ISSUE 147 – August, 2014

NO. 147 PUBLISHED BY THE CENTRAL CITY Intersection San FRanCISCO STUDY CENTER fights to pull August 2 014 out of crisis $200,000 in debt, group slashes staff, MANOR cuts performances HOUSE DELAYED BY M ARJORIE BEGGS san francisco NTERSECTION FOR THE Arts turns Plumbing 50 next year, a venerable age for any I nonprofit, especially one that has incu- woes, more IN THE SHADOW OF TECH bated thousands of artists in all disciplines, helping them to get their art in front of postpone audiences. But before it hits that milestone, Inter- reopening section has run out of money to fund its most visible operations — resident artists’ PAGE 2 theater and music performances, visual arts exhibitions, and youth and community education programs. Board Chair Yancy Widmer and then-Interim Executive Director Arthur Combs on May 22 blasted an email to In- tersection’s 16,000 followers: “Our finan- cial situation is deeply challenged, and it has become apparent that the current business model is no longer sustainable.” Intersection had nine staff, but June 1 it furloughed three key program direc- tors and a communications assistant and stopped producing its own works, except for a handful that were already in the pipe- line. The city’s oldest alternative arts space — where James Broughton and Allen Gins- berg read poetry, Spalding Gray did mono- logues and Robin Williams honed his com- edy shticks — is facing an uncertain future. So far, the only good news is that the 124 incubator arts projects are unlikely to be affected. Intersection serves as their fiscal sponsor, a tax-exempt nonprofit TECH BUS “This may be that manages non-exempt FIRMS' FEE just another organizations’ finances and gives their donors tax-de- KICKS IN path in our ductibility for any contributions. It’s a way to launch trajectory.” new arts projects, sustain Tariff triples temporary ones and help ILLUSTRATION LISE STAMPFLI Deborah Cullinan more established ones get with more FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR firmer organizational foot- It’s been over three years since the Twitter tax break triggered a tech run on the central ing. parking cops city. Now, all of Market Street’s midsection falls under tech’s shadow. But not the Tenderloin. The projects do their own fundraising. Intersection, a fiscal spon- on duty sor since 1977, charges them 8% of the PAGE 3 grants, donations and contributions they receive as an administrative fee. Galeria de la Raza, Litquake and San Francisco Blues SNAPSHOT OF CHANGE Festival are among the groups Intersection has sponsored. “Intersection is fragile right now, but In central city, only the scary all our fiscal sponsor projects are safe,” Widmer told 150 supporters, project staff, board members and funders who TL is resisting gentrification convened July 15 to have “A Community Conversation” about Intersection’s future. BY JONATHAN NEW M AN AND GEOFF L INK Twenty-five years later, traffic was “The money we manage for the projects blocked and the street dug up to build BART. was never in danger.” HE HEALTH AND VITALITY of the Market Street’s midsection — the sev- Randy Rollison, Intersection interim city for 175 years has been measured en-block stretch from Fifth Street to Van T by the pulse of Market Street — the Ness Avenue — saw a four-decade decline, 3-mile-long municipal artery stretching marked by empty buildings and closed from the Embarcadero to Twin Peaks. Early storefronts, from the ’70s till now. settlers called it the Path of Gold when Sier- That same stretch — dubbed Central ra miners with flakes of ore dropping from Market in a bland mix of bureaucratic and their bulging pockets trundled the street’s real estate parlance — has become the mea- plank walkways. sure of San Francisco’s renewed vigor, glow- It survived the 1906 quake and fire and ing from the self-proclaimed civic wisdom proudly supported the great rebuilding, site of tax breaks and economic strategies, ener- of Phelan, Flood and Palace edifices. gized by a concentration of newly located The l920s and ’30s brought playhouses tech companies and their expanding work- and grand movie palaces to the thorough- forces. fare. Some saw the flashing lights of the Market Street, in this early 21st century marquees and called it the Broadway of the decade that is dominated by tech, has tak- West. en on a new identity with a fresh-scrubbed, PHOTO ALLEN WILLNER When Jack Kerouac stumbled from the suburban personality that is rubbing off on Resident artist Aaron Davidman's solo Greyhound station on Seventh in the late the central city. This is a snapshot of that production, “Wrestling Jerusalem,” pre- ’40s he wrote of all-night cafeterias, pinball change three-plus years into the Twitter tax miered at Intersection in March. arcades and a vivid street scene throbbing break that triggered it. with sailors, hucksters, junkies