I remember Valencha

In a post called “I Remember Valencha,” local blog Ticklefight takes a look back at a Valencia Street of the not-so-distant past:

KFC used to own this stretch and they knew it. For blocks and blocks you could smell it, sometimes all the way up to the other KFC on 14th or the Taco Bell near Saint Luke’s.

The 26 would get you all over, that is if it ever showed up. Plenty of seats and hardly any riff-raff.

The Gardens on 15th were a jungle and you stayed away if you could because you knew better.

Read on for the scoop on $2 slices and some pondering about the future of La Rondalla.

Also, let’s all be sure to read former Mission Mission editor Kat Malinowska’s stirring remembrance of the 26-Valencia (sample excerpt: “Riding the 26 always made me feel like I was taking public transit in Santa Barbara”).

12 Responses to “I remember Valencha”

  1. trixr4kids says:

    the great great great great grandchildren of the rats that got la rondalla closed down have now died. that place is toast.

  2. Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable says:

    I miss La Rondalla.

    And the 26.

  3. JohnnyL says:

    Can we now stop bitching about how (the over-used term) “gentrification” has ruined everything?

    k thx.

  4. Joe Shlabotnik says:

    Used to take the 26 Valencia to school in the early 70s. That bus line covered a lot of territory. Miss that Taco Bell and the jack in the box where rosamunde is now. Sniff sniff.

  5. Grizzled Mission says:

    I, too, was younger once and things were different then.