And I weep with you Carl. The El Capitan Theater on Mission is now a 24/7 parking garage, and at one time it was a grand 3100 seat Spanish Colonial inspired movie palace. The Tower Theater now is (or was) covered in graffiti. Some years ago, when I was attending Noir City, I planned to spend a day driving all over town to take photos of the remaining movie marquees. My photos were few. There were pitifully few left. The Alexandria's sign still stood out on outer Geary, as did the Avenue out on San Bruno Ave. That was a theater that my grand mother used to take me to when I was a little kid. In her Italian accent she used to call it the A-ven-u-way. When you spoke about the changing demographic of SF, perhaps nothing personifies that as when I went to upper Polk St. to see the marquee of the Moorish inspired Alhambra Theater, which is now the home of a Crunch Fitness center. It's like screw movies, I want my washboard abs. The communal experience has been reduced to running in the middle of a long row of other treadmill users.
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