“It has been called a godsend for the arts and a major disappointment, ‘the Lincoln Center of the West’ and ‘a conundrum in concrete.’ When it opened, in 1993, former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto viewed the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as a pallid substitute for what might have been. Today, composer Paul Dresher dubs the South of Market complex ‘a great institution and invaluable resource.'” So which is it? Well, it seems to depend entirely on who you ask, and what their perpective is on the Bay Area’s exceedingly diverse arts scene.