Mission Mission

I’m glad the guy behind the “average neighbours” sign posted what can only be described as a long-winded artist’s statement (with an inexplicable Young Jeezy shout-out) because it led to some new light on the original “bad neighbors” saga. To bring you up to speed, Schmidt’s moved into the corner a couple of years ago, the upstairs neighbors didn’t like it and posted a “bad neighbors” sign, and the guy across the street didn’t like the sign, so he posted his own sign last week.

But first, here’s a snippet of the “average neighbour” guy’s comment:

I posted that sign. It is in response to the bad neighbors sign, which apparently exists as a means to establish a new status quo of sign/neighbor/relationship commentary.

Every night I look out my window at what used to be a beautiful view and is now a snarky, insipid, whiny symbol of everything that is passive-aggressive about our city and it’s typical inhabitants. I can no longer watch a simple sunset without being forced to reflect on how babyish the members of my community constantly are. For two years now.

Victims.

…

I urge all of you to view the Smitzs’ ‘bad neighbors’ sign not as a perfectly ugly window into the most entitled and obnoxious voice of a truly ugly-on-the-inside person, my neighbor. See it as a commentary on the nature of advertizing and it’s divine, invisible power over our…

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You get the idea. Now I don’t know whether to smile at what I thought was a light-hearted gag or to punch a wall.

Revisiting the original “bad neighbors” thread, I discovered that the roommate of what we all probably assumed to be a crazy person told a lucid side of the story 6 months ago. I don’t know if they ever got their fair shot after the Mission Loc@l article, so here ya go:

The Mission Local blog post linked in this article is biased and one sided. They didn’t even attempt to get my roommates side of the story, yes I live with the “bad neighbors lady”.

We lived in beautiful harmony with the El Faro market for years. They cooked in the back and there was never any problem. One day the landlord decided to take a stab at running a restaurant and evicted our convenient little market/ take out food place downstairs. He got some partners to front for him and open a beer bar in it’s place. We protested and got the neighborhood together to sign a letter, we successfully put a hold on the beer and wine license.

About a year went by and we were contacted by David Peirce and his wife, believe her name is Christine Schmidt, about how they wanted to take over the space but our hold on the license was still in place. Should have smelled a rat there. They promised us that they cared about the other people in the building and that they’d be good neighbors. they said we could always talk to them about any problem and that we’d always get a healthy discount when we ate there. I love beer and German food so I was falling in love with these guys. I talked my roommates into retracting their objection to the alcohol license.

Within a week Schmidt’s installed some loud equipment on to the roof of our building that made our whole flat shake like a bus was going by non stop for 16 hours a day…

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There are two sides to every story. Looks like they tried to work it out in person and when they ran out of options, resorted to creative stationary. The tenants have allegedly been there for over 10 30 years and probably enjoy some baller rent control, so I doubt the building owner is too interested in conflict resolution in lieu of waiting to see if they get fed up enough to move out.

We’ve all had noisy neighbors before, how much should you be expected to put up with it? I used to live in a great, cheap 1-br apartment on Fell and Van Ness next to the Rickshaw Stop. I tried to accept the thumping bass and folks pouring into the street at 2am as city flavor, but in my 2+ years there I never got used to it. Eventually, I just got up and moved. Not everyone has that luxury.

In any case, it’s sad that a lot of people in this city don’t pay attention to their neighbors until they hate them. Go leave a fruit basket next door tonight.

Update: Mission Loc@l did a follow up with the tenant that we missed a few weeks after the original story. Here it is. (thanks Rigoberto Hernandez)

Last year’s hipster to-do list was one of our most popular posts ever, so finding a good sequel has been high on our to-do list ever since. This one might be a winner:

I mean, it’s strong right off the bat with the ukelele thing, and the gym thing and “motorcycle ok” are just killer, but it’s the SXSW that really just slays me.

Seeing The Avengers again in an air conditioned movie theater? Waiting in line for Bi Rite Creamery? Walking the length of the city borders? Jumping off of a rope swing into the Russian River?

