Jen got in touch on Thursday with the news that her stolen bike had shown up for sale on Craigslist. Over the weekend, she got it back, with a little help from the SFPD:
I don’t want to post the whole story – and I know this is a letdown if you’ve followed this saga so far – because it was a truly beautifully organized operation that went down, and I don’t want to compromise that security for future operations. I had no idea they actually operated like this and even now that I’ve been a part of it, it’s insane to believe that it happened. The two brilliant, wonderful SFPD officers we met at Weird Fish were bike people. We talked components, we talked frame, I talked so much that they eventually laughed and told me that I could stop because they had long believed me. So the details are going to be left out, but here’s the jist:
The 2nd best part of that story (aside from the recovery) was that they met at Mission Fish. Where will these pre-take down clandestine meetings happen next? Some suggestions: Baked, on Potrero Hill. El Toyanese. And of course the Atlas… if police dogs need to be part of the story.
Congrats on getting your bike back. I’ve had two stolen in the last few years and it is an awful, awful feeling. One thing I would be careful about though is celebrating too much. This story is now all over the blogs and if a person is rotten enough to steal another persons bike they may be nasty enough to retaliate after reading about your triumph in having it returned.
Allan, thanks for calling out the update. I really appreciate all your help.
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it when I called and they asked if I knew where Weird Fish was. I got to sip fabulous lemonade and chat with cops that were hugely knowledgeable about bikes – it was a shockingly pleasant situation.
Henry, I agree. When we got the bike and were sitting in the back of the car, one of the cops remarked that we didn’t look as excited as he thought we would be. I’ve been a little frightened to celebrate for fear that something will happen again. We’ve decided that this will be a strictly weekend/long ride sort of bike and no longer a grocery getter, so hopefully there won’t be much locking up to deal with at all.
Though there was great disappointment when we showed up at Shotwell’s last night with different bikes. I think people were excited to see her and we were quite the letdown.
Hi Jen,
Yeah, the person you got the bikes back from might now have your email address and phone number right? I’m just saying it as a heads up but sounds like you two are being very careful.
cheers
hb
Am I the only person that thinks this was a serious dick move?
Jen:
You say you believe this guy was far removed from whoever took your bike. He clearly has good taste in bikes. He fixed it up. He met you in good faith hoping to sell it back to you AT A LOSS.
And in thanks you have him cuffed and he’s out $400+?
Fuck that. People lose bikes. Sorry. There was no way to get out of this without somebody being screwed over. That’s how thievery works. Instead of your choice of lock becoming a $400 mistake, you get to ride off on new tires while some guy takes the heat for your bad fortune.
“He is not my problem: getting my stolen bike back was my problem.”
Get insurance next time so you don’t have to ruin some poor guy’s weekend. And the courteous thing would be to at least pay him for the new tires, new seat and his labor.
Yay!
ugh -
To an extent, honestly? I agree with you. This kid lost $400 and that sucks. Being forced to lose $400 is a dick move.
The choice was left up to us as to what to do about the additional parts. He took the bottle cage off before meeting me. We returned his seat to him and asked if we should return the tires, but the police told us that we shouldn’t. I won’t split hairs over it, but the tires are fairly low quality and much worse than the ones we had on there originally, and the guy who had the bike still has our original ones.
I believe that involving the police was the best thing to do. I feel for the kid. But the police made this point to me – he was in possession of stolen property. He wasn’t convicted of that crime because he didn’t know it was stolen, but possession is a crime.
It came down to this: the bike was stolen, and that is a crime. We consulted the police to ask what should be done. I realize “what should be done” worked out really conveniently for us – hey, awesome, we got a bike back and didn’t have to spend more money and someone else got screwed, oh well. But this was the legal way for us to go, and that’s what we chose.
Hiya,
Problem is though, lets say I had purchased the bike from this guy, then I am in possession of stolen property. The bike may have even been stolen when Jen first purchased it. Maybe it was mine and I was able to prove to the police it was, then you would have unknowingly bought the bike and I would have you cuffed and had my bike returned. Just seems like it could set a dangerous precedent.
