Maps Show How Tech Bus Stops Are Affecting San Francisco Evictions

Caitlin Dempsey

Updated:

The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project has plotted out the incidences of “no-fault” evictions in San Francisco against shuttle stops for technical workers.  Many of the larger tech companies such as Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Zynga (to name just a few) offer commuter bus service that takes workers from San Francisco down in to the Silicon Valley.  The increased demand for apartments in San Francisco by tech workers has driven up rent and real estate prices, forcing lower income renters out of the city.

“No-fault” evictions occur when landlords evict tenants not because of adverse behavior such as not paying the rent or illegal activity but because the owners want to renovate or take the unit off the market.  Those evictions are then put back on the market at a much higher rent, often to someone working in the tech industry.  The anti-eviction mapping project has been tracking the state of the rental market and reports that no-fault evictions are up 17% compared to 2006.

To create the map to support the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project’s correlation of increased “no-fault” evictions near tech shuttle bus stop, the organization pulled data from the San Francisco Rent Board, a 2012 Stamen Design study of bus stops (data is available here and a description of the project to map out those stops is here), and a 2013 San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency report.  The results of the analysis:

  • No-Fault Evictions increased 42% between 2011 and 2012.
  • No-Fault Evictions increased 57% between 2012 and 2013.
  • 69% of No-Fault Evictions each year occurred within four blocks of known shuttle stops.
Tech Bus Stops and No-Fault Evictions in San Francisco, CA, 2011-2103. Source: Anti-Eviction Mapping Project.
Tech Bus Stops and No-Fault Evictions in San Francisco, CA, 2011-2103. Source: Anti-Eviction Mapping Project.

The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project has a host of other interactive maps, charts, and documents which can be accessed from the home page. They aren’t the only group to try and show how the rise of technical workers living in San Francisco has affected its urban landscape.  At the beginning of 2014, Chris Walker, a data journalist, has also explored the correlation of data in his project “Clusters of Affluence in San Francisco“.

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About the author
Caitlin Dempsey
Caitlin Dempsey is the editor of Geography Realm and holds a master's degree in Geography from UCLA as well as a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from SJSU.