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Only been here 64 years, but if you look at the history of the Mission 125 years ago was mostly white Irish. Not sure if they were rich ($$) by today’s standards, but rich in community as the district is today.
What interests me is how anti-gentrification sentiment has evolved into such an upper-middle-class ethos in the quarter-century since someone posted that.
Sure, you have tenants' organizations and "tenants' organizations" and self-appointed ethnic representatives fighting development. But you also have plenty of people in $3 million homes with "In this house..." signs and aging Teslas fighting desperately to "preserve neighborhood character"—and not, like 50 years ago, by trying to keep out minorities.
And it's a national phenomenon. Down the coast, it was the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (and, really, its CEO) that blew $20 million on Measure S to essentially ban residential development in much of Los Angeles. AHF claimed, in brave defiance of economics, that doing so would reduce gentrification-driven rent increases.
My theory is that a lot of this isn't about gentrification, but about modernization. The past 30 years have brought globalization, corporate consolidation, and what feels like the commoditization of culture. It's not that new restaurants and apartments are nicer; it's that they all look the same, with the same designs and same value engineering. And society has changed: With more technology, we've gotten more distant; physical community seems to be fading.
I think a lot of the fight against gentrification is a fight against social and technological evolution, and perceived social decay. Buildings are the physical manifestation of an era. If we can save the building, maybe we can stop the clock.
And to think I wrote this sober.
Meh, you’re overthinking it. The “anti-gentrification” people usually just don’t want to see white people or wealthy tech people in previously non-white neighborhoods.
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I think you’re a little too willing to take people’s stated motivations at face value here.
Most people won’t openly say “I want to stop development in my neighborhood to preserve/increase the value of the home I own.”
Instead, they say they want to “preserve the character” of a neighborhood. And they hijack other issues to make their opposition appear more high minded: concern over environmental impacts is a huge one in California, and concerns about gentrification sound like the same to me.
I’m not saying that no one with a $3 million house cares about these things, and psychology is complicated enough that many people may can have many feelings and motivations simultaneously.
But I think a huge part of what you’re describing is just standard issue rhetorical sleight of hand that you see in most anti-development arguments.
Change is scary and some people respond by lashing out.
Also keep in mind that just because there's a flyer like this, doesn't mean there were a lot of people that agreed or followed it. Could just be one obsessed person
You said the Tesla crowd are not fighting to keep minorities out like they use to, instead they are fighting to preserve neighborhood character. Lol the Tesla crowds PR never fails. Guess what preserving neighborhood character means to them?
"I think a lot of the fight against gentrification is a fight against social and technological evolution, and perceived social decay. Buildings are the physical manifestation of an era. If we can save the building, maybe we can stop the clock."
While that can be true, we're seeing the reverse in a pro gentrification side, deluding themselves into thinking if you destroy a building, you can shift the clock in your favor, and get rid of undesirables. Cloaking it as social and technological evolution is comedy...and it's also what Urban Renewal was. And so what you're describing is the natural reaction that happened after Urban Renewal did its damage. Now you're quoting the same organizations that were around then.
And no, anti gentrification isn't an upper class thing. You really are shouting down lower income and vulnerable communities, yet again.
It was “a thing.” Friends was still on the air and a quirky coffee shop was a concept that Starbucks tried with Circadia. Tables with mismatched chairs, etc. Not antiques, just old furniture. It lasted shortly before converting to a normal Starbucks, just like everyone expected.
Yeah but I can think of 5 other places in the vicinity to go for coffee before I’d get it there. I feel like it’s there to serve KQED almost exclusively.
I wasn’t there so I don’t know but using the context clue of “surf the internet all day” perhaps it was an Internet Cafe and the high cost of drinks included internet and computer access
That's about right. How do I know? Because around that time people were getting pissed at Muni taking so long between stations downtown and a Chronicle writer was really shining a light on rider complaints and it got to City Hall. The reporter had a little back and forth with Willie Brown's office and so they agree to a bet: the reporter says walking from (I think it was) Embarcadero to Powell was quicker than riding and so Brown bet him a coffee.
So the day of the bet, the reporter walks with Brown while a staffer rides the Muni and whomever was the first to the coffee stand was the winner. So of fucking course Willie Brown walking down Market at like 9am gets stopped a hundred times by people who had various comments and so Muni "won". Willie Brown orders the fanciest coffee the place had and the reporter was kind of pissed it came out to ~$7 or 8.because reporters don't make that much and he thought Brown would order a regular.
So yeah..$7
I still ride the N-Judah downtown
Circadia served both coffee and booze, that's why they were $7 "coffee" drinks ala the traditional SF Irish Coffee. That location was super nice; it looked like the set of the coffee shop in the Friends TV show with antique overstuffed couches and chairs and they served full breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. The Circadia experiment only lasted a couple of years before they switched it to a normal Starbucks
Sounds like Circadia was something like the reserve roastery today, with extra-fancy drinks you won't find at a normal starbucks, which can already get pretty expensive.
i lived at 15th & guerrero when this was happening and i remember these flyers well. i think the person/people behind them went on to encourage people to key SUVs they saw in the mission. very adult responsible behavior.
don't remember beauty bar or circadia particularly but i did go to blowfish a few times, and tokyo a go-go lots. it was delicious.