It would have been legal for you to buy your bike back and take it easy on the $9 belgian beer for a while, too.
I would feel like shit if someone else was suffering from my mistakes (i.e. cable lock) or bad luck, however legal that might be. If you feel differently, that’s your call.
But since you don’t know for sure that you didn’t buy a stolen bike to begin with, maybe you’ll figure this whole empathy thing out the hard way.
We’ve discussed the “oh shit, what if it was stolen when we bought it” scenario. It’s a twenty year old frame. The possibility of it being stolen somewhere in San Francisco over those twenty years is pretty great.
All I know is this: there is no police report of a Bianchi with this serial number (which we now have written down, photographed, etc.) being stolen. I check CL every single day because I am a bike nerd and I just like to see what’s out there, and no one in the past six months has reported it as their stolen bike. I’m not sure what else there is to do to verify that we are the rightful owners. It absolutely sets a dangerous precedent.
I think the thing to do is be smart and attempt to verify what you can about bikes. I don’t think I’d buy anything at a bike swap, just from all of the horror stories I’ve heard of “oh yeah, they get stolen in the city and then sold for cheap at swaps”. I understand it’s a way for people to make money fixing up bikes, but I wouldn’t want to make myself a part of that situation. I’ve personally bought three bikes off of CL, two of which I really believe came from the original owners, and the Bianchi that came from a guy who fixes up bikes just like this kid. I have done what I can to verify that it wasn’t stolen prior to us buying it, and that’s the best I can do on my end, so I believe it’s legally ours. I’m not sure what else there is that can be done, aside from always buying new bikes from a bike shop.
For the record, it’s typically $4 San Francisco-produced beer during happy hour, a point I wouldn’t usually make, but since we’re doing personal attacks, I felt mildly compelled to respond. I’m certainly not in a financial situation to regularly purchase $9 beer, so I’m lucky that Shotwell’s doesn’t sell any.
If I’ve made it seem like any of the decisions we made were easy, then I’ve been misleading. I was on the side of “meet with kid and get the bike back”. Everyone I spoke to in the 24 hours before meeting with the police thought I was stupid for even considering giving him $400. I gave it a lot of thought and felt like I couldn’t make the correct choice on my own, so I consulted the police, people who specialize in theft. The only other theft experience I have is from when a car I used to own was broken into four years ago, a time when I also consulted the police. (And didn’t get any of my stuff back, which is how theft typically pans out.)
I’m sorry that you disagree with the way I chose to handle it. I posted the resolution because people here were really helpful and I thought they might be interested in how it panned out. If I had met with him and given him $400, I’m sure there would have been a handful of people telling me that was stupid, too. (But not dicking over the kid, I know.) It was a hard situation and this is just my account of how I handled it. When anyone else’s bike is stolen, hopefully they’ll remember this account and feel better and more secure about their moral and financial decisions because they already got to consider their feelings.
Jen,
I’m sure the choice was a though one. While I find it difficult to fully agree with the way you handled it I can’t say for sure I would do different. $400 is a lot of money. Hopefully everyone appreciates you posting the story and has learned the lesson that a cable lock does not suffice. Unfortunately a kid who we should presume innocent had to pay $400 for you to learn it.
cheers and see you at shotwells, I’ll probably be there tonight.
I find this string painful. Look, there is a huge trade in stolen, reconditioned bikes in this town. And the people who feed this trade — from all sides — are all guilty of making moral choices that I can assure you will follow them the rest of their lives. As you get older, you will have to make 100′s of these sorts of choices, and decisions, and the sooner you realize how deeply they affect your life path (not to mention the life paths of all the innocent people affected by these kinds of ‘look the other way’ moral shortcuts), the better. Or to put it another way, a butterfly does unto another butterfly as it would not do unto itself, and pretty soon you have a fucking tornado sweeping through the Bike Kitchen.
