Reader Jesse N. points us in the direction of this interesting piece about the 2001 housing boom and fixtures of San Carlos St. at the time. Definitely worth a listen.
I was listening to an old 2001 episode of This American Life and it devoted a whole third of the show to the Mission. Entertaining even if you didn’t know the neighborhood, but rings truer if you do, it’s a story about Mission life around the time of the end of the tech boom. Specifically, about a person who was a longtime fixture on his block but was getting pushed out of his apartment. The story is as comical as it is mildly depressing considering SF is going through similar economic times. Enjoy!
(link – Click “Full Episode.” The piece on the Mission starts at 39:30. Thanks Jesse!)
thanks for posting that. i heard it back then, and forgot about it.
the book “on the lower frequencies” by erick lyle is also required mission reading, along the same lines. and he has a love affair with san carlos street too.
regardless of political bent – agree or not – it’s a sweet, reminiscent, personal account…more about the advent of the dot com boom, and the ensuing changes in the hood, from the perspective of a punk rock activist type.
nicely written in my opinion.
landlord long gone, but jimmy is still around… on Alabama I think.
Wait, this is essentially straight out of the first pages of On the Lower Frequencies. Someone is borrowing my copy right now, so I can’t tell if it’s word-for-word, but Erick Lyle == Iggy Scam, right? (As in “Scam Punks”?)