New ideas and city initiatives are trying to solve a crisis that threatens the stores and shops that make our cities unique While tech?s swift rise and booming real estate prices have remade the stores and streets of San Francisco, Macchiarini Creative Design, a small metalworking shop on Grant Street in Telegraph Hill, remains distinctly old-fashioned. It?s not just the antiquarian sight of a forge or the clinking sounds of blacksmithing. Founded more than 60 years ago by jeweler and artisan Peter Macchiarini, a man who counted Frida Kahlo as a friend and forged a wedding ring for Beat Generation figurehead Neal Cassidy, the store has literally and figuratively forged a link to the past, a direct connection to the city?s more bohemian era. It even helped organize one of the country?s first artist-run street fairs in the nation in the ?30s. Ask current owner Daniel Macchiarini, Patrick?s son, about the rent, and he quickly shifts from nostalgia to worry.
"It?s a huge problem for retailers," says Macchiarini. "We?ve been in business for 67 years and my father was run out of three places due to rent increases by the landlords. They?re not looking for guys like us, they?re looking for a restaurant or bar so they can charge more rent."

Like anyone who?s grown up in one of the most rapidly gentrifying cities in the country, which earned the distinction of having the country?s highest office rents, Macchiarini has seen plenty of change ov...