Alexis Miranda, Bar Manager

About the Project:
Once a thriving business center for San Francisco’s gay male community and since the late 1970s a destination for some of the most underrepresented segments of the LGBT community, especially homeless youth, Polk Street, also known as Polk Gulch, has been undergoing rapid change. Gay and transgendered bars are closing, rising rents are pushing out long-term tenants, and middle-income heterosexual-oriented small businesses, clubs and residents are moving in. Tension, bitterness and misunderstandings now characterize the community.

This project is an examination of Polk Street's history through the lens of current neighborhood change, culminating in a traveling multimedia exhibit; an hour-long radio documentary created with producer Jay Allison; a series of oral history pieces; a historical narrative; and a series of neighborhood dialogues and events.