Turns out The Mission ain’t what it used to be:
San Francisco is a place that offers at least a semblance of social life in the streets and has a mass-transit system that, being at least semi-functional, can get you home even after chasing large doses of MDMA with multiple Irish carbombs, resulting in an uncontrollable throwing up of copious amounts of last nights frozen pizza onto strangers who you had drunkenly mistook for childhood friends. Who doesn’t want to live in a place where you can simply exit your apartment, walk a few blocks, and end up at a bar filled to the brim with a battalion of apparently creative, interesting patrons? Or, at least, so went my daydreams.
As it stands, the reality is much different. Upon exiting BART and walking down the streets of the Mission, it becomes apparent that San Francisco has transformed in ways that I cannot appreciate. Newly Ipe-planked luxury condominiums with fancy, all glass, automatic underground garage doors, and heated post-industrial concrete polished floors, sit adjacent to coffee shops whose patrons sip on $6-7 dollar coffee while they guiltily donate some small, insignificant pittance towards “saving the third world” on their new high-end Mac gadgets.
Read on at Oakland Local. Also here’s what ipe is.
[photo]
Dear Justin,
I’m ok with the Mission not being cool enough for you anymore. Most of the cool places from fifteen years ago are still here and still awesome, there are some awesome new places. The thing is, there always were douchy elements to the Mission and there still are, but on balance, it’s pretty fucking great. Keep your stereotyping, prejudiced, angry ass in Oakland. Also: fuck you.
Sincerely,
Mission dweller
Mile high rent isn’t a stereotype. Neither are the prices at a lot of the new places.
And for someone who loves where they live you sound pretty defensive.
You don’t feel moved to defend the things you love? Rough.
you’re a regular che’ guevara, or at least have a shirt with his portrait on it.
It’s not about defending the things you love, it’s about rationalizing. People come up with reasons to defend their decisions, whether those reasons have merit or not. This dude moved to Oakland, came up with an angry reason why OAK is better than the Mish. This other guy lives in the Mission, wants to feel good about himself, gets upset and therefore has a vested interest in the Mission being awesome.
i’m glad the Mission is effectively driving douchebags like this out.
Re: Mission dweller,
DITTO.
Thanks,
AK
It’s great when angry people find their place *outside* of SF.
Yeah, too bad this is 100% right.
Why can’t everything just stay the same always?? Because stuff was so much cooler and more authentic 10 years ago! (Or, according to people living 10 years ago, it was probably so much edgier and hip 10 years previous to that)
Things definitely went to crap when you showed up.
I was here 10 years ago. And 10 years before that. And from my vantage point, the thing I love best is that the more things have changed — and for the most part they have changed for the better — the more they have generally stayed the same.
Really, Oakland is a great place, stay there, thx.
from oaklandlocal.com:
“About Justin Gilmore. Justin Gilmore grew up in LA…”
More LA scum talking trash about SF. Also let me say that Oakland is awesome; and yes, by comparison Oakland does make the Mission look very moneyed, but that’s not the whole story.
And schooled in Santa Cruz no less
leave LA out of this will you
Leave Santa Cruz out of this
A measured and reasonable comment! Uh oh.
As someone who also lives in the East Bay I have to say, if the best reason you have to go to SF is to eat a burrito, you’ve failed. Sure, there are excellent burritos in the Mission, but they also exist in Richmond, Berkeley, and even Oakland.
1) I agree the Mission is too gentrified, but I grieve for the Hispanic working families that are being pushed out, not the art school drop out who – believe it or not – are still there in droves.
2) San Francisco is not the Mission. There’s still 40 square miles of city left.
3) If you think culture is getting drunk off your ass and vomiting on people then you’re a fucking asshole.
4) Yuppy means “Young URBAN Professional”. You cannot be a yuppy in the suburbs. Get your offensive terminology right.
5) God you’re such a fucking whiner.
1) Do you also grieve for the working Irish, Polish and German families who were pushed out by the Hispanic influx which didn’t really gain steam until the 40′s and 50′s?
Cities change. deal.
Given the choice, would you prefer gangs, violence and economic stagnation to that evil bugaboo ‘gentrification’?