[...] and co-starring Allan Hough of Mission Mission as Obi Wan Kenobi, along with some bike safety tips. Allan’s got the link, New to the Bay’s got the [...]
jen, although i sympathize with you on losing your bike for a few months, give the kid a break and give him some of the money that essentially helped you find your bike. and if the tires are shittier than your originals, why you holding on to them anyway?
[...] Mission Mission como Obi Wan Kenobi, así como algunos consejos de seguridad al andar en bicicleta. Allan tiene el enlace, y New to the Bay la [...]
ha ha, Allan = Obi Wan Kenobi!
So who’s the Mission’s Darth Vader?
I’m with ugh. This story infuriates me. I like how you can talk about the novelty thrill of having cool drinks at a cool place with cool cops all while some poor kid gets set up and cuffed against the wall.
The obliviousness is shocking. And yet it’s all part of your fun Mission life and you’re gonna celebrate conspicuously at your favorite bar. Yay!
I can’t believe what passes for acceptable, even right-on-cool! behavior in the Mission these days.
I just totally set up a well intentioned, cooperative kid, and he’s getting cuffed and he’s out a bicylcle. And after setting him up I turned my back on him and didn’t stick around to listen. But that’s not my problem, I got my bike back and we’re all gonna celebrate.
I really hope there’s such a thing as karma.
Man, some fucking people.
You have to be an idiot to not realize that if you’re in the used bike trade this is a situation that you might encounter. Add the fact that Jen contacted the seller and gave him the opportunity to return her stolen property and all this “poor kid” bullshit is exactly that- bullshit.
And all of this “you made a bad decision to cable lock, this is what you get” shit makes me sick. Yeah, let’s blame the victim when someone rips his or her shit off. Sort of sounds like the old rape excuse, “Look at the skirt she was wearing, she was asking for it.”
At the end of the day- the bike was Jen’s property. The kid was in possession of it. She got it back and the kid (as mentioned in her story) will likely not get charged. He should just flip the guy who sold him the bike and be done with it. The kid SET HIMSELF UP. He knew he was in possession of stolen property and he continued to try and sell it. That’s fucking illegal, plain and simple.
re: jimbeam
whoa, comparing a stolen bike to a rape. Classy.
Blaming the victim for the crime. Also extremely classy.
Fair enough, though I never blamed the victim. I just wasn’t surprised because the victim used only a cable lock. Believe me, I sympathize as I’ve had two bikes stolen in the last year or so and was devastated. Now I use a U-Lock and a cable lock. So far so good.
If “you’re in the used bike trade”?
You mean anyone who’s bought a used bike?
So, basically, anytime you buy a bike that isn’t brand new from the store, you’re engaging in the used bike trade, and you should always be aware that somebody who has the wherewithal and desire to work the mechanisms of the legal systems can set you up for a meeting where you get cuffed and you lose the bike you paid for?
Cool. I like it. Pretty soon bike owners will need bike lawyers just to keep everything straight, so they don’t wind up going out for bagels and end up being cuffed by undercover cops.
And seriously, the randomness of this particular act is in no way indicative of a new page being turned in bicycle justice. 99/100 stolen bikes will still never be recovered even if you spend months nagging the cops to drop their other work and look for your stolen bike, and even if their totally cool, latte sipping “bike unit” arbitrarily arrests some guy who happened to buy the right bike.
But what really sucks about this is the way this person gloats about her triumph. After having turned her tragic bike stealing incident into a major drama involving half the Mission, she sets some kid up, and then she’s gonna go brag about it because it makes her look cool in the blogosphere, and even have a victory party in a bar?
It used to be that if you were clueless enough to lodk up a fancy bike in plain view in the Mission, and elsewhere, and then it got stolen, that was your baptism into reality, and people would say “what were you thinking riding a bike like that around?” Then you learned your lesson, kept a much lower profile, and voila, you learn how to tone it down and fit into the Mission.
Does that sound wrong? Like a case of misplaced blame?
