This scene was part of the same building as the “Thanks, Nelson Algren”/Best Meats Inc. photo I posted in mid-June, but on the other side. If you’ve seen that photo, you might remember that I talked about the neighborhood’s impending gentrification. These warning posts felt like they were giving workers a heads up not only about the stairs they could trip over but also about the growing collection of galleries and salons just past the barbed wire and chain-link fence.

Google Street View shows that the corner has just that history. The Best Meats signs vanished by Fall 2013. By October 2015, the building had been razed and the site was a parking lot. A year later, a sign surrounding the construction said that the new building would offer 75 luxury apartments along with office and retail space. Construction was complete enough in June 2018 to see that it was becoming a walk-in clinic affiliated with a local hospital — at least that part of the building might be a best-case scenario.

May 17, 2008. Canon PowerShot SD850 IS, focal length 8.6 (35mm equivalent: 52mm), f/3.2, 1/320, ISO 80.