All things food and news have been buzzing about Pearl’s Burgers coming to 6th & Market. Having eaten at their delicious spot on Post at Jones, I most definitely approve this move. These guys make a tasty burger and having another spot to eat at on the opposite end of the Tenderloin is going to be great.
Something that hasn’t gotten as much press lately is the new hostel that’s been approved to go in to the old Grant Building which sits at 7th & Market as reported on SF Curbed way back in January and Grubstreet more recently. And this is actually a more crucial thing to happen than Pearl’s opening up. As shown by the hostel on Ellis at Larkin, tourists want a cheap place to stay when visiting San Francisco, which the ‘hotel district’ in no way offers. People stay at that hostel in great abundance and they frequent the areas around it.
Once the hostel at 7th & Market opens, the same thing is going to happen. It will bring much needed foot traffic that will in turn fund business and grow the mid-Market area more than anything that City Hall tries to do in an official capacity. In their defense, most government efforts to clean up this stretch are met with vocal homeless zealots advocates screaming, “That’s divide and conquer! They’re trying to split up the poor to push them out!” in reference to the Tenderloin and the area immediately south of Market being where apparently every low income person in SF lives. When this is often said, I’m left scratching my head and wondering, how in the hell is revitalizing empty buildings pushing out the poor? We’re supposed to just leave buildings to rot in the name of some kind of homeless policy that is ultimately self-defeating?
I think that they mean to say that businesses coming in to the area will focus on the problem that the homeless industry in the Tenderloin has carved out a nice little corner in the city that it wants to keep economically repressed and how dare anyone come in and create a sustainable neighborhood without their approval.
I greet these new projects and welcome more. The vacant building blight that affects this area is an big embarrassment when Market should really be the grand boulevard and heart of our city.
Picture of the Grant Building by Mark Ellinger of Up from the Deep
3 Comments until now
The problem here is that small businesses and non-profit organizations–such as the SF Study Center, which publishes the monthly Central City Extra, and which has been a Grant Building tenant for many years–are being evicted because the owner stands to make a lot more money by turning the building into a hostel. A similar thing happened in ’95 when the Shorensteins evicted a whole building full of non-profits from the Golden Gate Theater. This is about deep-pockets corporations elbowing out small business, sugar-coating their tactics with the label of “revitalization.”
Nah, Toby. Certain ‘small businesses and non-prophits’ seems to have an entitlement complex.
I have no problem finding solutions to offset the blight along mid-Market, but it would be nice if the options offered benefits to all the folks who already reside in the area other than the usual response: “more foot traffic (i.e. more moneyed foot traffic) makes for safer streets.
Most of the current mid-Market residents have no reason to interact with the hostel, nor do I believe many have the discretionary income to partake in the proposed entertainment venue.
As for Pearls, I find their burgers just so so and an option when I forgot to make it to the grocery store.
I don’t know how many of the current Mid-Market residents have that option. Also, it seems like the Post St. location is doing pretty well financially and is one of three bay area locations, including Mill Valley, where I’ve also eaten, so I don’t understand why the City is giving the owner “grants” to open on Market. With the hostel open and the AAI across the street, this location is bound to make a killing after the streets are made safer.