In 1971, the first owners of Modern Times Bookstore were in the midst of finishing the shop’s opening sign at its original location at the corner of 17th and Sanchez streets, when a local resident casually passed by.
“I thought San Francisco would be a great place to come and be a lesbian,” said Ruth Mahaney, recalling her move from Chicago to San Francisco. Exploring her new neighborhood, Mahaney stumbled upon Modern Times—the collectively owned and operated bookstore—and became involved throughout the course of four decades.
Now more than 40 years later, Mahaney remains the longest-standing employee at Modern Times, but the struggle to keep the iconic bookstore’s doors open has become dire.
Mahaney and the store’s employees have attempted various solutions to keep the historically collective business alive. Despite a continuing loyal customer base, the bookstore struggles in the face of citywide increasing commercial rent space and the transition into a digital media age.
Recently, Modern Times employees reached out to the city to work out a solution to save the shop.
As part of San Francisco’s Invest In Neighborhoods partnership, which works with historically significant businesses in 25 commercial districts across the city, Biz Fit SF is a pilot program currently being adapted as a model solution for Modern Times, according to Diana Ponce De Leon of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Among the services offered in the pilot program are business coaches, loans, lease workshops, and assistance in transitioning business leadership to future generations.
“Our approach recognizes that the fabric of a neighborhood is made up of individual community-serving businesses who provide essential goods to a wide range of shoppers, act as community gathering places, and provide jobs to people who need them,” Ponce De Leon said.
Modern Times was nominated and now qualifies as a legacy business, Ponce De Leon said. The classification grants businesses that can prove their contribution to the city’s identity and which have been operating 30 years with some financial protections.
But being on the legacy business registry hasn’t helped the bookstore. According to Mahaney, the bookstore would need to secure a long-term lease to qualify for the legacy business funds, which is something the property owners are only willing to do if the bookstore pays closer to market value rent.
The store’s owners pay a monthly rent of $3,600. Although their rent is below market rate value, the cost is still high for a business catering to a generation of people who increasingly opt to buy books online, Mahaney said.
The current location on 24th Street, between Alabama and Florida streets, is the store’s fourth. And it could possibly move again if employees don’t secure affordable rent or revitalize the struggling business.
“I don’t know how to do books in this era,” said Mahaney, who is the bookstore’s primary stakeholder. “We’ve never broken even since we moved here.”
The bookstore has been operating at a deficit for 10 years, covering costs for employee wages and rent. At its previous location on Valencia Street, the rent had been $6,400 a month, until the property owners requested $10,000, which the store could not afford.
Besides book sales, Mahaney said money is channeled through donations and membership fees, but that she couldn’t guarantee long-term memberships due to the shop’s unstable future, which in turn affects membership subscription.
To generate money, storeowners had also considered selling books online, until they were warned by other book businesses of its inefficiency, Mahaney said.
Mahaney currently teaches at City College of San Francisco, but said she hasn’t done much recent outreach to the community. In the past, the store had initiated meetings to brainstorm ideas for continuing the business, but these eventually slowed down and stopped.
More than just another bookstore
The civil rights movement and surging civil wars in Latin America had fueled the need for a space like Modern Times, where people interested in furthering a social justice movement would teach, learn and organize, according to Mahaney.
Modern Times organized a “Liberation School,” where people could learn about social justice. Mahaney had combined feminism, Marxism and lesbianism for a class she taught before she started working at the bookstore in 1981.
“Most bookstores don’t have a ‘women’s’ section or a ‘people of color’ section,” said Mahaney. “The bookstore started out as a movement. It has always seen itself as the arm of a movement.”
But Mahaney questions if there’s a place for the bookstore in today’s movement, one that’s being led by a younger generation.
Denise Sullivan is an author who continued as an employee at Modern Times after campaigning to save the historically black-owned Marcus Books store in the Fillmore, which closed in 2014.
“I was concerned we were losing a diverse and community-oriented business,” said Sullivan, who reflected on the current fight to save another bookstore. “It’s tragic. As an author I rely on these stores personally and professionally. These businesses are more than just places that sell books; they are sources of knowledge and education which without, there would just be restaurants and coffee shops.”
Sullivan said that among Modern Time’s most popular books are Spanish literature and bilingual children’s books. In addition, she said, people are increasingly turning to books about the global economy and environmental and racial justice, which Modern Times provides.
“They were one of the first queer-centric bookstores in the area and very progressive as far as a bookstore goes,” said Erick Arguello, a Mission District resident and co-founder and president of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, who’s witnessed the decline of many of the local businesses that made up the fabric of the neighborhood. “They’ve contributed to the community by really opening the doors to artists and poets and allowing the community to use that space to educate and expand as a people.”
Arguello said the bookstore’s disappearance would mean the loss of important alternative resources and space.
“We are looking for anyone to help carry on the business and we would like it to continue to be a progressive space that serves the movement,” Mahaney said. “That’s what I want the most: to retire and have a new generation pick up the shop and the movement, which is the bottom line.”
For more information on how to donate to Modern Times Bookstore, visit moderntimesbookstore.com, or visit their space at 2919 24th St., San Francisco, CA 94110