Urban Rats
Unfinished History
Urban Rats on "stage" at 16th and Valencia, the "garden of decay," in the early 1980s.
Photo: Susan Greene
Urban Rats, a San Francisco political agit-prop group in the early 1980s, carried on an active campaign over the "Gartland Pit," targeting especially the Reverend Floyd Andrews, a shyster preacher running the Christian Spiritualist Church of America at 635 Dolores St. He had plans to "develop" the site as a home for women with drug problems (who would then work for the Reverend's church, while turning over their various support payments to him).
Photo: Susan Greene
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URBAN RATS performance at 16th and Valencia
The infamous Gartland Pit, what was left after arson killed a number of tenants and led to the demolition of the residential hotel.
Photo: Susan Greene
Gartland Hotel at Valencia and 16th Streets, 1958.
Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library