Mission Mission

Doctor Popular reminds us how bicyclists often get shafted on BART:

Yesterday a rider cut in front of me as I was boarding the train and she took up this whole seat. There were at least 40 other seats open for her, so I asked if she would mind letting me use that space. “I was here first” she replied. Then I asked if she would at least move her bags so I could sit in the seat next to her while I propped my bike against the wall and she said “I need the whole seat”.

All this seems to come from a general sense of passenger animosity towards people who have the nerve to bring their bikes on board. I’ve had some seriously unsafe rides due to folks not offering up those spots. In a way, it forces you to take up more space and disturb even more passengers.

Doc Pop commenter Colin brings up a great point about how the whole process is flawed:

Note that even in that space the bike wheel sticks into the doorway. Bikes on BART is a kludge.

Newer cars have improved designated bike areas, but they are few and far between. The SF Bicycle Coalition confirms that they are working to address the issue:

We are asking BART to allocate space on board their trains for bikes so that they won’t interfere with other passengers and can be stowed safely for the duration of your trip. BART plans to remove seats on 80 of its 500 train cars for a first phase and is expected to modify the rest as funding becomes available.

For many, the commute hours rules (bikes only allowed 8:50am-4:25pm) eliminate the practicality of biking for many daily work commuters. A 2009 SFBC survey of BART riding cyclists confirmed that the commute blackout period is one of the biggest headaches about commuting. No word on if or when lifting this restriction will ever be considered.

Jen Oaks will have these beauties and more for sale at her SF Zinefest booth this weekend.

Previously:

Jen Oaks’ Beater

Jen Oaks’ Kitty Tattoo

What Do You Wear When You Take Out the Recycling?

Recent J-school graduate, Mission Local alumni, and black & white photographer extraordinaire Armand Emamdjomeh is at the De Young!

…the short video I made as part of my thesis project, New Mission, is going to be showing as part of the Friday Film Night at the De Young Cultural Encounters series! It’s basically a slideshow of my Mission photography, with little bits of video, all to the narration of the poem “In Twenty Years” by Marcella Ortiz.

It’s kind of an ode to the neighborhood and the character that it has now.

It will be part of this very Friday Film Night at the De Young Cultural Encounters. The event is free!  (Facebook event page here if that’s how you roll.)

If you can’t make it, Armand’s work will also be at SF City Hall on the 16th at the Night/Light exhibit.

(Someone get this man a job so he can stay in the Mission, OK?)

You remember zines, right?  They were the blogs before there were blogs.  If Allan was born 10 years earlier, Mission Mission might have been a zine!  I think we can all agree that zines are awesome.  After all, if I hadn’t been reading Cometbus back in high school, I probably would have chosen Cal Tech over Berkeley, and the world would now be in the grip of the tyrant who managed to abscond the Lambda Laser from my quantum physics lab.  So, luckily, you don’t have to worry about that.

Anyway, SF Zinefest is a rad event this weekend in the Hall of Flowers at GG Park where zine authors congregate so anyone can check out all their recent work.  In addition to the totally worthwhile experience of checking it out yourself, you can also support the scene by dancing to 90′s music at the Knockout, as DEBASER is hosting a benefit this Saturday night for the SF Zinefest.  So although you can get in free before 11pm by simply wearing a flannel, DON’T!!!  Wear a hoodie or something instead and help support the Zinefest!

Previously:

KevMo Starts a Flame War with DEBASER

Photographer alvaro offers no further explanation regarding this epic scene. Well done, alvaro.

Previously:

Mission Hipster, 2010

Mission Hipster, 2003

Mission Hipster, 1998

Sick of hearing about Dolores Park yet?

Last night, Parks and Rec approved a 2-year lease allowing Blue Bottle Coffee to post up in Dolores Park, meaning we’re going to start seeing some long lines for something other than the bathrooms. The cart will operate from 8am-4pm.

Local businesses, such as (shocker!) Dolores Park Cafe, aren’t too crazy about this development and are hoping to prevent the kiosk from being located in “the heart of” the park. Hey, don’t worry guys: I’m sure a steady amount of sales come from folks wanting to use your customers-only restroom. Or maybe it’s time to protest the park bathroom renovations too?

In other related news: do you think the park “jumped the proverbial shark,” as Brock puts it?

[via the Examiner, photo by Lauren Hoernlein]

My favorite San Francisco stairways are the Filbert steps, the Jupiter steps, the Harry steps and the Detroit Steps. What are yours? Don’t have any? Maybe you need San Francisco Stairways, the new app by Barbara Rockwell.

A hot tip from reader Eric E.:

Not exactly Mission but I heard from some various sources (i.e. friends at work & this guy on twitter) that SFPD is orchestrating a “no bikes on the sidewalk” ticketing sting in front of the Ferry Building this morning. Guess Spare the Air days would be the most profitable time to do it, no? =P Lame.

Careful out there, everybody!

Here’s a passage about “Holly Golightlys,” AKA the girls of the Mission:

You see them flying down Valencia Street on Vespas, their wildly improvised get-ups composed of, say, rags scavenged from the Bay Area’s fabled thrift shops (Out of the Closet in the Castro, Eco-Thrift in Vallejo, the Goodwill outpost just off the 101 Freeway in San Rafael), Marni skirts, vintage SM leathers culled from an eclectic assortment of goods at Marc Josef’s locally legendary antiques shop, Tradesmen, and wingtip shoes. You see them particularly on a stretch of 18th Street, where Dolores Park vies for landmark status with Tartine, the upscale pizza joint Delfina and Bi-Rite grocery, a kind of foodie Vatican.

Read on.

(Thanks for the tip, jinksy!)

Probably not, but Queena from Bay Citizen is producing a series of videos about eggy drinks in the Mission just to make sure. The first one takes place at Elixir.