It's kind of amazing the way neighborhoods morph and change over time, some for better and some for worse, sometimes incrementally and sometimes pretty quickly. The last five years, for instance, has seen the Divisadero corridor go from nondescript throughway with a Popeye's and a car wash to being The New Valencia, as some have called it, with several hot and trendy restaurants, a wildly popular bakery-coffeeshop, several hip-kid hangouts, and a Bi-Rite. It'll continue to change too, with a huge new Italian restaurant called Che Fico (838 Divisadero) on its way next year from a pair of high-powered restaurateurs from New York and Chicago, respectively; not to mention the arrival of the cocktail spot Horsefeather pretty soon, and a few other things in the works.

Hoodline has a fun look today at a bunch of fast-food spots and chain stores that could have invaded Divisadero in years past, given there was no specific ban on formula retail there.

For instance: The former bank space at Divis and Hayes that's now home to uber-successful restaurant Nopa almost became a Blockbuster video! This was circa 2004. And Madrone Art Bar? That was almost a Burger King.

Also, a Domino's Pizza applied for a permit to go in behind 4505 BBQ that's now a pot club and was shot down by the neighborhood, which thought it already enough a pizza. As Hoodline reports, via neighbors who remember, the Domino's franchisee's position ten years ago was, "Small businesses aren’t going to move to Divisadero. You guys should be welcoming chain stores if they want to move into this unattractive urban street."

Then in 2007 came Prop G, which required formula retailers to go through a conditional-use permit process in all but a few parts of town.

And now Divisadero has stores where you can buy adordably planted succulents and hand-printed greeting cards, so (I guess), fuck you Domino's guy.

Previously: What We Talk About When We Talk About Formula Retail