Indeed. But ultimately tricking some innocent kid into a meeting where the cops cuff him is just as bad a case of misplaced blame, if not worse.
And to whoop and holler and high five all your friends like this is a happily ever after ending while some relatively innocent middle party gets screwed is beyond tacky.
But that’s the new Mission for you.
Was anyone celebrating the kid getting screwed over? Celebrating getting a beloved bike back seems reasonable to me.
And I understand that. It’s a beautiful bike. But she sounded so… oblivious.
Consider this scenario, copied straight off an Ethics 101 final:
“Jen has known her friend Kate for a handful of months. They’re relatively close. One day they make plans to meet at Dolores Park, and Kate shows up on what appears to be Jen’s stolen bicycle.”
Uh oh. What do we do now? Do we start worrying about “busting heads” and “getting shot”? Do we call the police and write 2,500 self-indulgent words about how nice it feels to have your bike back? Or is this suddenly a harder choice to make since a friend is involved?
Jen’s free to do what she wants. I’m not trying to attack her as a person, and I agree that the law should be on her side.
But personally I would have done differently, stranger or not. We live in a city, we’re all in this together, etc.
Allan, celebrating getting a beloved bike back is one thing, but the title of this thread is “Bicycle Recover Squad: A Truly Beautifully Organized Operation.”
And the hyperlink (is that what you call it??) at the bottom of the thread says “getting your stolen bike back san francisco style.”
This isn’t about merely celebrating the return of a bike. It’s about celebrating the whole “beautifully organized” operation as well as the “San Francisco style” of it. Your own syntax says so.
Leaving a nice bike locked with a cable on lower 16th and then using the police to help you set up some innocent intermediary, then looking the other way while they arrest and cuff the guy you just set up, and then bragging about how cool it all was is hardly my idea of San Francisco style. Quite the opposite in fact.
The “San Francisco style” is mine, from the linked post. That’s not Allan’s fault. He’s just copying the words I used. Also, “beautifully organized operation” is mine as well. It was a very well organized operation from the SFPD. It was clear that they had a plan and this wasn’t the first time they had worked on a stolen bike case. I stand by that. “Beautiful”, in this case, does not refer to a kid getting handcuffed.
Let’s not blame this otherwise well-written blog for syntax that isn’t its own fault. Choice selections from words in the page that it’s linking to – this is a fairly common practice.
Also, he was not arrested and cuffed. Handcuffs were put on him presumably so he wouldn’t run away while the cops spoke with him. He leaned against a wall while they spoke with him. And I “looked the other way” because the conversation the police were having with him was between him and them. There would not have been a single thing I could say at that moment that would change the situation. I believe they let him go, but the cops took us back to the station before they were finished talking to him.
what’s this “new mission” business?
can you define?
zinzin, if you have to ask, you’ll never know.
I had decided to step out of it, because I felt like there was no resolution between the sides here, but since we’ve gone to personal attacks, I feel like I have to write a short defense.
There was no “victory party”. I went to the bar I love the night that we got the bike back to celebrate getting it back after two months of spending every day searching for it. It was a victory for us.
I have not intended to brag, whatsoever. When I found myself in this situation – the whole situation, from having it stolen to finding it on CL to getting it back – I wrote the “blogosphere” because I really didn’t know what to do and was seeking advice. Since so many people gave me advice, I decided to post about how the situation ended. I don’t need to look cool in the blogosphere. I’m a freelancer who’s lived in this city and this neighborhood for nine months. I have little to brag about in my life. So if I’ve seemed like I was out to shit on someone’s parade and look cool, that’s on me, I guess. I really didn’t intend to.
Also, I think I made a mistake from moment #1 using the word “kid”, a word I use to refer to anyone. This is a man who appeared to be in his late twenties who buys bikes and re-sells them. “Kid” has been a mistake from the outset. This is not a seventeen year old who scraped his allowance together. I don’t want to comment on his financial or business situation, much like I don’t want to comment on mine. Getting that nitpicky doesn’t prove anything.
