I used to be able to walk to the Empire Theater from my home, but in its final days as a movie theater, they didn't turn on the heat, and they didn't even provide toilet paper in the restrooms!  I suspected that they wanted it to fail.  Now a housing development has been proposed in its place--a 64-unit, 9 story building, and as a neighbor who loves West Portal as it is, I favor this housing.  I feel for the merchants, whose businesses will be affected, and I wish there were some kind of compensation the city could give them, but I do think they'll benefit once the housing is build.  The estimate is a 2027 ground-breaking and a 2029 completion.  I hope they can stay in business until then.