ABSTRACT
In May 1998, San Francisco residents, night club owners and workers held a town-hall meeting to protest the ‘Soho-ization’ of their South of Market neighbourhood, affectionately known as ‘SoMa’. The focus of their protests were the new developments being made next to or in place of diverse, mixeduse buildings that currently housed immigrant families, artists, start-up companies, and manufacturers. Geographic data about SoMa showed that it was fast transforming from a blue-collar neighbourhood into a chic residential and retail district. One central source of data was the SoMa community’s GIS-based ‘living neighbourhood map’. Used to start a conversation with policy-makers, the map sought to illustrate changes in development that portended zoning changes at a city-wide level. The May 1998 meeting came to represent the beginnings of a complex deliberative and democratic process focused around parcel politics and the politics of space.
