An Ethnography of the Goodman

Building The Longest Rent Strike

Niccolo Caldararo
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/an-ethnography-of-the-goodman-building-the-longest-
rent-strike-niccolo-caldararo/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Chocolate, Politics and Peace-Building: An Ethnography

of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó,
Colombia 1st Edition Gwen Burnyeat (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/chocolate-politics-and-peace-
building-an-ethnography-of-the-peace-community-of-san-jose-de-
apartado-colombia-1st-edition-gwen-burnyeat-auth/

The remnants of the Rechtsstaat : an ethnography of

Nazi law First Edition. Edition Meierhenrich

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-remnants-of-the-rechtsstaat-
an-ethnography-of-nazi-law-first-edition-edition-meierhenrich/

Prison Worlds An Ethnography of the Carceral Condition

1st Edition Didier Fassin

https://textbookfull.com/product/prison-worlds-an-ethnography-of-
the-carceral-condition-1st-edition-didier-fassin/

The Social Organization of Best Practice: An

Institutional Ethnography of Physicians’ Work Fiona
Webster

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-social-organization-of-best-
practice-an-institutional-ethnography-of-physicians-work-fiona-
webster/
The Rent Curse: Natural Resources, Policy Choice, and
Economic Development Auty

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-rent-curse-natural-
resources-policy-choice-and-economic-development-auty/

The Wiley handbook of ethnography of education 1st

Edition Bagley

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-wiley-handbook-of-
ethnography-of-education-1st-edition-bagley/

The training anthology of ■■ntideva: a translation of

the S■iks■a■-samuccaya 1st Edition Charles Goodman

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-training-anthology-of-
santideva-a-translation-of-the-siks%cc%a3a-samuccaya-1st-edition-
charles-goodman/

Crisis Reporters Emotions and Technology An Ethnography

Johana Kotišová

https://textbookfull.com/product/crisis-reporters-emotions-and-
technology-an-ethnography-johana-kotisova/

How Schools Work: An Inside Account From One of the

Nation's Longest-Serving Secretaries of Education First
Simon & Schuster Hardcover Edition Arne Duncan

https://textbookfull.com/product/how-schools-work-an-inside-
account-from-one-of-the-nations-longest-serving-secretaries-of-
education-first-simon-schuster-hardcover-edition-arne-duncan/
PALGRAVE STUDIES
IN URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY

An Ethnography of the
Goodman Building
The Longest Rent Strike

Niccolo Caldararo
Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology

Series Editors
Italo Pardo
School of Anthropology and Conservation
University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent, UK

Giuliana B. Prato
School of Anthropology and Conservation
University of Kent
Canterbury, Kent, UK
Half of humanity lives in towns and cities and that proportion is
expected to increase in the coming decades. Society, both Western and
non-Western, is fast becoming urban and mega-urban as existing cit-
ies and a growing number of smaller towns are set on a path of demo-
graphic and spatial expansion. Given the disciplinary commitment to
an empirically-based analysis, anthropology has a unique contribu-
tion to make to our understanding of our evolving urban world. It is
in such a belief that we have established the Palgrave Studies in Urban
Anthropology series. In the awareness of the unique contribution that
ethnography offers for a better theoretical and practical grasp of our
rapidly changing and increasingly complex cities, the series will seek
high-quality contributions from anthropologists and other social sci-
entists, such as geographers, political scientists, sociologists and others,
engaged in empirical research in diverse ethnographic settings. Proposed
topics should set the agenda concerning new debates and chart new
theoretical directions, encouraging reflection on the significance of the
anthropological paradigm in urban research and its centrality to main-
stream academic debates and to society more broadly. The series aims to
promote critical scholarship in international anthropology. Volumes pub-
lished in the series should address theoretical and methodological issues,
showing the relevance of ethnographic research in understanding the
socio-cultural, demographic, economic and geo-political changes of con-
temporary society.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14573
 Niccolo Caldararo

An Ethnography
of the Goodman
Building
The Longest Rent Strike
Niccolo Caldararo
Department of Anthropology
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA, USA

By Niccolo Caldararo with Contributions and the help of Martha Senger and
Members of the Goodman Group and Tenants’ Union

Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology

ISBN 978-3-030-12284-3 ISBN 978-3-030-12285-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12285-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019932944

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover image: © SireAnko/Getty Images

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Photo of the Goodman Building in about 1975, shortly after SFRDA took control
from Mervyn Goodman
 Those of us who have worked on this project and have an intimate
knowledge of the trials and joys of the Goodman Building, also recognize
the enduring vision and passion of Martha Senger throughout. Such an
improbable undertaking was pursued with honesty and a fierce dedication
to the role of art in human soceity. That vision guided her no matter what
insults she bore or disappointments she faced. After the eviction she worked
on to bring to fruition the artist community she felt was needed, but she
would never live in. She inspired us, and we thank her.
 Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the help of Martha Senger, Sally French,

Betsy Neumann, Paula Cancienne, David Richardson, Brad Paul, Tom
Heinz and Dana Dillworth and Jessica Mathias, without whose help the
book would never have been completed. Also thanks to all the lawyers
who helped the Goodman tenants and Goodman Group, including espe-
cially Steve Taber, Sarge Holtzman, Pam Ross and Pam Dostel and Sue
Hester. Many friends and tenants have passed away who were essential
like Sue Bierman, Chuck Turner and John Campbell and there are oth-
ers too numerous to mention but who are dear to our hearts. Special
thanks to Charles Turner of the San Francisco Community Design
Center and Carmen Mohr of the Central Records Division of the Office
of Community Investment and Infrastructure, the successor organization
to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. Ms. Mohr was instrumen-
tal in providing access to the SFRDA records.

ix
 Contents

Part I The National Context for the Goodman Building

1 The Housing Crisis in America and the Policies That

Created and Promoted It 3

Part II Setting the Scene of the Goodman Building

2 Preface to the Goodman Building Ethnography 65

3 The Background and Setting 81

4 Redevelopment in the Western Addition 85

Part III The Goodman Building in Transition: From

Single Room Occupancy for Temporary Workers
to Artist Hotel to Community Action

5 Resistance, WAPAC: J-Town Collective, Nihonmachi

Little Friends—The Goodman Group and Coalitions
with Architectural Preservationists 93

xi
xii    Contents

6 A Broader Field: South of Market, Migrants, BART

and TOOR 113

7 Beat Rebels with a Cause, Hippies and Community 121

8 The Monday Night Meeting 131

9 Living in an Art Community 185

Part IV Communities of Change and Occupation

10 Learning from Others and Spreading the Word 209

11 Democracy at Home 221

12 Media Darlings, Art Scene and Money: Saving

the Goodman Building 237

13 Repression, Reaction and Retrenchment 265

14 The Strike Ends, Losing the Goodman Building 285

Part V A New Start in a Changing City

15 Assessment, and a New Goodman Building

in the Era of Go-Go Capitalism 301

16 Conversations at G2: The New Goodman Building

Interviews with Tenants at the 18th Street Complex 309

Appendix 1: Nomination form for the National Register

of Historic Places 315

Appendix 2: Letter from Merv Goodman Regarding

the Landmark Designation for the Goodman
Building 325
 Contents    xiii

Appendix 3: State of California Exemption Application 329

Appendix 4: Members and Tenants of the Goodman Building 331

Appendix 5: 1979 Tax Return for the Goodman Group 333

Appendix 6: Goodman Building Timeline 335

Appendix 7: C
 opy of Monday Night Meeting (MNM)
Agenda and Notes 339

Appendix 8: SFRDA Letter Rejecting Mural Project 341

Appendix 9: Letter of Support from George Olsen Cadillac 343

Appendix 10: Goodco Bid for Goodman Building

Development 345

References 347

Index 369
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Chart of membership at meetings 23

