Redlining 2.0: Robert Beck, TIDA, SFPUC , Mayor, and Board of Supervisors Target Treasure Island
Alright, let’s cut through the noise and get blunt about how the Treasure Island redevelopment, including the 2024 land transfer shenanigans tied to Ordinance 231269 (passed February 16, 2024), stacks up against historical redlining and screws over long-term residents, especially those at Site 12. Right off the bat, the Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA) is set up—by design—to dodge real grid upgrades, hoarding city funds for its own shiny projects while stiffing the island’s aging infrastructure. Unlike the rest of San Francisco, where the SFPUC taps into serious cash for fixes—like the $20 million Stern Grove repair after a 2021 flood trashed the place ([SF Chronicle, May 2, 2022](https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/Repair-costs-for-San-Francisco-s-Stern-Grove-17142845.php); [SFPUC confirmation](https://www.sfpuc.gov))—TIDA’s left to nickel-and-dime its 40-to-50-year-old grid with band-aids like reclosers and fault indicators ([SFPUC, July 7, 2020](https://www.sfpuc.gov/about-us/news-and-media/news-releases/sfpuc-and-treasure-island-development-authority-install-near-term-measures-improve-power)).
That Stern Grove fix ballooned from $4 million to $20 million to replace sewers and stabilize the site—city funds well spent elsewhere, but Treasure Island’s 500+ outages in 25 years get shrugs and promises of “later” when the rich move in. This isn’t some academic fluff—it’s a raw look at how history rhymes and how the system keeps kicking certain people to the curb.
Redlining 2.0: Same Game, New Paint
Historical redlining was straight-up racial and economic segregation, with banks and the feds drawing literal red lines on maps in the 1930s and beyond to deny loans and investment to "risky" (read: Black, poor, immigrant) neighborhoods—check the digitized HOLC maps at [Mapping Inequality](https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/map#loc=13/37.7676/-122.382) or the California-specific archive at [T-RACES](http://salt.umd.edu/T-RACES/). It locked communities out of wealth-building, trapped them in crumbling housing, and left them vulnerable to displacement when the "redevelopment" vultures swooped in later, as the [NCRC’s redlining history](https://ncrc.org/holc/) lays bare.
Fast-forward to Treasure Island 2024: the tools have evolved, but the playbook’s eerily similar. The redevelopment of this former Navy base, now a shiny prize for San Francisco’s elite, isn’t about uplifting the people who’ve been there—it’s about profit, gentrification, and pushing out those who don’t fit the new glossy vision.
Ordinance 231269, which greenlights TIDA’s takeover of ferry terminals and other fancy improvements ([full text here](https://sfgov.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6452942&GUID=9E74478E-012E-49AC-9671-C28039A0424C&Options=&Search=)), is a brick in the wall of this modern exclusion. It’s not red ink on a map anymore—it’s zoning laws, development agreements, and public works orders dressed up as progress.
Page 6 of the Public Works & TIDA presentation ([PDF here](https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12625983&GUID=1DEA861C-7A7C-4CD4-9343-71E0D0EDE68B)) even nods to this history with a map tying redlining’s legacy to current inequities, yet the ordinance itself ignores that lesson. The Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island Development Project, with its 8,000 new housing units and parks, sounds great until you see who it’s for: wealthy newcomers, soccer teams like Bay FC, who snagged a sweet land deal in September 2024. Meanwhile, the long-term residents—especially the roughly 2,000 folks, many low-income and minority, who’ve called Treasure Island home for decades—are getting sidelined.
The process prioritizes market-rate housing and infrastructure for outsiders over preserving affordable homes for those who’ve stuck it out. That’s redlining’s legacy in a nutshell: starve a community of resources, then "rescue" the land for someone else when the time’s right.
Site 12 Housing : The Long-Term Residents Left in the Dust
Now, let’s zero in on Site 12—housing for Treasure Island’s long-term residents, some of whom have been there 25 years or more since the Navy days. These aren’t transient renters; they’re people who’ve built lives on this weird, toxic chunk of reclaimed land, dealing with its isolation and quirks. But when you dig into Ordinance 231269 and the broader redevelopment docs—like the First Amendment to the Development Agreement (August 1, 2024) or the Design for Development (April 4, 2024)—Site 12 barely gets a whisper. The focus is on ferry terminals, open spaces, and shiny new buildings, not on locking in housing for these folks.
The ordinance itself ([Legistar link](https://sfgov.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6452942&GUID=9E74478E-012E-49AC-9671-C28039A0424C&Options=&Search=)) is a rubber stamp for TIDA to accept improvements and liability for stuff like the ferry terminal, with zero mention of protecting Site 12’s residents from displacement. The TIDA resolutions (e.g., No. 23-29-1011, No. 23-31-1108) and Public Works Order No. 208838 are all about infrastructure handoffs and public use dedications—great for commuters and developers, irrelevant for the grandma who’s been in her unit since 1997.
The 2024 Equity Program update from the Planning Department nods at affordability, but it’s vague and doesn’t guarantee Site 12 stays intact. Meanwhile, the development’s phasing maps (check the D4D) show Site 12’s area as a low-priority afterthought, dwarfed by plans for market-rate towers and commercial zones—page 6 of the presentation ([PDF link](https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12625983&GUID=1DEA861C-7A7C-4CD4-9343-71E0D0EDE68B)) underscores this by mapping out inequities without offering Site 12 a lifeline.
Bluntly put: these long-term residents are being erased from the narrative. The city’s dumping millions into ferries and parks while leaving Site 12’s fate dangling—likely to be demolished or "redeveloped" out of existence once the big money rolls in. Historical redlining starved neighborhoods then displaced them for "urban renewal"; here, it’s neglecting existing housing stock, letting it rot, then handing the land to private developers under the guise of "public benefit." Same damn outcome: the poor and marginalized get shafted.
The Bottom Line
Treasure Island’s 2024 land transfer, as crystallized in Ordinance 231269 ([Legistar link](https://sfgov.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6452942&GUID=9E74478E-012E-49AC-9671-C28039A0424C&Options=&Search=)), mirrors redlining by prioritizing profit-driven development over the people who’ve held the community together. Site 12’s long-term residents—25 years of roots—aren’t just overlooked; they’re actively excluded from the future being built around them. No binding commitments to upgrade the grid in 2025, just ferry terminals and soccer fields. It’s not a red line on a map—it’s a bulldozer with a city seal, and it’s coming for the same folks history always leaves behind, as the redlining maps ([Mapping Inequality](https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/map#loc=13/37.7676/-122.382/)) and page 6 of the TIDA presentation ([PDF link](https://sfgov.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=12625983&GUID=1DEA861C-7A7C-4CD4-9343-71E0D0EDE68B)) grimly remind us. Check the TIDA docs (sf.gov) or the ordinance attachments if you want the dry proof; the story they tell is anything but equitable.