[bodyfour]

That is completely true, but it's by no means confined to SF.

In SF in the 1980s, SOMA was one of the cheapest places even in a cheap city like SF... lost of broke creative types living in old warehouse/industrial space that would otherwise be going derelict.

In lower Manhattan whole neighborhoods were in a similar state -- bohemian artists occupying loads of space that nobody else would touch.

And in London plenty of neighborhoods were full of squats. Housing stock had become so worthless that it wasn't even worth the effort to prevent people living there for free.

Now those same neighborhoods are among the most expensive urban areas in the English-speaking world. People are literally spending millions of dollars to live at those exact same street addresses... in some cases even living in the same structures, just instead of a half-derelict warehouse it'll now be all marble countertops and the like.

All of these places have their own stories and unique factors, but it's also very remarkable how similar the trajectories and how extreme the swing has been.

[mc32]

I was told alphabet city was like that. Squatting and soup kitchens; semi abandoned buildings.