Mission Mission

Andy writes in to let us know that tomorrow (Wednesday, 8/14) is a big hearing to “call a Spade a Spade: Jack Spade/Kate Spade is one big company”.  He reiterates that he’s in for a public debate that we (Mission Mission) will run if there are any commenters who oppose the actions to block Jack Spade and are willing to publicly stand up for what they believe.

You can follow the story of the opposition here.

The press release after the jump.

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You’ve probably heard that Adobe Books had to leave their 16th Street location recently, and relocated to a new location on 24th Street. You’ve probably also heard that Jack Spade, an upscale retail store that is a spin off of Kate Spade which is a subsidiary of Liz Claiborne, was planning to move into Adobe’s old location well before Adobe had even publicly conceded to leaving. (For reference, check out Kevin’s reporting here)

Well, a bunch of “Valencia Corridor” businesses are opposing Jack Spade as a formula retailer brand from a multinational company, and therefore not a part of the Mission community. The opening of a store like this will pave the way for more companies to take root in the neighborhood, and push out the local businesses. Makes sense to me.

I’d also add that they really only appeal to a certain kind of well moneyed, overly groomed young urban professional scenester, but that’s pretty much the Valencia Corridor in a nutshell.

Anyway, you can sign their petition here, and the event should be fun, with proceeds going to “support the Stop Jack Spade campaign”.

I guess “A HIPPY” was already taken.

[Photo and title by Emalie]

Last night, there was a march for solidarity in response to the rape attempt reported on January 8. Participants marched to 24th St. BART at 5:30pm and stopped to let volunteers speak and share their thoughts.

While some of the speakers talked about ways for potential victims to stay safe, such taking self defense classes, carrying mace, and not walking home alone, I was moved by some of the more idealogical issues about the surrounding community that were discussed. Some of my takeaways of that kind were:

• If someone says she was sexually assaulted, believe her.
• Don’t ignore cries for help.
• Get to know everyone in your neighborhood.
• Don’t blame the victim.
• Don’t joke about rape.

The reason these things hit home for me is because I, like many of you, read comments on this blog. I know that a few commenters fall under these categories when we post about these incidents.

If your first reaction to sensational reports that don’t show up on the news first is to think that they are a hoax, then please consider that some rapes go unreported because victims are afraid they won’t be taken seriously and that they will be shamed in their communities. In fact, I just heard about someone who still thought that the recently-convicted Mission rapist of last year was an “internet hoax”!

No, we aren’t seasoned reporters, but we are members of this community and if we don’t take it seriously, how do we expect anyone else to? It starts here, folks.

We live in a crazy neighborhood where wild stuff happens all the time. We can get numb to it. But we should never turn a blind eye to people in danger. There are so many different people living in the Mission who are invisible to one another. Stopping and getting to know your neighbors can go a long way in knowing when something isn’t right.

Stay safe everybody, but also keep others safe.

[Top photo via Adrian Arias]

In case you haven’t heard, Critical Mass is celebrating its 20th anniversary tonight at 6pm in what is sure to be an epic ride featuring cyclists from all over the place coming to the city to participate.  Regardless of how you feel about the movement, you really have to appreciate the fact that it galvanizes so many people.  Allan seems to love the good-natured fun of the whole spectacle, while I on the other hand (as someone who commutes 20 miles on my bicycle each day) usually already have to deal on a daily basis with tons of shitty, angry motorists who I would prefer to not further piss off lest they proceed to hate me so much that they try to hurt me while I’m riding.  Especially with that riding circles in busy intersections nonsense.

In any case, what allegedly all began as “a bunch of drunk bike messengers who got tired of SF police handing out $20 tickets to cyclists all the time for bullshit minor offenses, like not putting your foot down at a stop sign, so they decided to shut down some key intersections around the city and show the cops they couldn’t just fuck with them” has now become quite the thing, and it’s not going away anytime soon, so you might as well just forget about what you were planning on getting done today and check it out yourself!

Also, non-cyclists?  Perhaps this might be a good day to avoid Market St and take BART instead, alright?