Why?
Well, the Irish/Polish/German weren’t as much pushed out as they chose to leave the city for the idyllic suburbs. However, I agree with you.
And now we are finally reversing the horrible mistake that was the suburbs
Thank God. As a part of the angsty generation of teenagers who grew up in the suburbs, living in San Francisco and not having to depend on a car to go places and see my friends is a fucking godsend. And that’s why I’m not moving to Oakland. I like having walkable open-24-hours spots blocks from my house.
The Irish and Italians left on their own and the next gen of immigrants moved in. Latino’s are being pushed out. And there’s no place for the next wave of immigrants to move into.
BTW, nice job associating Latinos and the working class with gangs and crime. Maybe if the cops gave a shit about those neighborhoods that didn’t have dot com millionaires in them there wouldn’t be crimes in the less “gentrified” areas. Fucking racist fuck.
Nice job? I’m pretty sure Latino’s do a fine job of associating themselves with crime and the working class all their own smart guy. Sometime’s racism has foundation in fact, no one said it feels good to admit. It’s just a socially conditioned reality.
So racism is ok if it’s “true”? Am I in the fucking South again? Oh, wait, no. I’m just on the Internet.
wow. Nice job missing the point AND pulling the race card! Do you seriously think there is a greater police presence in say, Nob Hill than in The Mission? You’d be wrong. There isn’t less crime in Nob Hill because the cops give a shit about millionaires, there’s less crime in Nob Hill because the people who live there aren’t in MS13 or Nortenos. If anyone here is racist, it is MS13 and Nortenos. I don’t think they let whitey play on their team. Call the ACLU!
Race card? Read Obvious above. He seems to think it’s the not just racism, but the good kind of racism. Mmmm, mmm!
Dude, I live in Alamo Square. The cops patrol the park every night and stake out the stop signs during the day. The park is in the middle of a terrible neighborhood for murder and crime, yet the streets surrounding the park itself are completely crime free. Police presence matters and the cops in the Mission don’t do shit to the point that people take matters into their own hands.
About point #4: You mean to tell me there are no yuppies in silicon valley, because Cupertino, Mountain View, Los Altos et al are not urban cities?
This guy will responsible for the gentrification that will inevitably come to Oakland, and then he’ll move to Richmond or something and then he’ll write a scathing editorial on the residents of Lake Merritt.
Everything around lake Merritt is already gentrified, you idiot.
That’s so weird.
I rolled out of bed this morning in my charming, sunny $800 a month Oakland flat (My ex-girlfriend is now a man-hating lesbian, but we still live together because this apartment is so awesome, plus her girlfriend matches the hard wood floors) and I decided to hop over to the once great Mission myself!
What a coincidence!
I walked over to the Bart (I was going to drive, but with that $6 troll toll and $10/hour SF parking, Bart is a Bartgain — get it?) and voila! I was at 16th & Mission faster than you can say “low self-esteem haunts the 99% like crabs in a Bart seat.”
16th & Mission has totes gentrified, right? The ranting bible-thumpers now wear suits & ties. Srsly! The heroin addicts now have a super-plush methadone clinic right around the corner on Capp. The taco truck employees now have free medical care, and the drug dealers have their own department stores. They call them clinics, and they are way better than anything we used to have in Oakland, let me tell you.
Anyway, I went over to Valencia and had Thai lunch and met a hot Dom while I was touring the Kink building and so I’m back home with her now (she’s from Oakland, too!), and my ex just brought home a really huge, really mean Cat she has named Carol Migden for some reason. (Whose that?)
My new Dom lady just said something about how that cat would be great for later. Gotta go, yuppy Mission douche bags! Don’t let the Jet Blue doors pinch your lilly asses on the way out of town when dot bust 3.0 hits like a 911 call in Lake Merritt on a Friday night!
Cool story bro.
Yeah, too bad this is 100% right.
jeezus, you’re a crazy fuck.
oakland’s raging inferiority complex continues, no one in SF seems to care enough to pour hours into writing a detailed essay on how shitty living in Oakland is.