Fig. 1.2 Population and room size, Naroll (1962) 41
Fig. 2.1 David Richardson drawing of SFRDA pointing
at Goodman Building 68
Fig. 2.2 Paula Cancienne in her studio 74
Fig. 5.1 Photo of an SFRDA-demolished building in A-2 fillmore
area. Redevelopment resulted in the demolition of several
dozen square blocks, of hundreds of homes and the loss
of thousands of small businesses 94
Fig. 5.2 SFDRA Project A-2 map 95
Fig. 5.3 Landmark status certification 97
Fig. 5.4 Goodman art show for children 107
Fig. 5.5 Children’s theater workshop at the Goodman Community
Art Center 107
Fig. 5.6 Goodman Building banner at the I-Hotel demonstration 109
Fig. 8.1 Byron Hunt in his room, filled with his art and gifts of art,
at the Goodman Building 134
Fig. 8.2 Congressman Philip Burton’s letter of support 141
Fig. 8.3 The Goodman Group pose on the back deck 145
Fig. 8.4 Some Goodman Group members in group show in gallery 147
Fig. 8.5 Example of SFRDA eviction notice 150
Fig. 8.6 Drawing of the Honig/Kirshner development plan 160
Fig. 8.7 Neighborhood legal defense lawyer letter on rent
withholding 176
Fig. 8.8 Notice of Goodco to save the Goodman Building 181

xv
xvi    List of Figures

Fig. 9.1 A photo of a typical Goodman resident’s breakfast at Foster’s

Café at the Corner of Geary and Van Ness. Present are, from
back to front: Melanie Mathias, to her right is Brad Paul, to
her left is Betsey Neumann, then Sally French, Ellen, Niccolo
and Martha in the foreground 188
Fig. 9.2 Still from the movie, Inter-X, about the Goodman Group
painting the street 195
Fig. 9.3 Photo of Ted Milikin and other Goodman artists painting
the intersection in Inter-X 197
Fig. 9.4 Photo of the inner courtyard of the Goodman Building
showing how people used their fire escapes 199
Fig. 10.1 Nickelettes poster for performance at the Goodman Theater 212
Fig. 10.2 Orpheus University class schedule when located at the
Goodman Building 218
Fig. 11.1 Goodman Group musician Kevan Lennon-Onaje 226
Fig. 11.2 Storefront performance of an art breakfast in the window
at the Goodman Building 235
Fig. 12.1 A fragment of the Aaron Miller Murals used in Martha
Senger’s Homage 247
Fig. 12.2 Goodman Group gathering (MNM) in Main 2nd floor
room in 1982 252
Fig. 13.1 Photo of the G2 (or Goodman 2) project on 18th street
in Potrero Hill, pictured from the west 267
Fig. 14.1 Goodman Group Press pamphlet on the Goodman Tenants’
Union 288
Fig. 14.2 Publication of ‘Goodman Building in Exile’ after eviction 293
Fig. 14.3 Poster for the African American theatre group
and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre at the Goodman Building 296
Fig. 14.4 Quintessence, Neon and Silk Screen on Canvas. The star
pentagram, ancient symbol of the divine feminine thought
to keep a harmonious balance in nature between male
and female reappearing in the five-fold symmetry of the
quintessential attractor, act symbolically together to
reconstruct and reoccupy the world Martha Senger (2009) 297
Fig. 15.1 Goodman Lawyer, Steven Tabor, speaking before
the SFRDA 303
 PART I

The National Context for the Goodman

Building
 CHAPTER 1

The Housing Crisis in America

and the Policies That Created
and Promoted It

One cannot talk about an isolated building in San Francisco which has
housed people since the Gold Rush, without placing it in the context of
how such dwellings come to be built, how cities planned and how costs
and affordability have come to define a scarcity of housing as a normal
condition the world over. The lack of affordability is one part of the cri-
sis, the other part is homelessness which has many factors. The nature of
homes or places of residence versus camps can be defined historically and
culturally for our species.
Some animals produce structures to live in, others excavate depres-
sions, many live in caves or inhabit structures built by other animals and
discarded (von Frisch 1974). In many cases animals simply find limited
shelter in temporary settings—to avoid weather conditions or to rest—
building nests to sleep in or utilizing existing foliage. Humans have, over
the past two million years behaved in all these ways. Structures are rel-
atively new, appearing in the last half million years, while some peoples
build only temporary windbreaks. A recent survey of this history shows
the diversity of human creativity in dwelling design, from economy in
manufacture and the demands of mobility to the excesses of the desire
for architecture to reflect prestige and status (Buchli 2013). The nature
of homelessness is a modern classification, though some sources from the
Greek and Roman societies, Indian and Chinese, have commented on its
varieties.

© The Author(s) 2019 3

N. Caldararo, An Ethnography of the Goodman
Building, Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12285-0_1
4 N. CALDARARO

Analysis of a specific community reveals interactions of an economic

nature that bind individuals in certain relationships. But the use of the
term varies in the hands of different researchers. For example, while
Gans (1967) uses the term throughout his description of Levittown, he
states early in the book that it does not meet the criteria of a commu-
nity. Various groups and even neighborhoods reflect “community spirit”
but the manifestation of this is in mutual help. He argues that Levittown
lacks three essential elements: it is neither an economic unit, nor a social
unit and lacked symbolic unit value to most of its residents. By these
criteria, it would be difficult to class most urban areas as communities
and so we find Gans’ definition lacks utility. West’s (1945) description of
Plainville would fall into Gans’ definition. In fact, Gans seems critical of
the concept referring to efforts at community development as nostalgic
and reflecting efforts to create social facts that are based on false ideas
of the past, as in contemporary TV shows like “Father Knows Best,”
and “Leave it to Beaver.” Gans (1967) now and then reverts to a term,
“neighboring” to describe relationships that develop given proximity
and mutual help. At the Goodman Building proximity, defined by which
floor one lived on or which “wing” of the floor, was associated in some
cases with more engagement and social activities as well as in a few cases
who moved in next to whom. There was some room swapping which
resulted from both desires to be closer to some individuals as well as
rooms conceived of as better studio spaces (light, less street noise, etc.).
Comparing Gans’ Levittown (1967) work to that of Merton (1948)
and Merton et al. (1951) there is a similarity of subject in newly built
and designed housing complexes. The interaction of the researcher and
subjects is seen to be more complex in Merton’s work and he argued
that the research process affected the lives of the subjects and their atti-
tudes toward their housing and other residents. In reviewing Merton’s
work and that done in Japan in similar new towns, called Danchi estates,
Sukenari (2016) finds a parallel thread to Merton’s findings. There is
also a pattern similar to the results Gans’ (1967) published. For exam-
ple, neighbor association and community interaction varies by design of
buildings, economic group and number or lack of children. Also, most
Danchi residents rely more on work friends and school mates for males
and kin for women. But the design of structures was not as important
as the means of cooperative solutions to residents’ common problems.
This would be an effective way of looking at the differences between
the Goodman Building, the Emeric/Goodman at present and the G2
 1 THE HOUSING CRISIS IN AMERICA AND THE POLICIES … 5

Project which we will discuss later. Finally, as Merton argued, research-

ers’ relationship with community members and methods of study do
have effects on results.
Goodenough (1963) defines community as a transactional process
of involved “clients” while Biddle and Biddle (1965) define it as a goal
related to local identity and control. A broad definition of groups of
individuals who come together for various reasons appears in the work
of Emerson et al. (2011), likewise to Pelto (1970) community emerges
from a study of interactions as social groups and these may often show
overlapping subgroups with varying goals and identities. These last defi-
nitions seem most appropriate for how we will describe the community
of the Goodman Building.
As Malinowski (1938, 1962, 1945) noted, the everyday activ-
ities and “normal” behavior is often more difficult to notice or quan-
tify as the unusual, extreme variation or exigency demands attention
and seems more notable and significant. In a study of a group we often
find, as Simmel (1903) pointed out, the impression of demands of soci-
ety against the needs and desires of the individual, the atomization of
individuals from collective action and reciprocity. He describes the for-
mation of a “blasé attitude” to deal with the overwhelming stimulation
of masses of people and the potential pathologies of monetized exist-
ence. However, the voluntary production and joining of individuals in
clubs and associations seem to act against Simmel’s view and Southall’s
(1993) reassessment in a wider view of world cities and cultures shows
how adaptable humans are to city life. Of course, this is a modern view
in both cases. (Simmel’s at the height of colonialism and Southall’s of
global capitalism.) Our pictures of earlier cities, either from ancient wan-
derers like Herodotus and Pliny the Younger or later Christian (e.g.
Marco Polo, thirteenth century; the Conquistadores, of the Americas,
sixteenth century) and Arab (e.g. ibn Battuta, fourteenth century; Leo
Africanus sixteenth century) provide views from the Judeo-Christian per-
spective and Europe and the Middle East cultural bias. Other cultural
views are in Ma Huan (wrote of the fifteenth century Chinese voyages
of discovery to Africa) and Chou Ta-kuan who visited Cambodia in
1296–1297. The comparisons are tantalizing tidbits of what was before
the colonial disaster after 1492. The worse for Africa as we have virtually
nothing from the indigenous voice prior to the conquest and the chaos
it created, with the exception of Ancient Egyptian texts. Some glimpses
survive from European visitors of African cities in the crisis of the slave
6 N. CALDARARO

