Livin' in the Mission

For those of you who don't know San Francisco, the Mission is a historically hispanic neighborhood. Most of it, the ghetto for many many years. However, gentrification has taken it's hold and has led the Mission into a new era.

Most people still think this part of town is dirty and scary and come here on a tentative foot. I won't lie, it really looks that way. But the further you get away from the main arteries of transportation, you find the sweet spot. A place where the majority of folks are speaking Spanish, where there are at least 2 cheap-ass produce shops on every block, where the sun shines more than it does anywhere else in the City, where kids play on the street. A place where you know your neighbors, and although they've spent their whole lives living in the house next door to you, they aren't afraid to be friendly to the new, young white people who are changing the face of their nieghborhood.

I love it here. I'm so pleased that this is where my boyfriend and I could afford to buy a flat. I'm thrilled that I can walk 1/2 a block and buy fresh produce every day. I love that my corner store dude and I are friends. I love that it is usually 10-20 degrees warmer here than the rest of the City on almost any given day.

All that makes the few minor flaws quite easy to swallow...

As I type, the homies are camped out on my front stoop because it is too warm on their front stoop across the street. They are blasting some thump thump music and lighting off the occasional cherry bomb left over from July 4th. My house is shaking from the sounds. I'm annoyed, yes I am. But when I think of the alternative – the stuffy apartment high on a hill, where all my neighbors in their 70's were either not friendly at all, or a little too friendly. Where I had a tiny little balcony that got sun for about 1/2 hour every day and my kitchen was the size of a port-a-potty. When I think of all that, I'm so grateful for the scary looking dudes hanging out on my stoop playing shitty music.

The Mission's charm may ward off those faint at heart, but it takes my breath away at times.