It really has stricken me as odd that Oakland folk speak of SF rent as being exorbitant. If I lived in Oakland my commuting cost would easily be the equivocal cost the price of my rent.
eh, I live in Oakland and commute to the city, which costs me about $120 a month. For an extra $120 a month I could not afford to live in an equally rad apartment in an equally pleasant neighborhood.
Also, equivocal does not mean what you think it means. You likely meant equivalent.
“oakland’s raging inferiority complex continues, no one in SF seems to care enough to pour hours into writing a detailed essay on how shitty living in Oakland is.”
Strangely though, no one from SF had to read this Oaklander’s blog. Someone from this website chose to link to it, and a bunch of commenters chose to read the article as well as the writer’s bio and comment on that.
The adverse changes wrought by gentrification of the city in general and the Mission in particular is a fairly mainstream subject these days. Look at your Guardian cover this week.
Ich bin froh, die Mission wird effektiv treibende douchebags wie dieses heraus.
It’s 1997 all over again!
Remarkable, isn’t it? Same tensions, same stereotypes.
I don’t recall Oakland being such a big part of the discussion last time. Hopefully the really angry and destructive people will go there.
And there’s a second start up bubble, too. It’s gonna burst soon, and we’ll get our neighborhood back.
It’s just starting. Who knows when it will burst. In the meantime, it’s still your neighborhood.
I hate, hate, hate hate…hate when things change!!!
I got off at 16th St. and was expecting Studio 54!! Where are all the interesting, yet oh sooooo very boring people? Used to be you could count on a conversation with young anarchist who hated corporations and the man yet continued to work for pets.com as an experience engineer.
Someone has gone and changed my Mission narrative, why would they do such a thing?
hmm, i woke up recently at my fabulously cheap house in the mission, WALKED two blocks to have coffee, running into three friends and neighbors on the way, WALKED another half block to the latino grocery store for a snack, WALKED another block to the free farm stand when i ran into another half dozen friends, WALKED to and art show and a music show and then WALKED home.
When i lived in oakland I DROVE to get coffee, DROVE to the market, DROVE to the city, got stuck in TRAFFIC daily, cursed BART on the days i didn’t DRIVE and wished that i lived in the west bay. Sure, i RODE my bike when could but sometimes that simply wasn’t practical.
I don’t know man, I think you may have been doing it wrong. I’ve lived off and on in the east bay for the last decade and have happily not had a car for most of that time. Also, I know more than few people who live in the city who drive more than they’d like to, and maybe more than they need to.
I walked to work today and then I’m gonna walk to Beer Rev afterwards and then I’m going to walk home. Is your point that you’re lazy?
haha. last i checked walking is good for your health- far from lazy. Not so driving.
Where the hell can you get a $7 coffee? Lats time i checked all our cafes in the Mission were cheaper than Starbuck’s or Peet’s.
Oakland=SF=you’re all bags.
you know parts of oakland are also becoming gentrified right?
go hang out in temescal or west oakland for a spell.
rip Silver Lion.
rip Shelly
West Oakland is not being gentrified, you idiot. Take a walk up San Pablo ave sometime. You can go to a liquor store, get some heroin and catch herpes all on the same block.
i disagree, i think west oakland is on its way.
if you have white people walking around fearless as shit, then you know something is up.
Justin Gilmore grew up in LA, went to school in Santa Cruz, and is now living in Oakland and complaining about a city he never lived in.
EWNASH
I lived in the mission for a long time and recently moved to the suburbs in small city, a really small city. I miss SF, sure. I miss it a lot.
Small cities are rife with strange prejudices, college frat boys, and corporate chains. Sure, it’s a Ballardian nightmare BUT -
But, what I do like about not living in the mission is paying the same rent $600 for 5x the space, pool hot tub (that I never have time to use), a real kitchen where everything works… plus garbage disposal in my sink and dishwasher… not having tons of roommates which keeps everything much more clean and organized without having to constantly be cleaning or living in filth. Haha. Not that I don’t like living in filth it can be fun, seriously.
I used to spend $60-80 for a week and a half of groceries at a culmination of TJ’s, Rainbow or Golden Produce or the Alemany Farmer’s market. Now I go to the farmer’s markets around where I live and spend $80 and can end up with two to three times more the amount of food that I could get in SF and it’s actually fresh from the fucking hills!
