Many people in the Tenderloin actively avoid gentrification[0]. For many of the people who live there, it is a beacon of hope. The one place in the center of many major US cities, where many of the outcasts of modern urban society can still remain in the city. They like their life. They have been living there for years and hope they can continue to live there for many more. There is no delusion that once they give in to gentrification, they will be forced out of the city and most will never again be able to afford living again. And in the process neighbors who have grown up living together in the same place for decades will be ripped apart while they have to move elsewhere, but not in a way where they can preserve the communities they currently have.

If I counted myself among those who have called the Tenderloin home for years, I would despise the people who seek to terraform my home making it inhabitable to me while they make it habitable to themselves.

[0] Read about Carolyn Abst's attempts to arborize the Tenderloin.