Mission Mission

The Snitch has details on a political action against an allegedly dicky landlord. Link.

I really liked CLG. And even though they relocated to within one block of my day job, I haven’t been. Can’t really get into Thai for lunch I guess.

Reader Will proposed something along these lines in the comments of another post:

Here’s an idea to move us beyond thinking just about what happens in one small store front: Why can’t San Francisco build it’s own version of American Apparel’s manufacturing plant right here in the Mission? That would be much cooler than an American Apparel retail outlet or a new boutique anyway, and it would create hundreds of jobs instead of just a handful. And they’d be better jobs. Maybe Bill Gates wants to do this. Now there would be a daily dose of irony.

Or better yet – the city should do this as part of their program for the economic development of the Mission. Some people might initially think it would be unfair because no clothing manufacturer could compete with the government aided business, but tell me – what clothing manufactures are there in SF anyway? One would be a lot better than none. And the people of San Francisco or a democratically elected Mission representative could control it. I wonder if MAC and the Valencia Street merchants would get behind that!

Link.

Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone‘s National Affairs Daily, examining the question of what to do with Guantanamo detainees when Guantanamo closes, poses an interesting suggestion:

An immodest proposal: Let’s house them on Alcatraz.

Make it modern and secure. But also keep it open as a tourist attraction.

These guys are not super heroes. They’re not Houdini’s. They’re easily contained. And we should make a show of how toothless they really are.

Plus, it’d make one hell of a tourist draw.

Link. Yeah, I’ve lived in Northern California pretty much all my life and I’ve never been to Alcatraz. This would make me visit Alcatraz.

Local blogs keep saying things like, “The Mission District is gathering its forces in a fight against American Apparel,” and referring to “the movement to keep Dov Charney’s hipster wares out of the hipster hood itself.” Is the former true? Is there such a thing as the latter? Is the whole neighborhood up in arms?

Or is it that one dude claimed to represent the community and some web writers took him at his word?

(I like this coverage though. And I like the discussion here.)

Back on November 4th, local tumblelog Many Machines noted that the kids in the writing program at 826 Valencia had been just ecstatic about Barack Obama. See that report and subsequent discussion here.

Yesterday, the full story behind this ecstatickness appeared in The New York Times. The piece includes a slide show of portraits the kids did of the president elect, as well as some of the results of a writing assignment is which students were asked to write a letter to Senator Obama. From 8-year-old Mireya Perez’s list of the first 10 things he should do as President:

1. Make everyone read books.
2. Don’t let teachers give kids hard homework.
3. Make a law where kids only get one page of homework per week.

Haha! Link. (Thanks, Chase!)

Also, will somebody please hurry up and license the above drawing by 12-year-old Dean Lancaster and put it on a t-shirt?

You hear that Israel and Palestine? (I think this work of art might be for sale at Gravel & Gold.)

mcas is live at Sacramento and Montgomery:

mcas: Cop batons are out at palestine protest

Update: Lots more pictures at Disenchanted Princess.

Whilst shopping at my favorite little corner store at 16th and Mission, I saw out of the corner of my eye some people run by in the street. Then said people were suddenly awash in red and blue lights. And there was yelling on a bullhorn and big signs and more people. A protest against something or other had materialized in front of my eyes in a matter of seconds.

Strangely, the protesters converged on Wells Fargo holding a 5′x5′ sign that said, “No Police in Greece,” or something like that. I might have remembered more specifically what the sign said had any aspect of the protest- like, at all- made any sense.

After watching for a few minutes and listening to the guy with the bull horn yell (again, not exactly, but basically), “We’ll burn your face off,” I headed across the street to ask some questions. I started with a kid who was holding one side of the aforementioned giant sign.

Me: So what’s the deal?
Him: We’re protesting.
Me: Against what?
Him: Against a police state.
Me: glances around at the dozen or so police officers protecting the protesters and their right of free speech. Wow, it’s really nice of these police officers to protect you while you protest against them.
Him: blank stare.
Me: What’s this about Greece?
Him: It’s about the killing of Alexis Grigoropoulos. He was killed by police in Greece.
Me: Why Wells Fargo?
Him: Huh?
Me: Why are you protesting in front of Wells Fargo?
Him: We don’t like banks.
Me: This bank, or just all banks?
Him: All banks. We’re going to be stopping at a few others.
Me: Ok, that’s cool. So who organized the protest?
Him: Nobody.

Feeling even more confused than when I started talking to this kid, I moved up the street a little and questioned a police officer who was waiting dutifully on his motorcycle.

Me: So what’s the deal?
Police Guy: I don’t know, they’re protesting all over the place. Their last stop was New College. You know the one on Valencia Street?
Me: Yeah. What are they protesting against?
Police Guy: They’re mad at us police. We wouldn’t let them occupy some building earlier.
Me: So why are they protesting outside Wells Fargo?
Police Guy: I don’t know. Earlier they took a vote and everyone voted to just go drink at a bar, but the guy with the megaphone over there, he vetoed that. So they’re here.

I walked away thinking how much I love this ridiculous city.

More:

They don’t fuck around in Athens on Unburying the Lead.

Laser war in Athens on Danger Room.

So I saw the headline Venerable Valencia turns into hipster magnet paired with this photo of the author, and I was like, oh snap, I’m gonna poke fun at this clueless old dude. But then I actually read the thing, and it turns out, he nails it: Valencia has a a lot of history, and folks remember it fondly, but times are changing — as times tend to — and there’s not a whole lot wrong with that.

So kudos, Carl Nolte. You really captured how fucking awesome Valencia Street is these days. Now, if hack headline writers would quit with the H-word already…

(via BuboBlog, who commented, “[N]ever once mentions trough urinals. Talk about missing the story!”)

With apologies to hack headline writers. Takes one to know one.

Amid the hubbub of the hard-fought District 9 supervisorial race, some of us might surely have forgotten that one of the most troubling areas in the neighborhood, the corner of 16th and Mission, is actually in District 6, Chris Daly‘s district.

In the above video, Bronstein at Large hits the streets to see what the citizens of District 6 think about their supervisor. Accompanying blog post sheds a lot more light and is located here.

Previously on Mission Mission:

This Is Our Mission You Lazy, Self-Satisfied Babies