Up From The Deep

The revitalization, so to speak, of the mid-Market corridor was already well underway when I shot this series of photos. Cranes and construction curtains are evident in many of the images. Years after the Great White Way had faded and died, its residuum sustained the landscape’s familiarity. Now, even that is disappearing. The St. Francis Theater was demolished April 2013. Soon, everything on the north 900 block of Market, except the Warfield Building and Crest Theater (Crazy Horse), will be razed. On the south 1000 block of Market, both the Imperial Theater and Kaplan’s (remnant of the Forrest Building) are slated for demolition. The old buildings will be replaced by high-rise condominiums, a multi-level shopping mall and a purported arts center,* all quite aloof and aseptic. Too soon, I fear, I will feel like an outlander in a strange and surly domain.

*Other than Hospitality House on Market Street, there is only one center for the arts in this town that has my undying love and respect, and that is Galeria de la Raza on 24th Street.

(Reminder: all images can be enlarged with a single click.)

“Gone is the Glamour” (2014)

“Faded Beauty” (2014)

“Courthouse” (2014)