The Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association is rare among its peers in that it was created in a spirit of resistance and solidarity between renters and homeowners, as well as between people of color and white folks.

In the 1970s the Triangle had been economically neglected by absentee landlords, with an ethnically diverse population featuring some Scandinavian homeowners and a significant population of Black people who had moved there after being displaced from the Fillmore.The city was engaged in “urban renewal,” which often meant bulldozing Black neighborhoods, labeled as “slums,” in order to widen traffic corridors, and Noe Street was on the list for demolition.

Two neighborhood organizations fought back – the Noe-Henry United Community Association, composed of both property owners and renters, and the Castro Property Owners, composed only of owners. In addition to Black renters and owners, a recently arrived population of mostly white LGBTQ neighbors was also part of the Noe-Henry Association, and they were helpfully engaged in fixing up houses that had fallen into disrepair. Thanks largely to the efforts of John Sanger, the two groups merged and DTNA was created in 1975, with John serving as the first President. John had moved into a two-flat Victorian on Beaver Street in July 1970, which he had bought sight-unseen as he graduated from Harvard Law School with an interest in urban planning and knowledge of the FACE Program.

The FACE Program in San Francisco was a more benign form of urban renewal focused on upgrading facades and infrastructure, and Sanger led negotiations with FACE and the City. With funding from the FACE Program, DTNA worked with neighbors and the City to remake Noe and then Sanchez Street by undergrounding utility lines, building corner bulb-outs with parklets, planting trees, implementing angled parking, and developing traffic islands at Beaver, 14th, and Duboce. 

Since then DTNA has expanded its purview far beyond Noe and Sanchez, but the focus on livability and pedestrian safety has remained. So has our focus on representing not just homeowners but renters, and on representing all the diverse populations which call our Triangle home.

Join us!

Sources: 

Alexander Bodi - Master’s Thesis in Anthropology, SF State, 1983.

Interviews with Dez Miles, Black resident of Noe Street 1962-2025 - see “Mayor of Noe Street” article, DTNA News, October 2021.

Duboce Triangle Historic Context Statement, 2022.