Mission Mission

Right abouts here. Thanks, Johnny0!

The portion of today’s hearings prior to the American Apparel portion was devoted to recent New Mission Theater news. Apparently, at one point, one of the planning commissioners said something to the effect of, “It’s come to my attention that the nightclub on the roof of Medjool might be illegal.”

Wha? I had to get back to my dayjob, so could not investigate. Did anything come of this?

P.S. Regarding the liveblogging of the AA thing, I tried. But I had to get back to the office. Andy Wright of SF Weekly is on the scene with a reporter’s notebook and everything, and she promises to call me the minute anything exciting happens. Right after she calls her office of course.

Riding the elevator up to the fourth floor with another person who, like me, is wearing jeans and Converse All-Stars.  When we exit the elevator a bunch of other people dressed exactly the same way inform us, without us even asking, that the hearing is going to be pushed back an hour but that there is an overflow room where we can wait.

The person from the elevator says to me, “I think it’s funny how everybody knows right where we are going.”

A number of Mission merchants have written in this morning to explain why they’re not affiliated with the Mission Merchants Association, mentioned in a post yesterday. Today’s comments begin right about here.

MAC SF just published a piece called A Tale of Two Commercial Corridors, which laments the divide between Mission and Valencia:

Valencia has become iconic for its high-end eclecticism, it’s hipster saturated streets and pricey restaurants. The demographic on the street is young, hyper-educated and affluent. Mission Street is, well, Mission Street, full of brown faces, families with kids, recent immigrants, grime, and all kinds of cheap apparel stores up and down the corridor. Two streets that sit side by side running parallel through the Mission District, only a block away but worlds apart.

It goes on compare the amount of attention paid to the New Mission Theater project to the amount of attention paid to American Apparel.

To me, this divide is thee crux of this notion we call “The Mission.” MAC can highlight what they need to in order to effect the political changes they’re after, but my question is this: Would the Mission be the Mission without this divide?

I wasn’t here 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 40 years ago, but I’m here now and I love the Mission now. And I love it for all of the things that it is, now. I love that these two streets are “only a block away but worlds apart.” And on some level, I think we all do. Because it’s the human experience in microcosm? Something about the duality of man?

Here’s a thought: What if it’s this very divide that makes the Mission so unique?

Now I’m off to City Hall (where, incidentally, I’m gonna try this). If any news happens, I’ll be in touch.

Photos by juicyrai.

How do you like my latest experiment in resless photography? This work of art was stuck to a single copy sales box outside Mission Pie night before last. I went back this morning to get a better picture, but the whole bank of single copy sales boxes was gone

Related:

Gingerbread Murder and Suicide

Johnny0 mentioned this last week, but Streetsblog yesterday published a big feature on the future of Cesar Chavez Street. They’ve got tantalizing graphics, details on the organizations behind the revamp, and a full outline of the plan (which includes bike lanes, a big green median, and numerous pedestrian improvements). Link.

What’re they up to?

Photo by kate at yr own risk.

This morning, the Mission Merchants Association came out in favor of American Apparel’s bid to move into a space on Valencia Street. In a letter to the planning commission, they cite the chain-store-is-better-than-an-empty-storefront argument, as well as American Apparel’s responsible business practices. They denounce the notion that AA is a gateway to the Gap, and make clear that this endorsement is NOT a “blanket endorsement of allowing chain stores into the Mission.”

Click image to view actual size.

OK, I’m bummed again. Lux Interior has passed away. I will never see the Cramps again. This is a movie I made, the emotional heart of which is a Cramps song containing probably my favorite Lux vocal ever.