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Landmark Status Considered To Save SF's Gold Dust Lounge

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – The fight to save the Gold Dust Lounge off San Francisco's Union Square continued Wednesday at the Historic Preservation Commission, which will look at whether landmark status should be considered.

The bar has been a Union Square fixture since the mid 1960's, and before that it was a restaurant. At Wednesday's commission meeting there were several passionate pleas to save the bar, which is being evicted to make way for a clothing store.

"The Gold Dust Lounge is the last outpost of this old San Francisco character," said one speaker.

KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:

Sam Singer, the spokesman for Handlery Hotels - which owns the building, said that the bar is not a landmark.

"When a few San Franciscans get nostalgic over a tourist dive bar you have to worry if their next campaign will be to preserve tee-shirt shops at Fisherman's Wharf," said Singer.

The commission will decide at its next meeting whether there's enough history to warrant a full landmark review, but Singer said that won't stop the eviction.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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