Way back in 2010 things weren't looking that great for 16th Street stalwart Adobe Bookshop, and it's only gotten worse. We'd heard in January that owner Andrew McKinley was going to try to turn it into some kind of co-op, and there was an event there in which at least one reader sounded alarm bells about the Mission, and San Francisco in general, becoming "a suburb of Silicon Valley." Well, now the rumor is that Jack Spade, the men's line from Kate Spade, is dying to move into the space, and this week McKinley was served his final eviction notice.
The "Retail for Lease" sign has been up on the building for a few months now, and the Jack Spade deal remains unconfirmed.
It's a very, very sad thing for the Mission, and the loss of the eccentric, cozy 25-year-old used bookstore will be felt deeply through the local literary scene. McKinley cultivated an odd salon of sorts around the couch at the front, and businesses like this simply aren't easy to find anymore as San Francisco becomes ever more a nexus of artisan charcuterie and four-dollar coffee. But, alas, we're not sure anything can be done now, and McKinley perhaps should have gone the crowd-sourcing route a year or two ago, if he really wanted to save the place.
