While the rest of San Francisco has transformed at a breakneck pace, one neighborhood has maintained a sense of pride in resisting change.
In the Excelsior, six of the shops on the city’s main commercial drag are legacy businesses that have been there for more than 60 years. Some of them, like Royal Baking Co., are celebrating their 100th anniversaries this year. Most others have at least a couple decades under their belts.
And, though change is coming, many of the new gourmet coffee shops, yoga studios and wine bars have been started by Excelsior residents, in buildings owned by Excelsior residents.
Excelsior Coffee, Love and Light Yoga, and the new wine bar Talawine have all debuted in the last six years, and were founded by people who have either grown up in the neighborhood or currently live there.
It is the “multicultural cultural district,” said District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen: Waves of immigrants from different cultures have settled into loftily named Vienna, Persia and Dublin streets over the decades. Each community leaves its mark.
Salvadorian and Chinese bakeries take up the tiny mid-century storefronts, Italian delis and Filipino take-out counters stand in the same place for generations. Independent Dollar & Up stores and bargain depots, laundromats and beauty supply stores all line Mission Street, perforated with competing nail and hair salons.
El Chico Mercado operates out of the grandiose and ornate former Hibernia Bank building, the Goodwill is housed in what old-timers remember as the Granada Theatre, and Baby’s Eatery and Mama Mari’s Taqueria are the neighborhood’s bread and butter.
The steadiness of its corridor, which runs 10 blocks on Mission from Silver Avenue to Geneva Avenue, has proven to be a strength. Except for the first quarter of this year, when sales tax revenue dipped slightly below pre-pandemic levels, the corridor surpassed the 2019 first quarter figure of $185,652 in sales tax revenue by 14, 26, and 19 percent in 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively.
Though it’s growing, the Excelsior’s contribution to the city’s tax base is miniscule, less than a rounding error. The city spends a bit over $1 million on toilet paper alone, for instance.
Other corridors contribute much more: Valencia Street’s sales tax in 2024 was upward of $495,000, while the Tenderloin’s commercial corridors combined generated upward of $2.4 million.
Vacancies, crime, illegal gambling
The neighborhood also still struggles with vacancies. The former Radio Shack at Mission and San Juan Avenue has been empty since closing in 2017. The Walgreens at Mission and Ocean has been closed since 2021.
Other buildings, often in the same family for decades, have fallen into disrepair, making it infeasible to open a new business. This contributed to the spate of illegal gambling dens that plagued the corridor not even a decade ago. San Francisco police busts and city attorney lawsuits ended this activity by late 2017.
While these clandestine activities were not exclusive to the Excelsior, the crackdowns seem to have helped.
“The elimination of organized crime and its multi-departamental community effort has resulted in a corridor that has been doing better than it has in decades,” said former District 11 Supervisor John Avalos.
“I was struck by how beautiful the corridor was, for the first time in a very long time,” continued Avalos, a two-term supervisor from 2011 to 2019. “There is a new level of coordination, a new level of working together. It feels a lot safer.”
Still, there’s more to be done.
A family neighborhood
The district has among the most children and families per capita in the city, and yet there are few community centers or children’s parks, other than McLaren or Cayuga. There is really nowhere for teens to head after school.
“The community needs things right now: A gym, a pet store, a slightly more elevated restaurant that offers sit-down, a community center, pop-up green spaces, a burger joint,” said Ben Bleiman.
The bar owner, restaurateur and president of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission is the Excelsior Action Group’s newest co-director.
He was the brains behind the July 11 “From the E” night market, which featured live music, local vendors and lucha libre wrestling and was popular among residents, even attracting some out-of-towners.
“I went, and it was really bitchin’,” said Erin Lofthouse, an Excelsior resident who moved from the Mission to the Excelsior more than a decade ago. She worries the Excelsior will go the way of its northern neighbor and gentrify.
“I moved to the Mission decades and decades ago and I lived there until it became a Latino theme park,” she said. “I like to see new places opening, but I’m afraid of folks coming in who don’t know the place.”
Others disagree. Mike Tufo, owner of Calabria Bros Deli on Mission, has lived in the Excelsior for more than 25 years, and thinks there is a need for the new.
“I don’t want to be against my neighborhood, but how many more produce stands can we have? I want a Starbucks, a Philz, a Noah’s Bagels — something to brighten up the place,” Tufo said.
A customer chimed in. “We have this imaginary idea of how the city was, however many years ago; it’s gone!”
“It’s gotta change. Cities change and evolve,” the customer said. Without that, he continues, the Excelsior is “gonna be like Colonial Williamsburg or Disneyland.”
For those worried about “change” and the (dreaded) gentrification, don’t worry, like bayview the excelsior will remain a neglected and semi-forgotten shithole. SF politics and attitudes, like the “bitchin” chick quoted above, will ensure that. Bayview failed twice. Once in the mid 2000’s and again post The Great Recession. I remember it…the year was 2014: land grab in the bayview! 2019-2021: pump and dump in the bayview! Now these neighborhoods are going nowhere, as so many businesses have left, fed up with the inane intransigent attitudes of certain locals, and consequently the lack of interest from “other classes” (read: gentrifiers) to move in. TLDR: you reap what you sow 😉
The argument that change is inevitable, therefore all change is good and should be encouraged, is one that could only be put forward by either the very cynical or very stupid.
