Mission Mission

Reader Marcus I. spotted this very strange collab between network television and drugs.

To commemorate that today is the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake, Muni released a batch of never-before-seen photography from the aftermath. Three are set in the Mission.

Above is an almost totally incinerated street car on Guerrero Street, with the ruins of the Mission in the background. Below are scenes from Howard Street. (Now it’s known as South Van Ness, but it used to be Howard.)

[via Haighteration]

Dudes, we are getting our own vegan storefront. And it is within a slow 60 second walk of my casita! The owners announced it on the Facebook last week, so yes, I am fashionably late to the party, but I’m still excited to be there!

The shop will be called Pinko’s Vegan Mercantile and will open May 1. I, for one, am planning to race over there on my lovely but old and slow bicycle after work as fast as my two little legs will carry me and then spend as much of my paycheck as I can muster on delicious and/or beautiful vegan items.

OK and yes, let’s put it out there: being a pinko and running a store where consumers part with their money might seem a but contradictory. But look at our neighborhood culture: Ritual and Little Star have commie-influenced logos, so Pinko’s is hardly the first communist/ capitalist establishment here, mkay?

If you grow tired of the mix of grease-burned carne asada, urine, exhaust and rotting garbage that hovers in the air under your nostrils as you walk through our fair neighborhood, take a chance on Pearl Street and enjoy a whiff of these big yellow suckers. These things are so smelly! And it’s completely intoxicating. To smell, perchance to dream.

UPDATE: Lizzy tells us they’re also hallucinogenic! Bonus! But! Please don’t cut off your penis!

First they vandalized other artists’ work, now they’ve moved on to vandalizing federal property. A bold crew, this bunch of vegans.

Look at that bottle! I don’t know about you, but I’d definitely pay $8 for a 10 ounce pour of PBR if they advertised it like this in the U.S.

[Angus Winchester]

No respect!

[via Street Art SF]

No? Well, then you really missed out! Next time!

[via Idiot Tempers]

While apartment hunting over the weekend, our pal Emily got some crummy advice from a prospective landlord who’d asked her what neighborhoods she was interested in:

When I said the Mission, he gave me a strange look and kind of shook his head. “You’re at an idealistic age. The Mission isn’t for you. Maybe you’re tougher than you look, but, I don’t think you should live there. I once had a tenant from New York, thought she was real tough. After two weeks in the Mission, she begged me for her old lease.”

This coming from a guy who lives in Modesto or something. And THEN, another run-in the next day, with yet another old person:

[A] coworker and I were talking about places we have been looking at. A customer overheard us and chimed in on the conversation. “I used to live in Telegraph Hill back when it was affordable. I used to hang out in North Beach before the neighborhood went to shit.” The typical “San Francisco isn’t what it used to be blah blah blah” lecture ensued. She moved out of the city to have kids, surprise, surprise. She started to outline every neighborhood, what was wrong with them, and then she got to the Mission.

“I won’t even go to the Mission now that I have children. My brother lives in a condo there and I don’t go. I avoided that neighborhood fifteen years ago, and I avoid it now. A cop once told me ‘While girls shouldn’t be in the Mission.’ And, well, white girls shouldn’t be in the Mission.”

Ugh. Read on for more of Emily’s thoughts on the whole thing.

[Photo by Emily]