wins over 50%, there will be a runoff of the two top candidates in November.
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Marches, rallies launch a year in which women hold the key to cultural shift

Luisa Blue used her powerful voice and message to excite those at the Las Vegas women's rallly.

ON OUR way to the Women's Rally in Las Vegas we asked our Lyft driver if he was registered.

"I was a precinct captain," answered Grover, our driver. "In 2016 I was registering up to 60 people a day."

Grover was a black man, about 50 years old, but he was up with current events. "We're turning this state (Nevada) blue." He proceeded to lecture us about all that was wrong with this country, from the White House occupant on down to the white supremacists. 

Donald Trump has inspired ordinary people like Grover to get off their seat, stop complaining and start organizing and doing something to turn this country around.

That was the theme heard around the country last weekend as people marked the one-year anniversary of the Women's March and also, the end of the first year of the Donald Trump administration.

SEIU national executive vice president Luisa Blue, a Filipina Americans, got the Las Vegas crowd riled up citing what the newly revitalized women's movement has in common with labor unions: If you believe in affordable housing, then you have something in common with us, she said. If you believe in a living wage, then you have something in common with us. And she went on, from education, health care, a workplace free from sexual harassment, and so on.

San Francisco Jane Kim, who presides in a largely Asian/American district in her city, spoke in Las Vegas, saying that the majority of mayoral candidates are women, and if a woman is elected mayor of San Francisco, it would become the largest U.S. city with a woman mayor.

Speaker after speaker encouraged the audience to advance to the next step in the women's movement, from marching to running for office, from signing petitions to sighing up voters, to move from the streets to the voting booth.

The Las Vegas rally closed out a weekend of marches and rallies which drew millions of people across the country, from New York to Los Angeles. Over 200,000 marched in New York City, raising their middle finger when they passed the Trump Tower. In Los Angeles where 500,000 marched, chanting, "This is what democracy looks like."

National organizers decided to hold the national event In Las Vegas because Nevada is seen as a state turning from Republican to Democrat with a Republican governors and a U.S. Senate seat seen as vulnerable this year. It is also a state that elected its country's first Latina U.S. Senator, Catherine Cortez, who won her seat in 3026 in the same election that Hillary attracted more votes than Trump.

With the momentum built up by the womens' resistance and the work of people like our Lyft driver, Las Vegas indicates that the odds are in favor that Nevada will turn blue this year.

This story is developing. Check back later for updates.

SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC

Actress Constance Wu,  center, with Natalie Portman, right and Eva Longorio at the Los Angeles march.

In Los Angeles, actress Constance Wu (Fresh Off the Boat) recounted an incident when she was called "bitch."

"I want to tell you about the first time I refused a man's sexual advances," said Wu at the women's march in L.A. "He called me a bitch. He said he didn't even really want me. He said, 'don't flatter yourself, you're not that hot.' He said, 'who do you think you are?'

"You see, my rejection of him made him so uncomfortable that he had to retaliate with insults," she continued. "He had to protect his ego by demeaning me."
Wu's comeback is classic: 

"I would just like to say to the abusers who have called me a bitch, who have said, 'who do you think you are?': I am Constance Wu," she said to cheers. "And as for the 'bitch' part, if you didn't try to do bitch-ass things to us, then we wouldn't have to be bitches back to you. So stop and listen."

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., like other U.S. senators remained in Washington to work on getting a budget that is acceptable enough to end the government shutdown. However, she did issue a statement of support for her supporters in her home state:

"Whether or not you were able to participate in the march last year or this year, this is a moment in time that is demanding all of us to dig deep and take ownership of the future. Be brave and stand with us in fighting for the people. 

"We are strong when we raise our voices together and that is precisely what we did one year ago — and what we will continue to do in the difficult weeks, months, and years ahead. 

"When people of all ages, colors, religions, and backgrounds come together, unified in our collective struggle for justice, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. Stay involved!"_______________________________________________________________________

San Francisco's Mayor Ed Lee dies

ASAM NEWS

SAN FRANCISCO Mayor Ed Lee, who became the nation’s first Asian/American mayor of a major U.S. city in 2011, died of a massive heart attack overnight at the age of 65.

ABC7 News reports Lee was grocery shopping last night when he suffered cardiac arrest.

Doctors at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital pronounced him dead at 1:11 a.m.

Lee was a non-politician politician. As a young activist attorney at the city’s Asian Law Caucus, he organized a rent strike at the Ping Yuen Housing Project in Chinatown in 1978. Despite some resistance from residents, the strike went on for six months and the city made improvements in living conditions.

Retired administrative law judge Steve Owyang who also served as Executive and Legal Affairs Secretary with California’s Fair Employment and Housing Commission, fondly remembers working with Lee.

“I am deeply saddened by Ed’s sudden passing, and my thoughts go out to his wife Anita and their daughters,” said Owyang to AsAmNews. “I remember working with him when we were law students in the mid-1970’s at Boalt Hall and at the Asian Law Caucus’s first San Francisco office on Waverly Place in Chinatown. Ed was completely dedicated to improving the lives of Chinatown residents.”

Lee had an affinity for affordable housing issues. He grew up in a government subsidized housing in Seattle. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, his parents struggled to raise six children. His father worked as a cook and his mother was a garment worker.

Lee worked his way up through the city bureaucracy. In 1989, Mayor Art Agnos appointed him as the city’s first investigator under the city’s Whistleblower Ordinance. Two years later, he became the executive director of the Human Rights Commission. By 2000, Mayor Willie Brown would appoint Lee the director of Public Works.

Lee became mayor in 2011 when then Mayor Gavin Newsom was elected Lieutenant Governor. The County Board of Supervisors struggled to rally around a temporary replacement for Newsom. After several votes, they settled on Lee who promised he would not run for election if appointed.

It was a believable promise. Lee had never run for public office before. He had no known ambitions to enter elective life.

He was just supposed to be a placeholder until his term expired in January 2012. But cries of Run Ed Run would be heard, largely coming from the city’s Chinese American community, who took pride in Lee becoming the city’s first Chinese American and Asian American mayor. One of the most outspoken supporters for Lee’s run was Chinatown power broker and consultant for the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce Rose Pak.

Not only did Lee run, but he won with the backing of the city’s moderate faction. In 2015, Lee won reelection without any major opposition.

However his popularity has waned since then due largely to San Francisco’s progressive faction who felt Lee did not do enough to increase the supply of affordable housing and catered too much to the business community, particularly the tech community.

Among his critics were members of Chinatown’s liberal faction. In fact, Pak turned on Lee when he appointed Julie Christensen to serve out the remainder of Supervisor David Chiu’s term in 2015 after Chiu won election to the State Assembly. Pak had lobbied Lee hard to appoint Cindy Chu, the chair of the city’s planning commission and a member of the Chinatown Community Development Center.

Lee has also been criticized by those to the extreme right. Twitter is full of hateful tweets from those who resent his strong support for San Francisco as a sanctuary city. Many of those trolls blamed Lee for the acquittal of the most serious charges against Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, the undocumented immigrant who faced trial in the fatal shooting of Kate Steinle in San Francisco.

Lee is survived by his wife Anita, his two daughters, Brianna and Tania.

The President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, London Breed, has stepped in as acting mayor under the city’s charter.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a breaking story. Check back later for more details.