and whores. ➤ C ONTINUED ON PAGE 6 ➤ C ONTINUED ON PAGE 4 4 months, $400,000 till Manor House reopens BY TOM CARTER owner and baker and farmers’ market purveyor who was looking for a second HE DISCOVERY of faulty plumb- restaurant and accepted the challenge ing and other deficiencies at of providing affordable meals at 210 T the shuttered Manor House Jones St. Restaurant will cause a delay of at least Atkins signed a seven-year lease with four more months and cost upward of TNDC in December, intending to open $400,000 to fix before the once low- a few months later. But during cleanup cost dining haven for hundreds of poor the plumbing problem was discovered. folks in the Tenderloin can reopen. Orlin acknowledged “the great de- Lease-holder John Atkins told The lay” and was eager that the humble eat- Central City Extra that problems had ery open “as soon as possible.” been discovered during an extensive “But once you find one thing cleanup earlier this year. (wrong), it leads to another and another,” “We had plumbing issues,” Atkins she said of the 1926 building. The restau- said at his baked goods stall in Heart of rant had been renovated in 2004. the City Farmers Market. “None of us A more thorough on-site examina- knew what (else) needed to be done.” tion will soon be conducted, then bids The nonprofit developer TNDC brought accepted, a construction contract signed in experts, he said. “They looked at ev- and time-consuming permits pulled. erything” and, lo, more things needed TNDC will cover the “huge cost,” attention. and Atkins won’t be charged rent until “When a restaurant stays closed a the restaurant is ready for business. “We PHOTO LENNY LIMJOCO 2008 certain amount of time, things may have don’t want to burden him with pay- to be done. There will be a renovation. ments.” Robert Mathena and Johnny Martin were among the throngs of Manor It will take four months, start to finish.” But these are details yet to be rene- House regulars when Mimi Yee ran the restaurant that featured affordable meals. Cost estimates range from $200,000 gotiated in a new, long-term lease, she to $400,000, Liz Orlin, TNDC’s chief op- said, adding how happy TNDC is with where it’s located. In recent years, its erating officer, told The Extra. “No one Atkins. cleanliness evaluations from the Depart- Eva Langman anticipated it would take a lot of work,” “We are thrilled to have him, and ment of Public Health inspectors scored [email protected] when Atkins took over the restaurant we’re excited to have him there,” Orlin higher than Manor House did when it or 415.666.5072 last year, she said. “We thought it would said. was open. Atkins’ business card calls it be a relative quick turnaround.” But At- Atkins said he was going to raise a “boutique cafe” that also does cater- Kick your writing up a kins found that the plumbing, grease prices, The Extra reported in March, ing. It features his baked goods, which notch with my support. traps, even the walls posed problems. but that the hikes would be reasonable. he also sells at Heart of the City and the Over a decade’s experience Then TNDC brought in contractors and Yee’s prices, he said, were too low for Alemany Farmers Market. architects to evaluate what needed to be today, reflective of an economy 15 years Atkins doesn’t know if he’ll keep the as freelance writer & editor done. ago. Manor House name. For now, the icon- of poetry, prose and Manor House closed Feb. 18, 2013, “The $3.50 breakfast, no way I can ic restaurant is a darkened shell and its non-fiction, I’ve guided when Mimi Yee, who managed it for 17 do that,” he said. “The variables have $3.50 belly-filling breakfasts and gener- years, serving a sometimes rough crowd gone up. I can’t afford to give it away, but ous $4.95 lunches delivered by quietly progress on memoirs, web six days a week, announced she was I’m not there to gouge anyone.” helpful Chinese American waitresses are content, critical essays & Atkins has a thriving hole-in-the-wall another fading memory of the changing quitting because of the failing health of dissertations. Meticulous, her husband John, the head cook. TNDC restaurant in Cow Hollow called Golo, hood. Chained and padlocked, it sports searched for months for a successor, the name deriving from the first two two signs: “Closed” and “No Dogs Al- well-versed and patient. before findingA tkins, a small-restaurant letters of Gough and Lombard streets, lowed.” HOUSING APPLICATIONS ARE BEING ACCEPTED FOR THE KNOX AND BAYANIHAN HOUSE Did You Receive A Mandatory Retrofit Letter? You Are Running Out Of Time The Knox Bayanihan House Please go to 241 6th Street, San Francisco, CA for applications To Submit Your Screening Form! The TODCO Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Housing Waiting List is open; for the Knox and the Bayanihan House.

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