Mission Mission

Maybe I’m just too thirsty/sober.

At Encantada on Valencia near 20th.

According to The Examiner Carnaval will happen, despite being in debt due to a combination of poor fiscal management and rising fees, at a cost of $300,000, scaled down from $900,000 last year. The organization that puts it on is around $170,000 in debt and the city intends to find out why.

[photo by Volker Neumann]

More at The Examiner.

[hat tip Mission Local]

UPDATE: They need volunteers, you can sign up here.

After 35 years of the annual celebration in the Mission, the neighborhood cultural institution is in danger of not happening this year.

[pic by Keoki Seu]

[pic by David Yu]

We all know the Mission is changing. Rapidly. It’s annoying to talk about because it seems like it’s the only conversation we can have these days. We’re all part of the change in some way. I know I am, in more ways than one. As we build new traditions and landmarks, and find new ways to celebrate our various cultural heritages (I’m looking at you, midwesterner drinking a PBR in the park) I think it’s worth taking a little time to consider aspects that we love about this neighborhood that we may be losing. I moved to the Mission before I knew what it was, but I fought hard to stay here because of what I discovered. One element that made this neighborhood so desirable and infinitely adventurous to me is that it had such a varied history, and it carried pieces of all times with it. Looking around, block to block, building to building, I could see the marks left by all the different people to come through here. And I felt like there was room for me to leave my mark too.

[pic by David Yu]

[pic by Todd Lappin]

I could go on, but I’ll spare you this time. All this is just a way to say that for many people, myself included, Carnaval is the Mission. As are burritos. As is street art. As is whatever your favorite thing about the Mission happens to be. Carnaval is expensive to put on and it may not be able to happen anymore. El Tecolote has a good article about the recent struggles here. To learn more there is a community meeting tomorrow night (3/19) at Brava Theater.

UPDATE: The Examiner says it will happen this year.

When the Vice Magazine article about social work in the Tenderloin came out last week I had a strong desire to write my own rebuttal. My main problem being the hopelessly negative view of a neighborhood with a lot of uphill battles that sits in the middle of a city of extreme wealth. The Tenderloin needs all the help it can get, and I don’t think this article helps. It’s fun to talk and write about all the cool things that other neighborhoods have going for them, as writers on this blog often do, but when the only thing we hear about the communities that aren’t booming is a tired old story like the Vice article it just seems lame.

Before I had the chance to write about it I saw the interview with Brian Brophy on Uptown Almanac, which I thought presented some great counter points and an overall reality check back to Vice, as well as a surprisingly thoughtful comment thread. I also saw the powerful response by Dregs One, which really highlighted the Vice interviewee’s lack of awareness about her own privilege and unhelpful dearth of empathy. I say unhelpful, because I think for people working with a community like the one she works with you need to have empathy not to feel sorry for your clients, but to understand how they’ve come to be in this situation so that you can help them move toward a healthier life. Maybe this person does have that awareness, something gets her out of bed and to this work every day, but it wasn’t present in the article.

Though I don’t read Vice, I understand that the writers are probably going for a tone that is “honest” in that it sounds like two friends talking with each other like they would if nobody was listening. But people are listening. Maybe the social worker in this article needed to vent after day after day of dealing with intense situations. Fine. But now that venting is a widely read article that defines this community in a lot of people’s minds. In a time when San Francisco is changing very fast and some of us are working really hard to make sure that certain communities don’t get shut out and left behind, again, this is not helpful. I know all too well that talking about blood and human waste and edgy stuff gets a lot more attention than stories of hope and triumph, at least in the demographic and mediums that this blog and Vice have in common. I’ve blogged about poop before and I’ll do it again. Even so, I’m going to take up a little internet real estate every once and a while to share other kinds of stories that I see going on in this city that I feel need to be shared. I don’t do enough to bring them to light, but here I am trying.

