Drive-By Shooting at Farina

Scott Scotch Wichmann reports:

Suddenly I heard the high-pitched pops of Chinese firecrackers right outside the restaurant’s front window—one, then two more, then yelling, then something in my gut made me whisper, “Get down!” and I grabbed the wife and we hit the concrete floor about the same moment as everyone else. We heard more pops and people running outside. I glanced up and saw women in dresses sprawled flat, men in suits, busboys, waiters, napkins, bits of food…anybody looking in from outside would’ve seen a desolate restaurant full of empty chairs.

See the full story here.

Previously on Mission Mission:

Best Pesto in the World is at Farina?

23 Responses to “Drive-By Shooting at Farina”

  1. zinzin says:

    now…tell me we don’t need a fucking army of cops in our hood? is that gritty enough for you snotty hipsters??

  2. Iain says:

    Zinzin – Seriously. This shooting took place a BLOCK from the neighborhood precinct station. If people aren’t afraid of opening fire a block from a precinct station, it’s safe to say that the police do not intimidate the neighborhood’s criminal element in any way.

    We need more than 2 cops out walking the beat at a time. We need the police to work on improving their neighborhood relations and building dialog. And we need to be deporting illegal felons, when apprehended, right-quick.

  3. Josh says:

    Shoot, this hasn’t been the Mission in at least five years. Baja Noe Valley or Marina Annex is more appropriate

  4. c.catrall says:

    why did he have to use the word “chinaman”? made me lose all sympathy for him.

  5. Allan Hough says:

    i’m hoping the chinaman thing was a big lebwoski and/or deadwood reference

  6. katie says:

    Um, this is not in the “hipstery” part of the mission. it’s in the yuppie area. psst, the best pesto is the homemade kind. what – i’m gonna pay like 800 dollars for some home grown basil, pinenuts (maybe), and evoo? no thanks.

  7. zinzin says:

    Iain, i could not agree more. we are 110% in accord. that’s exactly what i meant…more police presence, more dialog, more relationships, more efficacy. these gangbanger knuckleheads will respond to only 2 things in the short term: force, and a hit to their pocketbooks. More cops out there in the world can do both. deporting illegal felons, i could not agree more.

    (and i certainly understand that these dudes are driven to “the life” by a world of circumstances not helped by oily hipsters (me in 1991) or yuppie scum (me now) stealing their hood block by block: lack of opportunity, lack of education, lack of services, lack of all the things that enable me & my ilk to enjoy an $800 pesto at Farina. for sure, i get it and i wish it was different. that said, i CANNOT sit by & tolerate this kind of crap where families walk with kids. hipstery or not.)

    that being said, marking some imaginary (sorry katie) line between the “hipstery” mission and the “yuppie” mission…or snarking about “Baja Noe Valley or Marina Annex” (sorry Josh) …is so totally lame. typical hipster apathy. these kind of views have got to be the most short sighted, immature, bullshit excuse for comments i have ever seen. this is our Mission, you lazy self-satisfied babies. you, me, the latino family on the corner, even the schitzoid homeless dude whose shit i clean up twice a week.

    so you mean to say you PREFER shootings? you PREFER human feces all over the street? you PREFER crackwhores, and open air heroin markets? You say that’s keepin it real?

    I say bullshit. You’re lying if you say you do. You say you “like the grit” because you’re still living in Jr High and you need to be “cool”. Fuck that. Most hipsters i know – including a younger me – are (over)educated, have decent jobs and ascribe to a surprisingly mainstream set of goals.

    My guess is most of the folks commenting here do NOT live in the teeny activist stripe of the Misison hipster contingency. Most of them are probably cultural creative class, college educated, and buying lunch at BiRite along with the rest of us. Hell, most real activists and artists that i know moved out of the city along time ago….can’t afford even a place in the “hipstery” parts of the hood.

    look for posts i have written in the past. unless some of this crap is taken under control, ALL of the Mission will become the “yuppie” part, because the city will sell the neighborhood to real estate developers. just like Times Square, or Williamsburg, or Astoria in NY.

    Read the Eastern Neighborhood Plan that’s about to pass the Board (you all know we have a Board of Supervisors, right? And that the Mission District 9 Supe is up for election in November, right? Or maybe can’t take time out of shopping for ironic plaid pants to be educated?).

