“Generator” shutting down, will be replaced with new mural (updated)
July 25, 2016
UPDATE 9:45 p.m.: In a press release made available late Monday, Lexington Standard owners Andrew Soernsen and Mark Lee Morris said the new mural will “depict a flock of birds, referencing the quick gentrification of San Francisco, and the apparent soaring departure of the hard-working middle and lower income artists, restaurant workers, childcare workers & bartenders, etc.”
The release further quotes Schoultz, who lost his Mission studio three years ago and now lives in Los Angeles.
“We are very happy that so many people enjoyed our piece and it achieved so much notoriety. However as neighborhoods change and transition, so must their painted walls,” he said. “While this mural will no longer be here, I look forward to creating something new and fresh for this location and neighborhood, as does Aaron. A new and exciting piece will begin to come alive in the near future.”
ORIGINAL POST: One of the most loved murals in the Mission is disappearing.
“Generator” — its intertwined birdhouses and frantic birds sprawl across an entire side of 3469 18th St. — is being painted over to complete much needed repair work to the building, according to Andrew Soernsen, who owns the shop at that address, Lexington Standard. The silver lining is that artists who created it, Andrew Schoultz and Aaron Noble, have agreed to paint a new mural in its place, he said.
Though he tried to save Generator, the property owner needed to seal and repaint the outside of the building to address significant dry rot, which would have meant Schoultz and Noble had to essentially recreate the mural, Soernsen said. Even so, he said he reached out to the city, among others, to see if there might be some way to preserve it but was told there was no money to do so.
“I really wanted it to be saved and I don’t think people understand it was nearly impossible,” Soernsen said.
Much of the Generator mural had been painted over late last week
Neither artist responded to an email seeking comment. But Soernsen shared quotes from a draft press release he attributed to Schoultz.
In the press release, Schoultz said he never anticipated that the mural, at 18th and Lexington streets, would be around for nearly 15 years and would have been happy with five.
“Nothing lasts forever, nor should it,” Schoultz said.
On his website, Noble also noted that he saw Generator’s lifespan as limited:
This mural got a lot of favorable response in SF. It’s still there as of this writing, but it won’t survive much longer, as we used the old decayed off white paint as our background and only prepped the areas that we painted. We had a very ramshackle aesthetic going on at that point. I soon became much more precious about my surfaces.
Though there’s no set timeline yet, Soernsen said Schoultz and Noble could potentially begin on the new mural as soon as crews repairing the building take down their scaffolding.
“It’s sad to see something go,” he said. “They both want something new.”
[Top photo via Wally Gobetz/Flickr]
Valencia drama continues: Osha is for sale
July 21, 2016
Suggesting that the life span of pretty much everything on Valencia Street is limited, longtime restaurant Osha Thai is on the market.
Opened 13 years ago, the Mission outpost of the popular San Francisco chain is listed for $300,000. It is unclear what is prompting the sale. Efforts to reach the owners via email and Facebook were not successful.
A listing on LoopNet describes the 819 Valencia St. as “nicely designed” and “decorated like a lounge with a soft light and music,” and says the monthly lease for the space is $6,740. The restaurant, one of Osha’s six locations in the city, has been bringing in about $1.4 million a year and the sale comes with a beer and wine license.
No word on whether the restaurant’s bizarro butt chairs are also included.
Car doused in liquid, burned near Dolores Park
July 20, 2016
Someone set fire to a parked car in the Mission early Tuesday morning after dousing the hood with a flammable liquid, police said.
The car fire, which a reader alerted me to in the comments of recent post about a vehicle fire on Capp Street, occurred at 6:15 a.m. on the 200 block of Dorland Ave., according to police. Authorities did not say what type of vehicle was burned, just steps from Dolores Park, only that there was significant damage and the owner of the car is a 46-year-old woman.
There is no suspect information, police said.
While the Dorland fire appears to be intentional, investigators were not called to the scene of the car fire last week at Capp and 18th streets, suggesting it was not suspicious, authorities said.
[Dramatic fire photo (not the actual car) by Marcel André Briefs/Flickr]
Uprooted: Neighborhood favorite Radish for sale
July 19, 2016
Brunch favorite and mimosa mainstay Radish is on the market.
The neighborhood eatery, which opened at 19th and Lexington streets in 2011, was listed for sale on Craigslist but the ad was recently taken down. The text of that ad is still visible on another site.
Radish’s owner Emily Summers said her landlord is selling the property, which played a part in her decision to sell the restaurant. Here’s what she wrote in an email:
Thanks for reaching out to us. It is of course a wildly complicated situation. Many factors have made this a difficult business to be in including the high cost of labor. Ultimately, Radish is an owner-operated restaurant and I have decided to pursue other interests.
The sale is not actually us, however. The landlord is selling the real estate and so I have decided to make an exit.
