Mission Mission

We sure opened up a can o’ worms with this history stuff. As part of a larger piece looking at a lot of Mission District spatial history, Burrito Justice just put together a fascinating examination of the racetracks that long ago helped shape the development of the neighborhood. Link.

Remember this? I didn’t understand what it was at the time, but today I found out. A couple years back, artist Ledia Carroll plotted the former location of Mission Lake using this pleasant blue chalk. And a real field line chalker:

Now who wants to help me plot the former location of the 18th Street abattoir blood river using an unpleasant red chalk?

More chalk talk here: Restore Mission Lake Project. Thanks, LindyLula!

I guess I’ve always known there were ponds and rivers and junk in the Mission back before I was born, but this week it came to my attention that maybe at least one of these rivers was lined with abattoirs and ran red with blood.

I asked Telstar Logistics‘  Todd Lappin if he could corroborate this, but the best he could do were these two maps. Commendable cartography both, but they corroborate no carnage. Anyone else have any hot leads?

Whether we know it or not, we’re all always weaving in and out of the remnants of a railroad line that once crisscrossed the Mission. A while back, Todd Lappin hipped us to a sweet online map and history of the thing.

Yesterday, Adrian Bischoff launched a Google Map of the route, complete with placemarkers and brand-new photographs of present-day visual evidence of the long-gone railroad. Link.

Tonight at Elbo Room:

Instant City: A Literary Exploration of San Francisco presents:

Release party for Instant City 6 “the Disappeared.”

In a city notorious for its razor-sharp wit and cutting-edge lit, what better way to celebrate the release of Instant City 6 than with a reading and game show! Impress your friends and community.  Match your knowledge of San Francisco history and literature against your peers. Plus enjoy a selection of awesome tales from Instant City and get the chance to smooze the authors!

Doors at 7pm, game at 7:30. $10.00 admission includes a copy of Instant City 6.

Best thing my “mission district” Google Alert has yielded in a while: This cute bit of time warp courtesy of Bonnie Burton at The Official Star Wars Blog. Way back in 1977, muralist Xavier Viramontes and some cohorts from Galeria de la Raza painted C-3PO and his counterpart R2-D2 into this unauthorized nutritional PSA on a street-level billboard space on Bryant. Link.

Way way back in the day, the Mission had some minor league baseball teams. The first was called the SF Missions (who quickly moved to Salt Lake City and became the SLC Bees), and the next was called the Mission Reds (who toiled here for 12 years before ending up down south as the Hollywood Stars). Neither was as beloved as the Seals, of course. Nonetheless, Wikipedia’s complete history is fascinating.

And since the holidays are coming up, it might be wise to stock up on some handsome throwback gear (pictured). Thanks to Plug1 for bringing all of this to our attention.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/sv?cbp=1,240.41308085390924,,0,-12.969018932874356&cbll=37.762601,-122.423&panoid=v3PMmWRs88HDLLGYmgtQPw&v=1&hl=en&gl=us&w=425&h=240]

A few weeks back, Lael wrote a post linking to a vintage New York Times profile of the Mission from 1989. The post in turn spawned a cavalcade of comments from longtime residents eager to share their recollections of the old days. Today, my parents finally got around to chiming in. They met at SF State about three decades ago and lived in apartments on Dearborn (pictured) and then Camp, and have a lot of good recollections of their own:

We’d hang out with friends at each other’s Mission apartments (smoking pot was more comfortable that way), and as geography students at SFSU we cooked each other world food. We didn’t frequent the bars (too sleazy) except for the Dovre Club–then on 18th and Dearborn–on St. Patrick’s Day. Dolores Park wasn’t inviting (though the only part of the park that felt unsafe was the streetcar stop in the middle of the park) but we remember the big turnout for a free Pete and Sheila Escovedo concert. The park and neighborhood sidewalks were riddled with dog poop.

Lots more, including their favorite breakfasts, burritos and pizzas, and why they had to go all the way to North Beach for nightlife, here.

Plug1 was over on Belden Place and saw this sign on some establishment. He sent it over on the spot with the following accompanying text: “This can’t be right.”

Well, experts, what’s right?

Previously on Mission Mission:

Obama’s Election Means Carnitas Burrito For Breakfast

Burrito Justice For High Schoolers

Haiku Reviews of Mission District Taquerias

Gangs of San Francisco is a series of t-shirts celebrating the various “gangs” that tore shit up in San Francisco throughout history. Ohlone Chiefs apparently hailed from the Mission District, back before the Gang Injunction Zone. See rival gang t-shirts here, but, well, clearly the Ohlone Chiefs could kick the Fleishhacker Diving Club’s ass. (Thanks, Plug1!)

Previously on Mission Mission:

Homo Habilis Sweethearts Shirt

Fuck Cars Shirt

Titty City Shirt