I hate cars but I’m a hypocrite and have been enjoying a ten minute drive to and from work and the ability to be at the top of a mountain range or the ocean in a 15 minute drive. And I’m not talking LA ocean… I’m talking about no one around except you your friend, or not and miles of dunes and tidal pools next to the ocean.
It was a pain having a car in SF but I’m loving weekend trips… every weekend. Pinnacles, Big Sur, Carizo.. it’s nice getting out of the city or just your regular surroundings on a constant basis. California is a beautiful place.
Oh and it seems so much easier to save money. After living in SF for 10 years it literally seemed impossible to save anything. Now only two months into not living in SF I already have way more money than I have ever had tucked away in my savings account. And I still drink booze like a booze monster just like I did in SF. I probably spend even more on booze & ganj but am still saving a lot of money.
With that said – Next time that I move to the Bay Area I’m moving to Oakland or Berkeley.
Well said. Appreciate your honesty.
For many SF is not as great a place as we think it is. And it’s not for everyone.
“I hate cars” patting dsds on the back. It’s ok buddy, its ok.
I grew up in the middle of nowhere, it was great. Cities were noisy, angry hassles that I never cared to go visit. I love small town life.
After a long journey I find myself in SF loving it.
Cities are good for specific times and places, it makes no sense to stay fixed on something that always changes.
One day I’ll make it back to the country (with acres instead of parklettes), but for now where I am is pretty rad.
My response to this dude is – The BART is just as musky in Oakland as it is in SF.
This reads as someone trying to sound intelligent by rehashing what has been said a million times before, stealing a few paragraphs from his college paper on urban development in the process. If you wanna live in Oakland, good for you! I like Oakland too! However, trying to claim that The Mission is nothing but a bunch of Google-employees is ridiculous. Last time I checked, I still have to hold my breath every time I cross the 16th & Mission plaza, and I still get haggled by dirtbags when I walk down Mission.
If your entire definition of San Francisco is “Valencia St.”, then yeah, I guess you’re right. But there are still plenty of young communities here, thriving in our 4-bedroom living room-less $600/month apartments, buying groceries at FoodsCo. Sometimes I wish I had a bigger apartment, or a living room, or that I could afford to get a car, and sometimes those things makes living in Oakland sound tempting. However, the claim that everyone in San Francisco are “$7 latte sipping yuppies” is fucking ridiculous. Where do lattes cost $7, anyway?!
I grew up in Oakland and it was pretty boring. I moved to the Mission and it is pretty fun. Whatever. I’ve never understood the Oakland versus SF thing, but maybe that’s because I’m not a child.
Also, it is too bad they got rid of the journalism program before this guy got to UC Santa Cruz. He could use some help in that department.
I’m glad the Mission has changed. I love Valencia St. and all the choices I have to shop, eat, drink, see art.
And I feel safe on Valencia st.
More power to the developers and people who buy new condos. This is how cities change, grow and evolve.
And guess what? no one said that EVERYONE can afford to live here. That’s reality.
I love it.
What you came looking for you have ruined. But then again you like to “see art”.
Of the five senses available to us, I’d say sight is probably the best when it comes to art.
Exactly, how can I enjoy art unless I can see it. pretty simple,huh?
personal pref.
given the choice between music and visual art, I’d take music all day, everyday.
Yeah, see, this dude speaks the truth and it is a sad one.
Nope, it’s not a sad truth, but a real truth. I for one am glad that the Mission and Valencia,as one example, are becoming more gentrified.
Expensive yes. That’s reality in any great city on the move, and changing.
I can afford it, cause I worked my ass off in college to get a career that pays well. I wish others the best as well.
Ugh.
Wow, everyone here is really bumming me out. Just disregard what Justin guy has to say. He seems angry and I personally don’t care to hear the opinions of angry disgruntled people. I’m going to go eat breakfast now.
