Dolores Park Playground Renovation Promises Fences, Safety

Due to poor drainage, leaded paint, and other public safety issues raised by concerned parents, the Dolores Park Playground is set to be renovated. Meetings have been held and there are more to come. They’re talking about fences and barriers and all kinds of safe stuff. Reports The Snitch:

It’s up to the community to decide how harmonious or isolating the new monkey bars will shape up to be. The third and final meeting is set for the end of August, with construction slated for spring 2009.

Link. So take pictures of the crusty old relic while you still can, and maybe try to get War Mongers Diner to work up a version of Don’t Fence Me In for the end of August.

Photo of Dolores Park Pool by Amy Hammond.

When Women Ruled Valencia

Elizabeth‘s latest post got us thinking. An acquaintance hipped her to a bygone era along everybody’s favorite Mission corridor:

[S]o haunting was the number of women-run, women-only businesses and projects she referred to, up and down Valencia Street. They are all gone now. Old Wives’ Tales bookstore, a woman-only bar where the Elbo Room is now [...] A women-only restaurant where Radio Valencia used to be. A women’s newspaper.

Link. How exactly does a women-only restaurant (or bar) work? Maybe this era is bygone because it’s not legal. Anybody remember any of this stuff?

Elbo Room photo by kewlio.

More Evidence that the 67 Can Be Skeevie Too

A couple weeks ago, there was some dispute as to whether Muni’s 67 (serving Bernal Heights from 24th and Mission) could be as entertaining as some of the other buses that run on Mission Street. On Friday, TK had an experience that just might further the controversy:

So there’s a 67 bus stopped there at the stop. Just as I get there, a cop car pulls up and the 2 cops get out and get on the bus. Then a Muni supervisor-type arrives and gets on too. Obvs. everyone standing around is staring at the bus trying to figure out what’s going on.

The cops come out with a little guy who’s wasted. I mean, he was fucked up. I love this – he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. WOO-HOO! LET’S PARTY!!

See how it all ends here.

Photo by Octoferret.

Tennis Ball and Organic Lemon Work the Buddy System on Outbound J-Church

They look cute together, but what do you think they’re up to?

Previously on Mission Mission:

Bright-Green Blobs in Own Sticky Goo Discarded on Outbound 26-Valencia

Whippits Discarded on Outbound J-Church

Dear Plug1, Does This Have *Anything* To Do With Girafa?

Even if it doesn’t, I kind of like it.

Previously on Mission Mission:

Is This Girafa?

Dueling Girafas

Girafa Gang Related? So Say Cops

Is Your Academy of Art University Diploma Worth a Shit?

I forget where I was when I took this, but it might’ve been in the Mission. If not, sorry. In any case, is anyone taken aback by the notion that a diploma from the Academy of “Art” “University” might not be good for shit? Fuck.

Previously on Mission Mission:

Some Art Student Spent Forevs Drawing Cartoon Woman in Dalva Bathroom

More Boing Boing in Mission Bathrooms

Stone Got Glass Fucked By Your Mom With Love In The Men’s Room At 12 Galaxies

Fuck Your Blog

Garfield Variation in the Shitter at Pop’s Bar

Prime Parking

Sorry for this detour, but it’s Friday and I’m feeling loose, and I like this. Seen yesterday in SoMa.

Sk8 or Die, Y'all

Travis at SFist reports that Potrero del Sol/La Raza Skatepark at 25th and Utah (seen here in an unfinished state) opens for real this weekend. Mission Skateboards will bring barbecue and freebies. Pop’s hosts the afterparty. Link.

Photo by unaesthetic.

Hello Mission!

So today is my last day at my job that’s directly across the street from Aquatic Park, next door to Ghiradelli Square. My commute everyday consists of taking BART to the Embarcadero, and transferring to the F-Market, which passes the Ferry Building and Pier 39.

I pass by the Hyde Street Cable Car turnaround and the Buena Vista Cafe on my walk from the end of the F Line to the office.

If I look up from my tired haziness, I have a perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

For lunch, I’ll either walk to Fort Mason:

or to Washington Square Park:

Sometimes I’ll play Bocce on the new, and empty, Bocce Court that’s next to the quaint North Beach Library.

Pure San Francisco five days a week.

Although I’ve seen some amazing things: dead sharks, stranded seals, birds that take shits the size of buckets — I’ll probably never come back.

It’s not my San Francisco. My San Francisco is warm weather, beer in the park, dirty sidewalks, Mexicans.

So Goodbye 8:30 to 5! Goodbye hour long commute! Goodbye Fisherman/Sailor/Pirate Bum and Bushman Bum! Goodbye Tourists! Goodbye 30 mph winds!

Bushman Bum. He has succeeded, everyday for three years, to scare me. Every. Time.

Fisherman/Sailor/Pirate Bum: I have seen you three or four times everyday, and I dont want to show a photo of you. You are too precious. I will definitely miss you.

Now … does Dolores Park have wifi?

[All photos from Flickr. Click each to see photo page.]

They've Arrived… Bikers for Change

A herd/troupe/gaggle – whatever you call a big mass of bikers on a mission – made it over the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco last night, to give a talk at the Mission District Sports Basement about what they’re out to do. It’s a good thing: on bicycle, traveling from Vancouver to Tijuana down the entire Pacific Coast of the United States to raise money for microfinancing through Kiva. The basement of Sports Basement was speckled with stars of the microfinancing movement, including the folks who created Kiva, one of the founders of Global Agents for Change, and the Mission District’s own Jess Arnett! The bikers are staying in the Mission for a few days – keep an eye out for people with unreasonably huge thigh muscles – and will be participating in Critical Mass this Friday. They head south on Saturday (San Francisco bikers are welcome to join them for a day or two, if you feel like a challenge).

Since you’re on the internet already, take a look at what GAFC and Kiva are doing. The concepts behind these groups are pretty fabulous, and the microfinancing movement is becoming big news. This is the sort of trend that makes the internet a source of democratic power, and is a potential venue for action that can have help equalize the messed-up global distribution of wealth. Don’t mind the global distribution of wealth? Feel free to point someone towards kiva.org next time they start complaining about it. We live in San Francisco. It’ll happen.