Mission Mission

Neighbors Project is an organization dedicated to improving urban neighborhoods by teaching people how to be better neighbors. They throw block parties, publish how-to guides, and sponsor special social experiments like the Food & Liquor Project, which encourages people to shop exclusively more often at corner stores (known as “food and liquors” in Chicago, apparently). They say shopping hyperlocally like this means you aren’t driving your car to the suburbs, you’re supporting neighborhood businesses instead of chains, and you’re more likely to run into your neighbors or befriend new ones.

To promote this agenda, the group has just produced the Bodega Party in a Box, a helpful kit containing much of what one needs to throw a first-class party using only items found at corner stores (known as “bodegas” in New York, apparently). Inside is a cookbook, party invitations, decorations, and custom-printed reusable shopping bags. Proceeds from the sale of the bags go toward furthering this and other initiatives.

In any case, the basic principles at play here seem solid. Do things in the neighborhood, get to know your neighbors.

Previously on Mission Mission:

Cellphone Ban in Mission Corner Stores?

Chillaxin’ at the Nice Lady Store

Reader Dogfella just wrote in with this news:

COMMUNITY MEETING IN RESPONSE TO 7 KILLINGS LAST WEEK TONITE 5PM

Mission Community Council, SFPD meeting of residents, nonprofits and religious groups on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at the Mission Recreation Center.

Mission Recreation Center 2450 Harrison St @ 20th & 21st
USE 745 Treat St @ 20th & 21st ENTRANCE

SFPD confirms that district Captain Stephen Tacchini will be in attendance. See you there?

Earlier tonight, we were walking westbound on 20th Street somewhere between Atlas Cafe and Modern Times Bookstore, and all of a sudden we heard opera. A pedestrian behind us was singing, with gusto. I think she was a soprano, and she sang us all the way over to Mission Street, where she began to blend into some Lil Wayne bumping out a third-floor bay window. I love living in the city. Thanks, opera singer!

Eric Drooker‘s musical slide show presentation at Modern Times tonight was a gas as usual. He played banjo and narrated a (strictly analog) slide show made up of graphic novel excerpts, paintings, and photos from a recent trip to Palestine. When he got to this pigeon painting, a cover he’d done for The New Yorker, he told a story. In doing some research, looking for pigeon pictures from which to draw inspiration, he learned that pigeons are known in some circles as rock doves. He said he liked thinking of them that way, thinking about being in a city, surrounded by doves.

And it’s true, right? Right. It’s nice to think of pigeons not as pigeons but as doves.

From this week’s Free Farm Stand report:

I am a big believer that gardens and trees themselves can bring healing energy to the planet and for that fact alone we need more of them. One of my crazy fantasies right now is to try to talk Delano Market into letting me plant a Peace Garden in a part of their parking lot. I live right across from it and at night a lot of stuff goes down out there, and our neighborhood besides needing some good local organic food could use some good vibe energy that gardens and nature can bring.

Link. Who can pull some strings?

Photo by romleys.

So warns Johnny0, creator of this t-shirt decrying recent crimes committed against area taco trucks. Get your own Burrito Justice here.

Previously on Mission Mission:

‘Fuck Cars’ T-Shirt

Titty City T-Shirts For Sale

Sheeeeeeyit: Re-Elect Clay Davis T-Shirt

From New to the Bay, a chronicle of one recent Mission transplant’s efforts to adjust to life (and cycling) SF:

I’m a New York girl. I’m a little high-strung. The other day, flying down Mission, someone started to open their car door and I screamed a string of obscenities that would hardly be out of the ordinary in New York. This is not quite part of the San Francisco culture. I’m trying to adapt. I’m hoping that I become less high-strung as the days go on.

Link. Is that right? Screamed strings of obscenities are out of the ordinary on Mission Street?

Tonight at 5:30pm:

The League of Young/Pissed Off Voters is hosting a debate between the candidates for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in District 9 (the Mission and Bernal). There’s a whole bunch of candidates, but as we all saw from the presidential primaries, it’s hard to have a substantive debate with a large number of candidates. So we’ve reviewed them all, and we’re only inviting the three strongest candidates:
- Eric Quezada
- Mark Sanchez
- David Campos

For a more complete list of candidates, see here. Asked to describe how they decided on this particular trio, the League wrote back:

The League’s steering committee decided that Campos, Quezada, and Sanchez were the strongest candidates based on (1) their experience, (2) their positions on the issues, and (3) the strength of their campaigns.

1. Experience: They all have strong resumes that make us confident that they’re ready for the job.
2. Issues: We feel that they share our views on the most important issues, including:
- Addressing the root causes of the crisis of violence in the Mission (such as lack of jobs, education and community), and reforming the SFPD.
- Maximizing affordable housing (particularly in the new Eastern Neighborhood Plan) to preserve San Francisco’s character.
- Making San Francisco a national leader in the fight against global warming by implementing Community Choice Aggregation and passing Prop H.
3. Strength of campaign: We’ve seen that all three are working hard and that they have demonstrated broad support in the community.

Some of the other candidates are interesting, but when considering the combination of experience, philosophy, and strength of campaign, we decided that Campos, Quezada, and Sanchez are head and shoulders above the rest.

The debate takes place at the Pirate Cat Radio studio and cafe at 21st and Florida. The public is invited to watch in person, or listen in via 87.9 FM or the Pirate Cat website. And it’s over by 7pm, so you can go see Drooker.

Tonight at Modern Times, Erik Drooker appears to promote a new book of “postcards”:

Disguised as a book of innocent postcards, Slingshot is a dangerous collection of Eric Drooker’s most notorious posters. Plastered on brick walls from New York to Berlin, tattooed on bodies from Kansas to Mexico City, Drooker’s graphics continue to infiltrate and inflame the body politic.

Show starts at 7pm. Drooker is always a riot. (via funcheapSF)

Here’s hoping this one’s in the book…

Previously on Mission Mission:

Save Rent Control Poster By Eric Drooker

Looks like the party was a blast. Over at Beer & Nosh, Jesse’s got a photo album chronicling the whole thing. See it here. (He’s also published some nice little write-ups about Dynamo Donuts and the new Limon Rotisserie.) Thanks, Jesse!

Also, Britta from Jeweled Platypus wrote in to recommend Jesse’s photos on Flickr, as well as this Flickr search for a bajillion more pics of “the star of the show.” Thanks, Britta!