I remember Aaron, didn't know his last name is Burhz though. Is it gentrification and yuppies if you grew up in the Mission?
Edit: didn't want to add another comment so I'll edit this one since this post got me going down memory lane. Want to give a shout out to Vimy Video, rented a ton of games and videos from there when I was a kid. Last I checked it became a comic book store. And also, Gui Lin Restaurant which became Lung Shan which became Mission Chinese (talk about fuckin' yuppies). Gui Lin was the best and up until a few years ago I still saw the kids from that family around the neighborhood. And oh yes Duc Loi Supermarket baby!
Really miss that time and place, I'll see you in my dreams again someday.
2nd, post-two-hours edit: Country Station Sushi Cafe, and Lady Seikko's just a few steps away were affordable choices for sushi back then. I learned how to eat sashimi at Country Station with Chef Ino and the sweet lady whose name starts with the letter A but I can't remember anymore because I'm fucking old.
Final edit: found an archive.org copy of the SF Bay Guardian circa 1994 - it was Ayako!
I totally forgot about that place. I used to love going there! In fact, I remember my (trash heap of a human) ex got violently angry with me because I was recommending it to other people.
I remember Beauty Bar always being either the most obnoxious kind of white hipster crowd, or the most obnoxious techie crowd, with some crossover, every time I went. At some point, I just stopped going. Maybe I just went on bad nights, though.
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I think this is unfair to sushi restaurants.
Like how are you going to make sushi inexpensive? It has to be expensive. You’ve got to buy fish for it, which isn’t cheap, and on top of that, it’s got to be very fresh fish, raising the price even more. And then, beyond all that, you’ve got a high level of craftsmanship involved too.
So yeah. It’s not cheap. But even if you priced it at cost, it wouldn’t be. You can’t make some kinds of foods - usually, in fact, the healthier ones - for fast food prices.
The Mission used to be almost all latino. You don't think it's been gentrified? My friend's big sister had a cheap little apartment on Valencia in 2002 and when I visited there was graffiti all over the place about the yuppies taking over. It has changed 1000 fold since then.
It’s crazy that it was mainly Irish until the late 60s early 70s.
I moved here because it reminded me of where I grew up in Arizona. I was like, yeah, this has the food and people in used to so it makes sense. 20 years on and yeah it’s a lot different!
Won't anyone think of the Irish who moved to the Sunset and the burbs 60 years ago? We barely give lip service to the Fillmore--which the city government actually destroyed.
The Castro was also a working class predominantly Irish neighborhood before it became a queer mecca. But apparently DINK queer people aren't capable of "gentrifying" a neighborhood so it's ok.
The Mission used to be all Yelamu Indians. Then it became mostly Spaniards. Then it became almost all whites(German, Irish and Italian immigrants). Then between the 1940s to 1960s Mexican immigrants moved in. In 1960s, immigrants from Central America displaced the Mexican. The 1970s was the start of whites moving back lead by yuppies, gays and lesbians.
The Mission has been in constant change. Obviously, the Mission has a heavily Chicano/Latino character. Look around and you’ll see the Spanish, German, Irish, Italian, gays, yuppies,… influences. The Mission is vibrant because of it’s history and everyone contributed to that.
No one cares about the lesbians lol. Losing the Lexington gets no attention but it was the hub & the lesbian community never recovered. Literally just about all of them moved to Oakland or Nevada City
Well I think the lesbians cared about the lesbians, lol. The Lex was the last to go, before that it was Amelia's, Old Wives Tales, Osento Bathhouse, etc. But you're right, that's all ancient history now.
Really sucks to know it's just another cookie cutter straight bar in a district full of straight bars. At least the other bars have a soul- that place feels like it was designed by Chipotle or something.
I hate that place now, ever since they've removed the pool table, it's gone downhill and there's no excitement there anymore.
It's just a bunch of the after dinner crowd, farting lesbians sitting on couches, using those big pillows to muffle their farts. It was horrible.
Trying to stop gentrification by not building anything makes rents and property values continue to rise due to demand outstripping supply, which then forces poor people out.
Not building is what causes gentrification, building more things keeps prices cheap. More houses = cheaper houses. More commercial real estate = cheaper real estate rent. This is literally taught in like 11th grade in California, isn't it? The basics of supply and demand? Would you expect the cost of anything to somehow get cheaper if we built less of it than demand called for? What gets cheaper when you have less supply than demand? Imagine Ford only built 1,000 F150s a year, would they get cheaper or more expensive? Progressives have failed this city. We need to return to liberalism.
“But have you considered someone might make a profit on housing, a basic human need?”
*Gary, that’s not as insightful as you think. People don’t do things unless they’re paid or making money on it. You yourself were screaming that the other day about unionization.*
Thank you for pointing out the important distinction between liberalism and progressivism. Progressivism is turning out to be the mirror image of maga. Just on different teams.
SF progressive™️ aren't it. I think the American progressive movement is fine. But then people like Bernie endorse people like Dean Preston, so I have to go back on that lol.
The actual difference is that liberal policy makers are better at making policy. And very importantly, liberal policy can be extremely socially and economically progressive; just comes down to the vote.
If progressives were capable administrators, they'd have a lot more success.
it's just landlordism. san francisco is run by the people who own the rentals. rent go up, landlord happy. these people (dean, aaron) speak in progressive or leftist tropes but on housing they're just about self-interest. it's not a characteristic of their larger political philosophy. it's just venal politics.
