Street Closed as Wind Threatens Tower Sign

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Fearing a metal sign from the Tower Theater would break off in the wind and hurt someone, police closed off Mission Street Saturday between 20th and 21st streets.

“It was flapping like a flag,” said ice cream vendor Magdaleno Gutiérrez. “It would have killed someone.”

Firefighters arrived sometime after 1:30 p.m. and placed ropes to hold the roughly 30-foot-long metal sign together, according to a Department of Parking and Traffic employee on the scene.

It was the sheets on the larger metal structure that were flapping in the wind.

The theater, currently on sale for $1.4 million, was built in 1911.

A crew from the Department of Public Works arrived soon after and installed stronger straps to hold the sign together. The Mission has endured winds gusting from 19 mph to 28 mph this weekend.

A DPT employee said they closed off the street as a safety precaution. As of 4:30 p.m. the block was closed off to cars, but pedestrians and Muni buses were allowed to cross.