Dave, I won’t pretend that you and I will ever come to a resolution. But I haven’t made any assumptions about you as a person, so I would appreciate it if we could keep the personal attacks to a minimum. I just wanted to share my story with the people that gave me advice and hopefully provide some information that could help another person out in the future. I don’t care about being popular, I certainly wasn’t intending to brag – I don’t really know what else there is I can say.
Celebrating in plain sight with the full knowledge that this kid got screwed over is tantamount to laughing in his face. Especially with all the references to “it’s not my problem”.
But you’re right. If I just set somebody up to be arrested in order to get my property back, why not celebrate it as a victory? After all, I didn’t MEAN to hurt that person by setting him up, so it’s not my problem. And besides, you should have seen how kewl those bike cops were. Is there anything more bitchen than sipping lattes with undercover cops in the Mission!! And we’re gonna celebrate tonight at Shotwell’s. Yay!
And really, considering this all started from a bike being locked with a cable lock on lower 16th Street, a little more humility might be in order. The indifference to the wronged party and the arrogance of this whole episode is just shocking.
Whoa. I didn’t think it was “bitchen”. I was scared, and the police were comforting, and that was it. I didn’t think it was “kewl”, I was really impressed with the way that they did their jobs and legitimately appreciative of them fitting in a C-level crime between the other very hard work that they do. I can only assume you’re referring to this comment of mine, further up, in reference to someone thinking it was funny that we met at Weird Fish:
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it when I called and they asked if I knew where Weird Fish was. I got to sip fabulous lemonade and chat with cops that were hugely knowledgeable about bikes – it was a shockingly pleasant situation.
We met at Weird Fish because it’s a block from the police station and they were already there having dinner, and wanted to consolidate time.
Also, I think I’m done apologizing for using a cable lock. It was locked up. Someone brought bolt cutters to a grocery store, destroyed the lock and took the bike. Sure, there are stronger locks. If it had been a u-lock that got destroyed, would I get shit for not using a New York chain? Friends of mine got screwed over the summer because someone filled their u-lock with glue, presumably so we’d leave the bikes there until we could figure out a solution (this was not in San Francisco), and they’d come back and steal them. This is my guess, anyway. So we had to cut the u-lock with bolt cutters. Heavier ones than would go through a cable lock, sure, but we were certainly able to do it. It was locked up to a bike rack in bright light under what should be a security camera, but isn’t.
So, I’m a dick for having a beer at my neighborhood bar to celebrate having the bike back. We weren’t clinking glasses and giggling about how some guy had handcuffs on. We were celebrating two months of searching for the bike, finding it, and getting it back. I know you don’t see a difference, but there’s only so many personal attacks I can read before I feel obligated to come to my own defense.
i thought a lot about ranting on & on…
the “how dare you go to the man in my dirty (old) mission” notion related by folks critiquing jen makes me puke.
but i feel people would not like it, so i won’t.
that said, jen, you’re not a dick. you’re a person who stood up for themselves.
i say good for you. more people ought to, here in the hood, be it “old” or “new”.
@dave – that’s helpful. thanks.
Haha, you guys are awesome.
Everyone ignores the actual FACTS:
1. Bike is Jen’s property
2. Stealing bike is illegal no matter how it was locked or where it was parked. Simply parking a bike with a lock that thieves find easy to break does not mean Jen is culpable for ANY of the negative events that proceed from this act. The thief is culpable, both morally and legally.
3. Jen tried to deal with the guy who was selling stolen property fairly. She alerted him he was in possession of stolen property and asked him to return it. HE decided to break the law and attempt to resell what he knew to be stolen property. Again, Jen is the victim of this crime and is simply not culpable for the man’s decision to try and resell a bike he KNEW to be stolen goods.
Someone please argue with this instead of hurling ridiculous class insults and pretending you’re so “old mission” (whatever the fuck that means. All I know is if Zin Zin doesn’t know what “new Mission” means, it doesn’t make much sense because Zin Zin’s been around forever).
ha. dude, i am as old as the fucking hills. that said, there are plenty of us mission-geriatric types lurking around on this blog. aging hipsters…limping our asses up mission street….maybe pushing a stroller…we’re not so bad. just, you know, old.
hey you kids, get off my blog!
