Gentrifier vs. Gentrified: Living Together in the Mission Neighborhood of San Francisco, California

Since the 1980’s and 1990’s, the Mission District, a Hispanic working-class neighbourhood in San Francisco, California, has gone through a certain amount of gentrification. It has become the focus of a hot debate on the challenges of gentrification for the city dwellers in the United-States. Drawing from this case study, this paper examines the impact of such urban changes on the relationships that all Mission residents develop with their neighbourhood. More specifically, it analyses the ways the old residents (who will be referred to as “the gentrified”) live their everyday lives next to the newcomers responsible for the gentrification (who will be called “the gentrifier”). I will argue that the mismatch between the urban experience and representations of both groups explains why living together in a diverse neighbourhood is uneasy and full of contradictions.