There must be a Word macro that generates this article automatically, because I’ve read this exact same piece maybe 30 or 40 times in the past few years.
lol poor people
I love the mission. I live on the Park. I am a black, homosexual, tech-ensconsed, coffee-loving, transplant and I love what the mission has become. I publicly lament its gentrification alongside my liberal friends but I secretly love the reduction of crime and the growth of overpriced, tiny restaurants. No, this is NO utopia but I like it lots. In fact, I’d LOVE a Starbucks and a Whole Foods to move into the hood (the one on 24th street is too far and buy-rite is too crowded) and Id even love a La Boulandge because I need more cafes from which to work on my startup and meet interesting people while eating tiny. tiny sandwiches. I love diversity but I like it in an everyone-here-went-to-a different-kind-of-private-liberal-arts-college-brand of diversity. Yes it expensive, but I actually don’t care. I never understood this dramatic lament of gentrification. I’m not a Silicon Valley Libertarian! I’m a liberal – but one who loves safety, amenities, galleries, etc and I’ll never apologize for it! I’m literally on my way to brunch right now where I’ll wait in line.
I love diversity but I like it in an everyone-here-went-to-a different-kind-of-private-liberal-arts-college-brand of diversity.
I assume that this over the top obnoxious post is a joke right?
I mean who refers to themselves as homosexual in 2012? and spells bi-rite as buy rite?
Good sleuthing…I smell a rat too, although, I swear I met this dude recently. They do exist and are happy like he said. Money changes everything. Period. Errrrrthang! I could be very happy here is SFC w/ 235k per year. Less ain’t no fun anymore. It used to be though!!!! You fools missed the boat. I lived in Oaktown too, but before all the frisco transplants got there. It wasn’t nearly as much fun then. It was gnar-gnar fo real. If ya got $$$ the Sco is all good – if ya don’t, the O is gonna treat ya better. 5000 G – I’m Audi (Retro flashback on the house).
Audi? I have an Audi! Seriously!
Again, I’m not kidding! And I think that you are right about the salary thing.
Mission Local Market is opening soon on Harrison between 22nd and 23rd Sts:http://uptownalmanac.com/2011/12/new-farm-fresh-local-organic-supermarket-coming-inner-mission
No! This is absolutely not a joke. I showed it to my boyfriend because I wanted him to know that I meant every word of it. Every word. I hadn’t even noticed that I spelled bi-rite incorrectly.
Look. I don’t like the idea of displacement but I often love the effects of gentrification but I dont have a social circle where I can be open about these things. And my diversity comment is not a joke at all.
I believed you were serious and completely agree with what you said. I am a white, gay, professional (architect) and totally love the gentrification.
What’s your age (if you don’t mind me asking)? I’m serious — because I just wonder if people’s attitudes toward gentrification change as they get beyond their twenties/early thirties, or vice-versa.
Im 31
Dude – I’ve been thinking some more about your comment. I’m casting for my independent public radio show (arrested dev meets NPR) and I think you should apply. What’s your start-up all about?
Email me at hello [at] sonicsf [dot] org, and I’ll send you some more info. The show is about life and culture in SF and your comment above about who you are and what you love is interesting.
(Sorry to put this here in a comment, but I am intrigued and don’t know how else to reach you…)
P.S. to Dr. Elitest: My nickname links to our site now. The last minute and a half of the vid has one of our correspondents explaining how being part of the pilot we made was awesome and changed his life.
Change how? and why should age matter in the discussion?
I’m 41.
Well, maybe when someone is young they prefer living in an economically diverse area — because they are trying to save money, or oppose materialism and prefer a mix of cultures, or HAVE to live in a non-gentrified area and find they like it…
But when they get older and have more resources, comfort becomes more important, especially if they neighborhood gentrifies as they get a little older.
I can also see it working the complete opposite way.
This is obviously a huge issue here. I’m 22, still working on my degree, trying to slowly build my career while working as an assistant at an art gallery and an intern at a design studio. I settled in the Mission three years ago because it was an affordable place to live with cheap bars (Benders/Uptown), cheap eats (street tacos all day) and an interesting mix of people. I am not among the late-twenties/early-thirties demographic that can afford to pay $2000 for a one bedroom on Valencia, neither do I desire a perfectly comfortable, gentrified living experience like that. Perhaps once I am financially stable, married and 30, gentrified Mission will sound a lot more utopian that it does at the moment. For now, I couldn’t be happier in my sunny $450/month bedroom on Shotwell with loud homeless people outside.
