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.
A Love Letter to the Tenderloin, In Photographs
A moment caught at Market and 6th St. in San Francisco, circa 1991. (Dave Glass/ Courtesy of the Tenderloin Museum)
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.
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.
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 .
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