valencia comic book store brave new world

I compiled much of this list initially from memory one day, then curiosity piqued, I began researching the topic more earnestly, and began looking in old photos, advertising circulars, flyers, magazines and other publications.

These here are pretty much all that I can recall and many I never even frequented but still they have left traces I could glean documented in biz tax registries, old tourist guidebooks or newspapers. Having lived, played, wined, dined and wandered the Streets of San Francisco since the late 1980’s, now a period spanning some thirty years, I’ve seen many a local business come and go in three decades, and a fair number of national chains fold as well. The only common denominator between them all is that they’re all shuttered, moved on and gone from their once visible presence in their original locations on our ever morphing San Francisco city streets. Several entities namedropped on the list were only here briefly, maybe mere months, perhaps being opened in a cash flush whimsy during the early 21st century, others may’ve been here serving a neighborhood for generations before the owners retired or were priced out by a rent gouging landlord. I was partly inspired by the San Francisco Remembered Facebook group which gives people space to share their memories of an ever changing city by the bay, as well as the interest in the SF89 doc. Some of these were just neighborhood spots and dives, some were well known or iconic semi-legendary locations in biz for decades, some neither…but they all existed at some point before closing within the past three decades of my time spent here in town.

The list compiled here below on this page is a random registry of places that I could think of that have left San Francisco since I arrived in the late 1980’s.

Valencia comic book store brave new world