Enter the resurgence of San Francisco’s South Park, which was where many of the dot.com companies landed pre-2000. Are people hopeful, and trying to recreate what was? C’mon, we’re in a new era already.
Yet, its a great article covering some of the coolest SF-based Web 2.0 companies. Scott Beale said in the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle in an article by Dan Fost on how new Internet companies are returning to the South Park area of San Francisco, which over a decade ago was called “Multimedia Gulch” and was ground zero for much of the early days of the web, being the home to Wired Magazine/HotWired, Organic, etc.
The actual SF Gate piece here. Dan is a great writer; he touches on not just the return of the new dot.com equivalents to the hood, but the hood itself.
Since I have a client in the area and friends who work within a block or two, I find myself there a few times a month. Says the article on South Park as a neighborhood: “South Park was rebuilt into a motley collection of warehouses, machine shops, sleazy hotels and honky-tonks.”
“South Park followed a familiar trajectory: sparsely populated and down in the dumps, it was discovered by artists and designers, who spruced things up, paving the way for the tech firms of the mid-1990s. Max Applegarth, a fifth-generation San Franciscan, took over a former brothel in 1991 and opened Caffe Centro, which has become the de facto gathering place of the community. The French bistro South Park Cafe was also established around that time.”
I took a French Canadian friend to South Park Cafe recently…….it was a fabulous meal and the service was great.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