Previously:

• Black Friday Critical Mass Meets Baton-Wielding Riot Police in Union Square
• When Critical Mass rides circles in busy intersections
• Critical Mass Debate: Opposing Viewpoints
• Critical Mass Sacramento
• Critical Mass Seattle
• Critical Mass Salt Lake City
• Critical Mass with Instruments
• Meet Junior: Bicycle Messenger Warrior of the Mission

Many veterans are out in the streets this afternoon protesting the 2010 arrest and detainment of Bradley Manning, the Army soldier who gave WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The leak brought to light many details and events that embarrassed the military, such as efforts to drastically lower the public civilian death count.

You can learn more about Manning and the case at bradleymanning.org, or get the gist of it at Manning’s Wikipedia page.

Our buddy Christopher sent us this pic he took at the Street Food Festival of the mural at Cesar Chavez Elementary School. There is a large white stripe that almost seems as if it’s specifically covering Chavez’s mouth.

Hmmmm . . . ?

Armed with a paint scraper, this guy came blustering down 17th clearing our city’s telephone poles of xeroxed flyers and other like debris. Unfortunately, his cleanliness≈godliness approach did not extend to the sidewalks, where he discarded newly created trash as he continued on his rampage. I tailed him until Guerrero (well, I was on my way home) where he ducked through a doorway to pick up his dry cleaning.

Josh Heller and 30+ of his closest friends are spending the summer in Moscow, ID. In order to escape the stresses and expenses of big city life, they have converged on the small college town (population 23,000) for a summer of day hikes, art projects, and general summer fun. Working with the town to organize public events, the communers hope to create a temporary community of creative types that will hopefully recur in the coming years. We spoke with Josh as he was setting up shop in his new home town.

MM: How’s it going so far? What are you doing in terms of organization? Is there a schedule?

JH: I’ve been meeting with business leaders and city council to talk about venues and places that we can have events. So we have some more formal things that we are working on actively. We have a kickoff event scheduled for June 16^th. [Communer] Nicole Kelly is a fiction writer – she’s been helping set up a fiction reading series. Christin Lee, who’s been really helpful, is trying to set up a gallery showcase for studio art. So we have those kinds of things.

For things that are a little bit less formal, we really want for people who are coming to make it a participatory event. So if you have a skill or an interesting background, we want to have presentations or talks to involve other people and what they’re doing. Those things are still in the process, based in a lot of ways on who’s coming.

Then we have the very casual, which is pot lucks and happy hours and camping trips.

MM: Tell me a little bit about the launch party.

JH: Well, this summer, we’re trying to make three big events that are incorporating the summer communers and the local community. By the way, we weren’t sure where we were gonna go, and choosing Moscow was just the best decision. The people here have been so supportive and so excited for us to be here. So for the first party that we’re going to do, it’s a meet and greet and way to introduce the people who have just arrived to the local community. There’s a university here, so there’s already an academic community and an arts community.

MM: What are your aspirations for the summer? What would you love to see happen?

JH: The project is grounded in economic realities. If you live in the Mission right now your rent will be seven or eight hundred dollars for a room. Right now I’m living in a three bedroom house for 650 dollars. So, in the center of the country we can live way more affordably. The goal for summer commune is to help people realize that if you’re a creative person, especially in this era of mobile work, you don’t need to live in Brooklyn or Los Angeles or San Francisco. My hope is that we can create communities that we appreciate in places that are not as expensive to rent. And then obviously if you’re talking specifically about the regions where creative people live, we have gentrification and other things that are the result of this economic push. And so we’re just looking for alternatives to that.

So my aspiration would be that hopefully this idea would spread and people could do it on their own and do their own thing wherever they want.

I think it has potential to, at a minimum, be just a pretty fun summer and, at maximum, change the dynamics for the way that we interact as a global community, or something like that. [Laughs.] The possibilities are endless.

We’ll check in with Josh as the summer progresses to see how it’s going. They’ve got a Facebook page and a Tumblr if you’d like to follow along. So hey, if you just lost your job or got evicted, or if you’re just looking for a change, head to Moscow! Hang out!

[photo]

I had the pleasure of watching one of the new fake bus ads go up today. I was on the 49 when two young males boarded. One mentioned concernedly to the other that there was no one driving the bus. I informed them that the driver was behind the bus fixing the wires, which had fallen off the lines as the bus turned off 16th onto Mission. They removed the poster above from a small cardboard box and slipped it into an empty spot. Once their culture-jamming was complete, they quickly sped off out the back door. I tried to snap a pic of the culprits, but it was pretty grainy and I don’t know if I’d post it anyway. Suffice it to say that one of them had a pretty sweet mustache.