I feel that this neighborhood became desirable because of the number of people just like myself inhabiting it, so it’s a shame that we’re being outpriced by people looking for an “edgier” Noe Valley/Pacific Heights-like experience. When myself and the other artists/artisans/punks/hipsters/students/alcoholics/Mexicans no longer can afford to live here, what made the Mission interesting in the first place will be gone.
Christine: The Mission was an interesting place to live before your time, 20 years ago– lots of “artists/artisans/punks/hipsters/students/alcoholics/Mexicans” then, too. And before my time, back in the 1970′s, Valencia St. was like that too. And rents have been high since the late 1990′s. Change happens, but the Mission isn’t turning into Pac Heights.
Well, I would agree with you. Since I am “older” now and own a house in Noe Valley, yes, perhaps “comfort” is somewhat of a factor.
But I do love going to Valencia St, walking, shopping, meeting friends there for dinner and happy to spend some money locally.
Valencia is for everyone and will keep evolving.
In the words of Too $hort
“get in where you fit in, biaaatch.”
Exactly.
I am 31.
I moved here from the South. San Francisco is better.
$7 lattes??? Where? I’ve never seen them.
Why does it always have to be a fight or an argument as to what is better? Just enjoy what makes Oakland beautiful and wonderful, enjoy San Francisco in the ways you want, and shut the hell up with all the negative bullshit. Stop looking for negative things and you might find that you can enjoy both places equally without causing some childish “My city is better than your city” dialogue that doesn’t do anyone any good.
Yes totally! Both places are experiencing gentrification. I mean look at Temescal, there’s a fucking Tapas restaurant where the Silver Lion used to be. In any case I’ve lived in both cities, I choose to live in Oakland because that’s where I’m comfortable. You should live where ever makes you happy. Besides, that original “article” was so ill conceived and poorly written that it hardly deserves to be taken seriously.
i’m just happy we got a bowling alley
The Mission is now for a-holes that just moved here to work for twitter and moms with baby strollers – and I LOVE IT!!!!
There’s always been moms with baby strollers in the Mission. I’ve lived here for 18 years, Mexican families abound here, it’s always been the most mulitgenerational neighborhood.
I noticed that hipsters in the Mission seem to feel resentment about white people with babies in the Mission but not Mexican families with babies. Never understood this, but I suffered shouts and jeers from punks while walking my baby around my Mission neighborhood, and I know those white hipster douchebags never would have jeered a Mexican woman with a baby/stroller. The Mission has always been a family neighborhood.
I think the resentment lies not in race as much as class. It is understood that a Latin parent walking around the Mission has a very different experience rising kids in the Mission than the typical White parent. She lives in the Mission because the Mission is a place of refuge. A place of community. That commands respect that a parent with 2.5 kids and a Volvo might not get.
I don’t like assumptions about class based on my race! It is true that I am comfortable now, but I have also been (with my first son 15 years ago) a single parent who was impoverished and struggling to get by. I have lived in the Mission through its and my own incarnations of rag to riches to rags, etc…I raised my oldest son here and certainly feel entitled to raise my second one here too without taking crap for it.
No excuse for anyone jeering you for pushing a stroller, Mamiel. The Mission has always been a diverse place, and it is ridiculous to be rude to a stranger because one perceives that person to be different.
Anyone remember the guy from the Mission Yuppie Eradication Project, during the last dot com run-up? He vandalized SUVs and urged others to do so. Then he got handcuffed for drunken, belligerent behavior in First Class, flying Air France back from Paris. He slinked away when exposed as a member of the bourgeoisie he so despised.
I totally remember this! I moved to the Mission in 1996 and totally remember the SUV vandalism craze – it felt epic and dangerous and lusty and exciting. Am I also remembering correctly the vomit-in when a bunch of people (I mean, this is how I remember it) took ipecac and went into Tokyo a Go Go or something right after it opened.
OMG! Gross! Please don’t vomit in my Marina Girl Salad! Yuk! OH, and I ONLY fly first class because my BFF works for US Air!! Suck it poor people!