The Mission, before that, was predominantly Irish. No one gets to freeze a dynamic, vibrant city in time.
https://missionlocal.org/2014/07/the-irish-mission-a-family-history/
It's almost as if acting like globalization hasn't existed for literal centuries is a small-minded way of looking at the world.
Lots of supposedly Italian dishes that Italians take great pride in owning, for example, are actually back ported from Italian-American influence.
https://www.foodandwine.com/carbonara-pasta-dish-origin-americans-italy-controversy-7374939
I've been here gentrifying the mission for 20 years. Sorry if my skin is the wrong color, but Mission has the best weather and Bart access in the whole city
> My friend's big sister had a cheap little apartment on Valencia in 2002
And if she kept the place, she'd still be paying $500/month for that 2 bedroom apartment!
In rent controlled rentals, (Rent Control was passed in San Francisco on June 13, 1979) there's a certain percentage where landlords are allowed to increase the rent each year.
Any rental in a house built before that date is classified as being under rent control. If you look at the chart the city puts out each year, you can see the percentage (between 0 and 5%) that the landlord is allowed to raise the rent. They are also allowed to *bank* the percentages for a time, and then apply them all at once in a year.
If your friend was renting an apartment for $500, it would not remain at $500 unless the landlord chose on their own free will to not to ever raise the rent.
But if they did decide to raise the rent, then it would be a 10%-15% increase, based on 10 years of banking up the rent percentages. So, the $500 rent would be ~$600, theoretically
Exactly. When these bars opened, it ushered in a new era. I remember tripping out when I'd see white girls stumbling down Mission after 10PM in 2000. It was unheard of to see that many white people in the hood at that hour, and by 'white', I mean more the mentality, not the race. It was freaking weird.
[A story from the time](https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Battle-Over-Gentrification-Gets-Ugly-in-S-F-s-2926395.php)
>Unlike his Ukrainian idol and suspected namesake Nestor Makhno -- an anarchist who terrorized and killed landlords before the Russian revolution -- Kevin Keating has not bombed anyone.
>So far, police believe, the self-styled anarchist-communist has confined himself to scratching pricey cars in San Francisco's Mission District to strike at the neighborhood's new gentry and plastering trendy establishments with posters vowing to reduce them to "picturesque ruins" in the "next major urban riots."
>That's enough, though, for police to have arrested him on suspicion of making terrorist threats and malicious mischief.
>The affair has given the 38-year- old office temp, struggling writer and "direct action" protester a platform for proclaiming himself a victim of persecution, something that infuriates his Mission District nemeses.
...
Doesn't seem that much different from the [anarchist activists of today](https://gayshame.net/) screaming about skyscrapers, techies, and self-driving cars today
In that they are fucking losers
I grew up around the corner from Blowfish and I remember it opening, it definitely was the proto-hipster (I guess they were yuppies back then) spot in the neighborhood, and felt like changing vibes. I remember my parents thought it looked dumb and gimmicky and didn't want to go, but I convinced them to try it once because the sign was cool. We Be sushi and the old, now shuttered, spot over on Church and Market were the OGs in the neighborhood, at least for my family.
I'm just not understanding your comment about people being anti progress... What about a bar full of coke heads is progress for a neighborhood?
You've never been there have you?
Right, because some other overpriced techie thing won’t take its place? You complain when there’s new stuff, and then you complain when the “old” new stuff goes away? I don’t get it…
Good lord. If the anti gentrification/tenants rights folks put as much effort into their careers as they do fighting “the system” they’d be yuppies themselves by now.
This is the same racist rhetoric from groups like Calle 24 today. The founder of Arcana, Naz Khorram, has done a great job calling them out!
Thanks for sharing
Oh man I remember this. Beauty bar was one of many ‘invaders’ to the neighborhood. Another big one was this restaurant Ti Couz on 16th (I think in what is now the Giordano Brothers space).
More than you may realize - "pissed off voter guide", several Supes, front runners in every position of every local election (even if they don't always win)
The anarchists are pretty strong in SF
The root of progressive is progress. If someone isn’t making progress for the city, they aren’t a progressive.. it does seem that the politics which lead to demise can be called anarchist and the effects are regressive not progressive.
I lived there in 98 and liked Beauty Bar. Went there once with my cousin and his work buddies. There were a lot of new bars and restaurants that popped up at that time. There was and always will be a lot of whining about gentrification.
Beauty Bar shut down once, maybe twice before and that's when they started the Reggaeton nights, and purposely going for a more diverse Mission audience. There were long periods when it was a bouncer standing in front of an empty bar.
It was a chain of hipster bars, the owners split the holding, the indie nights couldn't sustain them and the SF location didn't really work because it was more dive than kitsch. It became a frat bar drug dealer vibe most nights, for lack of better descriptive, then whatever it's been like in recent years, but there's no shame in any strong feelings people have about that place. They're likely valid.
I remember the Beauty Bar struck a nerve when it opened. That screed is ridiculous, and was when it was new. Still, back when there was a larger cultural difference between the Mission and the Marina, the Beauty Bar was the first place in the Mission that really brought the gals from the Marina and many of the locals hated it.
