upper waypoint
The Do List

A Love Letter to the Tenderloin, In Photographs

Rae Alexandra
Save ArticleSave Article
Failed to save article

Please try again

A young Black woman wearing a gold chain, dangling earrings and casual sweater, gestures, putting her right arm at an angle next to her. Behind her on the right stands a grinning, young Latino man wearing a leather jacket and a baseball cap with an X on it. Behind her on the left is a young Black man wearing a work shirt buttoned all the way up, with a baseball cap and sunglasses. Behind them all is a Black person of undetermined gender wearing white sunglasses and backcombed hair.
A moment caught at Market and 6th St. in San Francisco, circa 1991. (Dave Glass/ Courtesy of the Tenderloin Museum)

Descriptions of the Tenderloin have long been seeped in negativity. This was happening long before the past couple years, when Fox News has reported streets full of “zombies roaming” and the Daily Mail blamed the TL and Civic Center for making San Francisco “a byword for drug taking … and associated crime.” Even back in 1977, San Francisco’s own Examiner newspaper had an entire series that described the Tenderloin as “hell at your doorstep.” That same publication referred to the neighborhood as “the shady part of town” all the way back in 1897.

For the people that regularly frequent, live in and/or still love the Tenderloin and mid-Market neighborhoods, these widely distributed, one-note perceptions of the area are frustrating and frequently worthy of an eye-roll. Outsiders are all too often willing to focus on the worst rather than appreciate the Tenderloin’s small businesses, tasty restaurants, fun bars, long-standing charitable organizations and interesting local characters.

A senior man with white hair and receding hairline pours a drink from behind a small, old-fashioned bar. He is wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and black pants. The bar is full of Christmas lights and lined with mirrors. There are three or four patrons seated at the bar.
‘Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, Turk Street, Tenderloin District, San Francisco 2016’ by Dave Glass. (Courtesy of the Tenderloin Museum)

Enter photographic hero Dave Glass. He’s a San Francisco local that has long documented neighborhoods — and, crucially, the mix of people within them — across the city. Glass had the good sense to spend decades documenting the Tenderloin and Civic Center, and his new exhibition, Central City 1960-2016, reflects an appreciation for those neighborhoods right when it’s needed most. Right when, let’s be frank, so many people have nothing good to say about the area at all.

In the exhibition, on view at the Tenderloin Museum through the end of the year, Glass only has 14 images on display — nine in black and white, five in color. But each is potent, and the collection is carefully curated to reflect the broad swath of life that has always existed in the neighborhood. Cool kids on street corners, anti-war protesters, a smiling baby in a Volvo driver’s seat, a stoic Polk Street watch repairman. They all exist alongside old neighborhood bars and their patrons, liquor store foot traffic, and cops lined up on Market near Sixth.

A line of motorcycle cops block off the entire street. Barricades hold back crowds on the sidewalk behind them. A cinema promises LIVE NUDE GIRLS from its marquee.
‘Market Street Cinema 1985’ by Dave Glass. (Courtesy of the Tenderloin Museum)

Though small, Central City is a fuller — and fairer — picture of the Tenderloin and mid-Market than most of the country is afforded right now.  Glass’ black and white images are the most striking, too, in part because, at a glance, they all appear to be from the same era — despite them spanning 45 years of street life.

Through Glass’ lens, the Tenderloin and its surrounding streets become timeless. There is something undeniably beautiful about that — especially while so much of the country is still talking smack about them.

‘Dave Glass: Central City 1970-2016’ is on view at the Tenderloin Museum (398 Eddy St.) until Dec. 30, 2023. Glass will appear in conversation at the museum with Adrian Martinez and Austin Leong on at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 7 .

Sponsored

lower waypoint
next waypoint