The Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco closed on September 12. A search is on for a new location.
The Guardian reports skyrocketing rent prices in the Bay Area are driving away nonprofits like the Museum.
According to museum curator Andrew Farago, rent accounts for approximately 50% of the nonprofit’s budget. When told the museum’s rent would be doubled, it was the game-over moment….
Statistics published by The Information show commercial rent per square foot in San Francisco has nearly doubled in four years, from $34.02 in 2010 to $64.45 presently. In the third quarter of 2000, at the peak of the dot-com bubble, per square foot commercial rent hit $67.20.
San Francisco mayor Ed Lee’s office has pushed forward on initiatives to assist nonprofits to remain in the city, but it is proving difficult. His office said they were doing “all that we can at the moment to assist the many requests for assistance that are coming in as rent prices soar”.
The Museum, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, began preparing for closure last year.
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That’s a shame. I went there when I was in San Francisco last year and really liked it.
Please nobody tell me if Bob’s Donuts has also closed.
Sad news. It’s always been a great place to visit, much like the London equivalent.
We are still in San Francisco and these days, still, a non-profit after college fees. However we are not open to the public.
But the garage is available. Part of it.
What a shame. It sounds like it was a cool place. With the rental climate being what it is, I hope that any new location that they find is one that they can buy outright and never have to deal with this BS again.
Part of the trend to convert all urban space to its maximum rental value. In another generation all the cool cities will be composed entirely of the upper-middle class and professional class, living very expensive and very bored lives, because there will be nothing downtown for them to do. The wave of gentrification after that will probably involve legal drug parlors and casinos, which will then drive all the yuppies into the suburbs again.
@JDC:
Bob’s Donuts & Pastry Shop yet lives. Better yet, so does Graffeo Coffee Roasting Company. Take that, Dr. Evil’s Starbucks.
@Taral Wayne
Yes, but by then, it won’t be LA or San Francisco or New York where people look to for art and culture and new trends. It will be Cleveland and Detroit and Charlotte and Portland where the creators migrate to for the cheap rents and available space.
Lots of empty commercial space in over in Berkeley, though it may be high-rent empty commercial space.
(I think there is a tax dodge involving unrented space, so that for big-time real estate types leaving it high-priced and empty can trump lowering the cost and renting it.)
Yea Bob’s Donuts and Pastry Shop–
where you can get a sugar coma just walking by the door.
SF needs another project like Fort Mason to try to save the small arts here. I remember when someone had the idea to take over the movie theaters and the strip club on Market and renovate them to use as small theaters. Never went anywhere. But a good idea.
The two biggest losses in San Francisco in my time –
1- Staceys Bookstore
2. -Gun Exchange on 2nd Street
Southern Alameda county might be an option, though it doesn’t get the tourist traffic. Maybe they can swing Berkeley, or Oakland.
(Great Scott! It’s 1885, Marty!)
Andrew Farago, the Cartoon Art Museum’s director, is also the husband of Shaenon Garrity, of Narbonic and Skin Horse and Monster of the Week fame.