@jimbeam:
I appreciate the support.
Regarding #3, as much as I would like to agree with you, I don’t want someone else attacking you for false information – I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it “reselling”. I guess it kind of is. The way he viewed it, he bought it for $400 and didn’t want to lose that money. After all, I’m no more his responsibility than he is mine. It’s not like he’d just give a stranger $400. He wanted his money back. I suppose if you buy something for X amount of money and then someone else gives you X amount of money for it, that’s reselling. But he didn’t tell me I could have it back for the full $595 that he was attempting to sell it for to anyone else.
Thanks again.
It doesn’t matter how much he bought it for, he was still trying to sell you stolen goods. If he’d known the law and was in any way worried about getting caught he would’ve turned the bike over to the cops or would have broken off contact with you.
Just to wrap this up:
1. A girl who’s been in the Mission about eight months describes an operation in which a guy is set up by cops at a trendy eatery as “bike recovery Mission style.”
I find that set-up to be obnoxious, and to call it Mission-style is an even greater miscarriage of justice.
I’m not gonna be silent when the Mission’s good name is abused like that.
2. As for labels like Old Mission and New Mission, I don’t place much stock in them myself. I’m not interested in some pissing contest over who’s lived where longer. Labels are merely shorthand for making points. For me, the descriptives ‘Mission’ and ‘Marina’ get the point across.
3. I’m glad Jen exonerated Allan from the creation of the phrase “bike recovery Mission style”. It’s beneath him and there’s nothing Mission style about it.
Well, Dave, I’m glad I could do one thing you liked. It’s clear that there will be no winners here. But since we’re so concerned with details, it was never “Mission style”, it was “San Francisco style”. You can think it’s Marina or Inner Sunset or Richmond style if you want. It’s a phrase that I obnoxiously use for a lot of things, and I chose “San Francisco style” because I needed a subject line that would tell people that this happened in San Francisco. In the event that someone found the post by searching for what to do if their bike was stolen, I wanted to make it clear that this was a local story and that no one in another city could assume that their city would respond the same way – I don’t know what cops do in Seattle or Dallas or New York, I only know what they do in San Francisco because this was my personal experience, period.
So, your entire comment was to say that I haven’t earned the right to discuss the neighborhood that I live in, and you’re certainly allowed to feel that way. I don’t know how long you’ve lived here, but you’ve made it clear that I’m not allowed to feel like I live here. But if you’re going to pick at details, you should re-read and remember that the exact phrase was “San Francisco style” and did not mention “Mission style”. It isn’t found in Allan’s post and it isn’t found in the headline of the post he linked to.
Also, he wasn’t set up at a trendy eatery. The cops were eating dinner there and asked me to meet them there to discuss it ahead of time. I met him at a very different location.
Dave, you can sit around and be excited that you won. I’m done defending myself. I wish you weren’t making up information, since most of your recent comments have been both very detail oriented and also incorrect. If you quote me, or say something that’s accurate, then it’s just a judgment call. If you give incorrect information, it’s lying, and it doesn’t make you look like you were successful. If I’m such a bad person, and you need the internet to know that you’re right and I’m worthless, I gave you lots of words that you could choose from directly rather than making things up.
Okay, “San Francisco style” not “Mission”. San Francisco style could indeed refer to the arriviste yuppies who now seem to be everywhere as well as to whatever “San Francisco style” might have meant when SF still had a certain cache beyond trendy eateries and a pretty boy mayor.
I just assumed this was a blog geared towards local interests, not a database for people in other cities to search about how to get stolen bikes back in the bitchenest manner possible.
