Mission Mission

[via Ariel Dovas on Twitter]

twitter.com/eviloars/statu…

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) June 8, 2013

On Tuesday evening Steve Fox opened up the doors to the space at 1096 South Van Ness, future home of his mini golf restaurant bar, Urban Putt, and let people wander inside and look around. The former mortuary was most recently renovated to be a bar and club, but retains a lot of the original flair and regality of a classy/cheesy 20th Century mortuary, including some creepy little brick chambers and a stairway to nowhere in the basement. I spoke with Steve and his designer Christopher Myers about their plans.

The plans for the holes are pretty ambitious and sound like they’re going to be a lot of fun to make. As someone who has also built an indoor park with building exteriors in this neighborhood, it’s right up my alley. Many of the holes are going to be locally themed, recreating monuments and places from San Francisco that go beyond the typical postcard locals, such as the spot where the 1906 Earthquake survivors meet every year. There will also be a private room to rent out, bars around the space and dining upstairs. We wrote about Urban Putt previously here.

Anyway, back to the holes, most of them will be on the main floor, but some will also lead the golfers into side rooms where they will step into a submarine environment. The fabrication will happen on site and Steve is looking to include local artists/designers to help create one or two of the holes. You can contact him if you’re interested.

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i’m just always so surprised when i get on a bus and there is no one being crazy.

— abby myles(@abbymyles) May 2, 2013

i sort of want to go around the bus and thank everyone for not being awful.

— abby myles(@abbymyles) May 2, 2013

Awww.

P.S.

The rider on the bus goesHey, back door!Hey, back door!Hey, back door!The driver on the bus goesHey, step down!All over town#Muni

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) May 1, 2013

UPDATE:

a little old lady on the bus was worried about whether i had brought a sweater with me. “are you from here? you always need a sweater.” 💗

— abby myles(@abbymyles) May 2, 2013

When the Vice Magazine article about social work in the Tenderloin came out last week I had a strong desire to write my own rebuttal. My main problem being the hopelessly negative view of a neighborhood with a lot of uphill battles that sits in the middle of a city of extreme wealth. The Tenderloin needs all the help it can get, and I don’t think this article helps. It’s fun to talk and write about all the cool things that other neighborhoods have going for them, as writers on this blog often do, but when the only thing we hear about the communities that aren’t booming is a tired old story like the Vice article it just seems lame.

Before I had the chance to write about it I saw the interview with Brian Brophy on Uptown Almanac, which I thought presented some great counter points and an overall reality check back to Vice, as well as a surprisingly thoughtful comment thread. I also saw the powerful response by Dregs One, which really highlighted the Vice interviewee’s lack of awareness about her own privilege and unhelpful dearth of empathy. I say unhelpful, because I think for people working with a community like the one she works with you need to have empathy not to feel sorry for your clients, but to understand how they’ve come to be in this situation so that you can help them move toward a healthier life. Maybe this person does have that awareness, something gets her out of bed and to this work every day, but it wasn’t present in the article.

Though I don’t read Vice, I understand that the writers are probably going for a tone that is “honest” in that it sounds like two friends talking with each other like they would if nobody was listening. But people are listening. Maybe the social worker in this article needed to vent after day after day of dealing with intense situations. Fine. But now that venting is a widely read article that defines this community in a lot of people’s minds. In a time when San Francisco is changing very fast and some of us are working really hard to make sure that certain communities don’t get shut out and left behind, again, this is not helpful. I know all too well that talking about blood and human waste and edgy stuff gets a lot more attention than stories of hope and triumph, at least in the demographic and mediums that this blog and Vice have in common. I’ve blogged about poop before and I’ll do it again. Even so, I’m going to take up a little internet real estate every once and a while to share other kinds of stories that I see going on in this city that I feel need to be shared. I don’t do enough to bring them to light, but here I am trying.

[picture of Jayraj by Ariel Dovas for BAYCAT]

Contrary to what the social worker says in the Vice article, the Tenderloin is not “one of the two predominately black neighborhoods left in SF”. However, the Bayview Hunters Point population in 2010 was made up of 33.7% African Americans, the largest ethnic group in that neighborhood. As I’ve mentioned a number of times before, I’ve spent almost 9 years working with people from this community at BAYCAT, Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts & Technology. Recently, one of our former students and a current intern, high school student Jayraj Govender, created a short video for his school that deals with the the choices that a teenager faces. I think it shows a real maturity and artistic curiosity and I’m excited to see what he does next.

[Link on Vimeo]

For the last thing, in 2012 Jayraj teamed up with three other former BAYCAT students turned young adult interns from Bayview Hunters Point, Iman Rodney, Teak Stephanchild and Tiffany Jones, to create a short documentary bringing the neighborhood’s health issues to light from a young adult’s perspective, called Endangered. The project was funded by Metta Fund and produced with mentorship from Melinda James. Tiffany created all the animation for the piece.

[Link on Vimeo]

#sanfranciscogoldrushhipster Cast Irony Pan. twitter.com/eviloars/statu…

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) January 28, 2013

Add your own!

“Plaid” still doesn’t rhyme with “laid”. #sanfranciscogoldrushhipster twitter.com/eviloars/statu…

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) January 28, 2013

Mission Creek – Widely panned. #sanfranciscogoldrushhipster twitter.com/eviloars/statu…

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) January 28, 2013

Covered Wagon Pop Up. #sanfranciscogoldrushhipster twitter.com/eviloars/statu…

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) January 28, 2013

#sanfranciscogoldrushhipster Mr. Strauss’s Skinny Jeans. twitter.com/eviloars/statu…

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) January 28, 2013

#sanfranciscogoldrushhipster I’m a Fool 4 Gold. twitter.com/eviloars/statu…

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) January 28, 2013

#sanfranciscogoldrushhipster Oh, fancy shovel. twitter.com/eviloars/statu…

— Ariel Dovas (@eviloars) January 28, 2013

Our pal Lizzy had an upsetting thing happen the other night while trying to have a drink at Dr. Teeth:

As I walked up I was taking my ID out of my pocket to show the bouncer. He gave me an appraising look and said “you’re okay,” and gestured me to head in without really checking it. Then this guy standing next to him said “no no, wait, I’M checking IDs.” I don’t want to get into stereotypes but I’ll just say here that he looked like kind of an asshole.

