Club Deluxe Is Closing
Photo from the Club Deluxe GoFundMe
San Francisco appears to be losing another beloved art space. This time it’s Club Deluxe.
Cathy Lemons, a local San Francisco musician, reposted a status update by the owner of Club Deluxe, Sarah Wilde, as well a call to action for artists and local news media to get San Francisco to do more to prevent unjust evictions of culturally significant performance spaces and businesses.
“Club Deluxe is closing. I think at some point, we as local musicians have to get involved in politics and activism or we will lose the last remnants of our livelihood, locally. Club Deluxe was a fabulous place to play. This has to do with Big Tech taking over SF and big, greedy landlords not giving a damn about culture in this city. And I for one have had it. London Breed at what point do you stop rolling over? San Francisco Chronicle SF Local Examiner -we need PRESS!
“Dear Musicians,
It is with sadness, and a hint of disbelief that I must let you know Deluxe will be closing. Please allow me to say, I have done everything I can. We do not need a GoFundMe. We need the multi-billion-dollar real estate company that owns our building, to allow a fraction of their portfolio to remain occupied by small businesses, artists, the unsigned musician, the carpenter, the waitress, and the single parent.
Not because any of the above are pitiable, in need of charity or cannot pay fair market rent, but because we simply cannot be held to the same leases as multimillion dollar companies; we do not have real estate assets to put up as collateral or inflated tech salaries piling up in our accounts. We need the insatiable greed of wealthy investors, to give a flapjack about the cities they are systemically draining the color out of…but they do not. We need these investors to see us as having value in our community, but they do not, and so we vanish from the cityscapes they come into.
I love San Francisco, but I worry for her soul. I would like to move Deluxe. I would like to see it continue. I don’t know exactly how, or when. And, like moving into a new house, the family will be the same, but life will inevitably change. It will look and feel very different, and there will be trepidation, and resistance.
I am willing to take on the obvious criticism that it will not be the same. For the time remaining, I would like to offer some dates for those of you who have been there for such a long time. I’m not trying to Groundhog Day a Hartley’s Orchestra vibe, but I would like to offer the opportunity to anyone who would like to play again, and is not yet on the calendar this month, the chance to grab a set.
Please know, it has been a huge honor for me to run Deluxe these past 7 years. I feel more grateful to all of you, and to my staff than I can express.
Thank you all for the music!”
Money doesn’t make cities special, people do. Greed is destroying San Francisco and the rest of the world with it. So if you can help Club Deluxe, please do.
If you want to help Club Deluxe survive, contact them on FACEBOOK or INSTAGRAM
6 Comments
Thank you for giving this such prominence. I literally CAN’T with this deeply sad news. Where is the arts’ & culture advocacy?! They’ll protect t-shirt shops on Haight, but not THIS VENUE?! I’m rageful. It’s a TOTALY essential cultural, and one of the few local, jazz gems, and part of what makes up the heart of Upper Haight. It MUST be saved! Local govt./politics NEEDS to jump in here. NOW! PLEASE! ❤ ANYBODY?!
I will second what Paul said. We need places like Deluxe in the Haight.
In Spain they have grants for artists. Being an artist or musician isn’t looked down on. San Francisco is losing it’s soul.
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