Mission Mission

This Mission pickup line is a month old, but I just remembered it last night and it deserves more acclaim:

P.S. Can you work “Lapidge” into a pickup line? Show your work for full credit.

[via omgthemish]

I had my bike stolen out of 24th and Mission Street BART last Wednesday. Seen it? Hey, I know it happens. It’s my second stolen bike.

The thing is, I thought I had done everything right: I brought it in the gate, ran a cable through the wheels, and secured a newer mini Kryptonite U-lock through the frame. But when I got back everything was gone. I had to double check that I didn’t get off at the wrong station.

I think the lesson is that BART isn’t a safe place to park your bike. You may think you’re protecting your bike from outsiders, but you’re also protecting thieves. The bike parking area is in a secluded corner out of view of the operator booth, the station is noisy, and people are too hurried and desensitized to weirdos to take notice of strange activity. In retrospect, someone could take a generator and angle grinder down there while wearing a bear suit and no one would pay any attention.

There is also plenty of time for a thief to monitor the bike parking patterns. For me, I was parking it there for 8 hours every weekday as part of my commute. Someone could have easily figured out the best time to strike over the course of a few days.

I give props to the BART police for showing up quickly to take my report and offer their condolences, but unfortunately they said getting any security footage for such a large window of time and secluded corner probably wont happen. So much for vigilante justice.

I took away the following advice from them:

1. Write down the serial number of your bike. You’ll need it if your bike is ever recovered. Seriously, do it now. Put it in your phone or something.
2. Powell street BART is most secure. Due to people traffic and location of the bike area, they have had the least amount of theft there.
3. Don’t park a bike in public for more than a couple of hours if you expect to keep the bike. Get a beater.
4. Write BART about improving bike security. They don’t listen to the BART cops, they do listen to you. You can do so online here.

That being said, it could not have been easy for the thief to break my U-lock. It would have been time consuming and noisy. I offer these suggestions to BART:

1. If you haven’t already, put a security camera on the bike area.
2. Relocate bike racks to somewhere within line of sight to the operator booth.
3. Station agents should do regular scans of the station areas. Grandma can wait 5 minutes for help with which end to stick the ticket.
4. Improve hospitality towards bike commuters. Station, car, and time restrictions make it really hard to justify traveling with your bike. Caltrain figured this out to an extent. We can do better.

Best of luck out there against these savages.

[photo by Improv Everywhere via Fixed Gear Blog]

Man, I remember back when you had to be raised by an abusive foster family, hang out with a crazy wizard that kept turning you into animals, and then pull Excalibur out of an enchanted stone to prove you were king of the Britons. But now I guess the Lady of the Lake is just handing these out to anybody.

[pawn shop on 18th and Mission]

The Rite Spot Cafe was shut down last month for health and safety violations.

While this isn’t the first time, usually the closures have been limited to the kitchen and this has definitely been the longest one we’ve seen yet. People and musicians close to the establishment are skeptical it will be revived this time, with repair costs and real estate pressure being major factors.

The Rite Spot has been around for 60 years. It has was a starting place for Jolie Holland, the Dodos, thee Oh Sees, Toshio Hirano, American Idol contestant Emily Anne Reed and even once hosted Norah Jones. The spot can be hit or miss, with service ranging from cold to downright crabby, but I would be seriously bummed to see it go. It is one of the few places you can sit at a table without waiting, get a drink, eat a good burger, and watch some great live music. As a musician myself, some of my first San Francisco shows were there and I met a lot of great people through it.

We’ll keep an eye out for any developments, but in the meantime you may need to settle for Charlottesville, VA’s segregated alternative, the White Spot.

[via germán 52]

If you’ve walked past Deep’s (AKA Trikasaurus) house on Valencia street, you’ve probably seen Trixie, the chloroplast-fortified triceratops guarding in his custom parklet.

Ever wonder how she came to be? No, not extracted DNA from prehistoric amber deposits. Apparently the idea was a no-brainer pitched by his architect:

…as the parklet project was really making progress, Jane proposed doing a “succulent sculpture” for it. And since she was so dead-on about the parklet, I immediately said sure! I thought “Ummm – a what?” Jane excitedly explained that our parklet needed an artistic focus & that it should be plant based. At that point, seeing her vision completely, I said “sure!” I said “Ummm – hmm” & started trying to figure out how to say “no” to something she was so enthused about.

Ummm, yeah. Read on at Deep’s blog for the full story.

Mission St.

I don’t care how good their spicy eggplant dish is, being spotted in a butt-chair is totally not worth dining in.

Have you ever taken a midnight bike ride to Ocean Beach? It’s great. When you get to Golden Gate Park, all you can hear in the darkness is the wind whooshing by and the gentle clicking of your freewheel. Every time I look out on the ocean with my bike by my side, I think, “I am lucky to live here”. If you want in on this awesomeness, it’s easy: just wait around outside Bender’s on Wednesday night until Andrew Sarkarati comes out, and follow him.

If you don’t like hanging out in front of bars waiting for motivated drunk cyclists to trickle out, Mission Bicycle Company is hosting their own midnight bike ride this Saturday. The meetup location will be announced on midnightmystery.org on the day-of. Sounds like an awesome way to spend Saturday night if you don’t plan on partying too hard prior to midnight. If you do, perhaps your chances of getting a BUI will be greatly diminished when you’re riding in a big group. It may be best to stay presentable though, since this ride will apparently be filmed for a short movie.

[via Mission Bicycle]

Only $200 in Monopoly currency per house! And think of all the extra income you’ll be raking in once you save up for a hotel.

[via the Minutes]