Mid-Market, San Francisco

Mid-Market
—  Neighborhood of San Francisco  —
Earthquake damage of Mid-Market in 1906.
Mid-Market Location within Central San Francisco
Coordinates: 37°46′50″N 122°24′45″W / 37.780518°N 122.412534°W / 37.780518; -122.412534
Government
- Board of Supervisors	Jane Kim
- State Assembly	Tom Ammiano (D)
- State Senate	Mark Leno (D)
- U.S. House	Nancy Pelosi (D)
ZIP Code	94102, 94103
Area code(s)	415

Mid-Market (or Central Market) is a neighborhood and development area in San Francisco, California.

Location

It is focused on Market Street starting at Fifth Street, ending at Ninth Street, and including a number of buildings down to Mission Street. ^[1] It effectively creates a sub-neighborhood of the Tenderloin, SoMa, and Civic Center neighborhoods for the purpose of redeveloping the area. ^[2]

History

Decimated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, the entire neighborhood was quickly rebuilt and for decades served as vibrant portion of the Market Street corridor.

For the last 40 years, the area has been a blighted and crime-ridden ^[3] section of San Francisco despite being a major thoroughfare for motorized, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic. Noted columnist, Herb Caen referred to the area as 'le grand pissoir' due to the amount of public urination, defecation, and vagrancy due to a consolidation and expansion of homeless social services in the area, starting in the mid-1980's. ^[4]

2011 Initiative

Past initiatives such as sponsored street murals have had little effect in revitalizing the neighborhood and in 2011 city government turned to tax incentives to encourage businesses to move in to the area. ^{[5] [6]}

The largest and most noteworthy of businesses to date has been Twitter who plan to move in to the 'SF Furniture Mart' building at Ninth & Market Street sometime in 2012. ^[7]

The move by Twitter was initially met with a great deal of controversy ^[8] while other businesses such as Zendesk quietly took advantage of the tax break and moved in to the area. ^[9] Additionally, there is still a groundswell of arts groups working to move to Mid-Market such as the Black Rock Arts Foundation. ^[10]

References

1. ^ Central Market Community Benefit District, San Francisco Office of Workforce Development
2. ^ Mid-Market’s just another way of sayin’ the Tenderloin, The Tender
3. ^ 5 Hurt In San Francisco Market Street Shooting, CBS San Francisco
4. ^ Let’s really remember Mid-Market, The Tender
5. ^ Beginnings of a Transformation in Mid-Market, The Bay Citizen
6. ^ ‘Twitter effect’ takes hold of San Francisco’s mid-Market area, The San Francisco Examiner
7. ^ Changes Take Hold in Mid-Market, The Wall Street Journal
8. ^ SF's Twitter tax-break plan spurs political fight, San Francisco Chronicle
9. ^ Zendesk move to Mid-Market, The Tender
10. ^ Burning Man joins Twitter on mid-Market Street in San Francisco, The San Francisco Examiner

Coordinates: 37°46′50″N 122°24′45″W / 37.780518°N 122.412534°W / 37.780518; -122.412534