In 1968, President of Milton Meyer & Company Walter H. Shorenstein bought the San Francisco International Hotel with the intention of evicting its residents and replacing the building with a multi-level parking garage. Predominantly occupied by elderly Pilipinos, Shorenstein had no issue with evicting this Manilatown residence because, as he put it, he was just “getting rid of a slum.”
Following public pressure and community criticism, Shorenstein gave the Manilatown community a moment of hope with a three-year lease. However, he would later secretly sell the International Hotel (more commonly known as I-Hotel) to the Four Seas Investment Corporation, who would continue to work with him. Milton Meyer & Company continued to “act as the hotel’s property manager” and collect rent, even after the transferring of ownership.
Despite an almost decades-long struggle with the efforts of student activists, local community members, and the tenants themselves, the elderly residents were evicted in the late 1970s. By the 1980s, the hotel and many other Manilatown businesses and residences were demolished.
“He could have interacted with us positively, but he chose not to. And we got evicted,” said Jeanette Gandionco Lazam, the last living tenant of the I-Hotel. “And if you sincerely believed that Walter Shorenstein was going to give us housing after the eviction, that never happened,” Lazam told The Daily.
Manilatown no longer exists due to the aspirations of predatory landlords like Shorenstein.
More than two decades later, in 2005, Stanford would rename the Asia/Pacific Research Center to the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC). Housed under the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), the Center acts as Stanford’s hub for contemporary Asia studies. APARC facilitates research about the Asia-Pacific region, fellowship and training opportunities, public speaker events and publications.
“I think that it’s about time that some of these people whose names are on these hotels and schools are looked at in terms of their history in the development of San Francisco and what they did to communities of color and working class communities,” Lazam said.
According to the Center’s 30th anniversary program, the name change was made in recognition of APARC’s “greatest benefactor.” The Center celebrates Shorenstein for his significant contributions to Stanford’s Asia-Pacific research, ranging from his $15 million lead gift to his introduction of former U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and Japan Michael H. Armacost to APARC. According to a University of California, Berkeley report, Shorenstein said he began campaigning for Asia Pacific issues at Stanford when he “became aware that the future destiny of San Francisco and the Bay Area would be pretty much connected with the Pacific Rim.”
However, the Center neglects to mention that this “patron saint” of APARC is the same man who initiated the gentrification of San Francisco Pilipino American communities just decades before.
“Shorenstein’s reputation has always been one of a progressive because he was aligned with the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party … people don’t look at what he did to contribute to the redevelopment push in San Francisco to make this the Wall Street of the West,” Lazam said.
Among the tenant activists, students from San Francisco State College and UC Berkeley joined the fight to prevent the gentrification of Manilatown and the demolition of I-Hotel. It is our job to preserve the legacy of both these student activists and the tenants, ensuring that history does not repeat itself. Therefore, the University and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) must remove Walter H. Shorenstein’s name from APARC in order to honor the Pilipinos and other Asian Americans that were wrongfully removed from their communities.
When I first heard about APARC’s Southeast Asia program, I was excited for the opportunity to finally engage with active research on the Philippines. When I heard that the namesake of the Center helped gentrify and destroy San Francisco’s Manilatown, I was heartbroken.
Isn’t it ironic that Stanford’s sole dedicated space for Southeast Asian scholarship is housed within a center named after a man who destroyed a Southeast Asian community? This is an irony that cannot continue, especially considering the University’s strong Pilipinx and Pilipinx American community.
Panahon na, Stanford. Don’t recognize Shorenstein, recognize Manilatown.
The University, FSI and APARC did not respond to comment requests.