Five years after being displaced by a rent hike from its original location on Valencia Street, progressive bookstore Modern Times has announced that it will be closing its location at 2919 24th St. next month.

The store's "struggle to survive gentrification was in keeping with its 45-year loving and fighting spirit," it said in a press release, but "the store is not operating at the level we would like, and we can no longer serve our customers' needs, as well as those of our workers."

Founded in 1971 at 17th & Sanchez streets in the Castro, Modern Times was one of many "movement" bookstores that sprang up in the hippie era, and one of the few to survive it, expanding its focus over the years to offer other types of books as well. It eventually moved to the Mission in 1980, and to Valencia Street in 1991. (The Valencia location is now Fine Arts Optical, a high-end optical store.)

The store is set to close on November 15th, with book markdowns beginning on October 15th. On October 22nd, it will hold a closing party, which will coincide with a previously scheduled retirement party for Ruth Mahaney, one of the founding members of the collective behind the bookstore. All of its other events for October and November will also continue as scheduled. 

"Some of you will no doubt be concerned about our community-serving programs, from Spanish Book Club and Queer Open Mic to our books-to-prisons mailings," the store writes on Facebook. "Have no doubt, we are working on forging solutions and finding appropriate venues and stewards to carry on our work."

As for a potential revival, "we are not ruling out possibilities or eleventh hour reprieves," the store writes. However, it has sought community funding and support multiple times in the past, seemingly to no avail. Should it close for good, it's unclear what, if anything, will take over the space; we'll keep you posted.