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Emerging San Francisco Neighborhood Takes New Name

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – What may be the fastest growing neighborhood in San Francisco is probably one many local residents have never heard of before.

A sea of signature skyscrapers define the area, with tech giants like Salesforce and Facebook inside 181 Fremont calling the neighborhood home.

While the locals KPIX 5 spoke with guessed that the area was part of the financial district, SOMA and South Beach, the neighborhood is now being designated as "the East Cut."

Banners on street poles bearing the name are part of a new campaign to rebrand the area. It is the city's fastest growing new neighborhood with the highest concentration of new home construction in the Bay Area.

While it has often been lumped in with SOMA, South Park, South Beach or the Embarcadero, locals are trying to establish a new identity.

"Through a process with the community over a period of about a year, we looked to unify all of those different areas under one identity as a way for people to really have a sense of pride in where they are working and living," explained Andrew Robinson, the executive director of the East Cut Community Benefit District.

The nonprofit group is supported by property owners to advance quality of life and boost the economy of the area. Its team removes trash and provides neighborhood security.

"It's really becoming the live-work center of San Francisco, where people can take transit, go to open space, live in the neighborhood, walk to work," said Robinson.

The East Cut CBD approved its name in the spring of last year. It is derived from being the area east of the Second Street cut, which was a 19th century engineering project that connected downtown San Francisco to the South Beach docks.

One of the defining landmarks of the East Cut will be a bus bridge extending from Transbay Park. Once it opens in August, the bridge will bring an estimated 15,000 passengers in and out of the neighborhood each day.

KPIX 5 got a preview of the soon-to-open, over five acre Transbay Park atop the massive transit center. East Cut officials expect the number of residents living there to grow from 10,000 to 18,000 in the next five or so years.

The area already has 80,000 employees. There are several glassy high rises under construction and more than 1,000 units of affordable housing in the works.

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