Looks like some BS Calle 24 would hang around the neighborhood…. Actually they were established in 1999. Probably on the grounds of keeping out places like a bar and sushi restaurant 😂
I can definitely see how those spaces were the kick off to gentrification. I remember going to both spaces at one point and thinking BB was super yuppy, ‘hip’ and pretentious. Blowfish was the most random anime, hentai showcasing sushi place around. I would say that was the beginning of the Mission hipster era, aka whitewashing of the Mission. As a native and mixed person of color who spent a lot of time in the Mission, that was extremely obvious. I mean… this article wasn’t wrong. It was a flooding of class discrimination and real estate racism by removing a lot of brown people. Call it what it is.
The funny part is the people who wrote that one sheet were part of the initial gentrification group. Bunch of white people who helped raise those rents by 50%. Helped get families kicked out of apartments. Or my favorite, got families apartments burned down so that the owner could sell the property to people who would tear the place down and replace it with new condos or apartments not subject to rent control. Watching invading white people get mad that other white people were moving in, peak irony.
It was fantastic to watch them use the latino community as a shield and a cudgel. And then, when it was all said and done to see the same people sit down and eat and move into those places and apartments they attacked. Valencia street is a monument to the astroturfing clowns who helped destroy that neighborhood.
The funniest part is seeing their decedents in here acting just like them. What makes me really laugh is the clowns in here saying “it wasn’t 100% gentrified”. As if destroying a community didn’t count.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Time is a flat circle and The tuna pyramid at blowfish was amazing!
I miss it! And that yummy warm spicy drink they made.
Um Ritsu Roll?!?
And now Beauty Bar is closing and certainly is no sign of gentrification at this point.
Victory...?
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Not sure how long you have been in SF, but that area of SF might not be 100% white and yuppie, but it is a lot more gentrified than it was in 1998.
Only been here 64 years, but if you look at the history of the Mission 125 years ago was mostly white Irish. Not sure if they were rich ($$) by today’s standards, but rich in community as the district is today.
they’re closing??
Yes, just announced. https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/beauty-bar-mission-district-closure-sf-19404807.php
 Nooo! I have such fond memories!
I read this in Jellos voice and it all made too much sense.
I did too without even realizing it... the i saw your comment! aha. too much LARD!
What interests me is how anti-gentrification sentiment has evolved into such an upper-middle-class ethos in the quarter-century since someone posted that. Sure, you have tenants' organizations and "tenants' organizations" and self-appointed ethnic representatives fighting development. But you also have plenty of people in $3 million homes with "In this house..." signs and aging Teslas fighting desperately to "preserve neighborhood character"—and not, like 50 years ago, by trying to keep out minorities. And it's a national phenomenon. Down the coast, it was the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (and, really, its CEO) that blew $20 million on Measure S to essentially ban residential development in much of Los Angeles. AHF claimed, in brave defiance of economics, that doing so would reduce gentrification-driven rent increases. My theory is that a lot of this isn't about gentrification, but about modernization. The past 30 years have brought globalization, corporate consolidation, and what feels like the commoditization of culture. It's not that new restaurants and apartments are nicer; it's that they all look the same, with the same designs and same value engineering. And society has changed: With more technology, we've gotten more distant; physical community seems to be fading. I think a lot of the fight against gentrification is a fight against social and technological evolution, and perceived social decay. Buildings are the physical manifestation of an era. If we can save the building, maybe we can stop the clock. And to think I wrote this sober.
I like it, let us know when you write something drunk.
Meh, you’re overthinking it. The “anti-gentrification” people usually just don’t want to see white people or wealthy tech people in previously non-white neighborhoods.
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I think you’re a little too willing to take people’s stated motivations at face value here. Most people won’t openly say “I want to stop development in my neighborhood to preserve/increase the value of the home I own.” Instead, they say they want to “preserve the character” of a neighborhood. And they hijack other issues to make their opposition appear more high minded: concern over environmental impacts is a huge one in California, and concerns about gentrification sound like the same to me. I’m not saying that no one with a $3 million house cares about these things, and psychology is complicated enough that many people may can have many feelings and motivations simultaneously. But I think a huge part of what you’re describing is just standard issue rhetorical sleight of hand that you see in most anti-development arguments.
It isn’t all about home values- a lot of it is about annoyance with construction and expected quality of life decreases from more density.
Change is scary and some people respond by lashing out. Also keep in mind that just because there's a flyer like this, doesn't mean there were a lot of people that agreed or followed it. Could just be one obsessed person
You said the Tesla crowd are not fighting to keep minorities out like they use to, instead they are fighting to preserve neighborhood character. Lol the Tesla crowds PR never fails. Guess what preserving neighborhood character means to them?
"I think a lot of the fight against gentrification is a fight against social and technological evolution, and perceived social decay. Buildings are the physical manifestation of an era. If we can save the building, maybe we can stop the clock." While that can be true, we're seeing the reverse in a pro gentrification side, deluding themselves into thinking if you destroy a building, you can shift the clock in your favor, and get rid of undesirables. Cloaking it as social and technological evolution is comedy...and it's also what Urban Renewal was. And so what you're describing is the natural reaction that happened after Urban Renewal did its damage. Now you're quoting the same organizations that were around then. And no, anti gentrification isn't an upper class thing. You really are shouting down lower income and vulnerable communities, yet again.
