SoMa

Sunset, Nov, 1987

SoMa

What's bringing so many creative people to San Francisco's South of Market district these days?

"The wonderful mixture of energies,' several answered. And, in fact, there is a truly stimulating diversity here. Besides its spectacular wholesale markets and traditional blue-collar vitality, this part of town has a vibrant new population of artists, designers, photographers, and architects; unusual galleries (showing everything from neon to video); and inexpensive but venturesome restaurants. In addition, generous square-footage in old warehouse and manufacturing spaces accommodates a number of special enterprises that need lots of elbowroom--from factory outlet stores to sound stages to auction galleries.

"It looks sort of flat and dead on the surface,' says Ali Ghanbarian, owner of the trend-setting Billboard Cafe. "But every alley is crowded with talent. I hate to think that the big real estate interests may take over a lot of property, hike up the rents, and drive all the creativity away.'

The area that spreads south from Market to Hunters Point has indeed become San Francisco's last frontier for large-scale development, and there's no doubt that much will change. This month, voters will consider a proposed major-league ball-park at Seventh and Townsend streets. Some of the old industrial buildings have already been rehabbed and "gentrified.' As goals are being set, conflicts aired, and local and regional interests balanced, it's a good time to explore this unique part of the city, see what new sensibilities are at work, and try to understand what's in danger of displacement.

There are no Muzak-injected shopping malls here, no upscale cooky franchises or Laura Ashley pinafores; nothing is tranquilizingly standardized. Weekdays, parking is frustrating (although not as bad as north of Market; a public garage is at Fifth and Mission, and there's new public access to a garage on 12th near Folsom), and drivers must twist around the big blinking back ends of double-parked delivery trucks.

Outdoor amenities are few: aside from the gentle old oval of South Park, you an forget green space. And there's hardly a finial's worth of San Francisco's famous Victorian gingerbread: what you see are continuous low-rise, flat-roofed brick of masonry buildings, blank-faced toward the street or staring through oversize industrial sash.

But what you'll find inside is special: comparatively low rents make this area hospitable to creative experimentation, and warehouse-scale floor plans afford room to cut loose. The combination makes for lots of one-of-a-kind activity.

The art scene

Chance-taking art is welcomed here, and a dozen or so newish galleries can be entertaining stops for a Saturday's exploration (most are open other times, but Saturday is big for all of them--and some of the weekend browsers are themselves artifacts worthy of view). You pick your way across a street, over a slick of unused railroad tracks; enter an old warehouse through a plain-spoken service door; pass a gate-fronted freight elevator; venture down a dim, uncarpeted hallway--and find yourself in a dazzling, white-walled art space.

Serious work is taken seriously, but there's also an ironic or tongue-in-cheek quality in much that you see here. On a recent foray, for example, we encountered a glass-fronted Gothic cabinet stuffed with the red-and-white fabric legs of cast-off Raggedy Anns; a prom dress made out of carpenter's nails, points inward; and a video of an artist painting his body to match a nearby rock, so as to become indistinguishable from landscape.

A walkable group of galleries clusters near and along Folsom Street; Haines, 855 Folsom (882-4470); HFA, 855 Folsom (882-4470); Don Soker, 871 Folsom (974-6489); 871 Fine Arts, 871 Folsom (543-5155); Artspace, 1286 Folsom (626-9100); Neon Neon, 270 7th (552-4163); Gregory Ghent, 301 8th (863-9428); and Media, 360 9th (864-0308). Clustered farther south are Khiva, 300 Brannan (543-2787); Bruce Velick, 173 Bluxome (896-5700); and Roberta English, 123 Townsend (957-1007). Off a bit are Triangle, 95 Minna (777-2710) and Joseph Chowning, 1717 17th (626-7496). All area codes are 415.

Vision, now quartered at 1155 Mission Street, specializes in photography; Suite 3-D, 329 Bryant (882-7063), mounts small but sophisticated shows of computer art.

SoMa is also strong in performance art and video. These spaces often present such work: Art Com/La Mamelle, 70 12th (431-7524); Climate Gallery, 252 9th (626-9196); New Langton Arts, 1246 Folsom (626-5416); and Video Free America, 452 Shotwell (922-7870). Intersection, at 766 Valencia (626-3311), is a kindred spirit, though geographically more Mission District than South of Market.

Restaurants: expect the eclectic

An experimental spirit pervades this area's kitchens as well as its galleries, and several recently opened restaurants have become very popular. At most, you can dine well for less than $15. Most serve a kind of California cuisine revved up by a creative internationalism that is sometimes highly successful--as in Frenchfried Japanese eggplant with pestocilantro mayonnaise--but on occasion inventively indigestible. We've had our best meals at Eddie Jack's and Taxi.