wars, as those of Snelgrave in 1734 or John Atkins in 1735 and Robert

Norris in 1789. While brief sketches from the voyages of Chang Ho of
Asia and Africa have been preserved, our information on city life from
a non-European perspective are limited as they are of pre-modern views
(e.g. Apuleius’ The Golden Ass written in about 170 A.D. in the Roman
Empire or Chaucer’s descriptions, or the Menagier’s Wife of Paris writ-
ten about 1392 or the book, The Tale of Genji, by the Japanese noble-
woman, Murasaki Shikibu at the beginning of the eleventh century
A.D.).
Pardo and Prato (2018) note that Don Martindale’s (1958) sugges-
tion that the age of the city was at an end by the post-WWII era, is com-
plicated by the extent to which urban areas act beyond the boundaries
of the city, in social behavior control and economics. We might say that
the global city has exterminated the distance between city and hinter-
land. This does not just mean that people can travel across time zones
or transfer wealth over continents and nations, but that cities now rou-
tinely lay waste to vast territories beyond their locations and transform
the nature of local work and terrain for their survival. At the same time,
cities are fragile and warfare in cities has become common and persistent
as in Sarajevo in the 1990s and Aleppo in recent years.
Seen in today’s view of the triumph of the individual, our focus often
becomes a search for a character that represents the group. The alterna-
tive impression is the tendency for a purposeful reduction of individuals
all being leveled and the achievement of individual potential against com-
mon goals of community represented as such. On this point, Gans’ study
(1967) was directed to find if planning produced healthy communities
or if the suburban design was pathological and if residents could adapt
and positively change conditions or if they were simply formed to the
conditions. Gans’ research reflects both extremes, broad generalizations
and idiosyncratic experiences he has that are offered as typical (e.g., con-
versation in a driveway). Gans’ research was conducted much as NLC’s
at the Goodman Building, as a participant-observer. However, Gans did
not tell his neighbors that he was studying them, but he did inform many
in Levittown that he was engaged in a study of the development, and
NLC did not plan at the time he moved into the building to produce a
study. He was asked to create a record of what was happening and to use
his social science skills in the struggle to save the building. An additional
part to the Levittown story is the racism that kept the residents all white
(Lippard 1997; Flannery 2007). Gans (1951, 1962) had studied single
 1 THE HOUSING CRISIS IN AMERICA AND THE POLICIES … 7

ethnic group communities before, but the controversy over the Levits’
attempts to keep Levittown white became a major theme clouding the
nature of the project. Levit did in the end integrate Levittown and used a
marketing strategy to reduce tensions among buyers.
A book by Harris (2010) covers many of the issues surrounding the
Post-WWII suburbs, and acts as a restudy in some ways comparing the
values Gans was careful to create a record of the residents of Levittown
and their satisfaction, marriages and interactions both social and political
to critics of the projects, often based on fiction and rumor. The issue of
race is examined, especially in the deed restrictions that limited sales to
white buyers and the tragic experience of the African American Myers
family who faced a race riot and violent responses of their neighbors
when they moved into one unit. Other authors in the volume (Harris
2010) focus on positive elements of the design of the project especially
the landscaping and environmental activism of the residents regarding
pollution of the air and water by nearby factories.
The central problem with the Levittown and the Levits is one that still
plagues housing policy today, builders and investors want to make prof-
its and studies of housing investment and builders both pre and post-
war (e.g., Keith 1973; Lewis 2003) tell us that they have not directed
their efforts at solving social problems (with the exception of improv-
ing standards of housing, see Fossum 1965, but even here pressure from
renters and activists were the driving forces).
It is ironic that the enthronement of individualism (see e.g., Whyte
1956) has led to a technological society where individual behavior is
under constant surveillance and each individual seems desperate to be
linked with every other: walking like zombies across the largely ignored
urban landscape. If this was the vision of the nineteenth-century escape
to freedom from the despotism of feudalism and inherited status, the
struggle of the twenty-first century seems to be renewing community
from the remaining fragments allowed within the modernity of indus-
trialism and globalism. An early vision of this scenario was described by
Henry (1963) in a most remarkable reversal of positive views of indus-
trial development (Wells 1933; Almond et al. 1982), though differences
in what was “positive” were considerable in the twentieth century.
Like Levittown, The Goodman Building community was a created
community, though unlike Levittown it grew from its pre-existence as an
SRO. The general process of the founding of new societies has been the
subject of a number of studies (e.g., Hartz 1964).
8 N. CALDARARO

Housing Policy and Financialization

Central to the problem of community is the type and cost of housing.
Since the 1980s there has been a trend to commodify housing, to treat
housing as an asset to be traded and invested in as in stocks, bonds,
futures, copper and other commodities. If we take a San Francisco Bay
Area focus on this process, we can identify the factors involved.
Financialization is not limited to the Bay Area nor to America as Jim
Packard (2018) describes in an article in the Financial Times, where we
find the UK described as in crisis over housing.
Here we also have a focus on local government as the center of the
problem. The situation we find ourselves in, however, demonstrates that
there are no facts to support the “single theory” cause whether it be
environmental, regulatory (local zoning), financial or political. For exam-
ple, California State Senator Scott Wiener makes a number of assertions
about housing needs and promotes his own legislation to cure the lack
of affordable housing with measures that have limited the rights of citi-
zens to control the growth and the type of growth their cities and towns
might experience. The logic here is that voters and property owners do
not know how to handle democracy on the one hand or their own prop-
erty investments and environment on the other. In the UK, government
policy has had a significant affect on council housing and investment, yet
scapegoating “greenlands” continues. In both cases, proposed legislation
puts the fate of towns in the hands of developers and bureaucrats and
constrains property owners from protecting the value of their investment
by voting for local representatives and by passing local legislation (some-
times by initiative or referendum). Both here and in Britain politicians
and lobbyists seem to believe people should not have rights over devel-
opment on the local level. They seem to think that people in Sacramento
or London know what is best so the blame in this perspective is on local
interests. But the past 60 years has seen a general reduction of local con-
trol of zoning by a number of Sacramento laws all driven by the idea that
by giving free rein to developers we will have more affordable housing.
Yet this theory has failed (Lewis 2003). It has failed worldwide.
If we look at the context of housing in San Francisco and other urban
areas we find they have promoted sprawl by their housing policies over
the past 6 decades. We can see this most blatantly in San Francisco.
Marin has a very small population compared with the rest of the Bay
Area, and it has substantial agriculture and recreation. The chart below
 1 THE HOUSING CRISIS IN AMERICA AND THE POLICIES … 9