    It’s going to enable – along with the usual bullshit low-income, tenants rights, mixed-use / light industrial progressive politics crap that makes the Mission a dumping ground for the city’s refuse – practically unlimited development of yuppie condos. 19th & Valencia. 20th & Valencia. 18th & Mission. The New College buildings. You watch.

    so you can sit around and say “i like it gritty” or “this ain’t the mission no more” or “that’s the yuppie part of the neighborhood”. or you can open your fucking eyes and get off your lazy, entitled asses and do something to preserve the beauty, diversity and special qualities of the hood we have.

    because if you dont, well, you’ll be living in West Oak. which is nice and gritty. and on the same trajectory, 2 or 3 years later. after that, i have no idea. as i have said before, there ain’t no Bushwick or Red Hook in SF, yo.

  8. natalie says:

    reason #4598 not to go to farina. that place just sucks all around.

  9. [...] Link to comments section, if you need more context. Explore posts in the same categories: Crime, Media and Politics [...]

  10. Garen says:

    Hey, so, how come no other news outlet is reporting this?

  11. katie says:

    i was commenting on someones comment, not the shooting. why do i have to say how awful the shooting is — does it really need to be said?

  12. clyde says:

    Anna’s Danish Cookies was way better than Farina.

  13. zinzin says:

    i did like them cookies too.

  14. Josh says:

    “this is our Mission”

    Not anymore. It was our Mission, but we don’t live there anymore.

    “you PREFER human feces all over the street? you PREFER crackwhores, and open air heroin markets?”

    Not at all, which is why we worked so hard to rid our neighborhood of these things. As soon as we made a dent in the crime and remotely increased the quality of life, we were Ellis-Acted and you moved in. Is it our fault if you haven’t taken care of the place since?

    “unless some of this crap is taken under control, ALL of the Mission will become the “yuppie” part, because the city will sell the neighborhood to real estate developers”

    As perverse as it may be, this kind of tragedy is the only thing keeping the developers out. My observation, having grown up in the Mission, is that housing law is set up in such a way to make displacement an unavoidable fact of gentrification. I hate to break it to you, but all of the Mission WILL be the yuppie part. There’s nothing you or I or even these shooters can do to stop it.

    “do something to preserve the beauty, diversity and special qualities of the hood we have. because if you dont, well, you’ll be living in West Oak.”

    I’d argue the first step is to recognize that the beauty and diversity that were here even ten years ago have already moved to West Oakland (or more accurately, Daly city, Portola, Excelsior or even farther). The apartment you rent for a “bargain” used to house a family. More likely than not it doesn’t anymore. Leaving aside arguments about whether neighborhoods are healthier when they contain families, where are those families now? The people are still alive, but the were forced to find a new home.

    We all hate crime and especially gun violence. And I celebrate any real steps you or anyone else are taking to organize the community. But recognize, too, that this community was organized before and that organization was decimated by the demographic shifts you touch upon.

  15. zinzin says:

    “Not anymore. It was our Mission, but we don’t live there anymore.”

    uh….yes we do. we do live here now.

    your creation of judgmental territories “us & we”, “you & me” is unfortunate. i wont go into me being “you” and you being “we”, but it’s not ringing true for me (being “me”).

    the “us” – my view – is folks in the Mission now. doesn’t matter who. i don’t care if they live in a shiny new condo or in a rent controlled apartment since 1962. question is: what can we do to preserve the unique beauty in the neighborhood? we can’t fight change as a concept. it’s stupid to try. everything changes. but we can open our eyes, stop being lazy babies, get educated about what effects our hood, and we can vote.

    “where are those families now? The people are still alive, but the were forced to find a new home.”

    Josh, i gotta tell ya….there’s nothing but families on my block of Capp, mine included. there’s families ALL OVER the Mission. i walk through the hood every day, and i see lots & lots of kids. Latino & white. Rich & poor. All kinds of people. Our Mission is plenty diverse my man. Walk though Noe Valley. Walk through the Marina. then tell me the Mission isnt diverse.

    Diversity never left. Maybe it just no longer ascribes to your preferred definition of diversity.

    “As soon as we made a dent in the crime and remotely increased the quality of life, we were Ellis-Acted and you moved in. Is it our fault if you haven’t taken care of the place since?”

    saying that inevitable gentrification is the reason that the hood is disorganized and covered in human feces…that i just don’t understand.

    sorry i can’t accept some weepy lament for times past, and the inevitable self-congratulatory blame-shift that goes along with it.

    all i want to do is fix & preserve what i have now. Our Mission is worth it. We live here.