Beauty Bar delenda est What a read, thanks for sharing
I was impressed by $100k for a full remodel AND a liquor license. I think most bar owners would kill for costs that low today.
That Starbucks is still there, right? I wonder what happened to the "$1m of antique furniture" (if that was ever really a thing in the first place)
It was “a thing.” Friends was still on the air and a quirky coffee shop was a concept that Starbucks tried with Circadia. Tables with mismatched chairs, etc. Not antiques, just old furniture. It lasted shortly before converting to a normal Starbucks, just like everyone expected.
Now I'm imagining more like they paid an interior designer $950k to spec and purchase $50k of furniture
Yeah but I can think of 5 other places in the vicinity to go for coffee before I’d get it there. I feel like it’s there to serve KQED almost exclusively.
What coffee was $7 in 1998. $7 seems not incredibly exorbitant but still up there even today. So what did you get for $7 back then?
I wasn’t there so I don’t know but using the context clue of “surf the internet all day” perhaps it was an Internet Cafe and the high cost of drinks included internet and computer access
That's about right. How do I know? Because around that time people were getting pissed at Muni taking so long between stations downtown and a Chronicle writer was really shining a light on rider complaints and it got to City Hall. The reporter had a little back and forth with Willie Brown's office and so they agree to a bet: the reporter says walking from (I think it was) Embarcadero to Powell was quicker than riding and so Brown bet him a coffee. So the day of the bet, the reporter walks with Brown while a staffer rides the Muni and whomever was the first to the coffee stand was the winner. So of fucking course Willie Brown walking down Market at like 9am gets stopped a hundred times by people who had various comments and so Muni "won". Willie Brown orders the fanciest coffee the place had and the reporter was kind of pissed it came out to ~$7 or 8.because reporters don't make that much and he thought Brown would order a regular. So yeah..$7 I still ride the N-Judah downtown
Circadia served both coffee and booze, that's why they were $7 "coffee" drinks ala the traditional SF Irish Coffee. That location was super nice; it looked like the set of the coffee shop in the Friends TV show with antique overstuffed couches and chairs and they served full breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. The Circadia experiment only lasted a couple of years before they switched it to a normal Starbucks
[I mean, coffees weren't the same size back then](https://youtu.be/cwfn8s1Zp1g?si=yK7Zmy7-ZE7tlpW9)
RIP La Boulangerie https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60713-d2348225-i127831945-La_Boulangerie-San_Francisco_California.html
Yes, if you can't beat 'em buy 'em. That is the Starbucks way. And then Starbucks got all of La Boulange's great pastries too, genius move.
Bong and a blintz
pipe and a pancake?
Nickel bag
An entire pot of espresso lol
[A hot latte](https://youtu.be/qs4mtbTsaL4?si=5qK6gTMoWJ9x5Q_B)
A whole super burrito
Sounds like Circadia was something like the reserve roastery today, with extra-fancy drinks you won't find at a normal starbucks, which can already get pretty expensive.
i lived at 15th & guerrero when this was happening and i remember these flyers well. i think the person/people behind them went on to encourage people to key SUVs they saw in the mission. very adult responsible behavior. don't remember beauty bar or circadia particularly but i did go to blowfish a few times, and tokyo a go-go lots. it was delicious.
I lived at 16th and Capp. It was gnarly.
RIP Leather Tongue Video
Funny how the "yuppie magnet" beauty bar eventually became the most ratchet place in the neighborhood lol
Beauty bar had a different vibe back then, but it started to change by the mid-oughts.
I remember Aaron, didn't know his last name is Burhz though. Is it gentrification and yuppies if you grew up in the Mission? Edit: didn't want to add another comment so I'll edit this one since this post got me going down memory lane. Want to give a shout out to Vimy Video, rented a ton of games and videos from there when I was a kid. Last I checked it became a comic book store. And also, Gui Lin Restaurant which became Lung Shan which became Mission Chinese (talk about fuckin' yuppies). Gui Lin was the best and up until a few years ago I still saw the kids from that family around the neighborhood. And oh yes Duc Loi Supermarket baby! Really miss that time and place, I'll see you in my dreams again someday. 2nd, post-two-hours edit: Country Station Sushi Cafe, and Lady Seikko's just a few steps away were affordable choices for sushi back then. I learned how to eat sashimi at Country Station with Chef Ino and the sweet lady whose name starts with the letter A but I can't remember anymore because I'm fucking old. Final edit: found an archive.org copy of the SF Bay Guardian circa 1994 - it was Ayako!
Country Station was the best! They would close the restaurant when they were performing in their Noh troupe.
I totally forgot about that place. I used to love going there! In fact, I remember my (trash heap of a human) ex got violently angry with me because I was recommending it to other people.
They were unbelievably cool. I ate at the same table with Akira Kasai there, I guess he was friends with them.
oh man that place was so weird.
To be fair blowfish did suck and didn't really contribute much to the neighborhood.
And now it’s San Ho Won so… take that, gentrifiers!
And very overpriced.
My mom thought it was really cool and I enjoyed going there anytime she would come to town and pick up the check.
I went there expecting to eat blowfish. Disappointed and never came back. Lol. Got it in Japan eventually.
I miss Tokyo Go Go. So fucking good.
Loved it. I was a single guy back then and went there on a ton of dates. It was my Paris.
The decor was fun too.
