Paris in the Sunset?

By Joel Engardio

If you’ve ever been to Paris, you likely walked down tree-lined streets and enjoyed the quaint sidewalk cafes. If you noticed six-story apartment buildings throughout the city, you probably didn’t leave Paris thinking it was a terrible place because of housing density. The wonderful ground-floor bistros were memorable, not the building height. 

This was my experience when visiting Paris, which led me to wonder if we could bring the spirit of Paris to San Francisco.

I don’t propose turning our city into Paris. We will remain uniquely San Francisco. But we do have long stretches of major transit corridors on the west side with only one story of retail and no housing above. This is a lost opportunity, especially when we don’t have enough middle-income housing for our teachers, first responders and the next generation of families.

It’s time to think of ways to ensure our adult kids and grandkids can stay in San Francisco.

A Popular Example

Gus’s Market is a great example of the spirit of Paris in the Sunset. On the corner of Noriega Street and 44th Avenue, new construction features three stories of housing above a beloved neighborhood grocery store. Most residents embrace it.

Let’s build more of this type of housing with four or five stories above a grocery, senior center, childcare, retail or cafe that all residents in a neighborhood can benefit from. 

It’s in this spirit that I have co-sponsored legislation to make it easier to build housing and the type of housing we desperately need for young families and seniors. 

I believe today’s new housing should be created with the goal of solving the real needs of longtime residents:

• People want to stay close to their families, but adult children and grandchildren can’t afford to live in San Francisco. With an average home price of around $1.5 million, families of most income levels are finding it increasingly difficult to buy a home here. We are facing a “missing middle.”

• For today’s renters and owners who were fortunate to find housing, they have no options to relocate when they have kids and need more space.

• Seniors have no options to downsize when they become elderly and unable to navigate stairs or maintain a large home. There is nowhere to safely age in place – such as an elevator building – without leaving their neighborhood or San Francisco entirely.

• Newcomers who wish to move to the City and bring their innovative talents and diversity are deprived of an inviting housing market. 

What is Dom-i-city?

We need to be open to creative solutions that solve the actual housing problems families face in San Francisco. This starts with a concept called Dom-i-city (Domiciles in the City).

It’s ideal for San Francisco’s westside neighborhoods. Dom-i-city would fit on transit corridors or on the footprint of one, two or three standard lots at any corner. It would not be allowed mid-block.

On a single standard lot, it puts five stories of townhouse housing (one unit on each floor) above a ground floor with off-street parking, community space or retail. It would include an elevator, making it ideal for senior housing. 

On transit corridors, the larger Dom-i-city would hold 15 units of two- and three-bedroom family housing. All the units can face a courtyard below for kids to safely play or families to have a vegetable garden.

Imagine several Dom-i-city structures anchoring neighborhood corners within a few blocks of each other. One can include a grocery on the ground floor that serves the entire neighborhood or even a senior center. Another might provide space for child daycare. Others could anchor bakeries or cafés.

Neighborhoods that are far from a commercial corridor would be transformed into vibrant communities where people can connect and enjoy amenities close to their homes. 

Dom-i-city fills the need for “missing middle” housing – mid-rise buildings with at least two bedrooms per unit. The new residents will also create the foot traffic and become the customers to revitalize and sustain commercial corridors. 

Dom-i-city doesn’t propose replacing all single-family homes. Westside areas like the Sunset will always be a majority of single-family homes. But Dom-i-city offers options that currently do not exist. If only 5% of Sunset homes were converted to Dom-i-city, it would create 6,000 new homes – much-needed housing for both middle-income families and seniors who want to age in place in the neighborhoods they love.

Feedback from Sunset Residents

I mentioned Dom-i-city in my supervisor newsletter and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight recently wrote about the housing concept. Many Sunset residents reached out to me asking how they could move into a Dom–i-city unit.

Denise said: “I was born in San Francisco and have lived all of my 71 years in the Outer Sunset. I am a retired teacher. I love your idea because I want to sell my large house, downsize, and live out my days without having to leave my beloved neighborhood.” 

Lily said: “I’m totally in favor of converting existing one-story commercial buildings into Paris-like living spaces. I for one would love to downsize to one of those units!”

Ron said: “I love your idea of comparing San Francisco housing to that of Paris. I’ve always thought the same thing. I own my home and the home on each side of mine is vacant. I would like to consider a sale to create a lot for Dom-i-city. One neighbor has already expressed an interest.”

Dom-i-city returns areas of the west side to its original intention. Beautiful five- and six-story apartment buildings from the Art Deco era were built on West Portal Avenue and Irving Street a century ago. San Francisco built multi-family housing until the 1970s. But since then, we have implemented zoning laws that limited most areas to single-family units.

Dom-i-city goes back to the future to solve San Francisco’s housing needs. If we build concepts like Dom-i-city, we won’t need comparisons to Paris. We will have created our best San Francisco.

Joel Engardio is the District 4 representative on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He can be reached at engardiostaff@sfgov.org.