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20 Year Old Valencia Vintage Shop Retro Fit is Closing

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Photo from the AirBnB blog. Trust me, I get the irony.

The funky, artsy, weirdo Mission died a little bit more today. I received confirmation that Retro Fit, the vintage store/drag queen depot that’s been on Valencia near 20th St. for 20 years, officially got a 30 day notice. Back in February Pete Kane did a big feature on the possible demise of the shop, but it ended as a question. Unfortunately, we now have the answer. This is sad news for the community.

From the FB page of Steven LeMay

Steven LeMay has owned and operated Retro Fit for the past 12 years and he’s been as much of a staple on Valencia Street as any shop owner I can think of. I’ve bought numerous wigs, coats, shirts, and weird costume stuff from Retro Fit over the years, but more than anything I just loved popping in to bask in Steven’s glorious sarcasm and sass.

The 30 day notice is really not much a surprise. Before this the landlord had tripled the rent to $10,000 a month. Cool and funky vintage stores no longer jive with the New Mission District. What was once a street full of cafes, auto body shops, bohemian boutiques, thrift stores, and bars, has become a stretch of stores that seem to carry only seven items and restaurants with absurd prices. Commercial landlords are killing the soul of not just The Mission but the entire city. Community and culture are ineffable things and can’t be measured in dollar signs, but in this newest Gold Rush – where its an orgy of greed by an means necessary – landlords would rather charge insane amounts of rent for businesses guaranteed to fail, than continue to support good tenants who’ve been around for decades.

This is a time of jackals and hyenas, and if you can’t feed them the ever increasing amount of coin, they’re going to take your flesh. Or at least, the City’s soul.

It’s a shame that Retro Fit and Steven will no longer be on Valencia. Whatever goes in there next won’t have 1/10th of the spark that made this place special. I guess you can say the same for most of San Francisco.

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Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap

Stuart Schuffman, aka Broke-Ass Stuart, is a travel writer, poet, TV host, activist, and general shit-stirrer. His website BrokeAssStuart.com is one of the most influential arts & culture sites in the San Francisco Bay Area and his freelance writing has been featured in Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveler, The Bold Italic, Geek.com and too many other outlets to remember. His weekly column, Broke-Ass City, appears every other Thursday in the San Francisco Examiner. Stuart’s writing has been translated into four languages. In 2011 Stuart created and hosted the travel show Young, Broke, and Beautiful on IFC and in 2015 he ran for Mayor of San Francisco and got nearly 20k votes.

He's been called "an Underground legend": SF Chronicle, "an SF cult hero":SF Bay Guardian, and "the chief of cheap": Time Out New York.