Residential development threatens S.F.'s music, dance clubs

The explosion of new housing projects across San Francisco is threatening to pull the plug on music and dance clubs from North of the Panhandle to Potrero Hill to the Mission.

In a city going through a housing crisis, every unit is badly needed. But for live music fans, the pressure is stereophonic.

On the one hand, nightclubs in the path of progress are being targeted for demolition to make way for housing, including the eclectic indie rock venue the Elbo Room on Valencia Street; Cafe Cocomo, a salsa dance bar at 650 Indiana St.; and the Sound Factory, a dance club on Rincon Hill.

Still other club owners are looking over their shoulders uneasily as housing proposals crop up across the street or next door, because residences and nightclubs often don't mix well.

The Independent on Divisadero faces the possibility of new, upscale housing on both sides: the former Harding Theater to the south and the Alouis Auto Radiator shop to the north. Both properties are slated for nine units over retail. The Independent, which started out as the Half Note jazz club, has been around for 60 years.

"We are very much aware of the fact that residential development has the potential to disrupt the way that we operate," said Allen Scott of Another Planet Entertainment, which handles booking and promotion for the club. "We welcome the extension of the commercial corridor on Divisadero Street, but we do so with our eyes wide open."

Across the street from the Bottom of the Hill on 17th Street in the Potrero Hill neighborhood, developers are hoping to build 395 units at an old Cor-o-van storage center as well as two smaller projects on Missouri Street around the corner. The smaller projects would include units with decks from which condo owners could peer down at Bottom of the Hill's popular patio.

"For us it seems like development is a train coming down the track," said Tim Benetti, an owner of Bottom of the Hill. "We will do our best to negotiate survival, but if it's too big and comes too fast, I don't know how we are going to negotiate that."

Theoretically, those who choose to move close to a rock club know what they're signing up for. But as every club owner knows, what sounds good in theory is very different at midnight when you have an early appointment or are trying to get your baby back to sleep.

"We have had several people move in behind us and the next day they are calling the police," said Jason Perkins, who owns Brick and Mortar Music Hall on Mission Street as well as the New Parish in Oakland. "We have people moving in who look upon this as a bedroom community. They have to go to bed so they can get up in the morning and get to the Google bus."

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Residential development threatens S.F.'s music, dance clubs