I know I’m going to come across as a curmudgeon here, but the truth is sometimes painful.
It seems like every decent/good venue for newer and up and coming bands to perform is closing in S.F. First the Hemlock Tavern is closing down in just a few days, now it’s been announced that the Elbo Room is closing down on New Years. This is another nail in the coffin for musical artists in the city.
I played in 3 semi well-known bands in the Bay Area, and both venues were always fun to play shows at. I must’ve played around 15-20 shows at the Elbo Room between 2005-2011, and I always enjoyed it. The upstairs, with a bar and pool table, was great to be able to hang out with people and have fun and conversation along with having a great view of any band playing regardless of where you stood. Plus the sound man would give you a recording of your performance like the Stork Club in Oakland used to do.
Over the last 7-10 years, San Francisco has been changing for the worse. I know some people will disagree, but it’s the truth. People from all over the U.S. have flooded here, doubling the population, and raising the costs of living all around. The rent is astronomical (I lived at 15th and Folsom from 2006-2007 in a house and paid $500 per month, then me and my bass player had a 2 bedroom apartment on Powell between Bush and Pine and we paid $1300 total), parking prices have skyrocketed, and the price of groceries have easily doubled as well.
Now the arts are suffering to the point where musicians and artists can not afford to live here anymore. Even in Oakland, a new apartment building recently completed that claimed to be “affordable”, is charging $3,000 a month for a 400 sq ft studio! S.F. Is losing its creativity, soul, and originality all for money. Yet even with all this new large influx of cash, right next to the tourist hub at the Powell St Bart Station, 1 block away, are hundreds of people shooting up heroin, smocking crack, and shitting in the middle of the sidewalk. Hell, they even do it IN the Powell and Civic Center BART Stations.
Time to say goodbye to the San Francisco everybody knew and grew up with here. Now it’s a new San Francisco, full of high income, low intelligence people who have no concern of culture. As long as they have a place to park their new Mercedes and have room for their 2 kids and dog.
R.I.P. S.F. 1850-2010
Submitted October 02, 2018 at 10:54PM by Yetiforestman https://ift.tt/2zMu3UW
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