To be fair to the NIMBYs, if San Francisco was completely replaced with midrise apartment buildings, or 5 over 1s or even rowhouses, it wouldn't be San Francisco anymore. It'd be something different in the same place, with the same name.
Except that everything changes all the time, because time marches on. Instead of changing the buildings, we've changed the cost of living. We can no longer be a "come as you are" city, because nobody can afford it anymore, which is why all the hippies have become millionaires who cosplay being middle class, and Haight street sells overpriced tie dye instead of housing people who make tie dye in their apartments as a way to save money.
We've changed the city alright, just in exactly the way that the long-time residents were protesting against in the 1970's, except now they're receiving the rents instead of paying them.
