Polk'a(holes)

The original owners of the Lush Lounge began to raise the profile of Polk Street a decade or so ago.  They made it cooler, and hitched the notch decidedly up, but I would not go so far as to call the renaissance of Polk Street a gentrification.

However, with the return of thriving business, restaurants and entertainment venues, tool Polk Gulch the Marina—and all it's straightness, squareness and douchiness—has been slowly making its way south.  The Marina proper, to its credit, still holds fast to its own turf and neighborhood identity.  But the changing state of Polk Gulch has taken a turn, and now it seems that Polk Gulch is the designation for the Bridge and Tunnel (which on this coast includes the peninsula) Marina'wanna'be crowd.  Posers' posers.

From the SFist: Polk Beating Suspect Turns Himself In; Others Still At Large

Raymon Abad, 27, of San Mateo stands accused of coming to San Francisco, getting smashed, and then brutally beating a 23-year-old Hayward man who tried to stop Abad and several of his dirtbag pals from harassing women on Polk Street in January.

The dirtbags were from San Mateo. The hero, who will survive but never fully recover from his injuries, is from Hayward. So I take it a bit back with the B&T crack. Kudos to the young man who stepped in to defend the damsels in distress. I hope he has a good civil lawyer.

See also.

Photo by the active photographer and photographers' activist Thomas Hawk.