I moved to 18th and Dolores in 1993. Among all the changes that the neighborhood has gone through since then, somehow, just outside the hustle and bustle, this intersection remains the same. The four corners here haven’t changed in decades.
A block away at 18th and Guerrero Carl’s became Tartine. Quality Junk and Bruce’s little shop where I’d get my hair cut got gobbled by Tartine and Delfina. Bi Rite changed from the dusty place where I got my catfood, to . . . you know, what it is now. Anna’s, where you could get cookies for diabetics, is Farina’s.
Stand in the middle of this intersection (watch out for cars) and look around you, for now, you’ll still see the old neighborhood. The one I moved to, the one that was there before me. Robert’s little world beat music store is gone. Al’s Comics has moved. But these four corners persist.
excellent reportage! this is one of the best posts i have seen on Mission Mission in a while.
ive been here since 96, so that was a nice trip down memory lane. it most certainly is a different neighborhood than it was 10 years ago. or even 5 years ago.
my question to you (and the other readers) is: do you enjoy it more in its current incarnation, or do you wish you could turn back time and revert it to 1993?
I liked it a lot then. I furnished my apartment at Quality Junk. Carl’s had great coffee for less than a dollar a cup. Service was definitely better at Carl’s than Tartine, but I don’t remember their staff being as attractive. The corner was great then, and it’s nice now too. Neither better or worse. Just different.
its just different. i lived at 18th and lexington from 1993-1999 and then moved back to the city in 2005 and couldnt afford to live in the neighborhood anymore! i loved annas and my house too was an outpost of quality junk. now i do love tartine and go to birite everyonce in awhile but its not my neighborhood anymore. id maybe feel different if i still lived there.
That’s a tricky question. Thanks. When I moved here I was going into high school, and was coming from the Santa Cruz mountains, so the neighborhood was both scary and exciting.
Our rent was less than $900 for a top floor two bedroom hardwood railroad apartment looking out onto Dolores Park. Then, during the dot com boom our landlord evicted us through a loophole and tripled the rent.
So, it’s kind of hard not to be bitter about the changes. But the fact that I have fought to stay in the neighborhood definitely says something. I’m not sure what, though.
That corner store looks like it has the same stock that it did in 1993.
Anybody know the deal with that corner store? It’s open like three hours a week and carries about seventeen items for sale in total. Would be great to have a working corner store.
I loved the background behind these photos. I miss the San Francisco I never lived in although I’m glad to be here now.