M. Justin Herman

M. Justin Herman
Died 1971
Nationality American
Occupation head of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency

M. Justin Herman (died 1971) was an American public administrator. From 1951 to 1959 he was head of the regional office of the Housing and Home Finance Agency in San Francisco, California.[1]:18 From 1959 until his death in 1971 he was head of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.[2] Under his administration, large areas of the city were redeveloped; thousands of residents, many of them poor and non-white, were forced to leave their homes and businesses.[3][4]:132

Career

Herman was appointed executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency by George Christopher in April 1959. He was a experienced and capable administrator with good connections in the federal government and an extensive knowledge of urban redevelopment. He had the support of the Bay Area Council, of the Blyth-Zellerbach Committee and of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Renewal Association. He greatly expanded the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, from about sixty employees before he took office to 462 shortly after his death.[1]:18

Herman was responsible for the redevelopment, in two phases, of the Western Addition and for the transformation of Geary Street into Geary Boulevard. In the second phase of the Western Addition project, 10,000 people were displaced and more than 60 city blocks cleared by 1970.[3] The agency also aggressively acquired land in Chinatown, the Golden Gateway, the port area, South of Market and the Tenderloin, expropriating poor people from those areas.[1]:19

Herman died of a heart attack in 1971.[3]

Reception

The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials makes an annual M. Justin Herman Award.[5] Justin Herman Plaza, opposite the Ferry Building, is named for him.[6]

While Herman's actions were largely supported by the elite of the city and by banks, businesses and the city government, his reputation among those he displaced from their homes was not high. Thomas Fleming described him in 1965 as the "arch-villain in the black depopulation of the city",[1]:19 while Hannibal Williams of the Western Addition Community Association said "We didn't know who the devil was. But we knew who Justin Herman was and that was the devil for us".[4]:133

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Chester Hartman (2002). City for Sale: The Transformation of San Francisco. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520914902.
  2. ↑ David Habert (March 1, 1999) Fifty Years of Redevelopment: Lessons for the Future. Accessed July 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Fillmore Timeline 1860 - 2001. Public Broadcasting Service. Accessed July 2015.
  4. 1 2 Paul T. Miller (2009). The Postwar Struggle for Civil Rights: African Americans in San Francisco, 1945–1975. Studies in African American History and Culture. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415806015.
  5. ↑ M. Justin Herman Memorial Award. National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. Accessed July 2015.
  6. ↑ "Justin Herman – Embarcadero Plaza". San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department. Retrieved 2015-10-15.
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