Two weeks ago, on Nov. 15th, I visited San Francisco downtown. It was my first visit to downtown area since the start of the pandemic, and it just happens to be during the week of Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). I decided to trace the route on Grant Ave as described in Max Stern’s 1922 articles The Price of Salmon, which my brother & I re-published as a book last year. Stern was an investigative newspaper reporter who was assigned to join a Chinese gang and sailed to Bristol Bay to work in Wood River salmon cannery — in an effort to expose the dark secret of the salmon canning trade. According to Stern: “Grant Ave is one of the most fascinating streets in the world, for in its short compass of a half mile you can shop in the atmosphere of three civilizations.”

I got off the BART at Powell station and walked up the stairway to the street level exit, and was surprised to be greeted by hundreds of people who were there protesting the visit of Chinese president Xi JinPing. I wove my way through the noisy crowds and headed towards Grant Ave. On Grant Ave., I noticed many name brand stores, some closed, and many with security staff in the front. There were quite a lot of workers/visitors/tourists on the busy street, and the security was visibly tighter including more policemen, and APEC guides. I found the streets nice and clean and no homeless people or tents — it was obvious that the city has done a great job cleaning up for the occasion.

Just over 100 years ago, in 1922, SF Daily reporter Max Stern wrote about Grant Ave: “in four blocks running north from Market St are like New York’s Fifth Ave. It is here Milady does her afternoon shopping. The city’s most exclusive stores spread gorgeous Parisian gowns in their ample show windows; flower vendors line the broad sidewalks; dainty tea-rooms tempt the smart shoppers into cool and fragrant rest. The trackless street is filled with monogrammed limousines, driven by liveried chauffeurs. Success, leisure, refined well-being pervade its sunny expanse. It is the apex of a civilization that 150 years of American striving have wrought.”

I walked north and entered Chinatown through the Dragon Gate at Bush St. On both sides of the Grant Ave, the shops were busy with visitors and locals, and there was a holiday atmosphere with the display of red lanterns and yellow banners welcoming President Xi of China.

100 years ago, Stern wrote: “A short walk up a steep hill brings you to Sacramento street and the gateway to the old world. Here Grant Ave narrows into the main thorough-fare of Chinatown. For a half-dozen blocks you walk, as in a dream, through a lazy maze of strange sights, sounds and odors…You gaze into stores stocked with queer oriental herbs, restaurants with ornate balconies under pagoda-crested eaves and dark basement steps, leading heaven knows where. And under it and over it and through it swarms, like bees in a hive, the slant-eyed race of the Rising Sun, quiet and inscrutable, but decidedly busy with its own affairs.”

I crossed Columbus Ave. and entered Little Italy; there, I found more restaurants, and a lot of people in coffee shops.  I walked a block and found the location of sub-contractor Mayer & Young’s Clothing store which was described in Stern’s book. Vaguely, I still can recognize the building from the 1922 photo.

Stern wrote: “At Columbus Ave, the street changes again. Here is the gateway to Little Italy. Of a sudden Grant Ave has became the marketing street for the Neapolitan fisherfolk of North Beach and Telegraph Hill.” According to Stern: It represents the old western world, the European culture, filled with the Mediterranean flavors and colors. 

Stern wrote about the clothing store: “the stores of the three nationals that line the sides of Grant Ave are many and strange, but the strangest of them all is a certain gent’ furnishing shop, run by J. S. Mayor and Solomon Young. The store stands at a point on Grand Ave where the exotic charm of the orient is fading into the picturesqueness of the Latin quarters. It is just north of Columbus Ave, where for the moment the street becomes ugly and ordinary through the presence of a group of cheap lodging houses and shoddy shops”

Over the past 100 years, many things have changed. If Max Stern were alive today, he would be be shocked by the rise of China and the recent visit of Chinese president Xi JinPing during APEC. Yet, at the same time, many things remain the same. Grant Ave hasn’t changed much: he would still recognize all the surroundings and landmarks as he strolls from Market St., through Chinatown, to North Beach. And I am sure he would wish that SF downtown remain vibrant and clean — as an apex of American civilization – even after APEC.

Reference:

1. The Price of Salmon, Max Stern, 1922, first published as a series of 37 articles on SF Daily News. Book 2022 edition, James & Philip Chiao
2. Grant Ave Photo: Grant Ave. at Market Street, San Francisco, 1915, public domain, Wikimedia
3. Chinatown Photo: Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, Arnold Genthe, between 1920-1930, public domain, Wikimedia
4. Grant Ave near Columbus Ave Photo: Young’s Clothing Store, The Price of Salmon, SF Daily News, 1922