Mission Mission

Don’t you love living in a place where sometimes on the way to brunch you have to squeeze past a bunch of dudes on the sidewalk trying to maneuver some huge piece of machinery into a little storefront?

I mean, it’s a gorgeous piece. Put it on cinderblocks and you’ve got a mighty foundation for a pizza party and a game of TriBond.

On Mission, near 17th or 18th. It was there a couple hours ago. Good luck.

Previously:

Pizza Party

From the wrong angle this Mission Street Santa Claus creeps me out.

Even though I’ve lived through quite a few Christmas seasons here in the Mission, for some reason I’ve never noticed these Christmas lights adorning all the trees lining 24th Street.  Do these get put up every year?  Who is behind this festive endeavor?  With Thanksgiving weekend still in its death throws, they sure didn’t waste any time!

For those of you who want to get a sense of how we celebrate the holidays here at MM, just pour a little whiskey in your champurrado and sit around the fireplace listening to this:

Also . . . ABBA CHRISTMAS.

Hot tip: the corner of 19th and Valencia gets great wifi from a well-placed monkeybrains.net antenna. On top of that, the trash bin makes a great laptop stand and dog anchor. No need to buy a cup of coffee for the priviledge, either.

Any other good spots?

[via honeyjets]

They were blasting “It’s Getting Hot in Herre” inside and out, and this crew was partying HARD. A guy outside told me the pizza in there is the best in the city. (And he said his second favorite was the Extreme Pizza on Folsom.)

Update:

Video!

Reader MC might’ve just experienced a Thanksgiving miracle:

So, riding from one Thanksgiving dinner to the next, I rode south on Capp Street. I crossed 24th Street. And right here [pictured] I see a 42″ plasma TV sitting on the ground.

After checking it out for a few minutes, I realize there’s no way to carry it along with my bike to the house. So, I go to the house and recruit a friend to help me carry back to the house. We plug it in — it works. I plug in the cable, and I’m watching TV now. The thing works perfectly.

I decide to be a good guy, and post a note — thinking maybe someone is moving (who moves on Thanksgiving?)… or I don’t know how you can ‘lose’ a 70+ pound, 42″ inch TV. But, I think that’s the moral thing to do, right?

The only other viable option– someone planned to buy a new TV for Black Friday, and just tossed this thing– but it sells for over $700 used on amazon.

So– the question is — 1) Who lives at Capp & 24th who just ‘throws out’ a $700 TV? 2) What does that say about the state of the Mission if so? 3) Is there a secret spy camera inside watching me as I type this? 4) Did someone break into a house, and get around the block and gave up because it was heavy? 5) What should I be doing with this? Should I post a Craiglist Lost/found post? Is the note sufficient? 6) Does it have a curse on it? 7) But seriously– who just throws out a 42″ TV on Capp & 24th….? WTF?

This thing is huge– it’s bigger than my coffee table, and almost the size of my couch.

Also, FWIW, I paid the cab driver $20 to load my TV, my bike, and me and drive me home. The first cabbie refused, Luxor said ‘no vans unless you are handicapped’ and then this Yellow Cab guy helped me put it into and out of the cab, so that was nice.

Anybody lose their TV?

[Photo by Google Maps]

Rick here has lived in the Mission for two years, and now he’s moving on, to some intersection called 17th and Clayton, and he’s made a list of the pros and cons of leaving the Mission behind. Here are the cons:

Things I’ll Miss About Living in the Mission (specifically 24th and Shotwell):

• The 3 minute walk to BART
• The 40 Taquerias (Papalote and Vallarta, in particular) and the number of dive bars (Mission Bar, Nap’s 3) within walking distance.
• The $3 Four Lokos I can conveniently purchase at the corner.
• The quick shot up to the top of Bernal Hill.
• St. Francis Fountain down the street
• The relative flatness of the Mission in general and being able to get anywhere in the area on my bike faster than a car.

Read on for the pros section, though you should know it begins with a Bébé’s Kids reference.

There’s an SFMTA hearing today at City Hall, 10 AM, Room 416, to discuss the bike lanes, traffic calming, left hand turn pockets, and eliminating some left hand turns.

Expect the typical NIMBY and you-ruin-my-commute opposition. Why not swing by and give some counter arguments?

For some historical perspective:

1874: Precita Creek, future path of Army / Cesar Chavez, via David Rumsey (West is up). Serpentine Avenue — the old northern boundary of the Bernal Rancho – had yet to be straightened out. You see reference to the sewer they are about to put in — the one that is about to be replaced over the next few years.

And some of the efforts at widening Army St over the years in conjunction with the mid century highwayfication of SF.

1940, @ Harrison:

1962, between San Jose and Guerrero

I just want to be able to ride my bike down Cesar Chavez and not think I’m going to die, OK?

Geo-gustatory research fellow David Enos has produced a list of BART stations and their corresponding flavor. Wild, right? Here are some good ones:

Fruitvale    Otter Pops

McArthur   Refrigerated Celery

Rockridge    Werther’s Originals

19th Street      Smucker’s Grape

Read on for 24th Street and more.

Note that 16th Street is conspicuously absent from the list. What does 16th Street taste like?