[picture of Jayraj by Ariel Dovas for BAYCAT]

Contrary to what the social worker says in the Vice article, the Tenderloin is not “one of the two predominately black neighborhoods left in SF”. However, the Bayview Hunters Point population in 2010 was made up of 33.7% African Americans, the largest ethnic group in that neighborhood. As I’ve mentioned a number of times before, I’ve spent almost 9 years working with people from this community at BAYCAT, Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts & Technology. Recently, one of our former students and a current intern, high school student Jayraj Govender, created a short video for his school that deals with the the choices that a teenager faces. I think it shows a real maturity and artistic curiosity and I’m excited to see what he does next.

[Link on Vimeo]

For the last thing, in 2012 Jayraj teamed up with three other former BAYCAT students turned young adult interns from Bayview Hunters Point, Iman Rodney, Teak Stephanchild and Tiffany Jones, to create a short documentary bringing the neighborhood’s health issues to light from a young adult’s perspective, called Endangered. The project was funded by Metta Fund and produced with mentorship from Melinda James. Tiffany created all the animation for the piece.

[Link on Vimeo]

[file photo by me]

Over the weekend I was taking an early morning stroll along Valencia Street when I happened upon an older white man who was knelt down in front of a trash can with a metal scraper going to work on a flyer that had been pasted onto the side. In the process of scraping the flyer off it had torn into pieces and once he was done he stood up, left the pieces on the ground and started walking back to his shiny PT Cruiser. In the past I’ve seen a few different people around the neighborhood doing this sort of this, like this guy, who Nick wrote about previously. I usually dismissed them because I felt sorry for them, as if they were so constantly bothered by flyers on trash cans and utility poles that they had to spend their time doing this. At the same time I have been annoyed that of all the things that take place around them this seemingly harmless thing would be the target of their energy. When I saw this guy go to his fancy car I couldn’t contain myself.

Me: Hey, you just gonna leave that trash on the ground?

Scraper: What?!

Me: You’re not going to pick that up?

Scraper: You see where it came from!

Me: Yeah, a trash can, and then you put it on the ground and can’t even put it in the trash?!

Scraper: (grumbles to self as he goes over to the pile of paper scraps and tosses them in the trash. Then points to garbage on the ground near his car) Why don’t you pick up that?!

Me: I’m not gonna pick up your trash.

Scraper: I didn’t put that there!

Me: Neither did I.

Scraper: (grumbles to self as he gets in his car and zips away to the next block to get out and scrape some more)

So, obviously pasting flyers and artsy things about is against the law, but so is littering. I just don’t get these people.

UPDATE: 1) I don’t know much about cars, and 2) Aaron and AttF remind me of the boringly-named film about vigilantes “Vigilante Vigilante”.

Superior Automotive on 16th.

Our transit-obsessed buddies at Muni Diaries are bringing a bunch of cool people up on stage to entertain you with tales of life on Muni.

Eugenia elaborates:

Everybody has a Muni story: nail-clipping, whiskey-sharing, mythical-creature-spotting, and it just gets weirder all the time! Come hear true transit stories from riders, writers, and even a BART operator. Bonus: this show will also feature the second Muni Haiku Battle as our Lit Crawl champion defends his crown!

Storytellers:
Johnny Funcheap, master of frugal living
James Nestor, writer and reigning Muni Haiku champion
Anna Pulley, sex/relationship columnist and Muni haiku ninja
Kelly Beardsley, BART operator
Richie Nakano, chef at Hapa Ramen
Lucky Jesus unplugged!

Muni Haiku Battle is inspired by Dirty Haiku Battle, presented by our favorite Oakland show,Tourettes Without Regrets (first Thursday of every month at the Oakland Metro). You should definitely check it out every month. Like, seriously.

Details:
Muni Diaries Live
Saturday, March 2 at the Elbo Room
647 Valencia Street, San Francisco
Doors: 6 p.m. Show: 7 p.m. Tickets: $12
Take Muni there: J-Church, 12, 14, 22, 33, 49, or BART: 16th or 24th St. stations

Get your tickets here before they sell out!

‘Cause my sinuses and this tree seem to think so.