shows Bay Area County Population and percentage change drawn from
the State of California, Department of Finance (DofF) for 2015. Marin’s
population comes in next to last just above Napa with 257,153 com-
pared with San Francisco’s 834,903. Marin’s rate of growth was under
0.4% as was Sonoma from 2010 to 2014 and at 0.2% (San Mateo’s
was less) in 2000 to 2010 according to the (DofF data compiled by
ABAG, see http://reports.abag.ca.gov/sotr/2015/Section3-changing-
population.php). Marin took longer to recover from the 2001 and
2007–2009 recessions than San Francisco, and Marin’s job growth has
been virtually static since 1990 falling between Napa and Solano, while
San Francisco’s job growth has been the third highest in the same period
under that of Alameda and Santa Clara.
Job growth and incomes from Santa Clara and San Francisco are
pushing commuters out into the edges of Bay Area counties in search of
affordable housing according to reports by Joint Venture’s Institute for
Regional Studies (see http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/02/
job-boom-intensifies-traffic-and-housing-woes/). So Marin is one of
the counties seeing the effects of this massive growth in jobs and lack
of affordable housing. However, while San Francisco has failed to pro-
duce affordable housing since 1970, it has also destroyed a substantial
portion of its most affordable housing (small units, especially duplexes
and triplexes) replacing it with expensive, luxury units. If you peruse the
Annual Reports of the San Francisco Planning Department’s housing
surveys from 1970 to 2010 what you see are lists of units demolished
and units built. The population of the city since 1970 has increased from
715,674 to 805,235, or 89,561 people in 40 years or about 2239 peo-
ple a year. San Jose’s population in 1970 was 459,913 and in 2010 was
945,942 an increase of 486,029 or almost 49% increase.
San Francisco has not built sufficient housing to keep up with job
growth and its housing has become more expensive due to a housing
policy that does not protect existing affordable housing units.
San Francisco has not only experienced a rapid period of job growth
in the past decade, but a tremendous increase in the price of housing, a
report by Housing Insider documents how this has priced out workers
from living in the city and has produced our traffic (http://www.busi-
nessinsider.com/how-expensive-is-san-francisco-2015-9).
The situation regarding affordable housing is a crisis. One only needs
to look at the California Budget and Policy Center’s September 2017
study showing that “high rents are one of the major causes of poverty
10 N. CALDARARO

in our state.” And it seems dysfunctional to build so-called commuter or

transit hub housing when you do not provide new transit assets to move
people from those units to work, or at least lower the cost to make exist-
ing transit affordable, though at present transit financing makes the ser-
vice inconvenient. If pollution is the target to attack as well as housing,
then work done by UC Davis scientists, Lin and Prince shows that by
raising the gas tax above $1.37 would result in behavior change reducing
pollution and it could produce sufficient funds for new public transit.
It is strange that former Conservative UK Communities Secretary
(now Home Secretary), Sajid Javid, is blaming councils for the lack of
housing and the fact that “a generation has been locked out of the hous-
ing market.” The fall in productivity tied with stagnant wages and the
failure of investors to produce affordable housing is the major factor in
this “lock out.” Here too we find the wrong target being blamed, as
Senator Wiener has made the argument in the past that environmental-
ists are responsible for high rents. This is undermined by the 2003 study
by the Public Policy Institute of California which looked at changes
in housing law that have limited the ability of local authorities in con-
trolling housing, as in requiring housing elements and other local influ-
ences on housing, including zoning. They found these limitations on
local control had little effect on the production of affordable housing. So
take rights away from the locality and still no housing.
However, people like Scott Wiener and Sajid Javid have been pushing
more restrictions on local elected officials’ influence on housing devel-
opment supposedly to produce more housing. This is a straw man as
when San Francisco Supervisor David Campos stated in an Op-Ed piece
that San Francisco had produced 23,000 units of luxury units and only
1200 units affordable for middle-class families in the previous 7 years
(cited in Lewis 2015, see http://lewis500.github.io/lewislehe/afforda-
ble-4.pdf). This does not include the number of affordable units that
were destroyed to build the luxury units. Given the fact that Mr. Wiener
served as San Francisco Supervisor for 5 of these years one wonders why
he did not force his proposed law on the people of San Francisco and
reduce his own power as a Supervisor to influence housing? Why has San
Francisco destroyed more affordable housing to make way for luxury
housing? San Francisco has one of the least affordable housing markets
in the nation. A review of this data is to be found in the yearly publica-
tion of the San Francisco Housing Inventory.
 1 THE HOUSING CRISIS IN AMERICA AND THE POLICIES … 11

Supporters of Senator Wiener’s position and that of Mr. Javid, invoke

supply and demand theory to explain the need for housing, but they
misunderstand how it works. This argument is undermined by a recent
Federal Reserve study (Anenberg and Kung 2018) that showed simply
building more housing does not result in affordability. That there is no
lack of supply has been shown by Rose (2017) and Mulheim (2017).
Cities in America do not build housing today. Some did in the past, and
a few are attempting to do so again. In Britain, councils build housing
and did so in the past, but this was curtailed by the Thatcher govern-
ment and many units were privatized. What was also amazing was that
the law Thatcher passed had a rule inhibiting the use of funds from sale
of council properties for new affordable housing (Broughton 2018).
In this regard the consequences affected estates like Lashall Green in
England (opened in 1951) which had been built as a mixed design devel-
opment (Rosbrook-Thomson and Armstrong 2018a, b) similar to that of
Village Homes in California, built some 2 decades later, but as a home-
owner development. Village Homes has more space and more area given
over to gardens than that of Lashall Green and not located in a highly
developed urban landscape. While Lashall Green began as an ethnically
diverse rental community, it was partially privatized to about 50% made
up of both middle-class owners, buy-to-let landlords and ex-tenants rent-
ing units (Rosbrook-Thomson and Armstrong 2018a, b). This transition
has a similar character in many ways to what occurred with the original
owner-occupied G2 Project discussed here in another section.
In both cases there is expressed the element of “problem solving”
research leading to developments that produce corrections in housing
needs. The shortcomings of this approach were due to the limited nature
of the analysis and while Leeds (1980) and others attempted to mod-
ify these methods they continue today with more regional approaches
link to ideas of “workforce housing” and densification. Neither has pro-
duced affordable housing or reduced traffic or congestion as we discuss
elsewhere. Of course, this depends on what housing policy is to deliver
and research to produce to inform it. If affordable housing is a goal
and not a catchphrase, then failure has been general. If employment
for construction workers, manufacturers of materials (e.g. wallboard,
plumbing, etc.) and profits for developers and banks is the goal then
housing policy has been wildly successful. Ideals of reducing overcrowd-
ing in the past have produced laws on substandard, safe housing, but also
resulted in expensive housing and informal squatter slums and suburbs.
12 N. CALDARARO

While Rosbrook-Thomson and Armstrong (2018a, b) address super-­

diversity in mixed housing locations, the ethnically mixed poor are
increasingly pushed into informal housing and the ethnically mixed rich
into more isolated and larger estates creating new landscapes of eco-
nomic segregation.
In the 1970s, I was part of a group of housing advocates who helped
set up community development corporations and I sat on the board of
one. We built housing and the process was daunting in the attempt to
produce affordable units. Basically, Senator Wiener and Mr. Javid seem
to be ignorant of the fact that most all housing is built by private build-
ers, aided by banks and investors who (because we live in a capitalist
country) want to make the highest profit possible. People want to charge
for rents and for a return on loans for construction what the market will
bear in order to make a profit. Few investors want to tie up their money
in low-income housing and few banks want to lend to build it especially
in an environment like today where there is substantial pressure to enact
rent controls and restricted housing profits.
Yet if Javid and Wiener wanted to really do something about afforda-
ble housing they could follow Singapore and produce state housing.
Here in California some legislators want a state bank to process mari-
juana producers’ income. Such a bank could also be a housing develop-
ment bank and so we could solve two problems at once. But let’s look
at this from the perspective of a new movement in urban planning,
densification.
In an article in the Financial Times on June 13, 2015, Hugo Cox
wrote of a similar situation in the UK (“Seeds of a Crisis?). The one dif-
ference is that under the last Labor Government a law was passed to give
local residents more control of development, called the Localism Act it
was a response to densification, but too late for many. As housing spills
out across the country and the “densification“ movement makes the
towns and cities unlivable by destroying amenities (parks, low-rise hous-
ing, neighborhoods with character, etc. see an article in the Financial
Times by Heathcote 2015) the goal of densification became clear. The
citizenry saw that the propaganda from developers was just that, a means
to more housing not better communities with affordable housing. While
hiding behind the idea of affordable housing and energy efficient high
rises with “in-filling” projects, the real effect was just to make money.
The kind of construction that was produced was also questionable as
 1 THE HOUSING CRISIS IN AMERICA AND THE POLICIES … 13