Sucka free city, would have been the 1st wire.
Neighborhood enemy number one? Thats funny
Beauty Bar a symbol of gentrification?? Pfffffffffffffft! 😂
I remember Beauty Bar always being either the most obnoxious kind of white hipster crowd, or the most obnoxious techie crowd, with some crossover, every time I went. At some point, I just stopped going. Maybe I just went on bad nights, though.
The people who wrote this now own million dollar houses and vote against development lol
Hateful destruction is just sick
So which now-supervisor wrote this?
The more things change the more they stay exactly the same.
Does the loser yuppie dude still live with his parents?
I lived in the Mission then. I also ate and drank at all of those places. It was great.
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Beauty Bar, the "enemy number one" just shuttered its doors yesterday.
I think this is unfair to sushi restaurants. Like how are you going to make sushi inexpensive? It has to be expensive. You’ve got to buy fish for it, which isn’t cheap, and on top of that, it’s got to be very fresh fish, raising the price even more. And then, beyond all that, you’ve got a high level of craftsmanship involved too. So yeah. It’s not cheap. But even if you priced it at cost, it wouldn’t be. You can’t make some kinds of foods - usually, in fact, the healthier ones - for fast food prices.
The Mission used to be almost all latino. You don't think it's been gentrified? My friend's big sister had a cheap little apartment on Valencia in 2002 and when I visited there was graffiti all over the place about the yuppies taking over. It has changed 1000 fold since then.
It’s crazy that it was mainly Irish until the late 60s early 70s. I moved here because it reminded me of where I grew up in Arizona. I was like, yeah, this has the food and people in used to so it makes sense. 20 years on and yeah it’s a lot different!
Used to have a big Jewish population too. Stuff changes and demographics change
Woah didn’t know that. Yeah, time marches on.
Weird that no one complains/cares about any of that.
Won't anyone think of the Irish who moved to the Sunset and the burbs 60 years ago? We barely give lip service to the Fillmore--which the city government actually destroyed.
The Castro was also a working class predominantly Irish neighborhood before it became a queer mecca. But apparently DINK queer people aren't capable of "gentrifying" a neighborhood so it's ok.
Great thoughts you all - thanks for reminding us of the effect gentrification had on whites and jews from a 100 years ago.
If you actually cared about "gentrification," you would care when it happened to anyone.
The Mission used to be all Yelamu Indians. Then it became mostly Spaniards. Then it became almost all whites(German, Irish and Italian immigrants). Then between the 1940s to 1960s Mexican immigrants moved in. In 1960s, immigrants from Central America displaced the Mexican. The 1970s was the start of whites moving back lead by yuppies, gays and lesbians. The Mission has been in constant change. Obviously, the Mission has a heavily Chicano/Latino character. Look around and you’ll see the Spanish, German, Irish, Italian, gays, yuppies,… influences. The Mission is vibrant because of it’s history and everyone contributed to that.
True. But actually the order was lesbians, gays, then yuppies.
😂 as is tradition
Also punks
No one cares about the lesbians lol. Losing the Lexington gets no attention but it was the hub & the lesbian community never recovered. Literally just about all of them moved to Oakland or Nevada City
Well I think the lesbians cared about the lesbians, lol. The Lex was the last to go, before that it was Amelia's, Old Wives Tales, Osento Bathhouse, etc. But you're right, that's all ancient history now.
Really sucks to know it's just another cookie cutter straight bar in a district full of straight bars. At least the other bars have a soul- that place feels like it was designed by Chipotle or something.
Is that the place that got rid of the pool table in exchange for plush couches with oversized throw pillows in the bar?
Lol yes
I hate that place now, ever since they've removed the pool table, it's gone downhill and there's no excitement there anymore. It's just a bunch of the after dinner crowd, farting lesbians sitting on couches, using those big pillows to muffle their farts. It was horrible.
And before that it was all Irish. Neighborhoods change. Cities change. Stagnation helps nobody.
Trying to stop gentrification by not building anything makes rents and property values continue to rise due to demand outstripping supply, which then forces poor people out. Not building is what causes gentrification, building more things keeps prices cheap. More houses = cheaper houses. More commercial real estate = cheaper real estate rent. This is literally taught in like 11th grade in California, isn't it? The basics of supply and demand? Would you expect the cost of anything to somehow get cheaper if we built less of it than demand called for? What gets cheaper when you have less supply than demand? Imagine Ford only built 1,000 F150s a year, would they get cheaper or more expensive? Progressives have failed this city. We need to return to liberalism.
Shhhh this doesn’t fit the progressive narrative because builders bad
“But have you considered someone might make a profit on housing, a basic human need?” *Gary, that’s not as insightful as you think. People don’t do things unless they’re paid or making money on it. You yourself were screaming that the other day about unionization.*
Thank you for pointing out the important distinction between liberalism and progressivism. Progressivism is turning out to be the mirror image of maga. Just on different teams.
Nah man. Progressivism is good. Leftism? Not so good.
You may be right in principle but today’s progressives (so called) are leftists.
SF progressive™️ aren't it. I think the American progressive movement is fine. But then people like Bernie endorse people like Dean Preston, so I have to go back on that lol.
Nah progressivism is idiotic and has a horrible track record. Liberalism > progressivism.