It’s gonna be hot again today. Hopefully you’re not stuck sweating it out in a cubicle.

Uh oh, looks like the folks at El Faro have been causing their (apparently British) upstairs neighbors some feelings of indifference:

Maybe if they made a bit more noise while taking out the trash they could find themselves in bad neighbor territory, like Schmidt’s. In case you forgot, they’ve been duking it out for over a year now:

Or they could take it the other way. By leaving a few free tacos on their neighbor’s doorsteps they could earn the neighborhood’s first “good neighbors” sign. Now, El Faro, wouldn’t that set a good example for your sons, El Farolito 1 and El Farolito 2?

[via wbtc]

If you’ve ever been curious about time traveling to 1805 Austria all you gotta do is pop in this pooper and dial 1-323-459-4303. Right around the corner from Rhea’s, or is it Circle K?

I guess nothing compares to the warmth of a real robot husband! These boyfriend pillows come closer, though.

Lillian (not pictured) is from Texas, just like our pal Carlos (pictured). Apparently this sort of thing happens all too often:

Smug Californian: “So where are you from?”

Me: “Texas.”

Smug Californian: (In a tone that reeks of satisfaction with the smell of one’s own flatulence) “I’m so sorry. That must have really sucked.” [link]

So that’s a bummer. Smugness is the worst! (And Texas is pretty fun.)

[Photo by Corntard]

This is a strawberry-basil caipirinha. No, there is nothing in a regular caipirinha that makes it non-vegan. This did not stop SF Vegan Drinks at Dr. Teeth and the Electic Mayhem from featuring the same on its menu today, nor did it stop me from ordering and devouring one! I guess they just thought that since vegans love fresh produce we’d appreciate having it served in a cocktail? Whatever their reasoning, it worked on me, and I’m usually a tough sell.

There’s also nothing about tater tots that makes them un-vegan, unless they’re coated in animal secretions, but sweet potato tater tots are another Vegan Drinks upgrade I happily fell for. The first basket of tots to arrive at my table was neither vegan (they were dusted with cheese) nor made of sweet potato. Remember last week when we talked about how it’s tough to rely on things you order in restaurants to be vegan? That’s still true even at an event with vegan in the title! I sent them back politely and waited what seemed like months to get my order. When they came, though, they were great, and the waitress brought me a free vegan white Russian with them for making me wait so long, which was sweet of her and delicious to me.

 
Dr. Teeth:
Kitchen ≠ reliable
Servers = nice
Food and drink ideas = good (especially at Vegan Drinks!)
Back patio = Really nice (cornhole and skee-ball)

The best part was when the stilts girl who was with them did the splits and somebody way up the hill shouted “YEEEAH, BITCH,” which is rude — but the whole park cracked up. That was the best part.

The other day I got thoroughly bummed out by, and then posted about, some video footage of the May 1st “Valencia Street” riot. It put me in a bad mood, and my takeaway was basically, “Wow, look at how fearlessly they attack this cop car — this is scary.” The first seven minutes of unchecked carnage were enough to blind me to the one ray of hope in the footage (which begins around the 7:25 mark). And my mood got worse as the comments flooded in. Until this one:

I was still living in San Francisco during the Giants non-sense and watched a woman drive through the mob and get her car jumped on which seemed to completely render the trunk usable as well I’m sure plenty of damage I didn’t witness. In retrospect, I wish I’d been the guy in the video who ran up shouting “Hey! hey! hey!” Instead I pulled out my iPhone and took a picture which I’m pretty ashamed of. At least the story the video tells, lots of spectators doing nothing, and one guy running up to defend the neighborhood. If you’re looking for something to take from this video, be that guy who runs up in front of the window being smashed or the car about to be spray painted. And when they start swearing at you, don’t introduce violence because that changes the game, but just say you love your neighborhood and this isn’t what you want. [link]

So there are two silver linings here. 1.) This one citizen standing up to the mob means there’s still good in the world, and 2.) This one commenter bringing some positivity to the discussion means there’s still good in the Mission Mission comments section.

Happy Friday, everybody. Love your neighborhood!