in the Grenfell Tower that took 79 lives (see the article by Castle et al.
2017).
According to Heathcote, “The argument is that the suburbs should,
effectively be made more like the center.” To make the suburbs more
“efficient” “desirable” (to planners) is densification. This will require the
destruction of qualities—greenery, privacy, space—that attracted peo-
ple to the suburbs…” So the goal is not to produce affordable housing,
certainly the UK has failed at this, as Caroline Thorpe (Financial Times,
March 1, 2015 “London’s changing hotspots”) notes, working-class
neighborhoods have been transformed into middle-class ones with half
the population, and at the same time, in 1931, 25% of London’s homes
were overcrowded (defined as having more people in them than rooms)
while today that has fallen to less than 8%. Yet a decade before this a
study by Skovbro (2002) demonstrated the problems with this policy, a
policy that had been tried a century before and failed. In fact, Kevin Starr
shows in his book, Inventing the Dream (1985) how Huntington (one
of the Big Four rail robber barons of California history) used his influ-
ence to build train cars and rail service in the Los Angeles area. These
rail lines were inspired by the idea that they would promote real estate
speculation and the building of suburbs, and they did. They were the
model for later sprawl. Today’s “new” idea of commuter housing is just
this old model. The idea that cars produced the basic infrastructure of
American cities and that trains can solve the problem is false. The current
One Bay plan for the San Francisco Bay Area is almost exactly that used
by Huntington over 100 years ago to develop the L. A. basin with his
rail lines that determined community patterns and eventually the urban/
suburban sprawl pattern we see today. Marvin Fair and Ernest Williams
demonstrated this relation between rail and development in their book,
Economics of Transportation in 1950.
So it is not that we have a housing crisis, but we have a space crisis
and housing affordability crisis. In a current finding on Australia’s hous-
ing policy where densification has been the underlying concept for two
decades, Hugo Cox reports (13 March 2018) that the recent boom in
apartment house building has failed to meet the needs of an expanding
population for the simple reason that “…much of it was designed with
investors in mind rather than occupiers in mind.” Investors, builders and
policy experts have got it wrong, perhaps we should leave it to local gov-
ernments to solve.
14 N. CALDARARO

It would seem obvious that over the past 60 years planners have failed
to “plan” for both housing and traffic, If NIMBYs (or greenbelt defend-
ers) are responsible, as Jim Packard’s article asserts, then why do we have
a worldwide housing crisis? From San Francisco to Nairobi, Cairo to
London there is a crisis. Squatters’ slums are growing across the world
due to a lack of planning and affordable housing, as Robert Neuwirth
demonstrates in his 2006 book Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New
Urban World. New York: Routledge. The development of relationships
within such “illegal” spaces (Mahar 1992) is central to understanding the
way people adapted to the threats of eviction at the Goodman Building
and how they used the law as a tool to prevent it as well as media in
the exposition of not only a critique of housing policy, but of the nature
of community within an inner-city context. Investigations of such grey
areas of community and neighborhood membership and identity have
been investigated in many locations outside of the developed countries
(Tostensen et al. 2001). Some such squatter or semi-legal townships or
barrios, begin or develop over time ideological rationale for their exist-
ence. These ideologies, whether political or religious, are often the basis
for limited self-government, in others, the illegal nature of the com-
munity’s tenure invites gangs or paramilitary drug lords who come to
assert authority over the residents. Usually, the ideological foundation
is accepted by only a minority of the residents and yet can act as social
capital for daily interactions or self-defense from outside forces (Clarkson
2012). This can result in residents acting out association vis-à-vis the
outside world as if their desired, or as Mahar (1992) puts it, their mis-
recognized world were possible or real. This is not unlike Engel’s con-
cept of “false consciousness” (Engels 1893). Often the squat attracts
those who do not accept or participate in this perception, and whose
allegiance is more self-centered. These individuals, presence and behavior
can have disorganizing effects, while police violence and media distortion
also have destructive consequences (Neuwirth 2006; Writers for the 99%,
2011; Freeman 2014).
Wiener and politicians like him think local citizens who want livable
communities are to blame for the lack of housing. To blame local cit-
izens for the housing problems is contrary to fact. In the post-WWII
period, the government provided significant financial support for new
housing and to upgrade substandard housing, both with the FHLA and
government-sponsored housing as well as Redevelopment. Even with
this massive government effort the conditions for low-cost, safe housing
 1 THE HOUSING CRISIS IN AMERICA AND THE POLICIES … 15

fell very far from needs as Nathaniel Keith (Politics and the Housing
Crisis Since 1930, New York, Universal Books, 1973) demonstrated in
his survey of housing costs and income since 1930. Government support
fell substantially after 1970. After this date, housing size exploded and
that was a central reason for the increase in cost. Reference to DataQuick
on housing built between 1980 and 2010 or using U.S. Census data
shows that most housing built was over 2000 sq. ft. (up from about 900)
and definitely not affordable for most workers given the fact that wages
have been flat since 1970 (see New York Times article at http://econo-
mix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/a-decade-with-no-income-gain/).
But this was not the only factor, investment in housing changed the
landscape, as housing became “commodified” as Margaret Jane Radin
(1988) explained in her analysis of housing financing and public housing
policy. The same situation has occurred elsewhere. A recent Financial
Times (November 21, 2017) has an article by Jonathan Eley that doc-
uments the effects of housing becoming more an asset to be invested
in that a dwelling to be lived in (note for example, the hedge fund
Blackstone’s ownership of Invitation Housing and their recent merger
with Starwood Waypoint another owner of housing, now owning a total
of 82,000 single family homes across the United States). He shows in a
chart from government data on housing units built and households, that
since 1996 the production of housing has kept up with the creation of
households (families). So if England is building enough housing to keep
up with population why is housing so expensive? The reason is cheap
money and speculation in housing. More REITs and investment vehicles
are buying housing as investments, so the market is driven, not by hous-
ing needs of people but by the need to acquire hard investments, assets,
that are secure. Even in China, there is an investment boom in hous-
ing speculation. Denver, like San Francisco, has a glut of luxury housing
units and has a program to subsidize the excess units for low-cost rentals
(https://www.wsj.com/articles/denver-has-a-plan-for-its-many-luxu-
ry-apartments-housing-subsidies-1515412800). Something constructive
has to be done, but attacking people who are simply trying to protect
their neighborhoods is not the way.
So, where do we see affordable housing? Where governments own the
land and the housing, as in Hong Kong and Singapore and where the
government sets rental prices at wage levels. Both countries have hous-
ing bubbles, just as our “financialization” or commodification of hous-
ing, but government action has stabilized housing for the majority of
16 N. CALDARARO

the population at about 50% in both locations. So if we want affordable

housing the county or the State of California, the US government and
the UK and other governments will have to build it.
Some might be uncomfortable with big government taking over this
portion of the housing market. What local governments can do now
is stop the destruction of our most affordable housing, rentals as in
duplexes, small homes and existing rentals that are under siege not only
by Airbnb and other short term rental app-driven businesses which is dis-
placing rentals, but in the demolition and/or gutting for larger single
family units.
We see a heated debate over housing these days. There are two
pressing problems we have: housing and inequality. Everyone seems to
be searching for an answer to the housing situation, but ideas need to
be examined carefully. In the April 28/29, 2012 weekend issue of the
Financial Times’ House and Home section we find a useful example.
There is a study by the Financial Times staff on second, third, fourth
etc. houses of the wealthy and the effects such housing has on cities.
Generally, this has negative effects given their findings. Cities get less in
sales tax, have less sales in areas, less foot traffic, neighborhoods become
ghost towns, character is lost. This is consonant with the findings of
Saskia Sassen (2012).
With this in mind, one can then feel rather uncertain on reading
about the policy of demolitions of homes in American cities in an arti-
cle by Washington Post reporter Brady Dennis (October 12, 2011).
Primarily such demolitions reduce bank liabilities on non-performing
loans and value lost in falling house prices to loan amount, but also by
eliminating abandoned homes which are the cheapest on the market in
most cases, this can act as a check to falling prices. Banks, mortgage
companies and services are not paying property taxes or maintenance
factors that are degrading towns and cities’ budgets and the neighbor-
hoods where their homes are located (Livingston 2009). These “walk
aways” are further aggravating conditions by these entities simply aban-
doning the housing. Efforts to force them to maintain properties have
been introduced, as in Richmond, California where Eminent Domain
has been threatening to seize homes under threat of foreclosure or
demolition (Said 2013).
There are a number of considerations, however, that should be inves-
tigated. The point is that many housing units that were used for working
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
important affairs arise, to invite the head official to be
present in the Executive Council whose department is more
directly concerned with the subject to be treated of. The said
head official shall then have a vote in the Executive Council,
be equally responsible for the resolution taken, and sign it
along with the others.

