Floyd Sanchez

willystaley:

DaVinci put out this short film about his career and the Fillmore, and presents a compelling theory about a 5-10 year lag time between neighborhoods experiencing the depth of their poverty and finally producing good music. 

What stands out to me is that you can easily place his apartment at the corner of Fell and Masonic, just west of Masonic.

The Fillmore is like Harlem, in that it’s often defined by where black people live, and has no set boundaries. Uptown Fillmore’s heart was Divisadero back when Divisadero was still a predominantly black street. That’s way far west of anyone’s definition of the Fillmore at this point. 

I was once told that the Fillmore used to include everything east of Masonic and south of California, which is entirely impossible to imagine at this point in time. But it does do a good job of explaining why there’s a housing project in the middle of what we call Lower Pacific Heights, now. It’s right there on Baker and Sutter. Maybe it won’t be for long.

Anyway, DaVinci’s current address lies just outside the oldest boundary of the Fillmore that I’ve ever heard. He lives a few doors down from my 8th grade history teacher and some good friends of mine who just had an adorable baby girl. San Francisco is like that, though. I guess it’s easier to see what’s going on somewhere when you’re just outside of it.