outfitting and repairs, warehouses, steel mills, and similar industries flourished until after World War II, when they began to decline. Dogpatch endured several decades of decline, which lasted until the 1990s, when economic pressures led to modest gentrification of the existing housing stock, and new construction including loft-style condominiums, many of which were designated as "live-work" units for artists, graphic designers, and similar occupations. The conversion of existing industrial space to live-work units or other housing has been controversial. Early history Dogpatch was uninhabited land for much of its history, used sporadically by Native Americans as hunting ground. In the late 1700s, Spanish missionaries grazed cattle on the hill and named this area (Dogpatch and Potrero Hill) Potrero Nuevo. "Potrero" is Spanish for "pasture"; "Potrero Nuevo" means "new pasture." Rancho Potrero de San Francisco Mexico gained independence from the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1821. In 1844 the Mexican Alta California Governor Juan Alvarado granted Rancho Potrero de San Francisco to Francisco and Ramon de Haro, the 17-year-old twin sons of Don Francisco de Haro, who was then alcalde (mayor) of Yerba Buena (present day San Francisco). Just two years later, Francisco and Ramon de Haro were shot dead by Kit Carson along with their uncle, José de los Reyes Berreyesa, in Sonoma at the order of U.S. Army Major John C. Fremont, who had declared war on Mexico. Fremont's men were called the Osos, the local insurgents of the day. These Osos jailed the Sonoma alcalde and put the town under siege in the Bear Flag Revolt. The de Haro twins and De los Reyes Berreyesa traveled to Sonoma to inquire on the safety of the latter's sons when they were discovered and killed. With the death of his sons, Don Francisco de Haro became owner of Rancho Rincon de las Salinas y Potrero Viejo. Construction of street grids in the Gold Rush era In 1848, after the conclusion of the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded all of California, and it was admitted into the Union in 1850. Dr. John Townsend became the second mayor of the town now called San Francisco (changed from Yerba Buena in 1847). He succeeded de Haro, who was distraught over the death of his twin sons. Townsend would have a profound impact on the development of Potrero Hill. With the start of the Gold Rush era in 1848, San Francisco experienced unprecedented rapid