ARTICLE 83.
According to the intention of Article 82 the following shall
be considered "Head Officials": The State Attorney, Treasurer,
Auditor, Superintendent of Education, Orphan-Master, Registrar
of Deeds, Surveyor-General, Postmaster-General, Head of the
Mining Department, Chief Director of the Telegraph Service,
and Chief of Public Works.

ARTICLE 84.
The President shall be Chairman of the Executive Council, and
in case of an equal division of votes have a casting vote. For
the ratification of sentences of death, or declarations of
war, the unanimous vote of the Executive Council shall be
requisite for a decision. …

ARTICLE 87.
All resolutions of the Executive Council and official letters
of the President must, besides being signed by him, also be
signed by the Secretary of State. The latter is at the same
time responsible that the contents of the resolution, or the
letter, is not in conflict with the existing laws.

ARTICLE 88.
The two enfranchised burghers or members of the Executive
Council contemplated by Article 82 are chosen by the Volksraad
for the period of three years, the Commandant-General for ten
years; they must be members of a Protestant Church, have had
no sentence in a criminal court to their discredit, and have
reached the age of thirty years.
ARTICLE 89.
The Secretary of State is chosen also by the Volksraad, but is
appointed for the period of four years. On resignation or
expiration of his term he is re-eligible. He must be a member
of a Protestant Church, have had no sentence in a criminal
court to his discredit, possess fixed property in the
Republic, and have reached the age of thirty years. …

ARTICLE 93.
The military force consists of all the men of this Republic
capable of bearing arms, and if necessary of all those of the
natives within its boundaries whose chiefs are subject to it.

ARTICLE 94.
Besides the armed force of burghers to be called up in times
of disturbance or war, there exists a general police and corps
of artillery, for which each year a fixed sum is drawn upon
the estimates.

ARTICLE 95.
The men of the white people capable of bearing arms are all
men between the ages of sixteen and sixty years; and of the
natives, only those which are capable of being made
serviceable in the war.

ARTICLE 96.
For the subdivision of the military force the territory of
this Republic is divided into field-cornetcies and districts.
…

ARTICLE 97.
The men are under the orders of the following officers,
ascending in rank: Assistant Field-Cornets, Field-Cornets,
Commandants, and a Commandant-General.

Selected Official Documents of the South African Republic

and Great Britain (Supplement to the Annals of the
 American Academy of Political and Social Science,
July, 1900).

--CONSTITUTION (GRONDWET) OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN

REPUBLIC.: End--

CONSTITUTION OF SOUTH CAROLINA: The revision of 1895-6.

Disfranchisement provision.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1896.

CONSTITUTION OF SOUTH DAKOTA:

Amendment introducing the Initiative and Referendum.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH DAKOTA: A. D. 1898.

CONSTITUTION OF SWITZERLAND:
Amendments.

See (in this volume)

SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1897.

{170}

CONSTITUTION OF UTAH.

See (in this volume)

UTAH: A. D. 1895-1896.

CONWAY, Sir W. Martin:

Explorations of Spitzbergen.

See (in this volume)

POLAR EXPLORATION, 1896, 1897.
COOK, or HERVEY ISLANDS:
Annexation to New Zealand.

See (in this volume)

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).

COOMASSIE,
KUMASSI:
Occupation by the British.
Siege and relief.

See (in this volume)

ASHANTI.

COPTIC CHURCH:
Authority of the Pope re-established.

See (in this volume)

PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (MARCH).

COREA.

See (in this volume)

KOREA.

CORNWALL AND YORK, The Duke of.

See (in this volume)

WALES, THE PRINCE OF.

COSTA RICA.

See (in this volume)

CENTRAL AMERICA.

COTTON-MILL STRIKE, New England.

 See (in this volume)
INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1898.

COTTON STATES EXPOSITION, The.

See (in this volume)

ATLANTA: A. D. 1895.

COURT OF ARBITRATION, The Permanent.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

CREEKS, United States agreement with the.

See (in this volume)

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.

CRETE:
Recent archæological explorations.
Supposed discovery of the Palace of Minos and
the Cretan Labyrinth.
Fresh light on the origin of the Alphabet.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.

CRETE: A. D. 1896.
Conflict between Christians and Mussulmans,
and its preceding causes.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1896.

CRETE: A. D. 1897.
Fresh conflicts.
Reports of the British Consul-General and others.
 Greek interference and demands for annexation to Greece.
Action of the Great Powers.
Blockade of the island.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

CRETE: A. D. 1897.
Withdrawal of Greek troops.
Acceptance of autonomy by the Greek government.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).

CRETE: A. D. 1897-1898.
Prolonged anarchy, and blockade by the Powers.
Final departure of Turkish troops and officials.
Government established under Prince George of Greece.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899.

CRETE: A. D. 1901.
Successful administration of Prince George of Greece.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1901.

CRISPI, Signor:
Ministry.

See (in this volume)

ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896.

CRISPI, Signor:
Parliamentary investigation of charges against.
 See (in this volume)
ITALY: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JUNE).

CROKER, "Boss."

See (in this volume)

NEW YORK CITY: A. D. 1894-1895; and 1897.

CROMER, Viscount:
Administration in Egypt.

See (in this volume)

EGYPT: A. D. 1898.

CROMWELL, Oliver, Proposed statue of.

A proposal in the English House of Commons, in 1895, to vote

£500 for a statue of Cromwell was so violently opposed by the
Irish members that the government was compelled to withdraw
the item from the estimates.

CRONJE, General Piet:

In the South African war.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE FIELD OF WAR):
A. D. 1899 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER);
and 1900 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).

CROZIER, Captain William:

American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

----------CUBA: Start--------
Map of Cuba and West Indies.

CUBA: A. D. 1868-1885.
Ten years of insurrection.
The United States and Spain.
The Affair of the Virginius.
End of Slavery.

"The abolition of slavery in the southern states left the

Spanish Antilles in the enjoyment of a monopoly of slave
labor, which, in the production of sugar, especially, gave
them advantages which overcame all competition. This led to
the formation of a strong Spanish party, for whom the cause of
slavery and that of Spanish dominion were identical. These
were known as Peninsulars or Spanish immigrants. They were the
official class, the wealthy planters and slave-owners, and the
real rulers of Cuba. Their central organization was the Casino
Espagñol of Havana, which was copied in all the towns of the
 island, and through these clubs they controlled the
volunteers, who at times numbered 60,000 or 70,000. … These
volunteers never took the field, but held possession of all
the cities and towns, and thus were able to defy even the
captain-general. They were obedient to his orders only so long
as he was acting in close accord with the wishes of their
party. On the other hand, there was a party composed of
Creoles, or native Cubans, whose cry was 'Cuba for the
Cubans!' and who hoped to effect the complete separation of
the island from Spain, either through their own efforts or
through the assistance of the United States. …

"The Spanish revolution of September, 1868, was the signal for

an uprising of the native or Creole party in the eastern part
of the island under the leadership of Cespedes. This movement
was not at first ostensibly for independence, but for the
revolution in Spain, the cries being, 'Hurrah for Prim!'
'Hurrah for the Revolution!' Its real character was, however,
apparent from the first, and its supporters continued for a
period of ten years, without regard to the numerous
vicissitudes through which the Spanish Government passed—the
provisional government, the regency, the elective monarchy,
the republic, and the restored Bourbon dynasty—to wage a
dogged, though desultory warfare against the constituted
authorities of the island. This struggle was almost
conterminous with President Grant's Administration of eight
years."
{171}
President Grant made early offers of mediation between Spain
and the insurgents, but no agreement as to terms could be
reached. An increasing sympathy with the Cubans raised demands
in the United States for their recognition as belligerents,
with belligerent rights, and the President is said to have
been ready to yield to the demand, but was deterred by the
influence of his Secretary of State, Mr. Fish, who contended
that the insurgents had established no government that could
claim such rights. The Cuban sympathizers in Congress were
accordingly checked by an opposing message (June 13, 1870),
and no interference occurred.

