It was skillfully played by passersby — many of whom were unhoused.
Another unusual item was put out on the streets of San Francisco just a few weeks after that aforementioned sarcophagus: a still-functioning piano.
“The other day someone left a piano at Capp and 17th and people walked by and played it all day,” Ariel Dovas posted on X in March of 2022. In the pictures, you can see someone trying to play the instrument, while another individual looked on at a nearby sidewalk.
The replies to the post on X, as well as comments tied to an IG post, spanned the gamut of delight. Most people were ecstatic and found the abandoned piano’s pull to attract passersby refreshing.
“[It was] actually a cool old piano, and I played it Saturday,” Suzzane, a.k.a. “Kitten on the Keys,” remarked. Matthew H. waxed that the sight reminded him of how San Francisco “used to be.”
In fact: One Barbara G., who responded to our post and turned out to be the mother of Dovas — the individual who first uploaded the photo — shared that “many unhoused people with incredible talent” took to the piano’s keys over the weekend, enspelling the Mission District with impromptu recitals of surprising quality.
“I took this photo (mom of @eviloars) and it was played throughout the day by many unhoused people with incredible talent and deep memory,” she wrote on IG. But, alas, all that was good and fun and wholesome inevitably came to an end when San Francisco’s Department of Public Works (DPW) came to snatch the old-school piano.
“ Early [Monday morning,] the city DPW came by, and even after pleading with them to leave it,” she continued. “A few men lifted the piano — one of them even played it — and put it in the big loud garbage crushing truck and crushed it to pieces.”
You’re not the only one who found that last line disheartening; G. said the noise of the piano breaking into the pieces was “loud” and “heartbreaking.”
Honestly, it’s such a shame this piano’s renewed life as a source of serendipitous joy ended on such a somber note. If anything, it could’ve at least been acknowledged for what it was — a still-functioning piano that likely cost thousands of dollars when new — and taken elsewhere. Or at the very least… not crushed into oblivion on-site by a string of gnashing metallic teeth.
At least we know that while it was out enticing all who walked by to play its keys, it introduced a bit bit of levity into this world.
Feature Image: Courtesy of X/[at]eviloars
That’s what this city does to beautiful things. It crushes the life out of them.