SF Supervisor Notes Lack Of Diversity, Seeks To Help Save Fillmore's Marcus Books
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— A San Francisco supervisor is asking for more time to raise the money to buy a prominent African-American bookstore in the Fillmore District after a long struggle to prevent its eviction.
Marcus Books, located at 1712 Fillmore St., opened in 1960 and was a center of black culture, but recently the building was sold at foreclosure and the owners have been locked out after losing a long battle against investors.
District 5 Supervisor London Breed, whose jurisdiction covers the Fillmore and Western Addition, hopes to meet with the bookstore this week to develop a plan to help buy back the building from the new owner.
"It's not just important to me as an African-American, it's important to many of my constituents in my district who have asked, 'What can we do? What do you think we can do to try and have an African-American population here?' People want diversity and they want African-Americans as part of that diversity," Breed said.
She continued to say that San Francisco is owed at least a look at the possibilities. "Not a handout, but an opportunity," she added.
"There's just a balance that we need to strike and it can't center around the fact that this is just a capitalist society. It has to be more," she said.