The Decline of the American Laundromat

Lavanderia, one of San Francisco’s largest laundromats, is an urban relic. Its peeling aquamarine walls house some 110 machines. Telenovelas play on a TV and arcade games from the 1990s are tucked into unexpected nooks. After opening in 1991, Lavanderia—like so many other laundromats in big cities—became a social hub in a neighborhood where renters lacked the space or funds for their own machines.

But, again like so many other laundromats in big cities, Lavanderia’s future is uncertain. While families have been hauling their dirty towels, sheets, and underwear there for decades, the business’s future earnings now pale in comparison to the value of the land it sits on—rents have skyrocketed in recent

years in the Mission District, the historically Latino neighborhood in Spanish, is located.