Marcus Bookstore, a "Fillmore District institution that's been in the same Victorian at 1712 Fillmore St. since 1960, must move out by June 18, following an April bankruptcy sale that saw the storied building sold for a fraction of what it is likely worth," the Examiner reported, noting that the only chance the "oldest black bookstore in the nation" has for survival is if "the new owners can be convinced--by the NAACP, by housing activists, by the neighborhood, and by the city--to sell to a neighborhood-based nonprofit that's offering them a modest profit on their deal, as well as the chance to be saviors to a pillar of black community in San Francisco."
"We're not asking for a handout," said Gregory Johnson. He runs the bookstore with his wife, Karen, who added: "It would be one thing if we didn't have the money. But we do. We have the money and the city behind us."
Westside Community Services has offered to pay the new owners $1.64 million for the building, but they are refusing to sell for less that $3.2 million, and asked a judge in April to order an eviction.
Officials from the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development "have been investigating alternative locations along Fillmore Street for the bookstore to rent and approaching property owners.... But it does not appear that the city can aid Westside in its efforts to buy the building and keep Marcus Books in its home before the June 18 eviction date," the Examiner wrote.
Unless their offer is accepted at the last minute. "Maybe," Johnson said, the current owners "might end up the heroes of the story."
