A new report on the "Gap-Toothed Face of Mid-Market" — by former Curbed SF editor (and accomplished cartoonist!) Susie Cagle — documents the rise-and-fall history of the (currently fallen) stretch of Market. It's not the first examination of the blighted neighborhood, and given all the attention lathered on the area in recent months, from a billboard proposition to CityPlace mall, we wager it probably won't be the last. But all the attention's part of the point of the 4,000-word piece, which keenly notes that San Francisco's Mid-Market efforts tend toward "stop-gap measures that appeal to the city's upper cultured class, such as the Art in Storefronts campaign, which dressed up empty store windows to make the neighborhood feel less barren." Likable as such campaigns are, they haven't done much to change the actual character of Mid-Market.
That would explain why Warfield owner David Addington has to tell his second Mid-Market grossout story, in which a dude drops his pants in front of 40 Showdogs patrons. Appetizing! If there's any hope for the area, says Livable City director Tom Radulovich, it lies in a future loaded with new residents, people who'll care about the neighborhood even after government and nonprofit employees clock out and BART home. To that end, Susie's created a pretty sweet interactive graphic showing what's what and who's who on Mid-Market, from Trinity Place to Fox Plaza's 11-story baby brother. Hey, the drag's looking almost cute, even.
· The Gap-Toothed Face of Mid-Market [Spot.us]
· Mid-Market Coming Attractions Include Strand Theater Ministudios [Curbed SF]
· Stories Behind Some of Mid-Market's Blight, and Possible Renewal! [Curbed SF]
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