According to real estate website LoopNet, the property is listed for $1.5 million and is being sold as a tenancy in common.
Car fire on Capp
July 18, 2016
While I was away on vacation for the past week or so, Capp Street Crap reader Avi shared this crazy video he took of a car fire at 18th and Capp streets late Tuesday night.
While he could not access department logs without an exact address, San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Jonathan Baxter was able to confirm that investigators were not called to the area in that time frame indicating the fire was not suspicious. Phew!
Mission business idea
July 13, 2016
Are you addicted to Pokemon Go, but not feeling safe given the spate of crimes related to the latest craze sweeping the species? Well, you’re in luck.
Proving yet again that entrepreneurialism can solve anything, one Mission resident is offering his services protecting you while you continue to disengage from the real world.
Trying to catch them all, but worried about getting robbed in the process? That’s where I come in. My name is Larry and I am a professional bodyguard who is here to protect you while you search San Francisco for Pokemon.
I live across the street from a battle arena and have seen several people almost get robbed or jumped for their iPhone. DON’T BE IDIOTS PEOPLE! Is that Caterpie really worth it? NO.
Check out Larry’s full Craigslist ad here.
h/t @octonion
Photo courtesy Larry’s Craigslist ad
It’s good to be Dean
July 8, 2016
Straight (T’s and) A’s.
Man killed, another injured in shooting (updated)
July 2, 2016
UPDATE 7/4/16: A distraught friend who I spoke with near a memorial set up on Shotwell Street said the dead man’s name was Rigo and he was 28 years old. The friend, who did not want to give his name, said he’d known Rigo since the two were kids.
The friend did not know Rigo’s last name but said he lived on Shotwell and described him as a nice guy.
“He’s basically the chillest one out of everyone,” he said.
A neighborhood on the 1000 block of Shotwell said the shooting occurred at 11:49 p.m. She and her husband heard eight shots.
ORIGINAL POST: One man was killed and another man injured on Friday night in the second shooting at 24th and Shotwell streets in less than a week, police said.
Few details were available this morning but reports on social media suggest the shooting occurred sometime around midnight.
According to police, one man was pronounced dead at the hospital while the second man was treated for injuries that were not life threatening.
On Sunday, at around 12:15 a.m., a man was shot in the abdomen near the same corner.
Awful person pilfers plants, saddens six-year-old
July 1, 2016
Confirming that, yes, people are really that horrible, someone twice raided a Capp Street community garden of plants last month, including those belonging to a six-year-old boy.
Monica Bhagwan, who gardens at the Alioto Community Garden at 20th and Capp streets, told me that the little boy’s garden bed was wiped out in both of the thefts last month and that the thief seemed “selective.” Tomato plants, peppers, strawberries, broccoli and kale were stolen from several beds, including Bhagwan’s.
The garden, which has a chain link fence around it and a locked gate, is one of 35 community gardens managed by the Recreation and Park Department where space-challenged San Franciscans can exercise their green thumbs. Alioto Park, which the garden occupies a corner of, has another fence around it and is locked at night.
Bhagwan, who posted a plea on NextDoor for information that might stop the thefts, said it’s unfortunate that the gardeners will now have to consider another barrier to prevent thieves.
“Sadly, the gardening community wanted to have the garden feel accessible to all neighbors by not building a high fence,” she wrote on the site. “(We) will be looking into doing just that.”
[Photo via Monica Bhagwan]
Store goes organic for its health, yours
June 30, 2016
In a bid to stay healthy, one longtime Mission Street market is going organic.
Closed for the past 10 months for renovations, the Casa Guadalupe near 25th and Mission streets is preparing to reopen at the end of the month as a primarily organic market. Its sister store, at 26th and Mission, will remain the same, selling many of the Latin-American products the revamped market used to carry.
Pedro Gil, whose family owns the stores, said he took a cue from the neighborhood’s shifting demographic.
“We’ve been here 25 years. We’ve seen that this community’s changed a lot, new people coming in,” Gil said. “They want to eat healthy.
“So many people say, ‘you’ve got to change. Do it,’” he added.
While he had hoped to reopen by the July 4 holiday weekend, Gil is now shooting for July 28. A recent visit to the store, at 2909 Mission St., found the store’s exterior painted mint green, new freezers inside and an aisle stocked with international and organic wine. The market will sell organic meat and produce and fresh ground coffee and will carry some new products from South America. A new website is also in the works that will show weekly specials and allow customers to see what products the store carries.
While customers were a big influence, Gil also his son Steven was also a force behind the change. Busy at work behind one of the store’s counters last week, Steven said his dad was just being nice in giving him credit. But he agreed that the store needed to adapt to the new makeup of the Mission.
“Hopefully customers, people like it,” he said.