The city is currently in the process of transforming Treasure Island, the artificial holm named after the Robert Louis Stevenson novel and created for the 1939 World’s Fair, into an 8,000-unit residential neighborhood with below-market housing and retail amenities that is anticipated to host a population of around 20,000 by 2032 in spite of concerns that the former U.S. Navy facility is contaminated. 

The hope created by the projects is being dampened somewhat by the bureaucratic process behind development schemes, which has stalled several other mixed-use and residential initiatives in more developed areas of the city, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. 

“Working people like our nurses, teachers, and even the construction workers who build our homes are suffering because we haven’t built enough housing for decades,” Mayor London Breed told the paper. “Even with the progress on moving large projects forward, we have to make fundamental changes to how we approve and permit housing in San Francisco so families can afford to stay here.”