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The Fight for Mint Mall

The Mint Mall. Photo by Ji Hyun Lim

Dying dot-coms pushed out Filipino American cultural hub

By Ji Hyun Lim

The struggle to make Mint Mall the hub of Filipino American activity that it once was in San Francisco’s South of Market district (SOMA) has the community galvanizing support and pressuring government officials to take corrective measures against the new owners and managers who have violated planning codes by using retail establishments as office spaces.

The displacement has happened gradually for two years. According to activists, the Nocon family owners and San Francisco-based Meridian Management refused to renew leases for existing tenants for retail- and community-based services. Over time, they have cleared out neighborhood-serving establishments and replaced them with dot-com operations. Last September, the Nocon family began issuing notices to vacate the premises because the leases had expired.

“The handwriting was on the wall for the tenants who had the leases,” said Gen Fujioka, an attorney with Asian Law Caucus, who is representing the Mint Mall Organizing Community (MMOC). “The community became active in opposing that.”

Meridian Management did not respond to requests for interviews.

The MMOC alleged that the owners had intended to convert the Mint Mall site into a place for high-tech enterprises and Internet-related businesses. But since the dot-com bust, many dot-com businesses have vacated the premises.

Steve Kerrigan, CEO of Idea Pitch.com, is one of the existing tenants who signed a three year lease. Contrary to allegations that his business displaced Filipino establishments, Kerrigan claims that his office space was legitimately leased.

“I’m just a tenant there,” Kerrigan said. “There is a political activist group that is trying to use the Mint Mall as a platform. The spaces I leased have been vacant for two to three years and no one seemed to want them. The dot-coms never evicted anybody. I have nothing against the Filipino community having a place to congregate to preserve culture.”

He added: “Rather than disenfranchise one another and [engage in] legal wrangling, a lot of the businesses could have benefited to a greater degree to see positive investment and energy go into the building.”

Roy Recio of the MMOC argues that the displacement of the Filipino businesses digs deep into the community’s heart. He pointed out that the community has been in San Francisco for decades and wants to maintain and preserve their cultural heritage in SOMA.

“This is part of culture and heritage,” Recio said. “The bookstore is a hub for kids, married people, blue collar and rich people to validate what they represent and what they stand for. San Francisco has always been a harbor that welcomed immigrants. We did the jobs no one else wanted to do, paid the taxes and paid the price to be true Americans.”

The community asked the Department of Building Inspection to investigate the site and discovered that the Nocon family and Meridian Management were converting retail space without legitimate permits. In December 2000, the inspector cited the Nocon family and found violations of planning and zoning codes, specifically Planning Code 218. The building code forbids offices on the first floor and in the basement; however, management of Mint Mall continued to lease them out to tech companies.

The Nocon family protested violation notices but city officials refused to budge. The owners attempted to get a permit in order to approve the conversions; however, the MMOC challenged the appeal. MMOC scheduled a discretionary review and the owners were cited again, this time by the zoning administrator. Again, the owners appealed the notice, and the Board of Appeal is currently in deliberation.

MMOC is conducting yet another discretionary review, scheduled for Nov. 28, as part of the on-going battle to force the Nocon family to comply with the existing zoning for the property. Fujioka pointed out the importance of complying with existing laws. The three citations that the owners have been penalized with since Sept. 2000 have failed to spur action.

“What is disappointing is that the enforcement of zoning have been so slow,” Fujioka said.

The Planning Commission, in coalition with the Board of Supervisors, and the public have been relying on community input for zoning conditions.

Fujioka said that the community needs to make sure the Board of Appeals does not back down and excuse the owners from complying with the law. Petitions and letter writing campaigns may influence the Planning Commission, Fujioka said.

Kerrigan argued that the dot-coms have bared the unfair brunt of the legal battle. Because he is obligated to a three-year lease, he claims to be a target of “dot-com discrimination.”

“It’s not white-breds pushing out the Filipinos,” Kerrigan said. “I’m just a tenant like they are. It’s almost like reverse discrimination. I’m white so I’m not suppose to be there, and the reality is that America is a free place.”

The MMOC wants to be able to heal the injuries of the losses and take corrective action against the Nocon family and Meridian Management.

Said Fujioka: “In many ways, the tech collapse should be a lesson why we need these protections enforced. It’s the neighborhood businesses that we’ve lost already. Those businesses need to be sustained and protected. Tech comes and goes but the neighborhood is still there.”