Mission Mission

7×7 just published a “round up of second-hand Prada, secret patios, world-class art, off-the-menu cocktails, coffee tasting bars, bike staples” and “pizza wars.” Link. (Thanks, Eve!)

Here’s what the Chronicle‘s Caille Millner has to say about members of the Stop American Apparel effort:

They are not serious people. They live in a world where facts like 27 vacant storefronts on Valencia Street and 9.3 percent unemployment statewide and nearly 600,000 jobs lost nationally last month do not matter. The few who read books know no authors beyond Naomi Klein. They do not believe that the world has changed since the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. This accounts for both the static nature of their vocabulary – “no formula retail!” is their death chant, though anyone who has picked up a newspaper in the last five months could tell you that there isn’t a single retail establishment with a formula today – and the juvenile nature of their worldview.

Reads like a blog comment with better punctuation don’t it? She goes on to refer to the protestors as “nasty little elves.” Link.

Dear Reputable International News Media Conglomerate,

That was totally a joke

Love,

Mission Mission

Link.

Curbed has already selected its Epic Comment of the Month — and it’s only February 6th!! An excerpt:

My friends and I are totally hoping to get a great apartment in the mission (that’s the neighborhood between valencia and dolores, and 24th and 15th–I read about it in C magazine’s travel section, they had a great article about it). I was hoping you guys could help. It needs to have parking (I totally need to learn how to ride public transportation, but until then, I just *can’t* move without my car ha ha!) We also need a big space, with hardwood floors, laundry, and some nice new appliances (oh, and a dishwasher–I totally *don’t* do dishes ha ha.) We want to be around authentic restaurants, that the locals would go to. Like Foreign Cinema. Or restaurants that are totally unique to the Mish and don’t exist anywhere else (like Luna Park). Dive Bars are a MUST! And we totally would love to live in an authentic live/work space. I will be working in the financial district.

Link. And be sure to read subsequent comments. Bree returns for more.

By Emily and Kendra (via email)

We also attended the hearing [yesterday] as Mission residents and are happy that the commission voted to disapprove American Apparel opening a shop on Valencia St.  Unfortunately, some of the public comments about the project and characterizations of the Mission upset us enough to speak up about some racism and classism that we witnessed.

Specifically, we found references to crime and the evolution of the Mission from an unsafe and undesirable place to a thriving business corridor as particularly offensive.  Some comments, mostly from young white residents and business owners, referenced the idea that “we” made the neighborhood good, implicitly distinguishing themselves from other residents and businesses in the neighborhood, including the large Latino community.

(more…)

By the other, other mayor

While I am sure it is soothing to your aging sense of emptiness to view your work against AA as a Form of Activism, let’s remember that: (a) in no way betters the lives of your neighbors (b) is focused on a purely meaningless circumstance (c) lacks consequence and most significantly (d) stands in opposition to the only vocal American manufacturer with fair business practices. This “win” for the loose collection of overly-degreed, lily white interests you call a “neighborhood” is pure theatre.

What you consider your “right” to neighborhood self-determination is a byproduct of the last round of gentrification. By becoming a street owned by, and catering to, the displaced exiles of the nation’s upper middle class, Valencia has transformed itself into a hotbed of the issues facing new mothers– are these diapers organic, are there too many drunks in the park– at the exclusion of ANY other political voice. You speak out on American Apparel because it is a “safe” topic. Why aren’t you campaigning against gang violence? Is it because the issue is too Latino and too dangerous? Because unlike like Dov Charney, those nasty little brown kids shoot bullets instead of semen?

Read the rest of this comment >>

While we were all focused on American Apparel and the New Mission Theater project as evidence of a divided Mission District, Meave over at vegansaurus! took a hard look at the chasm between Foods Co and Rainbow Grocery:

It’s shitty that good grocery stores like Rainbow can be prohibitively expensive to people in lower tax brackets, and they’re left to buy non-perishables in disorienting big-food mausoleums, among roving hordes of drunks and weirdos and constant arrests in the parking lot. Then we all get to laugh about it and feel special for all the awesome deals we get, like, fuck Safeway, I’m shopping at FOODS CO! And aren’t we so clever with our slumming and penny-pinching?

Read on for lots more analysis (both sociopolitical and dietary), and the chicken bone.

Photo by Sexpigeon. See its story here.

Previously:

Mission vs. Valencia?

MAC SF just published a piece called A Tale of Two Commercial Corridors, which laments the divide between Mission and Valencia:

Valencia has become iconic for its high-end eclecticism, it’s hipster saturated streets and pricey restaurants. The demographic on the street is young, hyper-educated and affluent. Mission Street is, well, Mission Street, full of brown faces, families with kids, recent immigrants, grime, and all kinds of cheap apparel stores up and down the corridor. Two streets that sit side by side running parallel through the Mission District, only a block away but worlds apart.

It goes on compare the amount of attention paid to the New Mission Theater project to the amount of attention paid to American Apparel.

To me, this divide is thee crux of this notion we call “The Mission.” MAC can highlight what they need to in order to effect the political changes they’re after, but my question is this: Would the Mission be the Mission without this divide?

I wasn’t here 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 40 years ago, but I’m here now and I love the Mission now. And I love it for all of the things that it is, now. I love that these two streets are “only a block away but worlds apart.” And on some level, I think we all do. Because it’s the human experience in microcosm? Something about the duality of man?

Here’s a thought: What if it’s this very divide that makes the Mission so unique?

Now I’m off to City Hall (where, incidentally, I’m gonna try this). If any news happens, I’ll be in touch.

Photos by juicyrai.

Marcus says:

The bright lights at AA hurt my eyes coming home from the bars.

Link.

Mission Loc@l had the bright idea to send a reporter out into the community to see what people are really saying about American Apparel. Julie Johnson is the reporter, and she came back with some great stuff:

A few doors north from the public notice announcing American Apparel’s application to open shop in a vacant storefront, Roger Ryan is surrounded by orange tags halving prices, and red signs that read, “Going out of business sale.” Ryan, who owns two storefronts along the business corridor, will close the doors of his flagship Z-Barn Interiors shop on the 900 block of Valencia Street for good on Saturday.

“If I’d known American Apparel was opening a store here, I would have kept my doors open longer,” Ryan said. “Right now, this block is actually a dead block.”

[...]

“I have no idea why they need to claim more land,” said Courtland Donaldson, 24, who has worked at Shoe Biz for more than three years. “If anyone wants to shop there they have three other locations.” Shoe Biz also has another location in the Haight.

[...]

Further north on Valencia, Jeremy Tooker posted “Stop American Apparel” signs in the window of Four Barrel Coffee near 15th Street, which he opened last August. Wearing a grey sweatshirt he bought at American Apparel, Tooker echoed many people’s views when he emphasized that he likes the company but doesn’t believe it fits in the Mission’s culture.

[...]

Many neighbors have never heard of American Apparel, including Laura Hopper, director of Psychic Horizons, a few doors down from the proposed store.

“I would prefer not to have chains, but if I’ve never heard of it, it can’t be that big,” said Hopper, who’s been in business on Valencia Street for about 11 years. “It’s always better to have the space filled.”

[...]

“In certain areas, chain stores are helpful in growing neighborhoods. But in this particular case it’s not necessary,” [Michael O’Connor, president of the Small Business Commission] said. “It’s not like the space won’t get rented.”

Link.