Historic Pagoda Theater of Pigeon Coop?

North Beach has a handful of murals all around the neighborhood. One of the most famous and visited murals is the Bill Weber mural on Colombus and Broadway, which I ended up choosing to write about for my final story. Another is on the outside of the City Lights Bookstore in Jack Kerouac Alley, which is right next to the mural on Vesuvio's as well.

All these murals incorporate aspects of the North Beach Neighborhood and history. Especially this one:



I asked around at shops surrounding the mural, which was right next to Washington Square Bar and Grill on Powell Street and Columbus, but no one seemed to know much about it. The building it was painted on was hollow and boarded up, and I later found out that it was the location of the old Pagoda Theater. A former live performance venue, the building has been closed down and vacant for 15 years, according to this article on SFGate.com, and now mainly serves as a home for pigeons. In the top right corner of the picture you can see part of a white banner that was hanging on the scaffolding that says "Enough with the plywood," a sarcastic remark that shows the sentiment of the residents and some of the neighborhood's leaders.

Now there is a battle between different people who want to develop it or not, but that doesnt seem to be taking any action or going in any direction. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in the near future.