It’s a sunny Saturday morning and I’m in the Visitacion Valley community in San Francisco. I’m joined by San Francisco educator Clara McDaniel. We are at Kelloch and Velasco Mini Park.
Kids are playing basketball, and seniors are doing their morning exercises. Close by are two low-income housing developments, and a senior living community.
However, at this very location in 1976, this park wasn’t here, and neither were these housing developments. Instead, there were two 20-story high rise apartment buildings comprised of 576 units. They were called Geneva Towers. And in 1976 Clara McDaniel was a single mother moving into her first apartment with her two year old son.
When I met Clara at the old Geneva Towers location, I asked her what came to being at the former high rise towers.
Clara reflected, “Lot’s of memories. What I'm seeing now versus what was here a long time ago. You can't believe it used to be, two buildings. Twenty-stories high that used to stand here and what is now pretty, you know, a pretty, park and you know, grass. But I do have some fond memories, some, some good ones and some not so good ones of the Geneva Towers.”
Clara’s a San Francisco native. When she finished her degree program at San Francisco City College she heard about Geneva Towers from a friend, and was eager to move to the Towers so she and her son could have a place of their own.
“And when I first moved there, I loved it. You know, I was in a two bedroom. It was great in the beginning. It was, I loved it.”Clara McDaniel
“And when I first moved there, I loved it. You know, I was in a two bedroom. It was great in the beginning. It was, I loved it.” Added Clara.
To understand why the Geneva Towers were demolished, you first need to know why they were built. In 1964, influential real estate developer Joe Echler had a vision of providing housing for middle income airport workers on the outskirts of San Francisco.
The Towers were unable to attract the airport workers. So in 1976, in an effort to fill empty units, federal Section 8 housing assistance was granted, making the towers essentially 100 percent low-income.
Keith Axtell served as the West Coast Regional Director for the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1984 to 1999. He played a major role in determining the fate of the Geneva Towers.
When looking back on the Towers, Axtell reflected, “It was not built as assisted housing. It was not built for poor people. It was built for middle and upper class, uh, economic levels. But it was not successful in completing the rent up.”
During Keith Axtell’s tenure, Geneva Towers would become the first HUD property to be foreclosed on due to poor living conditions. He said the issues at the Towers came up in a routine audit.
"At that point, they came to our attention because I asked our field offices to conduct a survey of all their 10,000 apartment buildings. We identified 17 properties in our four states areas that were not satisfactory and Geneva Towers was one of them."
So what did that mean for the Towers? Axtell recalls.
"We had no immediate grounds for foreclosure. However, they did not invest the funds needed to maintain the property properly. So elevators continued breaking down in this high rise building. People were having to walk, many other physical deficiencies, health issues. So we finally made a case, through physical examinations we did and went to court. And were able to get probably one of the first in the nation foreclosures based on poor physical conditions rather than a mortgage default."
In 1991, HUD took over Geneva Towers due to poor living conditions. One may wonder, what life like was like for residents during this time. I spoke with local music executive D.E.O., about his journey to the Towers, which began in 1989 after the Loma Prieta earthquake, when he and his family moved there.
"The conditions weren't good at all, honestly. Obviously, you know, you, this is the nineties, so, we're smack dab in the, in the crack epidemic."
While D.E.O. says there were some challenges with living in Geneva Towers, he adds that growing up there helped lay the foundation for his career.
"I caught the bug of becoming a musician because there were talent shows. We used to put on plays, we wrote plays, we performed plays."
In 1993, former Mayor of San Francisco, Art Agnos, who had been appointed as HUD’s Regional Director – was faced with a difficult decision to approve a plan for remodeling Geneva Towers.
"How do we fix this place up now that we own it without getting in trouble?And so they were planning on remodeling this building, without looking at it to say - Is this the best option"
In an archived interview he shared that he asked himself the question, "How do we fix this place up now that we own it without getting in trouble?And so they were planning on remodeling this building, without looking at it to say - Is this the best option"
A group of residents – the Geneva Towers Development Corporation -- was formed to work with HUD to determine the fate of the complex. Ultimately, they decided the buildings should be torn down.
On May 16, 1998 the Geneva Towers were demolished.
D.E.O. was present to witness the demolition of Geneva Towers, his childhood home.I asked him to describe the scene as hundreds gathered to watch the destruction of his childhood home.
"It was a huge mix of emotions. It was people that were clapping, cheering. It was people that was crying."
Now that is has been twenty-four years since the Geneva Towers fell, I asked some of the people who lived there how they felt about the decision to tear them down.
"We produced a lot of good people, good community members. You know, like people who are from the City, they know what it meant to be from the Towers and they know what it meant to claim it, you know? Like it was a lot of pride that came with it, on all spectrums."
For D.E.O., the Geneva Towers weren’t so much about the buildings, but about the people who lived in them.
"We produced a lot of good people, good community members. You know, like people who are from the City, they know what it meant to be from the Towers and they know what it meant to claim it, you know? Like it was a lot of pride that came with it, on all spectrums."
While the high rise towers are now gone, some residents still get together once a year during 4th of July weekend for an annual Geneva Towers reunion. And hip-hop artists like Remedy, who has roots in Geneva Towers, pays homage to his former home through music.