Save Cinema 21

WHEN THE ROXIE Cinema was threatened with eviction last month, San Francisco movie lovers banded together and came up with more than $25,000 in donations, enough to keep the rep house up and running. But the Roxie isn't the only movie house in danger. As Cassi Feldman reports in Hall Monitor on page 13, two other neighborhood theaters are slated for demolition.

Cinema 21 on Chestnut Street could be the third. The historic theater closed down last year and is now at risk of being transformed into a giant Walgreens drug store – the last thing the city needs more of. The Planning Commission split 3-3 on the item April 18, with commissioner William Fay absent. Now he'll be the tiebreaker, unless another commissioner has a change of heart.

It's not impossible. Last month the commission, once ridiculously easy on developers, blocked a project on Mission Street on the grounds that it was incompatible with the neighborhood. Preserving Cinema 21 would be another step in the right direction.