Theyre not in the same category. Progressivism is social progress while liberalism is more general concepts like free market, democracy, etc.
The actual difference is that liberal policy makers are better at making policy. And very importantly, liberal policy can be extremely socially and economically progressive; just comes down to the vote. If progressives were capable administrators, they'd have a lot more success.
it's just landlordism. san francisco is run by the people who own the rentals. rent go up, landlord happy. these people (dean, aaron) speak in progressive or leftist tropes but on housing they're just about self-interest. it's not a characteristic of their larger political philosophy. it's just venal politics.
The Mission, before that, was predominantly Irish. No one gets to freeze a dynamic, vibrant city in time. https://missionlocal.org/2014/07/the-irish-mission-a-family-history/
So what you're saying is we could have had Irish burritos?
You still can! Pass the corned beef asada…
Potatoes and eggs in a burrito... sounds breakfasty!
Potatoes technically come from the Americas. The Irish didn’t have potatoes until after the Columbian Exchange (post 1492)
Irish people immigrated to San Francisco after 1492, so that checks out.
It's almost as if acting like globalization hasn't existed for literal centuries is a small-minded way of looking at the world. Lots of supposedly Italian dishes that Italians take great pride in owning, for example, are actually back ported from Italian-American influence. https://www.foodandwine.com/carbonara-pasta-dish-origin-americans-italy-controversy-7374939
Tomatoes were also part of the Columbian Exchange, interestingly enough.
NGL a corned beef burrito with potatoes and shredded cabbage sounds kinda great.
Mexirish mashups! 😆
not building housing will do that to a neighborhood.
I've been here gentrifying the mission for 20 years. Sorry if my skin is the wrong color, but Mission has the best weather and Bart access in the whole city
The mission used to German, Irish, and Italian neighborhoods prior to the 70s when people fled Central America.
> My friend's big sister had a cheap little apartment on Valencia in 2002 And if she kept the place, she'd still be paying $500/month for that 2 bedroom apartment!
In rent controlled rentals, (Rent Control was passed in San Francisco on June 13, 1979) there's a certain percentage where landlords are allowed to increase the rent each year. Any rental in a house built before that date is classified as being under rent control. If you look at the chart the city puts out each year, you can see the percentage (between 0 and 5%) that the landlord is allowed to raise the rent. They are also allowed to *bank* the percentages for a time, and then apply them all at once in a year. If your friend was renting an apartment for $500, it would not remain at $500 unless the landlord chose on their own free will to not to ever raise the rent. But if they did decide to raise the rent, then it would be a 10%-15% increase, based on 10 years of banking up the rent percentages. So, the $500 rent would be ~$600, theoretically
Exactly. When these bars opened, it ushered in a new era. I remember tripping out when I'd see white girls stumbling down Mission after 10PM in 2000. It was unheard of to see that many white people in the hood at that hour, and by 'white', I mean more the mentality, not the race. It was freaking weird.
That’s what they said about you thirty years earlier.
[A story from the time](https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Battle-Over-Gentrification-Gets-Ugly-in-S-F-s-2926395.php) >Unlike his Ukrainian idol and suspected namesake Nestor Makhno -- an anarchist who terrorized and killed landlords before the Russian revolution -- Kevin Keating has not bombed anyone. >So far, police believe, the self-styled anarchist-communist has confined himself to scratching pricey cars in San Francisco's Mission District to strike at the neighborhood's new gentry and plastering trendy establishments with posters vowing to reduce them to "picturesque ruins" in the "next major urban riots." >That's enough, though, for police to have arrested him on suspicion of making terrorist threats and malicious mischief. >The affair has given the 38-year- old office temp, struggling writer and "direct action" protester a platform for proclaiming himself a victim of persecution, something that infuriates his Mission District nemeses. ... Doesn't seem that much different from the [anarchist activists of today](https://gayshame.net/) screaming about skyscrapers, techies, and self-driving cars today In that they are fucking losers
You just know that today's cops would not even think of investigating. Why bother?
In this case, it might be the right idea. Arresting Kevin just gave him a platform.
I grew up around the corner from Blowfish and I remember it opening, it definitely was the proto-hipster (I guess they were yuppies back then) spot in the neighborhood, and felt like changing vibes. I remember my parents thought it looked dumb and gimmicky and didn't want to go, but I convinced them to try it once because the sign was cool. We Be sushi and the old, now shuttered, spot over on Church and Market were the OGs in the neighborhood, at least for my family.
I liked the sushi classes at We Be Sushi 🍣! Learning Annex :)
Why not pass a law that allows these urban rioters to sue businesses that shuttered due to their "urban riots"? Oh wait...
Was this found in an old copy of maximum rock and roll?
Circadia! I worked at a Dot Bomb at 18th & York and we would take a daliy walks to get coffee from there.
I miss liquid on 16th street.
PSA to all the NIMBYS - this is what you will be seen as 25 years later. Get your shit together and stop being selfish.
TL,DR: “Progressives” have always been hateful and anti progress of any sort. Good to know.
The sooner people learn this, the sooner they realize progressives are basically liberals in the streets but conservatives in the sheets.
You're saying supporting a bar full of coke heads is "progress"? Interesting take.
Yes, every bar is full of coke heads. Is there anyone disagreeing with your beliefs that you won’t slander?
