Mission Mission

Whoa, baby.

(Thanks, @beamercola and @mahlie!)

(Thanks, Jess!)

Police have currently blocked off Bartlett from 22nd to 24th Street.  23rd and 24th Street are also both taped off from Mission to Valencia.  Police are approaching the situation as if it’s a live bomb and have advised residents to stay inside, so be careful out there everyone.  Don’t be the guy who gets blasted because he was trying to get a cool photo.

We will update as we know more.

This incident comes right on the heels of Ariel’s encounter with the arsonist, and I really hope they’re not at all related.

UPDATE:

Mission Local reports that the bomb was thankfully yet still alarmingly a hoax device:

Police reported at 11:30 p.m. Friday that the suspicious device found at  23rd and Bartlett looked like a bomb, but turned out to be a hoax.

“It appeared to be a legitimate active device with a timer and wires,” police reported but “After rendering the device safe it was found to be a hoax device.”

No more sitting there pounding margaritas before a ferry ride to Oakland for a Burger Boogaloo or a happy hour (or sitting there pounding Fernets all afternoon when a ferry fails to turn up).

Another piece of Old SF lost to the tides of progress. (They’re gonna put in an improved ferry terminal, which will help us evacuate in the event a disaster takes out the bridges and tunnel, which is good I guess.)

The Examiner reports:

The restaurant’s landlord, the Port of San Francisco, wants Sinbad’s gone from its prime location on Pier 2 near the Ferry Building by March 21.

With its unmatched views of the Bay Bridge, Sinbad’s has been a waterfront institution in The City since the 1970s. Despite decidedly mixed reviews from diners — along with repeated warnings from the Public Health Department about food-safety issues — the restaurant is a popular cocktail destination for service-industry workers, locals and tourists.

Sinbad’s has also been a thorn in the Port’s side, documents show.

It has often been late with rent payments and has bounced checks — at one time the eatery owed the Port $220,000. Sinbad’s also has caused at least five sewage leaks into San Francisco Bay over the past six years, the most recent of which was in January, according to a Port memo.

Read on for more on the possibility (unlikely) of a reprieve.

I love you, Sinbad’s.

One recent morning, as I was waking up by thumbing mindlessly through my phone, I noticed an unread email. A new veterinary service called VetPronto had found my adorable cat Arya’s blog and wanted to offer her a complimentary house call appointment. “The robots know everything,” I mumbled, dragging myself out of bed.

Later, while sorting through a mountainous pile of receipts (in case you didn’t know, freelance tax prep is one of the seven circles of hell), I came across the file I keep of my cat’s health records. Here were the facts: my cat was due for her next round of vaccines, the Affordable Care Act doesn’t cover feline children, and I couldn’t afford not to take VetPronto up on their offer. Not to mention that being stuffed into a crate and being literally cat-called on the 14L are among Arya’s least favorite activities.

I made an appointment with VetPronto through their website. The day of the appointment, a friendly vet named Dr. Hoppe arrived promptly. Arya was instantly at ease and barely noticed that needles were entering her body moments later. Dr. Hoppe was very patient and addressed all of my questions and concerns, leaving me feeling like a great cat mom. The whole thing was over in under 30 minutes.

Thank you, VetPronto, for making pet healthcare so painless and convenient. You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA)’s awesome Instagram account, which primarily shares photos of crazy items the TSA has found while screening airline passengers, is not new, but it did see significant new attention on the Internet this week. Whoever is running it has made an effort to include wild finds from many different airports across the U.S., including several from San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport. At SFO the TSA confiscated a brush dagger and a bullet-knife, child’s play compared to the novelty bomb belt, throwing star, seven pounds of weed, and 81 more pounds of weed (pictured) taken at OAK. Wow, you’d think that last one would’ve just slid right through, huh?

The TSA’s photos offer a fascinating look at human naiveté, stupidity and stubbornness. They expose some very weird parts of the black market. The TSA’s Instagram is great, but I can’t help but notice an alternate purpose that it serves: scaring us into liking and trusting the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security by giving us the impression that “threats” are much more frequent than they actually are. The Instagram gives the illusion that the TSA is constantly confiscating tons of weapons, many deviously disguised, in every airport. A few hundred or thousand weapons is certainly many weapons, but it’s not so many when one considers that the TSA screens 600-700 million passengers every year. That means the TSA finds ~3 firearms for every million people it screens. The TSA’s posts are entertaining, but whether they intend it or not, and whether we realize it or not, they serve another purpose too. Thoughts?

-Jackie Potzdorf

(Thanks, Adam!)

CBS Local reports:

San Francisco police are investigating a Thursday night officer-involved shooting in the Mission District that left a robbery suspect dead.

Officers responded to the area of 24th and Folsom streets at about 9:45 p.m. in reference to call about a Hispanic man with a knife.

San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr told KCBS that two plainclothes officers came upon the scene and saw the suspect with a large knife chasing another man on Folsom Street.

“The officers drew their weapons, demanded for man to drop his knife–he refused. We have several witnesses that heard this,” he said.
The situation escalated, and the officers, who had their department issued stars visible on their clothes, fired six shots at the suspect, Suhr said.

The suspect, described as being his 20s, was shot and pronounced dead at the scene.

Read on.

[Photo by @gpechenik]

This is from the latest installment of Valerie Luu‘s #100drinksdivis project, in which she has a drink with 100 of her neighbors along the Divisadero Corridor:

Matt: “There’s still a lot of artists here, and galleries that are opening in places you don’t expect.” [Matt has an art opening at the Dolby Chadwick Gallery on March 5.]
Tony: “It’s a city that’s trying to find its soul again. It might take another 5, 10, 15 years.”

Good news and bad news, I guess. Sounds about right.

Keep up the good work, Val-Pal!

[via Pissed Off Pete's on Facebook]