17 Reasons

“17 Reasons” is part of a continuing series of reflections on San Francisco and the Mission District. The sign was one of those mysteries of the neighborhood, a mysterious relic of an undecipherable past sitting above Thrift Town on Mission and 17th Streets. The sign was actually a slogan for the Redlick-Newman Furniture Company that occupied that corner from 1913 to 1975, until the construction of the BART tunnel along Mission Street destroyed many businesses on the street. The "reasons why" were always up to the viewer - the "why" part of the sign had fallen off shortly after I moved to the city. When San Francisco voters passed an ordinance outlawing new billboards in the late 90s, an advertising corporation removed the sign and illegally placed beer ads targeted at Latino consumers.