All the big stores, including Sears, had branches here. By the 1960s, the Mission had become more Latin in flavor and population. Urban renewal, suburbanization, and BART subway construction drove out most of the big stores and theaters along Mission Street as well as most of the Anglo middle class. Today, Spanish is more common than English, but the area remains vibrant with restaurants and locally-owned businesses. A walk down Mission Street from 16th to 24th reveals much of San Francisco's twentieth-century popular culture and history.
Old storefronts remain, with old names etched in stone walls and entryways.
Inside, new businesses serve a new clientele. In The Mission, the recent past has not been erased, but adapted. And there are few vacant storefronts. Mission residents seem to be more concerned with their neighborhhod than with individual property values. A former movie house, now completely intact and serving as a furniture store.