CONWAY -- Porch-picking parties -- small gatherings of musicians and neighbors in informal settings -- were once commonplace in the South.

San Francisco's Mid-Market District is a microcosm of the city's history, a main artery for commerce and transit that has seen great highs and deep lows, from the bustling 1920s, which saw expanded development of Market into "one of the great streets in the world," to divestment and demolishing in the 1960s, and tech-led gentrification in the 2010s and beyond.