For most of the last two decades, I’ve climbed these stairs at BART’s 16th/Mission station in San Francisco with the non-reassuring sight of a Burger King at the top of the stairs. The place actually closed and was boarded up a few years ago; a mural replaced the old BK signage. Once you reached the top of the stairs, you were greeted with a more or less chaotic scene: a decrepit, badly kept-up plaza, residents of nearby single-room-occupancy hotels hanging out just to get some outdoor time, and several regulars I’d see every morning who appeared to be dealing drugs.
But recently, I turned a corner to climb up to the street and was shocked to see that the Burger King of Burger King Plaza is no more. The dingy edifice at the top of the stairs had been replaced by a beautiful slice of sky. The old BK and several adjoining businesses — a produce store, a Chinese restaurant, a tough-looking bar called the City Club — have all been demolished. Construction is already well under way on a complex of new apartment buildings that will eventually provide 380 new units of housing.