Food:

Alladin Restaurant at 1300 Polk Street was a great little shawarma shop, but it closed sometime before 2005. First Congregational Church of San Francisco (a UCC congregation) had purchased the site in 2001, and in 2005 demolished the old building and began construction of their new church building. Construction was completed in 2008 and the congregation has been worshiping in the new building there ever since. The Google photo associated with 1300 Polk actually shows the new condominium building with main floor retail at 1314 Polk Street, just to the north of the church. That being said, Polk Street still has lots of great Middle Eastern and South Asian food places.