San Francisco is a city in the midst of a massive transformation, and in no neighborhood is it more evident than the Dogpatch. Tucked into the southeast side of the city, its proximity to the bayfront solidified its role as an industrial hub from the start. And after undergoing periods of decline and restoration, it evolved into one of the rare urban areas where people could find the space to experiment, create, and innovate on a small scale.

When I first moved to the Dogpatch in 2011, it still felt sleepy and under the radar — it was common to find San Franciscans who couldn’t place the neighborhood on a map. I was struck by the diversity of businesses and the way they were woven into the neighborhood. While San Francisco has recently become associated with its tech startups and coder residents, in Dogpatch I found small confectioners and micro-sized fashion labels. My apartment in an old millinery, some years before transformed into live/work lofts, was a few doors down from a printing press and a motorcycle mechanic.

But cities are living things, constantly changing and shedding one element in favor of another. By the time I left, 7 years later, luxury apartment buildings were prevalent and a billion-dollar basketball arena was under construction a few streets away. And as the skyrocketing costs of living in San Francisco have pushed its people beyond the city’s borders, so too have the businesses in the Dogpatch experienced an overhaul. Many of the spaces that I photographed no longer exist. 

So, while this project was conceived as a way to highlight an uncommon patchwork of businesses, I hope that it will also now serve as a celebration of the venerable entrepreneurial spirit in this neighborhood — and to the people who put so much time and heart into making it an utterly unique place to live.