Mission Mission

In case you haven’t heard, Critical Mass is celebrating its 20th anniversary tonight at 6pm in what is sure to be an epic ride featuring cyclists from all over the place coming to the city to participate.  Regardless of how you feel about the movement, you really have to appreciate the fact that it galvanizes so many people.  Allan seems to love the good-natured fun of the whole spectacle, while I on the other hand (as someone who commutes 20 miles on my bicycle each day) usually already have to deal on a daily basis with tons of shitty, angry motorists who I would prefer to not further piss off lest they proceed to hate me so much that they try to hurt me while I’m riding.  Especially with that riding circles in busy intersections nonsense.

In any case, what allegedly all began as “a bunch of drunk bike messengers who got tired of SF police handing out $20 tickets to cyclists all the time for bullshit minor offenses, like not putting your foot down at a stop sign, so they decided to shut down some key intersections around the city and show the cops they couldn’t just fuck with them” has now become quite the thing, and it’s not going away anytime soon, so you might as well just forget about what you were planning on getting done today and check it out yourself!

Also, non-cyclists?  Perhaps this might be a good day to avoid Market St and take BART instead, alright?

Previously:

• Black Friday Critical Mass Meets Baton-Wielding Riot Police in Union Square
• When Critical Mass rides circles in busy intersections
• Critical Mass Debate: Opposing Viewpoints
• Critical Mass Sacramento
• Critical Mass Seattle
• Critical Mass Salt Lake City
• Critical Mass with Instruments
• Meet Junior: Bicycle Messenger Warrior of the Mission

Whenever I see a cool car around the neighborhood, I take pictures and send them to my pal Eric up in Portland who runs Other People’s Things, my favorite car blog. He responds with some knowledge and we post the results here and it’s called “Car Beat.” Here’s what Eric has to say about this little Datsun:

This is an easy one but certainly a classic. It’s a Datsun 510 Coupe (1968-73, this is probably ’70-73). The 510 is legendary for a few reasons- It made Datsun officially popular in the US, much like its direct competition, the 1600, did for BMW.

The 510 was also much cheaper than its competitors. It was considered the cheap alternative (some say copy) of the BMW, but the styling is quite different, and what the 510 lacks in prestige and beauty it makes up for in performance. These old Datsuns are like legos, and you can swap all sorts of Datsun/Nissan motors and transmissions into them, which is advised for this one since that little badge on the trunk reveals it’s stuck with the Borg-Warner automatic transmission.

Sucks the life right out of it, but I can respect that it has been kept in original condition.

Thanks, Eric!

Muni’s colossal Mission Street updgrade project, which detoured buses off of Mission Street and onto South Van Ness and wreaked havoc on the lives of commuters and neighbors alike for longer than I care to try to remember, is all done!

Mission Local reports:

Parking spots, bus lanes and bike lanes remain largely unchanged, since most of the infrastructure repairs occurred above and below Mission.

“One notable change will be the new bus bulbs at the 24th Street BART plaza and curb ramps along Mission Street,” said Murillo. Bus bulbs are concrete extensions of the sidewalk that allow buses to pickup and drop off passengers without having to pull over.

Starting tomorrow, we’re all back to normal. Adjust your routines accordingly.

Read on for lots more background and info.

[Map by Mission Local]

Have you guys noticed that Sycamore cycles more great beers through their handful of taps than most bars with multiple times capacity? Two new brews just came online, Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale and Ballast Point Indra Kunindra Stout. I initially read the Dogfish as “India” Brown Ale, thinking it was going to be some funky hopped brown. In fact, it was a good but pretty middle of the road brown ale.

The stout, on the other hand, is kind of a doozy. Starts out like a bottle of Yoohoo, but the richness quickly fades into a weird bright coconut curry and ends with spice and black pepper. Not as much of a gutbuster as your ordinary craft stout, which is a good thing.

Here’s to Sycamore for its clearly evident hatred of boring beer. And good job picking another winner.

Drink of the week is brought to you by Poachedjobs.com.

The Bold Italic is taking San Francisco on tour, showing off a bunch of the best of SF to our neighbors up and down the west coast. It’s called the Bold Rush and it kicks off tomorrow:

Between Friday, Sept. 28 and Sunday, Oct. 7, we’ll be caravaning from Southern California to the Northwest with a few of our favorite San Francisco treats to share with our sister cities, including local goods in our pop-up shop, an art show curated by Dan Johnson Lake, Vietnamese spring rolls from Rice Paper Scissors, and Berlin-style ping-pong with American Tripps. We’ll also be collaborating with like-minded locals, including Poketo, Syrup Jeans (members of Beachwood Sparks), M’Lady’s Records, Eyes + Edge, Paxton Gate Portland, Hand-Eye Supply, Imaginary Authors, Hardly Art, Artache Market, Don’t Talk to the Cops!, the Maxines, and others.

(Emphasis ours.) RSVP and invite your friends to the Los Angeles event here, Portland here, and Seattle here.

During this period, the Bold Italic will be featuring content by writers from each of the other cities too, so us San Franciscans can get a taste of them while they get a taste of us.

[via C'mon Pony]

[via Caryn]

Cardboard Castles may not have has many sick beats as Crystal Castles, but one thing it does have is something rad happening this weekend to fulfill pretty much every childhood fantasy you’ve ever had:

Hundreds of cardboard boxes have been painted to look like giant Lego pieces and strategically covered with velcro. At 12 PM in Dolores Park on September 29th, you can build anything you can possibly imagine with them.

The event will be free and open to the public, and will last until people get bored (never) or the authorities intervene!

Or until the gutter punks hold a mosh pit inside one!  But seriously, this sounds like a pretty awesome way to spend an Indian summer Saturday and you can find out more about the project here.

Don’t forget to RSVP and invite your friends!

[Photo of a bunch of amateurs--Saturday will be way cooler!]

Mission Local reports:

Oversized vehicles that line the streets of the Northeast Mission will have to start parking elsewhere after the Board of Supervisors approved a law on Tuesday that prohibits them from parking overnight.

Over objections by homeless advocates that the law criminalizes the poor, the Board of Supervisors passed the ordinance 7-4. Supervisors John Avalos, Jane Kim, David Campos and Christina Olague cast the dissenting votes.

Starting March 1, any vehicle that is 22 feet in length and 7 feet tall will be banned from parking overnight on certain city streets from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. or risk being fined or towed.

In the Mission, the SFMTA intends to install signs prohibiting oversized vehicles from parking on 16th and 17th Streets between Harrison Street and Potrero Avenue.

Just 16th and 17th? That leaves a LOT of other streets, right? (Such as Florida, seen above.)

Read on.