Meet Kristin Klein, the owner of Vacation SF, a vintage store on the corner of Larkin and Ellis where neighbors are encouraged to “let their freak flag fly.”
Vacation SF has been a solid fixture in the Tenderloin for the past ten years. On weekends, they also run flea markets which engage with the larger community, and capture their own #TenderloinMiracles on social media.
A Florida and Georgia native, Kristin is a vintage-clothing genius who later found herself in San Francisco. Read on more to hear about her experiences in the neighborhood, Vacation SF, and how to save the Tenderloin.
When did you first open your shop in the Tenderloin, and what was it like back then? What drew you to the neighborhood?
Vacation opened in 2012, a year after I moved here. My first apartment in SF was on Ellis & Larkin. I moved to the city from Atlanta, into an apartment I had never seen and a neighborhood I didn’t know! I immediately fell in love with the Tenderloin- it reminded me of being in a time machine- I felt like the neighborhood was rich with history and characters- it felt like walking around in a living novel. I still feel like The Tenderloin is unlike any other neighborhood!
How has the neighborhood changed over the years?
In the past, I felt like the neighborhood was safe—but wild. People and their problems stuck to themselves, lots of…activity on the streets, but nothing threatening. In past years it felt like a vibrant neighborhood- with a heightened population of eccentrics, drugs etc- but I never felt unsafe. Pandemic and post-pandemic have changed the TL. It’s been heartbreaking; the mental illness seems to have turned up to a ten, the drugs, and the crime. For the first time in almost a decade, I don’t feel safe here.
Who are some of your favorite local vendors that you work with, and what are some of your favorite memories from hosting the flea market?
I missed Aunt Charlie’s so much and worried about all of the folks from there during the Pandemic. When we started the flea I reached out to Olivia Hart and “The Three Queens Are We” girls to perform in the street. Technically, I don’t think we were supposed to have performances but we kinda just went for it.
It felt like something really special; the first flea—seeing folks come together for the first time in months, giving vendors the opportunity to sell again, hear music loud for the first time in forever—and then a drag show in the middle of the street, in the TL. It was so special and we felt like “Man it is so nice to just smile again, to dance and to throw dollar bills at drag queens!”
The fleas really kept me grounded—having people gather, safely, outside and in the TL during the Pandemic was a bi-weekly reminder that, eventually, the world would return to normal.
What changes would you like to see or steps from the local government, or what can people do to help out the neighborhood?
There’s a lot here—I’d love for the city to consult with the business owners. I’d love the cops to establish a number for local businesses to call if they have a problem, and for police to actually follow up when we have a problem. We’ve had two robberies and I’ve never heard a peep from the detectives or officers involved.
Designated safe parking so people feel like they can park and walk in the TL without worries of their car getting broken into. Subsidize the storefronts of new businesses-—if you make a vacant space cheap, you’ll have people willing to take a smaller risk, and populate the vacancies with new life in the TL.
Put Tenderloin ambassadors and de-escalation officers on every corner to help regulate the increasing craziness and help chill out tense situations. And more garbage cans!
Send D6 leadership into each business and make direct contact with the people you represent.
Help the neighborhood with GOOD PRESS! Spotlight shops, restaurants, merchants with positive stories- maybe the SF Chronicle could do a series on good news in the TL— every single piece of press is negative, people that never come down here REALLY don’t want to after reading constant bad news about the TL.
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