The Streets of San Francisco
I’ve written about New York’s neon signs before – you can read about them here – but now let’s move over to the West Coast for a bit.
Alongside Los Angeles and Las Vegas, San Francisco was also known for its neon-lit streetscape. The key difference is that in San Francisco, advertisements were aimed more at pedestrians, giving the signs a more “intimate,” human-scale atmosphere.
In the 1950s and 60s, public perception of neon changed, and it became associated with dodgy bars, gangsters, and criminals. This also appeared in films of the era: neon-lit scenes often served as backdrops for darker stories featuring crime and criminals.
Most of the neon signs still operating today belong to bars, and fortunately, after the rise of LEDs, neon has become fashionable again as more and more people are looking for a “vintage look.” In the past, city leaders supported businesses that removed their neon from façades; today the situation has reversed: funding goes to businesses that restore their old neon advertisements.
All of this can be found on the San Francisco Neon Organization’s website. Its founders, Al Barna and Randall Ann, are dedicated to promoting local neon signage.
They organize numerous walking tours, have published several books, and since 2018 they have held an annual festival/symposium called “Neon Speaks,” featuring a wide range of talks on typography, heritage preservation, restoration, and urban history.
They also work closely with the Tenderloin Museum, which, in its own words, celebrates the rich history of a neighborhood that is often misunderstood and aims to provide a deeper understanding of the area. The Tenderloin is San Francisco’s “urban jungle,” with many immigrants and the challenges that come with that, such as drug use, crime, and homelessness. At the same time – as is often the case in such neighborhoods – it’s an important hub for underground culture, with many bars and nightlife venues.
If you’d like to dive deeper into the topic, you’ll find a lot of material on the SF Neon website, and there are also plenty of videos available on YouTube.
My favorite images include the neon sign advertising a viewpoint overlooking Alcatraz, and the sign of a gay bar called Twin Peaks.
Photos: © SFNeon.org.
