With the Nob Hill Neighbors’ appeal to block the development of 1601 Larkin Street denied and the project’s permits reinstated, the dilapidated First St. John’s United Methodist Church at the corner of Larkin and Clay has been getting ready to meet its maker in order for a five-floor building with 27 condos to rise. And as captured by a plugged-in reader this morning, the destruction of the church is now underway
Having been twice rejected by San Francisco’s Planning Commission, once in 2010 and again at the end of 2012, the 1601 Larkin Street development was unanimously approved late last year, but not without a bit of legal wrangling.
Great for the neighborhood. This church and the cave like parking lot next to it were mini biospheres of human decay. Homeless drug addicts shooting up and having sex, defecating, urinating, vomiting, bleeding everywhere. But for some, building housing and cleaning it up is “evil.” This is why SF activists can never be taken seriously.
“Homeless drug addicts shooting up and having sex, defecating, urinating, vomiting, bleeding everywhere.”
Where were the police or neighbors when this was going on? The most expensive civic government per person of any U.S. city and yet we still have these problems! Glad to see the old building go as well.
Justin — Do you walk around the city? This isn’t NYC; this is look-away San Francisco. Live it and let live. Take a walk and see what passes. Are you on your phone when you see guys p*ssing (& more) daily? Anything goes when there’s a culture of inaction and outrage.
I realized that for the past couple months that the fence has been up, there have been no homeless or drug addicts hanging out by the church. Had the owner put up a fence when the neighbors asked him to instead of subpoenaing them to keep their mouths shut, the number of homeless . Of course, more blight would have been created, but even that could have been remedied through public art displays or small garden boxes.
Public art and small garden boxes- while you’re at it throw in some dumpsters with grass growing out of it.
You will fit right in the the SF Plannin Department (™ PlaySkool)
The atmosphere there this morning was jovial. Champagne was being poured and there were lots of relieved smiles. Along with a gold painted sledgehammer presumably used to strike the first blow. And I agree with “sf”, removing this blight from the neighborhood will lift and improve everything around it.
I just hope they are smart enough to sell all that reclaimed wood, because they could make a killing.
Sigh. I always liked that building. A more sane society would find a way to repurpose interesting buildings. But we don’t live in one of those, so I guess I’ll have some champagne, too.
And where was your long list of viable ideas for “sane” repurposing? A sane society would never have built churches in the first place.
FTW! HAHA. That was excellent.
So happy to see this POS go. It stood as a monument to SF’s incredible ability to do nothing.
It is sad to see this church building destroyed. I wish it could have continued to be used as an active church and be a place of refuge for those in need. Now the city will no doubt continue to allow the gentrification of SF with more unaffordable housing.
Yes, better we not add housing so that housing will not increase in value and stay cheap, because yeah. Or something like that. I don’t know.