The New York Times travel section spent a weekend in the Mission District and came back with a photo essay. They went to Pirate Cat Radio, Weird Fish, Aquarius Records, Dolores Park, Foreign Cinema (above), St. Francis Fountain and Mission Dolores, and were struck by the “balance between [the neighborhood’s] colorful Latino roots and [its] gritty bohemian subculture.” They also refer to people in the park as “Frisbeeing, smuggled-beer-drinking multitudes.” I’ve never smuggled anything into Dolores Park. Link.
Mission Mission 
In this case, the New York Times is Chris Colin, who lives in SF and also writes a column for SFGate.
i think that’s not too bad of a depiction. positive, fairly accurate, certainly could have been way worse…
it could have been Foreign, Delfina, BiRite, Tartine and Farina (all of which i patronize and enjoy…well, i don’t actually ENJOY Tartine, but they have good bread), and focused only on the latter-day gentrified aspects. that’s honestly what i would have expected.
or it could have depicted the Mission as a violence damaged skid row, which it also isn’t (only).
anyways, OK with me if some touristas show up in the hood. it’s apparently the only thing – other than an overwhelmingly white / moneyed populace – that gets a neighborhood any love from the city.
good for local, non crack-n-ho oriented biz, too.
So they went to 2 of the same owned restaurants? They could have done better food wise. What, Cancun isn’t good enough for them?
someone likes that mural:
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/travel/20next.html?pagewanted=1
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/travel/14hours.html
Not bad. I was thinking it had to be local for them to find Mission Pie. And Burrito Justice was served by admitting to the Grand Taqueria Debate. I’ve previously mentioned the initial terror my friends felt walking into El Farolito…
Glad they didn’t mention Beretta, the line is long enough as it is.
But show 826 Valencia some love! Pirates on Valencia, Aaarrrrrr!
zinzin, they did the gentrified mission hipster article back in June:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/travel/13surfacing.html
Ah, but only Violet Blue bothered to cover Club Kiss. SF without the sex is just… so lacking.
cancun is not good enough, period.
I like how they are totally on the Fruit Shelf (aka Speedo Hill) part of D park. :-D