Mid-Market, San Francisco

Mid-Market (also Central Market) is a neighborhood and development area in San Francisco, California, bounded by Market Street to the north, 5th Street to the east, Mission Street to the south, and Van Ness Avenue to the west.

Mid-Market
Neighborhood of San Francisco
View of Mid-Market, following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
View of Mid-Market, following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
Mid-Market is located in San Francisco
Mid-Market
Mid-Market
Location in San Francisco
Coordinates: 37.780518°N 122.412534°W / 37.780518; -122.412534
Country United States
State California
City-countySan Francisco
Area
 • Total0.17 km2 (0.067 sq mi)
Population
 • Total2,170
 • Density13,000/km2 (32,000/sq mi)
Economics
 • Median income$102,321
Time zoneUTC−8 (Pacific)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−7 (PDT)
ZIP Codes
94103
Area codes415 and 628

In 1906, Mid-Market was decimated by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and over the next century, Mid-Market would rebuild itself. In the 21st century, Mid-Market has served as a major economic area for San Francisco. Mid-Market contains the headquarters for Twitter, Block, Reddit, Zendesk, Uber, and Dolby, as well as historic buildings, such as the Old San Francisco Mint, the James R. Browning United States Courthouse, and the San Francisco Federal Building.

Mid-Market is part of California's 11th congressional district, as of 2021.

Geography

The Mid-Market redevelopment area is centered on Market Street starting at Fifth Street, ending at Van Ness Avenue, and including a number of buildings down to Mission Street.[1] It effectively creates a sub-neighborhood of the Tenderloin, SoMa, and Civic Center neighborhoods for the purpose of redeveloping the area.[2]

History

Early history

Decimated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, the entire neighborhood was quickly rebuilt and for decades served as vibrant portion of the Market Street corridor.

Noted columnist Herb Caen referred to the neighborhood as 'le grand pissoir' because of the amount of public urination, defecation, and vagrancy due to a consolidation and expansion of homeless social services in the area, starting in the mid-1980s.[3]

Economic growth

Past initiatives such as sponsored street murals have had little effect in revitalizing the neighborhood and in 2011 the city government turned to tax incentives to encourage businesses to move to the area.[4][5]

The largest and most noteworthy of businesses to date has been Twitter, which moved into the old San Francisco Mart building (now known as Market Square) at Ninth and Market streets in 2012.[6] The move by Twitter was initially met with a great deal of controversy,[7] while other businesses such as Zendesk quietly took advantage of the tax break and moved to the area.[8] A number of arts groups, such as the Black Rock Arts Foundation, are working to move to Mid-Market.[9] In October 2013, Square moved its headquarters to the mid-Market area, followed by Uber and Dolby.[10] Reddit moved its corporate headquarters to Mid-Market in October 2019, in an area leased to Uber and Square.[11]

Equally transformative, and often attributed to the new density of tech headquarters in Mid-Market, has been the concurrent increase of residential buildings, most notably high-rise apartments and condominium towers.

References
  1. Central Market Community Benefit District Archived 2012-01-09 at the Wayback Machine, San Francisco Office of Workforce Development
  2. Mid-Market’s just another way of sayin’ the Tenderloin, The Tender
  3. Let’s really remember Mid-Market, The Tender
  4. Beginnings of a Transformation in Mid-Market, The Bay Citizen
  5. ‘Twitter effect’ takes hold of San Francisco’s mid-Market area, The San Francisco Examiner
  6. Changes Take Hold in Mid-Market, The Wall Street Journal
  7. SF's Twitter tax-break plan spurs political fight Archived 2011-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, San Francisco Chronicle
  8. Zendesk move to Mid-Market, The Tender
  9. Burning Man joins Twitter on mid-Market Street in San Francisco, The San Francisco Examiner
  10. Square moves into new S.F. headquarters
  11. Li, Roland (October 2, 2019). "Reddit moving headquarters to SF's Mid-Market, joining Uber and Square". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 8, 2023.
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