Have I overreached in my posts here? Almost certainly. But the important thing is you’ve learned a :San Francisco style” lesson in proper social etiquette. While you’re twittering away over organic mojitos and oysters at the new yuppie bar, you’ll never know if the guy coming out of the taqueria across the street is one of those self righteous old throwbacks liable to get angry if he overhears some yuppie who can afford to leave pricey bikes around the Mission bragging about setting up some guy who thought he was doing her a favor. You’ll never know, and you’ll adjust your demeanor accordingly.
Congratulations, New to SF, not only have you just learned a lesson in not-totally-gentrified-yet neighborhood humility, but you’ve also been treated to an authentic, old school, San Francisco style cultural experience.
re: “when SF still had a certain cache beyond trendy eateries and a pretty boy mayor.”
sf has no more certain cache? much less the mission?
what was that cache-of-yore you miss so much? can you define?
also, what’s wrong with yuppies again? it’s been so long since they (we?) came to the hood, or since folks living here just got older and got settled…i kind of forgot.
but i’m old already. i been old. i forget shit.
Dave, here’s the thing. I’m not drinking organic mojitos and eating oysters. I live in the Mission because when I moved here, I didn’t have a job. The only place that I could afford to live in is the $1150 basement studio that we found. We looked all over the city and tried to find somewhere that we could manage to afford with me not having verifiable income. Tried places in the tenderloin that were more expensive, but when I walked around the neighborhood (having lived here for three days in a $600 a month sublet with no kitchen) and was referred to as “tits” twice and watched someone take a shit on the street, I decided that the $1150 studio that I could split rent in would be my best option.
I go to Shotwell’s during happy hour because I think the people are really great to talk to. I don’t know many people in this city. I don’t get out very much. So I drink discounted beer where I can find it. I spend most of my days working from said basement apartment and it’s nice to be able to get out and socialize once in awhile since I don’t have co-workers.
I have lived in neighborhoods over the course of my lifetime that were in various stages of gentrification. I certainly live in what you might refer to as the gentrified part of the mission – I’m close to Dolores Park. I’ve lived in neighborhoods that seemed like they were about to turn into something else, neighborhoods that were far from being gentrified, and neighborhoods like the one I’m in now that have already been hit by it.
MissionMission is a blog geared toward local interests. Absolutely. I wrote my post on my blog and wanted it to be searchable by people in other cities. Allan linked to it and used that headline. Maybe he should have called it something else, but the format of MM is to use the headline it’s linking to, so he kept with that style. That’s it.
Anything I’ve said above is not to make it seem like I’m some old soul or elicit any feelings of pity or bullshit – I think my life is fantastic. I get to live in a great city. I didn’t move here for the allure of San Francisco. I moved here because I am a motion graphics designer. It’s what I spent five years of college learning how to do. And while I tried to get a job back in the midwest where I could afford to live, I stayed there for four months and couldn’t find anything. So I came to a city that has more job opportunities for me. I didn’t want to live in L.A. because I didn’t know anyone, and I’ve already lived in New York, so San Francisco was the remaining logical step.
I take bike rides on the weekend that don’t cost me anything and I’m a freelancer, so I’m lucky enough to be able to get to bars before happy hour ends. I like to shoot pool with my boyfriend, and bars are the best place in my neighborhood to do that. I couldn’t have paid him $400, because I didn’t have that much money in my bank account.
So, honestly, Dave? If you think I got my lesson, here’s the only one I can give to you. Not all people who are my age and move to the mission are the same. You can make all the judgment calls you want to about me being a yuppie leaving pricey bikes around the mission, but it’s completely inaccurate. It was a $550 bike that we saved up for four months to buy as his first post-college big boy purchase, because for three years prior to that his only method of transportation was a $200 bike and he wanted to upgrade. We locked it up so we could get groceries and come home to cook them rather than going and drinking our mojitos and eating oysters because we can’t afford to live like that. And someone cut the lock and stole it. I’m not sure at what point I was supposed to trust a stranger that had my stolen bike and hand them $400, but I did what I thought was best in a dicey situation.
