Photographs by Dick Evans
According to the Norris, Victorion “speaks to the subject of gentrification in the Mission District of San Francisco, supporting the persistence of Latino business owners and residents. The mural also speaks to the importance of the preservation of original San Francisco Victorian homes through a ten-foot robot, suitably named, “Victorion.” the “Defender of the Mission,” takes form as a giant Victorian house crushing the so-called “hipsters”, cafes, and businesses that are raising the cost of living and lowering the quality of life for native Mission District residents, whose houses are portrayed with “For Sale” and “For Lease” signs throughout the piece.”
Thousands of mostly minority residents have been displaced from the Mission to the surrounding Bernal Heights, Outer Mission, and South Bay neighborhoods since the early 1990’s due to rising housing costs brought on, in part, by the so-called “dot-com boom.” Mural art such as Norris’ Victorion has taken to “defend” the Mission which, as Precita Eyes muralist Fred said in a personal interview, “can have a paradoxical effect. The art itself raises housing costs, thus leading to further gentrification” (personal interview 2012).