After a colorful history spanning over nearly 100 years, an Upper Market staple is set to close to make way for condominium development. Lucky 13, a dive bar and community hub, sold last year and is set to close at the end of 2018. Standing out amongst monochromatic buildings, Lucky 13 speaks to the adventurer in a shade of bright red, with an elusive crowd bustling in and out of all hours of the day. Needless to say, the regulars that have called Lucky 13 home, and the LGBTQ community members that have found sanctuary under its roof, will miss the familiar low-lit, friendly, and safe atmosphere.
The loss of Lucky 13 is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to development in the Upper and Mid Market neighborhoods of San Francisco. Most of the neighborhoods are littered with construction signs and busy work. During the work-week, the foot traffic is scarce. It’s no wonder that many of the businesses in the area are short-lived, making it even more devastating that legacy businesses such as Lucky 13 are forced to close their doors as well in the face of looming condominium development.
Martin Kraenkel, the general manager of Lucky 13 for the last 21 years, has worn many different suits during the different phases of ownership. He has watched the bar been sold 3 times since he took his place behind the counter. Although he owns his own bar, Molotov, in Lower Haight, there’s something special about Lucky 13 that has kept him around. “Not many bars in San Francisco where you have all different age groups. Here you have 21 to 80 on a daily basis. Not many bars where people mingle like that. It’s usually one scene. I really appreciate that. Very different clientele, different age groups,” says Kraenkel. [2]
According to Kraenkel, the first time he watched the bar get sold was to its second owner 17 years ago, but then last month, the third owner purchased the property.
The current owner, Multiventures LLC, purchased the property for $9.75 million, according to a property listing from Coldwell Banker. [3] The purchase price is astronomical, considering it had previously been sold for a tenth of what it did in 2017 in 2004. The last time the property was sold, Lucky 13 was purchased for almost $1 million, according to information obtained from the SF Property Information Map. [4]
With Twitter, Uber, Square, and Dolby just up the street in the city’s Mid-Market neighborhood, housing is a hot commodity along the three-mile stretch of Market. It’s no surprise that things are changing, but not all long-time business owners are meeting the transition with hostility, Kraenkel included.
“The reality is that nobody blames the tech people for it. I blame the landlords for it. And I’m a landlord myself, so like, it’s the greediness of the landlord. No tech person wants to spend $5,000 on one bedroom if you don’t have to. Like, they are able to do it because they make more money, but I mean, they don’t want to spend that. It’s the greediness of the landlords, and it’s the same for the commercial properties. Of course you want to blame them because you think they don’t do enough for the community, for the money they make, and the tax breaks they get through the city, [people think] they could be doing more for the community,” says Kraenkel. [2]
In fact, it’s rare to find members of the community that remember it to be anything different than it is now. Patrick Marks, another small business owner up the street at The Green Arcade, is one of them. Marks has inhabited his space on Market Street for 10 years, and remembers better days when the neighborhood was bustling because of the activity on the system of railways that were being developed and becoming popular along the street. The section of Market Street was known as the Hub, because of the intersection that these railways created. However, a change in the development altered the climate of Upper and Mid Market, creating the “ghost-town” like atmosphere along this stretch of the street.
“The biggest difficulty is that at one point the neighborhood was devalued because they built the freeway right through it. Then when they decided to rebuild the freeway after the earthquake, they took down the double decker parts of the freeway that used to terminate in Hayes Valley. And then, they decided to rebuild the super freeway extension. And thus…it devalued the neighborhood. It was seen as just a transit artery to the west side of the city, which was kind of a payback for the freeway not going to Chinatown. It creates these kinds of zones…it went from being a hub to being a disused area. There seems to be a lot of prostitution and drugs. There are still a lot of drugs. This is a supply zone for a lot of heroin.” [1]
As for Lucky 13, Kraenkel has no control over the closure, but will be sad to see it go. While undoubtedly he remembers the past fondly, like “walking into a Mad Max movie”, the transition is inevitable. He hopes that the feeling of warmth and safety, and the comfort of home, leaves a lasting impression on the patrons. [2]
[1] Patrick Marks, interview
[2] Interview with Martin Kraenkel
[3] Coldwell Banker property listing (https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/ca/san-francisco/2140-2144-market-street/pid_19278110/)
[4] San Francisco Property Information Map (http://propertymap.sfplanning.org/)