A two-car crash this morning resulted in one vehicle smashing into the front of lesbian bar Jolene’s on the corner of 16th and Harrison streets in the Mission District.
Workers at neighboring businesses reported hearing a loud crash just before 8 a.m., but said that because their front doors face away from the four-way intersection where the accident happened, they only saw the aftermath.
A witness who rents a studio above Jolene’s said he was inside when the crash happened and rushed down to investigate.
He described the scene: An SUV was backed into the front door of Jolene’s with its airbags deployed, and a pickup truck with a smashed hood was pulled over on the other side of the street. Police and firefighters were present at the scene, according to another eyewitness.
The witness said he saw the SUV driver, a woman, taken away on a stretcher by ambulance. The man inside the pickup truck appeared to be unharmed.
By 9 a.m. both vehicles were removed from the scene. With the car dislodged from the bar’s front entrance, the damage was apparent. The lefthand entryway’s lower portion was smashed in, exposing a wooden beam, and debris from the crash was left scattered along the front entrance and street. The front iron gate was bent inward, but seemingly stopped the vehicle from reaching the storefront’s front doors.
Jolene Linsangan, the bar’s owner, said she got to the establishment at around 12:30 p.m. after learning from a neighbor what had happened. She estimated that repairs to fix the damage will cost about $10,000.
“I have to pay for this and the costs are so crazy,” she said, “I’m barely surviving over here.”
Linsangan is hoping to open the bar on Thursday for business as usual.
As of publication, the San Francisco Police Department has not released a report on the incident.
Someone is gonna die on 16th Street between Harrison and Bryant; it’s just a matter of time. That hill — 3 blocks counting Alabama and Florida in between — is a total death trap. I take my life into my hands biking/walking across it on the way to the SPCA and Potrero Center Petco.
The city should build a median with pedestrian refuges and bulbouts at all four intersections (Harrison, Alabama, Florida, Bryant), making it safer to cross the street and slowing cars. But they probably didn’t because of some myopic excuse that that would cost too much or that encouraging people to cross at Alabama and Florida would slow down the bus. Well, those choices have consequences. I’m glad it’s not a person dead this time; still sucks for Jolene’s and their patrons.
Thank goodness there was no one walking on either sidewalk or biking in either (totally unprotected) bike lane.
If you check Jolene’s Instagram feed you’ll see there was a cargo bike with children on the back waiting at the intersection , maybe 10 ft from the path of the accident (a protected bike lane wouldn’t have stopped anything-the car would have flown right over it. Fortunately the rider had stopped well out of the intersection
There was someone on that side in the bike lane, just far enough back to be safe. Jolene’s shared an IG video showing what happened.
Why mention that it is a lesbian bar? Would it be less of a tragedy if the bar had not been a lesbian bar??
I mean, now that we know it’s a “lesbian bar”… Regardless, sad that cars keep causing so much carnage to people and businesses. Time to support and give them some more biz!
Wish them luck getting back open. Has been several months out of commission for Reems after a similar incident.
Does the city track this sort of damage to businesses from human drivers?