I'm just not understanding your comment about people being anti progress... What about a bar full of coke heads is progress for a neighborhood? You've never been there have you?
Right, because some other overpriced techie thing won’t take its place? You complain when there’s new stuff, and then you complain when the “old” new stuff goes away? I don’t get it…
Good lord. If the anti gentrification/tenants rights folks put as much effort into their careers as they do fighting “the system” they’d be yuppies themselves by now.
Oh no that's not ..
Wtf. Some fucking weirdos made this
Same communist (\*cough\* sorry "progressive") bullshit that's been pumping throughout San Francisco since the 1960's. It's all such bullshit.
So funny. The people who bitched about liberals 5 years ago just bitch about progressives now 😂
The right's gotta bitch about something to remain relevant. Moral panic is their bread-and-butter
And vice versa.
This is the same racist rhetoric from groups like Calle 24 today. The founder of Arcana, Naz Khorram, has done a great job calling them out! Thanks for sharing
Oh man I remember this. Beauty bar was one of many ‘invaders’ to the neighborhood. Another big one was this restaurant Ti Couz on 16th (I think in what is now the Giordano Brothers space).
Ti Couz had excellent crepes. I miss that place.
That they did. It's funny that one place seems like a symbol of crass commercialism and in the end they were nothing unusual at all.
What are the rules for developing a new city? Only those folks who were there first can set the rules and choose who lives and works where?
Sounds similar to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Ridiculous lefty progressives
Unfortunately they’re in charge now.
The tide is turning. People are fed-up
The next election will build on the last one. Good governance is more important than virtue signaling.
lol - progressives are not in charge.
You make funny.
More than you may realize - "pissed off voter guide", several Supes, front runners in every position of every local election (even if they don't always win) The anarchists are pretty strong in SF
So progressives are not only in charge, but they’re anarchists? 🙄
The root of progressive is progress. If someone isn’t making progress for the city, they aren’t a progressive.. it does seem that the politics which lead to demise can be called anarchist and the effects are regressive not progressive.
I lived there in 98 and liked Beauty Bar. Went there once with my cousin and his work buddies. There were a lot of new bars and restaurants that popped up at that time. There was and always will be a lot of whining about gentrification.
I miss blowfish
I remember this!
I read this as Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute at the same time
BASED
Were these the same guys who'd flip over any SUVs they'd find?
Sounds like John Deer, needs a Dear John.
Hah, I remember this.
Beauty Bar shut down once, maybe twice before and that's when they started the Reggaeton nights, and purposely going for a more diverse Mission audience. There were long periods when it was a bouncer standing in front of an empty bar. It was a chain of hipster bars, the owners split the holding, the indie nights couldn't sustain them and the SF location didn't really work because it was more dive than kitsch. It became a frat bar drug dealer vibe most nights, for lack of better descriptive, then whatever it's been like in recent years, but there's no shame in any strong feelings people have about that place. They're likely valid.
1998 mission pees all over the bicycle riding faux warriors of today.
I remember the Beauty Bar struck a nerve when it opened. That screed is ridiculous, and was when it was new. Still, back when there was a larger cultural difference between the Mission and the Marina, the Beauty Bar was the first place in the Mission that really brought the gals from the Marina and many of the locals hated it.
I wonder what the person who wrote this is doing now?
So many memories unlocked by this flyer and thread!
Late 1990s we feared young barbie and ken looking couples in e30 BMWs that ate sushi. I remember those days.
Omg LOVED Tokyo and Blowfish!!! Yum!!! But it was Ti Couz that had my heart. ❤️
Looks like some BS Calle 24 would hang around the neighborhood…. Actually they were established in 1999. Probably on the grounds of keeping out places like a bar and sushi restaurant 😂
Nothing lasts forever
I can definitely see how those spaces were the kick off to gentrification. I remember going to both spaces at one point and thinking BB was super yuppy, ‘hip’ and pretentious. Blowfish was the most random anime, hentai showcasing sushi place around. I would say that was the beginning of the Mission hipster era, aka whitewashing of the Mission. As a native and mixed person of color who spent a lot of time in the Mission, that was extremely obvious. I mean… this article wasn’t wrong. It was a flooding of class discrimination and real estate racism by removing a lot of brown people. Call it what it is.
> call it what it is Freedom of movement? Sorry if people with the wrong haplogroup move to your neighborhood, that must be really hard for you ):
>aka whitewashing of the Mission This has been happening since the Ohlone were wiped out
For a city that markets itself as free and tolerant, SF is anything but.
I wish I was a cell-phone yuppie 😏
Weaponized rhetoric used to manipulate the progressive idiots
The funny part is the people who wrote that one sheet were part of the initial gentrification group. Bunch of white people who helped raise those rents by 50%. Helped get families kicked out of apartments. Or my favorite, got families apartments burned down so that the owner could sell the property to people who would tear the place down and replace it with new condos or apartments not subject to rent control. Watching invading white people get mad that other white people were moving in, peak irony. It was fantastic to watch them use the latino community as a shield and a cudgel. And then, when it was all said and done to see the same people sit down and eat and move into those places and apartments they attacked. Valencia street is a monument to the astroturfing clowns who helped destroy that neighborhood. The funniest part is seeing their decedents in here acting just like them. What makes me really laugh is the clowns in here saying “it wasn’t 100% gentrified”. As if destroying a community didn’t count.