A longtime resident who moved here from Portland in 2010 recently posted their personal roll call of the dead: Dottie's True Blue. Ruby Skye when Armin and Tiësto were on the decks. Elbo Room. Jardinière. La Folie. Zero Zero. Gen Gen Room. The Grove on Hayes. Lee's Deli. Gracias Madre. The list goes on — and on — like reading names off a memorial wall.

SOMa used to feel "startup-y." Market Street had people going to work. The Mission was for partying. Westfield was open. The Safeway in Duboce was functional before Covid — a qualifier that now separates two entirely different eras of San Francisco life.

As one local put it: "Just imagine if you'd been here since before the internet. And were into movie theaters and book stores." Fair point. Nostalgia is a layered thing in this city, and everyone's version of "the good old days" is just someone else's era of decline.

Another resident added their own casualties to the list: "Lucca Ravioli. Revolution Cafe. Lucky 13. Anchor Brewing. The tamale lady, RIP." They also noted that the Elbo Room didn't die — it just moved to the East Bay, "like many other cool institutions that were priced out by new money and old NIMBYs."

Here's where we'll editorialize: this isn't just about vibes and memories. Every shuttered restaurant and relocated bar represents a business that couldn't survive the cost structure of this city. Rents too high, permits too slow, regulations too thick, taxes too heavy. When your favorite taqueria closes, that's not some mysterious force of nature — that's policy failure.

San Francisco's leaders spent years making it harder and more expensive to run a small business while simultaneously presiding over street conditions that drove customers away. You can't regulate your way to a thriving restaurant scene. You can't tax your way to a vibrant nightlife.

The nostalgia is real, and it's earned. But nostalgia without accountability is just sentimentality. If we want the next generation of Dottie's and Elbo Rooms and Gen Gen Rooms, we need a city government that actually understands what kills them — and stops doing it.