Heart of the City

SoMa

Janet Delaney is a photographer, visual artist, and documentarian who has chronicled SoMa in her work for the past 40 years. When she first moved into the neighborhood in 1978, she was taken by what she found.

“I realized there were lots of different communities established here,” says Janet. “Particularly a large Filipino community, an African-American community, as well as a pretty well-established gay community and a burgeoning art community.”

Her work captured her neighbors in their community spaces, some of which were on the verge of disappearing. “I was fascinated with…the impact of gentrification, which I could feel was coming,” says Janet. She acknowledges the “complicated history of why and how that happened,” and that some people, businesses, and cultures were not included in the new SoMa.

“I think it’s really important for all cities to maintain any kind of viability to have lots of people from different ways of being.”

As she continues to chronicle the neighborhood, Janet never fails to find inspiration in “the people who are devoted to staying here…and making it a colorful, diverse, lively, exciting place.”

Janet’s work can be seen in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which sits at the corner of Third and Howard streets in SoMa. It is the largest institution of its kind west of the Mississippi. For Erin O’Toole, Curator and Head of Photography at the museum, Janet’s work is part of a proud and unique San Francisco tradition.

But what about the neighborhood will stay the same, and why?

For one thing, there will always be Red’s Java House. This tiny restaurant, perched on a pier beneath the shadow of the Bay Bridge, will soon be celebrating its 70th year in business. Current owner Tiffany Pisoni took the reins in 2009. An experienced restauranteur, she was nevertheless given a swift education.

“I found out real quick that I’m not the owner; that [the] people that come here every single day are the people that really own the shop, you know?” she says.

If a business can weather the winds of change by welcoming everyone, how does an entire community do it? Much the same way, it turns out.

Deanna Sison is the owner of Mestiza and a prominent member of SoMa’s Filipino community. Born in America to her half-Filipino, half-Spanish father and her half-Filipino, half-American mother, Deanna has been working in SoMa since she first arrived in San Francisco, nearly 30 years ago. Her restaurant is all about “taking [a] fresh approach to flavors that are familiar to my palate and flavors that I crave; things that evoke memories of my upbringing.”

The word mestiza refers to people of mixed heritage, so “it’s very personal to me,” Deanna says. “It was honoring mixed heritages and different cultural backgrounds, centered around food.”

“Food really just brings people together.”

That attitude is most evident in Mestiza’s Kamayan Feasts, incredible spreads of fish, meat, fruits, and vegetables that stimulate all senses and demand to be shared with a group.

Such a communal experience is just part of the culture; and that culture has never been more prominent in the neighborhood.

Since the city officially designated a Filipino cultural district within SoMa, “the past five years have been really dense with just so many things happening and people really just getting behind the idea of…having a home,” Deanna says.

The creation of SoMa Pilipinas has led to programs that support neighborhood artists, legacy businesses, local families, and young students.

“That was such a popular and important designation,” says Deanna, “because Filipinos have played such an important role—not just in this neighborhood, but the Bay Area, in general.”

“It was just such an important time that really connected me with the rest of the community.”