In A Comfortable Place

The Mission is my comfort zone.

It is my solid base when the city gets overwhelming. My first visits to the Mission didn't flood my senses like a busy day in Downtown. There was no initial fear of visiting the Mission. I'm comfortable in the Mission.

I, by no means, am an expert on the Mission now. It is, at the same time, constantly changing and holding on to its roots. What I mean is with the rising number of start-up businesses popping up on Valencia Street, the Mission has this staple into the Hispanic culture, mostly on Mission Street, that it can't lose. There is still so much to explore.

Many of the restaurants surrounding Mission Street, Pancho Villa Taqueria and Taqueria Los Coyotes for example, hold that traditional Hispanic culture that the Mission was built upon. During my first visit to the Mission, a long time Mission resident told me that the district is very family oriented. Eating in the Mission is as close to a Hispanic home cooked meal as a tourist like me can get. Also, about Taqueria Los Coyotes, it's the only taco shop that has satisfied my California burrito craving since I moved here from Southern California.

Alongside these traditional shops are young businesses such as Ritual Coffee and Tartine Bakery & Cafe, which both businesses have only been open for less than 10 years.

Ritual Coffee is my favorite coffee shop amongst all the other coffee shops in the Mission, and there are many more coffee shops in the Mission. Ritual's atmosphere, including displaying local artists' works and soundtracks picked by the baristas, keeps me coming back to work, hang out or just smell the place. Ritual's coffee is amongst the best in San Francisco and they roast all of their coffee in the city.

My main attraction to the Mission is Dolores Park. Every time I have gone to Dolores Park I've met someone new. The park is my favorite place to relax during the weekend, and many more share those same feelings. There is always something going on in the park. I've seen games of slip n' slide kickball, hula hoop dancers, DJ's, cardboard box knight fights and more during my visits. It's a strange, wonderful place.

The Mission is far from perfect despite all my praise. The BART stations and the areas surround them are dirty and run down with panhandlers and transients pestering anyone coming out of the stations. Mission Street itself is in terrible condition and, as a cyclist, not bike friendly with no bike lanes and large potholes. Parking around the district is also a large issue amongst the residents since the district is densely populated, which leads to traffic on Mission Street. I was also told by some shopkeepers on Mission Street to stay away from the Mission after dark since, from their experiences, robberies, shootings and other crimes become more frequent.

Like any part of the city, the Mission has its faults, but that's not going to stop me from exploring its culture. I have just seen the surface and I'm eager to dive deeper into the Mission.

At Dolores Park

After being assigned the Mission District beat for my reporting class, I knew I had to find a home base in the district.
The coffee shops were my first choices but after the sunny weekends I had spent indoors, finding Dolores Park made experiencing this district’s culture much easier and adventurous. I’ve spent many weekends at Dolores Park and I’m surprised every time I go. Every time I go to the park, I meet someone new and see something equally as new.
During this last visit, I had met Angie Lee. She works for Polkadotties, a cookie vendor over in the park. Lee was dressed in a 50’s style picnic blanket dress carrying around freshly baked cookies in her hand made carrying case. All that was missing was a milkman.
“[San Francisco] is such a crazy city,” said Lee. “It’s so funny that [San Francisco] is always in a rush and yet, you find this great park with street vendors and you can hang out with whoever you want and everyone’s really friendly.”
The first time I had gone to Dolores Park, I was researching the Mission District for my first blog post. Upon interviewing a group of kids from Fremont, I was tossed into their friend’s birthday party at Dolores Park. DJ’s performing while others play football or frisbee was just the beginning of my park adventures.
The park is a place of activity. There is always something different going on. One weekend there could be a kickball slip ‘n slide game happening and one weekend there could be a cardboard covered knight fight.
The park’s diversity of its activities displays how diverse the people of the Mission District are. Dolores Park attracts people from all over the Bay Area since the Mission’s sunny weather is quite complementary to weekend festivities.
Among the many groups laying around the park, I had met one group from different parts of the Bay Area and none from the Mission. For some of them, it was their first time at the park.
“People come out here from all blocks of life, all to hang out,” said Arwin DelRosario.
There was a coed kickball game this past weekend at Dolores Park where between third base and home plate was a slip ‘n slide. All this was next to a “bear,” hairy, large homosexual men, meet-up. Dolores Park can get pretty diverse.
Dolores Park’s central location in the Mission benefits any commuter coming just for the weekend with the MUNI J train running right next to the park on Church Street. It also is a regular location for tennis players, basketball players, dog walkers, cyclists and any other outdoor enthusiast.
Dolores Park is a place of activity and it’s my home base in the Mission.

