That’s because, once upon a time, the area where the downtown convention center now sprawls was a dense neighborhood of poor and working people, and its metamorphosis into today’s business and tourist-friendly district was the result of the mass demolition of thousands of homes in the 1970s.
The long and bitter showdown over SF’s so-called Skid Row shaped not only downtown and the city’s financial ambitions. Along with the “Negro removal” of the Fillmore and the freeway frenzy that led to a citizen revolt, it also fed a culture of suspicion and anger at large-scale projects and development that linger to this day.