Catching a cold is a form of “change.” Getting cancer is drastic form of “change.” But you can’t stop change, right? So why bother trying to stay healthy? We’re all going to die anyways – that’s one hell of a “change” right there.
Some change is good, some change is bad, how hard is that to understand? Some change might be good for one cohort, like SFRentier’s perhaps, but bad for others. We should be wary when someone is pushing a particular type of unnecessary change that just so happens to benefit them. The first question when a powerful group pushes an agenda should be, “qui bono?” – who benefits?
Please stop with these inane reductive arguments.
“Free markets” are a fantasy. The only thing that meets all the conditions of a free market is a yard sale. All markets are subject to a variety of regulations, access, asymmetry, conditions, contract enforcement, etc. It’s only when they get to control all those factors to their own benefit that people in a given cohort call it a “free market”.
Failed government and nonprofit programs don’t make government and nonprofits inherently bad. Institutions are no better than the people who staff them. Financial privateers love to fill government and nonprofits with the incompetent and corrupt, and then yell how government and nonprofits are bad when they consequently fail.
No one with any more than a simplistic Manichean comic book understanding of politics would consider me a liberal.
Ha ha, that’s my point, change is NOT inevitable! You win, there is no change in these neighborhoods per your reductive design. They remain forgotten shitholes, so guilt ridden backwards looking white liberal boomers like you can feel good about yourselves! Too bad many others (mostly POC btw) that actually live and invest in the neighborhood feel differently. They welcome some change in demographics and new people moving in. They know that local government handouts only go so far in lasting improvements They know that free market changes are necessary. Bayview has show that in spades. Many of the non profits there, the mayors office handouts to local businesses, etc., etc. that were heavily pushed there 5-10 years ago have been a waste of money and have failed. But I guess that’s “bitchin” to some…
You definitely have “sh!thole” on a short list in your lexicon, that’s for sure – and perhaps a bit telling about you.
Relax chump. Don’t be so precious.
Wow that’s a lot of class warfare anger frothing out of a few sentences.
The most important first step in pushing back against the billionaires and their lickspittle lackeys is simply to draw attention to the ongoing class war, to shine light in the darkness. And anyone can do this – even nobody me!
It is instructive to see who is offended by and recoils from the sunlight.
Yes, change. But measured change with equity and respect for our multiculural roots in the Excelsior. Homegrown business owners old and new best option. Lastly, support efforts to form a new Excelsior Public Bank long spoken about by Supervisors Avalos, Safai and now Chen. Stay tuned. Study group being formed. Interested?
For those kids looking for after school activities-I highly recommend YAX, youth art exchange. High quality programming, affordable. Good people!
As retail storefronts in the Excelsior became available, I would bring it to the attention of Sees Candy, Starbucks, the Gap, Levis and others who I think would be a good fit. No bites.
I was told that Starbucks wanted to come in a long time ago at Mission and Geneva no less! And people protested so it didn’t happen. Not gonna happen now with them closing so many stores. But a good local Bay Area chain would be great. Can we get a kebab place? A decent breakfast spot? A gym? A Super Duper? A nicer Safeway?
The loss of two awesome restaurants in the E in the last year (Gentilly and The Dark Horse Inn) is a classic example of why this neighborhood needs some gentrification. Old, White, cranky Baby Boomer “community leaders” have been keeping the Excelsior in a cycle of stagnation and mediocrity for the last 30 years. There’s way too many Mexican taquerias on the corridor, and the nonprofits/CBD are doing a piss-poor job of breathing any new life into the area. With a few upgrades here and there, the Excelsior District looks the same as it did ten years ago. Time’s up: bring some new businesses in, and get the dead weight out!
The Excelsior District has been trapped in a cycle of mediocrity for decades, and the so-called “community leadership” from the Excelsior Action Group (EAG) and Excelsior District Improvement Association (EDIA) has only reinforced this stagnation. Both groups cling to an outdated, small-minded vision that prioritizes token beautification projects and performative community events while ignoring the systemic decline in local commerce, infrastructure, and livability. Their efforts amount to little more than applying a coat of paint over a crumbling foundation.
Without significant outside investment, modernization, and yes, gentrification, the Excelsior will remain a second-rate neighborhood, bypassed by the cultural and economic renaissance that has transformed other parts of San Francisco. Gentrification is not the enemy here; it is the only path forward. It attracts businesses, improves safety, raises property values, and brings a tax base that can fund real improvements. Clinging to preservation has only preserved blight, underdevelopment, and a pervasive sense of inertia.
The uncomfortable truth is this: the Excelsior’s future will not be saved by insular organizations, with no ambition beyond maintaining the status quo. EAG and EDIA lack imagination, influence, and the ability to execute bold change. Their failure has left the neighborhood stagnant, unattractive to investors, and irrelevant in the broader conversation about San Francisco’s growth.
The district desperately needs an influx of new residents, new capital, and new vision. Gentrification is not a threat: it’s the opportunity the Excelsior has been wasting for years. Until this neighborhood stops indulging in the complacency fostered by groups like EAG and EDIA, it will continue to decay, while the rest of the city evolves without it.