"In February, 1873, when King Amadeus resigned his crown and a
republic was proclaimed in Spain, the United States made haste to
give the new government recognition and support, which led to
friendly relations between the two countries for a time, and
promised happy results. The Spanish republicans were being
urged to give the Cubans self-government and end slavery in
the whole Spanish domain, and they were lending, at least, a
considerate ear to the advice. But negotiation on that topic
was soon disturbed. On October 31, 1873, the steamer
'Virginius,' sailing under American colors and carrying a
United States registry, was captured on the high seas by the
'Tornado,' a Spanish war vessel, and on the afternoon of the
first of November taken into the port of Santiago de Cuba. The
men and supplies she bore were bound for the insurgents, but
the capture did not occur in Cuban waters. General Burriel,
the commandant of the city, summoned a court-martial, and, in
spite of the protests of the American consul, condemned to
death—at the first sitting—four of the passengers—General W.
A. C. Ryan, an Irish patriot, and three Cubans. They were shot
on the morning of November 4. On the 7th twelve other
passengers were executed, and on the 8th Captain Fry and his
entire crew, numbering 36, making the total number of
executions 53." This barbarous procedure caused hot excitement
in the United States, and demands for reparation were made so
sharply that the two countries came near to war. In the end it
was shown that the "Virginius" was sailing under the American
flag without right, being owned by Cubans and controlled by
them. The vessel was surrendered, however, but foundered off
Cape Fear, while being conveyed to the United States. Her
surviving passengers were released, and an indemnity was paid
for all who were put to death. The brutal officer who took
their lives was never brought to justice, though his
punishment was promised again and again. On the settlement of
the Virginius question, the government of the United States
 resumed its efforts to wring concessions to the Cubans from
Spain, and sought to have its efforts supported by Great
Britain and other European powers. Cold replies came from all
the cabinets that were approached. At the same time, the
Spanish government met the demand from America with promises
so lavish (April, 1876), going so far in appearance towards
all that had been asked, that no ground for intervention
seemed left. The act of Secretary Fish, in proposing
intervention to foreign powers, was sharply criticised as a
breach of the Monroe doctrine; but he made no defense.

"The Cuban struggle continued for two years longer. In

October, 1877, several leaders surrendered to the Spanish
authorities and undertook the task of bringing over the few
remaining ones. Some of these paid for their efforts with
their lives, being taken and condemned by court-martial, by
order of the commander of the Cuban forces. Finally, in
February, 1878, the terms of pacification [under an agreement
called the Treaty of El Zanjon] were made known. They embraced
representation in the Spanish Cortes, oblivion of the past as
regarded political offences committed since the year 1868, and
the freedom of slaves in the insurgent ranks. In practice,
however, the Cuban deputies were never truly representative,
but were men of Spanish birth, designated usually by the
captain-general. By gradual emancipation, slavery ceased to
exist in the island in 1885. The powers of the
captain-general, the most objectionable feature of Spanish
rule, continued uncurtailed."

J. H. Latané,
The Diplomatic Relations of the United States
and Spanish America,
chapter 3.

CUBA: A. D. 1895.
Insurrection renewed.
Early in 1895 a new uprising of the oppressed Cubans was
begun, and on the 7th of December, in that year, T. Estrada
Palma, writing as their authorized representative, presented
to the State Department at Washington a statement setting
forth the causes of the revolt and describing its state of
organization at that time. The causes, he wrote, "are
substantially the same as those of the former revolution,
lasting from 1868 to 1878, and terminating only on the
representation of the Spanish Government that Cuba would be
granted such reforms as would remove the grounds of complaint
on the part of the Cuban people. Unfortunately the hopes thus
held out have never been realized. The representation which
was to be given the Cubans has proved to be absolutely without
character; taxes have been levied anew on everything
conceivable; the offices in the island have increased, but the
officers are all Spaniards; the native Cubans have been left
with no public duties whatsoever to perform, except the
payment of taxes to the Government and blackmail to the
officials, without privilege even to move from place to place
in the island except on the permission of the governmental
authority. Spain has framed laws so that the natives have
substantially been deprived of the right of suffrage. The
taxes levied have been almost entirely devoted to support the
army and navy in Cuba, to pay interest on the debt that Spain
has saddled on the island, and to pay the salaries of the vast
number of Spanish officeholders, devoting only $746,000 for
internal improvements out of the $26,000,000 collected by tax.
No public schools are within reach of the masses for their
education. All the principal industries of the island are
hampered by excessive imposts. Her commerce with every country
but Spain has been crippled in every possible manner, as can
readily be seen by the frequent protests of shipowners and
merchants. The Cubans have no security of person or property.
The judiciary are instruments of the military authorities.
Trial by military tribunals can be ordered at any time at the
will of the Captain-General. There is, beside, no freedom of
speech, press, or religion. In point of fact, the causes of
 the Revolution of 1775 in this country were not nearly as
grave as those that have driven the Cuban people to the
various insurrections which culminated in the present
revolution. …

{172}

"Years before the outbreak of the present hostilities the

people within and without the island began to organize, with a
view of preparing for the inevitable revolution, being
satisfied, after repeated and patient endeavors, that peaceful
petition was fruitless. In order that the movement should be
strong from the beginning, and organized both as to civil and
military administration, the Cuban Revolutionary party was
founded, with José Marti at its head. The principal objects
were by united efforts to obtain the absolute independence of
Cuba, to promote the sympathy of other countries, to collect
funds with these objects in view, and to invest them in
munitions of war. The military organization of this movement
was completed by the election of Maximo Gomez as commander in
chief. This election was made by the principal officers who
fought in the last revolution. The time for the uprising was
fixed at the solicitation of the people in Cuba, who protested
that there was no hope of autonomy, and that their deposits of
arms and ammunition were in danger of being discovered and
their leaders arrested. A large amount of war material was
then bought by Marti, and vessels chartered to transport it to
Cuba, where arrangements were made for its reception in the
provinces of Santiago, Puerto Principe, and Santa Clara; but
at Fernandina, Florida, it was seized by the United States
authorities. Efforts were successfully made for the
restitution of this material; nevertheless valuable time and
opportunity was thus lost. The people in Cuba clamored for the
revolution to proceed immediately, and in consequence the
uprising was not further postponed. The date fixed for the
uprising was the 24th of February. The people responded in
Santiago, Santa Clara, and Matanzas. The provinces of Puerto
Principe and Pinar del Rio did not respond, owing to lack of
arms. In Puerto Principe rigorous search had previous to the
24th been instituted, and all arms and ammunition confiscated
by the Government. The leaders in the provinces of Matanzas
and Santa Clara were imprisoned, and so the movement there was
checked for the time being. … In the province of Santiago the
revolution rapidly increased in strength under the leadership
of Bartolome Masso; one of the most influential and respected
citizens of Manzanillo; Guillermo Moncada, Jesus Rabi, Pedro
Perez, Jose Miro, and others. It was characterized by the
Spanish Government as a negro and bandit movement, but many of
the most distinguished and wealthy white citizens of the
district flocked to the insurgent camp. …

On the 1st of April, Generals Antonio and José Maceo, Flor

Crombet, and Augustin Cebreco, all veteran leaders in the
former revolt, landed at Duaba, in the province of Santiago,
and thousands rose to join them. Antonio Maceo then took
command of the troops in that province, and on the 11th of
April a detachment received Generals Maximo Gomez, José Marti,
Francisco Borrerro, and Angel Guerra. Captain-General Calleja
was, on the 16th of April, succeeded by General Arsenio
Martinez Campos, the present commander in chief of the Spanish
forces, who has the reputation of being Spain's greatest living
general. … The military organization of the Cubans is ample
and complete. Major General Maximo Gomez is the commander in
chief, as we have said, of all the forces, a veteran of the
last revolution, as indeed are all the generals almost without
exception. Major General Antonio Maceo is second in command of
the army of liberation, and was, until called upon to
cooperate with the commander in chief in the late march to the
western province, in command of Santiago. The army is at
present divided into five corps—two in Santiago, one in Puerto
Principe, and two in Santa Clara and Matanzas. …