If a San Francisco lesson about social etiquette is that you have to trust everyone that has your stolen property, and you should spend a couple weeks having people make incorrect assumptions about your character and broadcast them on the internet, then that’s great. You have taken a simple situation – asking the community for advice on what to do after a crime, taking that advice, and returning a story to the community about what happened – and turned it in to an opportunity to make a lot of rude, insulting comments about a 24 year old that moved to a city to get a job in the face of a recession. Congratulations. Overreaching has certainly made me look like an asshole for wanting to reclaim property that was legally mine.
And, just as an addendum – is there any chance we could be done with this “debate”? I have done everything in my power to be polite to you and respond calmly to the assumptions and attacks on my character that you’ve been making. I’m happy to stop defending if you’d be willing to stop attacking me. I can’t imagine you’ve got much more of a point to make, other than wanting to have the last word. If that’s what you want, let me know, and I won’t respond any further. We’re never going to agree with one another – you think I’m a stupid 24 year old yuppie bitch that raises her pinky on her $10 drinks and giggles about how kewl the mission is and brags about dicking kids over, and I know who I actually am as a person, so I feel compelled to not allow you to perpetuate lies about me. We won’t agree, and I won’t tell you that I’ve learned a lesson and have decided to change my ways – whatever ways you want me to change. I can’t go back and change what happened, so it’s not like you’re trying to convince me to travel two weeks ago and give someone $400 cash that I literally did not have available in my life.
It’s a big internet out there – you’re obviously free and welcome to say whatever you want, as loudly and as often as possible. But I feel like the dead horse has been beaten enough. I’m sorry that you disagree with me and I’m sorry that you think I embody everything that’s wrong with your neighborhood. But I’ve got a lease that exists through October, so I can’t really go anywhere. And I don’t think getting rid of me is really the entire solution to whatever problem you’re exploring here. I have asked you politely before to stop telling lies – “overreaching”, if you will – about me, so all I can do is ask politely again:
Please, stop telling me what I have learned (“A San Francisco style lesson in proper social etiquette”), what I will do (“You’ll adjust your demeanor accordingly”), stop making assumptions about my character and what I do (“While you’re twittering away over organic mojitos and oysters at the new yuppie bar”), and stop taking out your hatred of everyone who has moved in to your neighborhood on me. I’m sorry that you liked the mission from whenever you moved here – you’ve never mentioned, and it doesn’t really matter – and I’m sorry that it’s being ruined for you. But I can hardly believe that I, individually, have completely changed the face of this neighborhood and ruined your life. I am certainly not that significant. But I feel like you are personally attacking me, in the face of that insignificance, and I’d just appreciate it if you’d stop so I could stop having to correct you.
Please, honestly, consider this. I appreciate your potential consideration.
Well, the key sentence in the last two posts was the one about moving here for a job. Once SF became the kind of place people moved to BECAUSE of its job market and not in spite of its crappy job market, the writing was on the wall.
The changes in the Mission over the last 10-12 years are a great example of that. The whole city is turning into the Marina.
As for personal attacks, I can’t help it. Just when I think I’m done, I re-read the clueless girl setting up the guy and then bragging about it, and I get outraged all over again.
I’ve always found overly chatty, arriviste 24 year olds to be annoying. Even when I was a 24 year old myself. And there’s never been a shortage of them in the city, not since I’ve been here. The only difference is there weren’t blogs back then.
You seem to think that by explaining yourself and your situation enough I will finally understand. That’s the hubris of a young, naive mind on display. Setting up a guy like you did was awful. And the way you chose to discuss it was tacky, to say the least. Generally 24 year olds have more to learn from the world than vice versa. Of course, many 24 year olds don’t understand that at the time.
Since you seem to love the Mission so much, I thought you’d appreciate a taste of how it was way back in the 90s, before people like you displaced people like me. But I guess some authentic Mission experiences are a little too authentic.
And I”m quite confident that you have indeed learned a lesson here. Although you still are in denial about setting a guy up and the tackiness of your bragging over it, consciously or subconsciously, you will tone down your act a little bit from here on out.