OMG I never heard that story about the anti-Yuppie guy on Air France. Thanks for sharing that!
Being a S.F. native and being raised in the Mission, I smile at all these discussions Pro and Con. Went to Mission Dolores Grammar School. Went to the New Mission and Crown Theater for the Saturday matinees. Worked in the Castro (Pre-Gay) and Bell Bazaar Stationary Store on 16th (I know you never heard of it). It was cool even back then with a Studio shooting an underground movie (such as Tricia Nixon’s Wedding starring an odd set of Drag Queens ala John Waters). I cherish the gentrification of the Mission as it shows me that the vibrancy is not owned by any generation and one day when you move when you either out grow the “Cool” or feel that these newcomers have detroyed what in your mind feel that you have created. The Mission will still be here enticing a new generation to make it’s temporary impression. Then you will be an “Old Fart” like myself having a cocktail at the El Rio or the Lone Palm basking in the vibrancy we call The Mission.
This is very smart.
Excellent post.
first it was sf vs ny, now its sf vs oakland/surrounding bay area. up next, SF VS. THE WORLD
Don’t buy into the east vs. west bullshit. It’s a selling point for weeklies and blogs whose circulation and readership numbers are fading faster than Madonna’s career. I’ve worked and have played music in both areas…both cities have great and shitty characteristics. Chill the fuck out.
+1. I lived in the east bay for 17 years before moving to SF in 2009. Oakland has its charm, and there is some great veg dining in Berkeley, but the only thing worth crossing the bridge for is the hiking (Tilden Park and Redwood Regional are some of the best open spaces in the Bay Area). If you’re big on non-gentrified SF “authenticity,” live in the Excelsior.
XLCR is well on it’s way – I know a bunch of non- raza fams that dwell there now. It’s coo though, we all got the same probs – just different economies of scale.
Agreed! And this post/comment thread illustrate beautifully the “shitty characteristics” of both sides of the Bay.
BWA! Who gives a fuck. Stupid goddamn scenester feminine hygiene insults. Ecstasy gives you fleas, you trend monkey.
I lived in Temescal for six months and I felt safer and paid more rent there than I do in my place on 26th and Folsom.
Also, where are there $7 lattes?
I’m a 3rd generation San Franciscan – I’ve lived all of my 52 years in the Mission (btw – I’m not hispanic). Oakland’s always had an inferiority complex in regards to the city, always will. Remember, “there .is no there, there”
I want a $7 latte! Wait, if I could afford a $7 latte, I’d go get two tacos and a coke instead.
Honestly, shut up. Everyone’s is going to put their whatever on the table and say its the best. It is! YOURS is the best. Come visit, find something nice, there is always something nice. But don’t sit there and complain the fuck out of the place where other people live and love. It’s not like you had to go to the dentist or some other shitty thing like that.
I need a nap.
I was just walking on Telegraph in Oakland on Monday, and I love it there because it reminds me of Valencia in the late 80s. Same vibe, same feel, same look, same kind of people.
As long as I can find that somewhere in the Bay, I’m happy. Plus, the weather in Oakland is way better. If you want the Mission circa 1989 feeling, go to Oakland.
The Mission still has its charms, and SF in general still has its unparalleled physical beauty and architecture, but neighborhoods change. 90% of San Franciscans can’t afford the market rent on their places. I can’t imagine what sort of 25 year old looks at the Mission and says “hey, I can pay $1,000 mo. rent, and look at all the trendy food and drink options right outside my door. That’s totally the neighborhood for me.”
The Mission is a consumer driven area now. Neighborhoods change.
No, the Mission is where it’s at, I swear.
Really, you SF transplants should avoid Oakland. It’s dangerous, full of gangs, people who don’t dress up to go to breakfast, ranging ethnicities, and socio-economic classes. Better to stay safe and close to your own kind and be hip.
since theres so much money in the mission these days;i assume someone can lend me $2.75 for a 40 ozer from fidas?(pay ya back)
Citywide minimum wage is $10.55 an hour — highest in the nation. Get a job and get with it, asshole — or go somewhere where they like slave labor and earn less, or go jump off a bridge and die.
Lotsa choices, bro…