"As above indicated, Jose Marti was the head of the

preliminary civil organization, and he, immediately upon
landing with Gomez in Cuba, issued a call for the selection of
representatives of the Cuban people to form a civil
government. His death [in an engagement at Boca de Dos Rios,
May 19] postponed for a time the selection of these men, but
in the beginning of September the call previously issued was
complied with. Representatives from each of the provinces of
Santiago, Puerto Principe, Santa Clara, and the western part
of the island, comprising the provinces of Matanzas and
Havana, making twenty in all, were elected to the constituent
assembly, which was to establish a civil government,
republican in form. … A constitution of the Republic of Cuba
was adopted on the 16th of September. … On the 18th of
September … officers of the Government were elected by the
constituent assembly in accordance with the terms of the
constitution. …

"The Spaniards charge, in order to belittle the insurrection,

that it is a movement of negroes. It should be remembered that
not more than one-third of the entire population are of the
colored race. As a matter of fact, less than one-third of the
army are of the colored race. Take, for instance, the generals
of corps, divisions, and brigades; there are but three of the
colored race, namely, Antonio and José Maceo and Augustin
Cebreco, and these are mulattoes whose deeds and victories
have placed them far above the generals of those who pretend
to despise them. None of the members of the constituent
assembly or of the government are of the colored race. The
Cubans and the colored race are as friendly in this war as
they were in times of peace. …

"The subject … which has caused probably the most discussion

is the order of General Gomez to prevent the grinding of sugar
cane and in case of the disobedience of said order the
destruction of the crop. … The reasons underlying this measure
are the same which caused this country to destroy the cotton
crop and the baled cotton in the South during the war of the
secession. The sugar crop is a source of large income to the
 Spanish Government, directly by tax and export duty, as well
as indirectly. The action of the insurgents is perfect]y
justified, because it is simply a blockade, so to speak, on
land—a prevention of the gathering, and hence the export, of
the commodity with, naturally, a punishment for the violation
thereof. …

{173}

"In view of the history of this revolution as herein stated,

in view of the causes which led to it, its rapid growth, its
successes in arms, the establishment, operation, and resources
of the Government of the Cuban Republic, the organization,
number, and discipline of its army, the contrast in the
treatment of prisoners to that of the enemy, the territory in
its control and subject to the carrying out of its decrees, of
the futility of the attempts of the Spanish Government to crush
the revolution, in spite of the immense increase of its army
in Cuba and of its blockade and the many millions spent for
that purpose, the cruelties which on the part of the Spanish
have especially characterized this sanguinary and fiercely
conducted war, and the damage to the interests of the citizens
of this country under the present conditions, I, as the duly
accredited representative, in the name of the Cuban people in
arms who have fought singly and alone against the monarchy of
Spain for nearly a year, in the heart of a continent devoted
to republican institutions, in the name of justice, in the
name of humanity, in the name of liberty, petition you, and
through you the Government of the United States of America, to
accord the rights of belligerency to a people fighting for
their absolute independence."

United States, 54th Congress, 1st Session,

Senate Document Number 166.

CUBA: A. D. 1896-1897.
Captain-General Campos succeeded by General Weyler.
Weyler's Concentration Order and other edicts.
Death of Antonio Maceo.
Weyler succeeded by Blanco.

In January, 1896, Governor and Captain-General Campos, whose

policy had been as humane and conciliatory as his Spanish
surroundings would permit it to be, was recalled, and Don
Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquis of Teneriffe, and lately
Captain-General of Catalonia, was sent to take his place.
General Weyler arrived at Havana on the 10th of February, and
six days later, before he could possibly have acquired any
personal knowledge of the conditions with which he had to
deal, he issued three military edicts, in which a policy of
merciless ruin to the island was broadly set forth. The first
of these edicts or proclamations commanded as follows:

"Article 1.
All inhabitants of the district of Sancti Spiritus and the
provinces of Puerto Principe and Santiago de Cuba will have to
concentrate in places which are the headquarters of a
division, a brigade, a column, or a troop, and will have to be
provided with documentary proof of identity, within eight days
of the publication of this proclamation in the municipalities.

"Article 2.
To travel in the country in the radius covered by the columns
in operation, it is absolutely indispensable to have a pass
from the mayor, military commandants, or chiefs of
detachments. Anyone lacking this will be detained and sent to
headquarters of divisions or brigades, and thence to Havana,
at my disposition, by the first possible means. Even if a pass
is exhibited, which is suspected to be not authentic or granted
by authority to person with known sympathy toward the
rebellion, or who show favor thereto, rigorous measures will
result to those responsible.

"Article 3.
All owners of commercial establishments in the country
districts will vacate them, and the chiefs of columns will
take such measures as the success of their operations dictates
regarding such places which, while useless for the country's
wealth, serve the enemy as hiding places in the woods and in
the interior.

"Article 4.
All passes hitherto issued hereby become null and void."

The order of "concentration" contained in the first article of

this decree was slowly executed, but ultimately it produced
horrors of suffering and death which words could hardly
describe. The second of Weyler's edicts delegated his own
unlimited "judicial attributes," for the enforcement of the
"military code of justice," to certain subordinate commanders,
and gave sharp directions for their exercise. The third
specified a large number of offenses as being "subject to
military law," including in the category every use of tongue
or pen that could be construed as "favorable to the
rebellion," or as injurious to the "prestige" of the Spanish
army, or "the volunteers, or firemen, or any other force that
co-operates with the army." It is said to have been nearly a
year before the Weyler policy of "concentration" was generally
carried out; but even before that occurred the misery of the
country had become very great. Both parties in the war were
recklessly laying waste the land. The insurgent leaders had
published orders for a total destruction of sugar factories
and plantations, because the product supplied revenues to
Spain; and now the Spanish governor struck all traffic and
industry down in the rural districts, by driving the
inhabitants from their homes and fields, to concentrate and
pen them up in certain prescribed places, with practically no
provision for employment, or shelter or food. At the close of
the year 1896 the state of suffering in the island was not yet
at its worst; but already it was riveting the attention of the
neighboring people of the United States, exciting a hot
feeling against Spain and a growing desire for measures on the
part of the American government to bring it to an end.
Repeated attempts had already been made by frothy politicians
in Congress to force the country into an attitude toward Spain
that would challenge war; but the Executive, supported by a
congressional majority, and by the better opinion of the
American public, adhered with firmness to a policy which aimed
at the exhausting of pacific influences in favor of the Cuban
cause. In his annual message to Congress at the opening of the
session in December, 1896, President Cleveland set forth the
situation in the following words:

"It is difficult to perceive that any progress has thus far

been made towards the pacification of the island. … If Spain
still holds Havana and the seaports and all the considerable
towns, the insurgents still roam at will over at least
two-thirds of the inland country. If the determination of
Spain to put down the insurrection seems but to strengthen
with the lapse of time, and is evinced by her unhesitating
devotion of largely increased military and naval forces to the
task, there is much reason to believe that the insurgents have
gained in point of numbers, and character, and resources, and
are none the less inflexible in their resolve not to succumb,
without practically securing the great objects for which they
took up arms. If Spain has not yet re-established her
authority, neither have the insurgents yet made good their
title to be regarded as an independent state. Indeed, as the
contest has gone on, the pretense that civil government exists
on the island, except so far as Spain is able to maintain it,
has been practically abandoned. Spain does keep on foot such a
government, more or less imperfectly, in the large towns and
their immediate suburbs. But, that exception being made, the
entire country is either given over to anarchy or is subject
to the military occupation of one or the other party. … In
pursuance of general orders, Spanish garrisons are now being
withdrawn from plantations and the rural population required
to concentrate itself in the towns. The sure result would seem