Mission Mission

While chillaxin’ at the Nice Lady Store, we got to watch a giant yellow Pac-Man cruise down 19th Street. If you click on the picture, it will get bigger.

Love this weather. After sitting structure gonflable around in t-shirts in the park until well past 8, we strolled toward home, stopping occasionally to marvel at the sky. At 21st and Valencia, I had to snap a picture (click it to make it big). Gorgeous, right?

A block later we ran into Omer who was jabbering about how an hour earlier, he’d predicted there’d be a beautiful sunset. Something about lack of fog leading to ice crystals and stuff. He’s got plenty of CDs for sale though. “Democracy is a Good Thing” is a bargain at $10, or go for the “Love and Peace are Good Things” two-disc set for $20.

I find this selection of chocolate chips at the Mission Safeway unacceptable. Only seven available types of baking chips, and one was white (fake) chocolate and another was butterscotch (ew) ?!  Whatever happened toboggan aquatique gonflable to peanut butter chips or mini-chocolate chips? A few feet away is this disgusting display:

I love olive oil as much as the next person, but really? The extravagant number of olive oils takes up so much precious space that there is no room for chocolate?

Mission bakers – is there anywhere around to find mini chocolate chips?

Chris at A New Us announces that he’s leaving, and explains why:

Dear The Mission,

I love you I really do, but unfortunately due to the skyrocketing rents and the constant tomfoolery that was outside of our window, Julie and I are leaving you. It’s not you it’s me.

He goes into more detail about quietude and dishwashers, and how he might be back once every couple weeks. Link.

Dear The Mission,

Will you miss Chris?

While shopping in one of the many little food shops at 16th and Mission:

Girl 1: She prolly want a little grandbaby, huh?

Girl 2: I know, she gonna convince me not to have no abortion.

I wanted so badly to follow them, camera castillo hinchable in hand, to record more of these gems. But alas, I had to pay for my stuff.

That’s right, EME for this weekend:

The last moments of the Bay Area National Dance Week! Free classes and events scattered thickly over the Mission District.

The Cinco de Mayo celebration at Dolores Park! We all know that Saturday isn’t Cinco de Mayo. It’s the Kentucky Derby. We’ll be celebrating Cinco de Mayo anyway, because this is the Mission of San Francisco, and maybe we’ll bring along a Mint Julep in honor of my horse-country past.

The other day I mentioned how Mission Mission is getting a lot of traffic these days, and someone responded that half of it probably comes from people at Ritual Roasters. I don’t drink coffee, so the fuss surrounding Ritual is kind of lost on me. Consequently, this remark didn’t really register.

Then last night Brittney Gilbert at Eye on Blogs published this photo (credited to hotlead) of the shop’s somewhat funny “Please, No Blogging in line” sign, which got me thinking again. Link.

So, readers, do tell. Are half of you at Ritual?

Previous Mission Mission Ritual mention here.

The second installment in the San Francisco architecture series on Imsooconfused features a touching tribute to the Women’s Building‘s beloved murals.

Previously on Mission Mission: Vertical Earthquake Could Hit the Mission District, Destroying View of Mural

Since we get a lot more traffic now than we did when this first ran, we thought we’d give it another go. A while back, Lael had an unsettling experience at a neighborhood corner grocer:

I saw a woman squeeze a cucumber, shake her head, and examine the mushrooms approvingly. Curious, I drew closer. Another woman glanced at the cucumbers, said something in Spanish to another woman who then parc gonflable molested the cucumber with her hand, and drew back in disgust. All three women had now moved onto different vegetables.

Link to the full story. Or tell us what’s wrong with those cucumbers.

(Photo by reelgeek)

Valencia Street is a dangerous place, more or less. We’ve all heard the debate: are there so many bike accidents on Valencia and Market because they are such dangerous (bad) bike routes, or because they are such well-used (good) bike routes? I say a combination of the two.

Today, though, I’m interested in making this a more nuanced discussion: is Valencia so dangerous because of the potholes or because of the constant construction fixing the potholes? I am not, of course, some freaky pothole fan, but I can get used to them. I ride Valencia twice a day, every day, and it’s not potholes that set up camp a block or two at a time and leave a single lane castillos inflables for both directions of car + bike traffic, and travel leisurely up and down the road for months on end. Potholes don’t make that awful, numbing noise, and potholes don’t have the terrifying visual impact of a cavernous hole cut in the asphalt with only a sparse line of orange cones to shield it. A pothole did not spray me with muddy water yesterday as it cut a chunk out of the pavement.

Do not go putting the potholes up on pedestals, now. They need fixin’. I love the SFBC for marking them to increase visibility and encourage municipal action, with events like Crater Invaders getting lots of folks involved. I love the people who are actually doing the work – and it’s not easy, pleasant, or pretty – to keep San Francisco roads rideable, driveable, and walkable for all of us. What I am asking is a pothole-neutral question: why has there been construction on Valencia Street almost every day since I moved to San Francisco? It’s only 2 miles long, from beginning to end. It is only the middle part of my commute. What is going on?

Construction workers, perhaps, enjoy the culture they’ve discovered in the Mission. It might be the greatest agreement forged between hipsters and wage earners since the trucker hat: Valencia Street is the finest drag in San Francisco.

Mission Mission’s “Cycling” category here.

Complete Mission Mission Valencia Street coverage here.