The Art of a Community

In many of the districts of San Francisco, diversity comes first. Along with that diversity is the sense of community.

The Mission is known for its murals and street art around its neighborhoods. Balmy Alley, for example, is the epicenter for the district’s murals. Ranging from playful art to memorials to the trials of Latino history, the murals sprawl over fences, walls and garages and have been worked on since 1971.

A few blocks over, the Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Vistors Center provides a place for the community to learn about the murals’ history and raise an art collective to beautify the district.

For art on canvas, the Mission also houses the City Art Gallery, an art collective that provides gallery space for local artists ranging from those who have never shown in a gallery to professionals.

The Mission community shows its diverse colors through its art, be it on walls or in galleries.

Split Life Living

The Mission breathes life through every crack of its streets, with its heavy Hispanic influences to its gentrified residents. In a matter of blocks, the Mission is truly split life living.

Valencia Street has become the home to new businesses like coffee shops, bike shops and specialty shops, gathering a new crowd to the Mission district, integrating its original Hispanic residents. At Ritual Coffee, one of the many flourishing coffee shops, barista Jamie Olsen describes the residents of the Mission as a big mix of Hispanics and “people with money,” like the tourists and those who can afford the rent in the ever popular district.

“I have no problem with them,” said Olsen. “They make my paycheck.”

Though living in Portola, Olsen works and has frequented the Mission in the past, making up her image of the Mission as “really ethnic and mostly Spanish.” Though she feels the transients mixed with expensive rent can be a letdown, Olsen sees the Mission as a nice place to live with a very convenient location. In one word: dirty.

Dirty doesn’t have to be negative though. It shows the history and life of Mission. It’s not necessarily dirty. It’s more “lived in.” Around the Mission, I met a group of Fremont natives doing what they look for in the Mission, living. Caitlyn Bossio (24), Alleny Gomez (20), Muney Kaur (20) and Jesus Ley (20) showed young Mission life, taking me to Dolores Park, where DJs play amongst the people playing football, Frisbee and other activities. There is this sense of “do whatever you want” in the Mission, according to the group.

“We just walk around, drink and smoke over here,” said Bossio. “But in the Mission, there is so much more happening.”

Though the group described the Mission as hectic and ludicrous, Gomez described it as home, with the murals and history of the city reflecting a part of her Latina history.

“I love to see the murals to know who was down for the fight,” said Gomez.

With the sun and fun during the day, the night is another life. Mission Street is known for its traditional Hispanic roots and has stayed mostly the same through the years, but the same goes for its reputation. Like the group from Fremont, Sammy, a produce worker from La Mission Market on 17^th and Mission, doesn’t recommend the Mission at night.

“Traffic here ends a like 8 or 9 p.m. since the night here is very dangerous,” he said.

Though it can be dangerous, the Mission has given Sammy a profitable business and the ability to find anything in the Mission, from clothes to produce to food, all at the cheapest prices.

“Every day you see something new,” said Sammy.

Amongst the interviews, I’ve had the danger aspects and fun factors explained to me about the Mission but I think George Khoury from the Mission Smoke Shop put it best.

“With all the rich, poor and common people here, the Mission district is reality,” said Khoury.