  16. Josh says:

    “all i want to do is fix & preserve what i have now. Our Mission is worth it. We live here.”

    You can repeat the mistakes of history, and you will if you don’t learn the lessons it has to offer. Did you know there are community groups out there who have been working on this for thirty+ years? Join one. Join the community, don;t displace it.

  17. zinzin says:

    buddy, i am part of the the community. i live here. i personally dont care who else lives here, rich or poor, black or white or brown. i love and welcome everyone. i dont care if they like handkerchief pasta or not. i’m behind tenants rights, and i’m behind real estate development. i think we can have both. i think that’s’ the beauty of SF.

    what i can get behind is a blind adherence to snake oil political dogma, and self satisfied babies who are content to be uneducated.

    i just want the folks who do live here to care about the neighborhood. and i want the hood to be cleaner and safer. why is that so difficult to understand? who the fuck would argue with that?

    so i agree, join an organization, get educated, and vote. that said, the existing “community groups” that have been working on it for 30+ years, are looking at the past, not considering and planning for the future. they’re irrelevant relics.

    also, i have to comment, your resistance to inevitable change, your constant sobbing over the past, your consistent and typical passive aggressive bullshit holier-than-thou faux progressive attitude is tiresome.

    you want to make a judgment about “hipsters” or “progressives” or “yuppies” in general, go ahead. i certainly do. they’re usually accurate. and it’s fun to do…

    but don’t judge – or make any sort of assumptions about – an individual when you have no idea to whom you’re speaking, how they spend their days, or what they may or may not be doing to make positive change.

  18. mmmike says:

    Let me see if I understand this correctly. Within the Mission, four distinct categories of people exist:

    1. Hipsters
    2. Yuppies
    3. Families and cool people trying to affect change for the better
    4. All other non-whites

    Outside of the Mission, two distinct groups exist:
    1. Those forced to the hinterlands by the hand of The Man
    2. Those who puke and poo in the neighborhood on the weekends

    In a city renowned for its “tolerance,” the level of shit-talking about each group here is incredible. The fact is, with the possible exception of those born/raised, etc, in the Mission, every one here moved into the neighborhood with all of the above four categories of people firmly in place.

    Implicit in this conversation is that the real issue is people with guns, not people who aren’t just like you. Want a livable community? Go outside, talk to everyone – not just the people who fall into your carefully defined categories. Quit trying to wall it off. Be civil, not judgmental. Then maybe you’ll be able to accomplish something.

  19. zinzin says:

    i think your category list is too small (particularly around “all other non whites”….i don’t think anyone’s really discussing race here)

    …but i think your last paragraph is perhaps the most cogent thing said in this entire subject.

    add to that a strong dose of reality, a proactive desire for education, a commitment to living in the present, and i think you’ve nailed it right on the head. this is EXACTLY what we need in Our Mission.

    great thinking.

    everyone want to come over for a taco?

  20. Josh says:

    “the existing “community groups” that have been working on it for 30+ years, are looking at the past, not considering and planning for the future. they’re irrelevant relics.”

    Wait, bullshit. Cite evidence of this, please do not parrot gavin Newsom or willie brown.

    I ain’t yer buddy, you don’t know me.

    “don’t judge – or make any sort of assumptions about – an individual when you have no idea to whom you’re speaking, how they spend their days, or what they may or may not be doing to make positive change.”

    “also, i have to comment, your resistance to inevitable change, your constant sobbing over the past, your consistent and typical passive aggressive bullshit holier-than-thou faux progressive attitude is tiresome.”

    OIC!

  21. zinzin says:

    what is OIC? that means “judge not lest ye be judged?” or something…? sorry, i’m new to this whole online thing.

    anyway…you’re the one that got personal, buddy.

    i’m just reacting to your constant sobbing.

  22. Josh says:

    OIC = oh i see (“letters like U and I can be words, like You and I”)

    My point was exactly that you keep repeating this notion of my “constant sobbing,” but you only read my first comment a few days ago, and I haven’t chimed in on but one or two topics. Please explain how this is constant sobbing, using real definitions of words like “constant” and “sobbing.”

    kthx

  23. [...] Surprising, sure, but at the same time I suppose that unlike this place, no one has ever been gunned down at Delfina.  But they sure came close! [...]

  24. thats scary…im sure after they call the cops everything will be ok with the area.