Call me dumb, but it was kind of chaotic, plus I try to be polite to people working door, so I handed him my ID. A second later, someone I presume to be his friend said “no, that guy’s not checking IDs.”

So I said, “hey, give me my ID back” and reached over to grab it from his hand. He grabbed my wrist pretty hard and held my ID away from me.

I don’t really like being grabbed by big dudes — he was probably twice my size. So I yelled at him “LET GO OF MY FUCKING WRIST AND GIVE ME MY ID.”

Yeah, let go of her fucking wrist. You’re not being funny. DON’T GRAB PEOPLE.

Read on.

[Photo by Ariel Dovas]

Looks like the secret ingredient to Mission Chinese restaurant Big Lantern’s delicious meatless sesame chicken was a heaping scoop of unfair labor practice. SF Appeal reports the eatery has been busted for $230,000 in unpaid overtime:

In total, $230,535 was paid to employees, with workers receiving settlements between $457 and $38,880 each. An additional $5,300 was paid in penalties.

$38,800! Sounds like drinks are on that guy tonight.

[via SF Appeal, photo by Ariel Dovas]

Earlier today, our own Ariel Dovas speculated as to the origins of Saturday night’s street fight. And commenters added bits and pieces to the tale. Now here we have a lengthy eyewitness account, from a reputable source who wishes to remain nameless:

Person X: i was at that bar fight
Sent at 10:30 AM on Tuesday
me: what happened!
Person X: it was all those skater kids from the mission
i can tell u the whooooooooooooooole story
and yes, someone actually came out of nowhere with a snowshovel and started attacking people
me: what started it? how many people were actually involved?
Sent at 10:34 AM on Tuesday
Person X: ok, so this one young party girl i always see around with the skater dudes
at then end of the night when they were kicking people out
starts yelling i nthe bar at some taller random creepy guy
trying to push him and was saying he was touching all of her friends and herself’s private parts
and she supposedly told the staff at the bar to kick him out earlier and they didnt
Sent at 10:37 AM on Tuesday
me: dang
Sent at 10:39 AM on Tuesday
Person X: so they all go outside and start fighting the dude
cuz the girl is all hooting and hollering that he touched her coochie
and u know those crazy 20 yr old skater kids who r just looking for any excuse to fight
well the girl starts fighting the guy
i look over and the dudes jump in the middle of it as the guy is holding a huge bottle to her neck
Sent at 10:52 AM on Tuesday
me: wow
i gotta run out, but feel free to keep telling the story
Sent at 10:55 AM on Tuesday
Person X: next thing u know everyone is punching everyone and some short hispanic looking kid with curly hair comes running from across the street to where everyone is in front of gestalt and starts hitting people
Sent at 11:00 AM on Tuesday
Person X: thank god it was a snow shovel because if it was a real shovel there could be a lot of dead people right now
anyways
Sent at 11:01 AM on Tuesday
Person X: i run down the block for safety and people are coming up to to other people over there swinging and suckerpunching people left and irght
i heard a window shatter cuz people were through big glass bottles (which they must have got out of the trash outside on the street) at the window of gestalt
the fight kinda disperses into segments
a group in front of gestalt
a group across the street
and then a group walking down the street toward mission
Sent at 11:04 AM on Tuesday
Person X: at that point the cops roll up and i see the dude with the shovel running down the block so i point them at him cuz he was sketchy as fuck
tha dude is trying to pumch people down the block still
we are leaving and all these ambulances come to that corner with the sketchy guy went
after we left people are saying they “hear” people saying someoneone “got stabbed in the head”
now that seems kinda crazy, but then again it is the mission so…………………..
and i dont know anything else than that
i tried looking up police reports online but couldnt find anything

[file photo by Ariel Dovas]

Southern Pacific Brewing opens for real this Friday, but we were lucky enough to get a tour yesterday. Here’s the view from the mezzanine. Two trees inside, one tree out on the patio, lots of light, lots of space. Capacity is 175 seated, 300 standing, so, yeah, lots of space.

Long communal tables give it a classic beer hall feel for sure, and in addition to the beer there’s a well-stocked full bar:

Inside Scoop published a first look at the menu yesterday as well, and it looks good. Here are the sandwiches and burgers:

Sandwiches

Smoked Pastrami, rye bread, pickles 11
Confit Chicken salad sandwich 10
Bahn mi, ipa roasted pork loin, kohlrabi slaw, cilantro, black garlic aioli 11
Sandwiches are served with Fries or Yukon gold chips

Burgers

House Burger, crispy shallots 8
Black and Blue, chili rub and bleu cheese 9
Lentil Burger, spent grain, fontina, grilled onion jam 11
Add bacon, avocado, aged white cheddar, 1.5

Opening weekend they’re only open in the evenings, starting at 7, but come Monday they open at 11AM every day, and push through ’til 2AM Thursday through Saturday. It’s on Treat just south of 19th. Here’s a map in case you can’t quite visualize it:

[Map by Google]

All photography by Ariel Dovas. After the jump, pictures of the brewing setup, and the grain silo (to give you another idea of just how huge this space is):

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