Asian couple sues to retain ownership of exclusive San Francisco street

A GoFundMe page shows Michael Cheng and Tina Lam outside of the Presidio Terrace gates.

IT'S A TALE of David vs. Goliath, nobs vs. common folks, the powerful vs. the wannnabes or the privileged 1% vs. the ambitious Chinese.

The Asian immigrant couple who bought one of the highest priced streets in San Francisco in 2017, is suing the city after their purchase was overturned.

When the neighbors caught wind that real estate broker Tina Lam and Silicon Valley engineer Michael Cheng had bought the street, the residents of Presidio Terrace used their influence to have the Board of Supervisors reverse the sale.

In 2015, city staff followed normal protocol and put the privately owned streetl up for sale in an online auction after the Presidio Terrace Homeowners Association failed to pay taxes on the street for more than a decade. 

Lam and Cheng bought the sidewalks, streets and medians in an online auction for $90,000. They offered to sell the street back to the home association for $1 million.

RELATED: Homeowners angry their street is sold to Asian couple

To help pay for their legal action, the couple have have launched a GoFundMe page, “Presidio Terrace defense fund” to finance the legal action. They set a goal of $50,000.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Matier and Ross report that Lam and Cheng’s attorneys are arguing that the board overstepped its authority.

On the GoFundMe page, the couple infer that their race was a factor in the association's actions:

"Stunningly, Supervisor Mark Farrell, who initially recommended the sale in 2015 and got the unanimous approval of the Board of Supervisors, changed his mind once he saw who bought the street.  Very publicly, he called us "bottom-feeding pirates" and "out-of-town speculators" as apparently we weren't rich enough or white enough to own this street that he just wanted to dump in an auction at a public tax sale.  He even got Senator Dianne Feinstein to help him pressure a few fellow Board members to take back the street for the second time since 1985.  He got his way on a split conditional decision 7-4 on November 28, 2017.   

"... This fight is not just about the street.  This is about defending property rights for everyone who is not super wealthy or doesn't look a certain way.  If the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is allowed to go against black and white state laws to help a favored few in this unprecedented case, all our property rights will then be at risk of being taken at the whims of a few politicians. "

Ironically, Presidio Terrace has racist roots. An original ad read: "There is only one spot in San Francisco where only Caucasians are permitted to buy or lease real estate or where they may reside. That place is Presidio Terrace.”

The 40 mansions on the gated circular street  are super expensive. A four-floor mansion at 26 Presidio Terrace hit the market in 2016 for $14.5 million. And 30 Presidio Terrace, a neighbor in the gated community, last sold for $9.5 million.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Home owners angry that their exclusive San Francisco street bought by Asian couple

Google map view of Presidio Terrace.

THE IRONY is hard to miss: An Asian couple bought a street in a neighborhood that had racial covenants limiting the homes for whites only.Tina Lam and Michael Cheng bought one of the ritziest streets in high-priced San Francisco and the residents, some of the most powerfl and influential people in San Francisco are upset.

Lam and Cheng, Silicon Valley engineers and investors, bought one of the most exclusive streets in the city for $90,000. Presidio Terrace is an oval street with 40 multi-million dollar homes.

With San Francisco real estate one of the highest-priced in the nation, Lam and Cheng recognized a bargain when they saw one.

Apparently the $14 annual tax went unpaid for 30 years before, finally, the street was put up for auction to pay for the $994 in unpaid back-taxes, fines and interest.

Residents were completely unaware of the purchase until May, when the couple sent out a letter asking the residents if they were interested in buying their street back. They claimed that the reason the taxes hadn’t been paid was that the accountant’s address that the taxes were being sent to had not been used since the 1980s. 

The residents and homeowners association are now trying to fight the sale in court by suing the new owners.

“Ninety-nine percent of property owners in San Francisco know what they need to do, and they pay their taxes on time — and they keep their mailing address up to date,” Amanda Fried, spokesperson for Treasurer-Tax Collector Jose Cisneros’ office, said. “There is nothing that our office can do.”

The irony of the sale is that the Asian couple now owns a street that was specifically created to keep out “Orientals.” An ad for Presidio Terrace in 1906 reads “There is only one spot in San Francisco where only Caucasians are permitted to buy or lease real estate or where they may reside. That place is Presidio Terrace.”

Curbed SF compiled some interesting factoids about the neighborhood.

• The first of the master-planned communities built in the western part of San Francisco, it’s private and gated. 
• The gates are always open, but there’s a guard at the entrance to keep you out. 
• Presidio Terrace is bordered by Arguello Boulevard, Lake Street, Pacific Avenue, and (ironically) the Little Sisters of the Poor.  
• Building began here in 1905. Most of it survived the great quake. 
• It’s wealthy. Very wealthy. A four-floor mansion at 26 Presidio Terrace hit the market in 2016 for $14.5 million. And 30 Presidio Terrace, a neighbor in the gated community, last sold for $9.5 million. 
• Architecture in the community varies. Beaux-Arts, Mission Revival, and Tudor Revival can all be found here. Most notably, Julia Morgan designed an Italian Renaissance home here in 1909. 
• Up until 2006, Google Street View used to go inside Presidio Terrace. No more. Ever since 2007, most views from the street are no longer viewable. 
• Except this one. Oops. 
• Today it’s the home of notable residents. Current and former Presidio Terrace dwellers include former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband. 
• The plaque on the front gates reads: “Presidio Terrace....private street...authorized parking only.” 

The couple are OK if the residents don't want to rent  the parking spaces on the street. In parking scarce San Francisco, there are plenty of other city residents who would pay for those valuable parking spots.

That would basically open up the street to the commoners who live outside the enclave. There goes the neighborhood.

_______________________________________________________________________________