Mission Mission

Click to enlarge if you feel like it.

Although this may not be in the Mission, it’s a goddamn Frankenstein head on a bike lane.

Now I know why my tenant agreement strictly forbids keeping wolves on the premises.

I excitedly ran over to my neighbor’s house with 537 dollars cash-money hoping to bet in a new Capp St. cockfighting ring only to discover that they are merely using them for a big chicken dinner.  Slaughtering chickens for food?  That’s just barbaric.

Previously on Mission Mission:

• $0.99 2-piece at Popeye’s
• Ba-Kok, New Kid on the Block

16th and Valencia: What we currently see and what we can expect (click to enlarge)

The San Francisco Department of Public Works and StreetsBlog brings us news that the Valencia Streetscape Improvements Project is set to kick off this week.  Unlike the proposal from June 2006, Valencia will only be renovated from 15th to 19th this time around.  Okay, we’ll take it.

Construction is expected to last 9 months and will proceed block-by-block.  From the DPW’s factsheet about the project:

A Renewed Valencia Streetscape between 15th and 19th Streets will provide sidewalk improvements on both the east and west sides of Valencia Street. Improvements include: removal of the striped center median, better spaced and more accommodating curbside loading zones for trucks, improved traffic/parking and bicycle lane alignment, sidewalk widening, bulb-outs, pedestrian scale lighting, art elements, bike racks, kiosks, and new street trees. The aim is to provide residents and visitors with safe and easy access to businesses, schools, shopping and regional transit connections, enhancing the sense of place with a unified ribbon of streetscape improvements. (link)

Most importantly, the city expects to install “bicycle oases.”  From StreetsBlog:

One feature of the project will be unfamiliar to most San Franciscans: mid-block bicycle oases. “On the mid-block bulb-outs and a few of the other corner bulb-outs, we’ve actually planned bike oases,” said Opbroek. “There’s an example of this up in Portland, where they’ve done a space on the sidewalk with rows of bike parking.”

If the bicycle plan injunction isn’t lifted before the project is completed, however, there’s a chance the bike oases could be jettisoned. In that case, “they’ll have to be installed at a later date,” said Opbroek. “If for some reason that didn’t happen – I expect that it will, but if it didn’t – that space could also be used for tables and chairs or additional merchants spilling out.” (link)

There better be palm trees.

The plan for Valencia between 15th and 16th (click to enlarge)

The plan of Valencia Street between 16th and 17th St. (Click to enlarge)

The plan for Valencia between 17th and 18th (click to enlarge)

The plan for Valencia between 18th and 19th (click to enlarge)

They are also proposing to transform the bike racks into pieces of art. Here were some concepts. How badass will it be to lock your dumpster bike up to some dancing skeletons? (click to enlarge)

(StreetsBlog coverage | the DPW’s informational page)

Previously on Mission Mission:

• Valencia Improvement Plans (81 New Trees!)
• Coming Soon: Wider Sidewalks and Slower Traffic on Valencia (With a quality discussion about the question “Will improvements curb our beloved boulevard’s fundamental charm?”)

The Creme Brulee Man brings news that the Dolores Park Cleanup went well.  More importantly, there is a myth about hipster hill being “disrespectful and dirty?”  What?

“Cleanup went well.  Empowerment over entitlement.  Ps. The myth about the hipster side of the park being disrespectful and dirty..it’s true.”

(link)

The second and final Sunday Streets: The Mission is happening this Sunday from 10am-2pm, so enjoy your last chance to explore the yellow-line without worrying about getting hit by a car.

(link)

Previously on Mission Mission:

• Sunday Streets Wrap-up
• Sunday Streets in the Mission
• Sunday Streets Coming to the Mission

Mission Loc@l twitters so I can post their stories before they do:

“Robbery @ Safeway, Mission Street near Cesar Chavez. 2 suspects detained. One fled on bike going northbound on Mission. Cops searching area”

Anyone else see what went down?

(link)

Just in case you didn’t know, this Sunday is Sunday Streets in the Mission.  From 10am until 2pm, a chunk of 24th and Valencia will be closed to motorized traffic so people can be good neighbors n’ stuff.  Now you can pedal your fixie with reckless abandon into moms with baby strollers from “da Noe” instead of  2-dollar Toyota’s from the 1980′s with 600-dollar rims.

There is a long list of events I’m not going to bother summarizing.  However, you can check out Mission Loc@l’s movie slideshow with audio about the events.

There is nothing quite like biking down Florida, the sweet yeasty smell of Panorama bread filling the air, unless it is all those things, plus happening upon a burgeoning garden.  This vacant lot, although not a giant pit, is about to become a community space:

The woman in the photo did acknowledge that this is only a temporary setup and that when the lot gets sold the garden will have to dismantle, still, the tub and wooden pyramid seem pretty settled to me. Awesome that the landowner is encouraging of this idea, awesome that someone is taking the initiative, and we can only hope that maybe this economy never turns around and it never gets sold! Who needs a job anyway? I’d rather sit in a fragrant park.

There is a grand opening to be held tomorrow (Saturday), with live music, muraling, demonstrations (surely there is a vacant lot you might like to see turned into a park), and community bonding from 11am to 4pm, and any volunteers to get the park ready beforehand are welcome.

Previously:

Mission Greenbelt Project

How About a Peace Garden in This Bleak IGA Parking Lot?

Today Mission Pie celebrates Earth Day by forwarding all proceeds to UC Santa Cruz’s Grow A Farmer Campaign:

Every year, 38 aspiring farmers live and learn on a 25-acre piece of land on the campus. The University is requiring the program to build permanent housing for its students to replace the tents in which they’d been housed.

Today’s apprentices make tomorrows farmers and tomorrows farmers help make tomorrows pie.

Link. Like we needed another excuse to eat pie. But seriously, get on down there and eat some pie.

Tree from the Free Farm Stand yesterday told us about potato towers:

As people must know by now I am excited about planting potatoes this year and last week we built and planted four towers in 2 gardens. On Tuesday a few friends showed up at Treat Commons and we installed the tall wire mesh potato tower there. A lot of kids from the park came in the garden to help and they mixed up soil and mulch and added it to the tower. Later that day we went to the Secret Garden with the Jamestown Center kids and planted potatoes in trash cans with their bottoms cut off.

Read on for lots more detail about how it’s done, including explanation of the lasagna bit.