I used to see lots of foreign movies with my artsy friends at the Cento Cedar in the ‘80s, during my high school and college years — I particularly remember seeing Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Bob le Flambeur.” We used to treck into the City just to see movies at the Cento, and then eat at Tommy’s Joynt. Now I live just a few blocks away, but virtually all of the theaters along the Van Ness corridor have vanished. Here’s a picture of the theater, when it was still the Cedar Alley Cinema: View link
Problem is, even though it has landmark status, all that seems to mean in San Francisco is that they have to protect the facade. Plenty of beautiful buildings in SF have basically been gutted for commercial or residential use, with only the facade left standing as some sort of bad joke, and some huge development arising all around it and engulfing it. The Hoffman Grill on Market Street is a prime example. At $19Mil, I can only assume that any buyer will want to build on this property, and will only do the minimum necessary to preserve the Alcazar (ie, just preserving the facade)…
I used to see lots of foreign movies with my artsy friends at the Cento Cedar in the ‘80s, during my high school and college years — I particularly remember seeing Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Bob le Flambeur.” We used to treck into the City just to see movies at the Cento, and then eat at Tommy’s Joynt. Now I live just a few blocks away, but virtually all of the theaters along the Van Ness corridor have vanished. Here’s a picture of the theater, when it was still the Cedar Alley Cinema:
View link
Problem is, even though it has landmark status, all that seems to mean in San Francisco is that they have to protect the facade. Plenty of beautiful buildings in SF have basically been gutted for commercial or residential use, with only the facade left standing as some sort of bad joke, and some huge development arising all around it and engulfing it. The Hoffman Grill on Market Street is a prime example. At $19Mil, I can only assume that any buyer will want to build on this property, and will only do the minimum necessary to preserve the Alcazar (ie, just preserving the facade)…
Pictures available here:
View link
My family used to go there regularly in the ‘70s, to watch films from Greece of all things!