This is your Afternoon Report—a new series we’re trying out in which we offer a quickie post-meridian rundown of some minor developments in the always-happening streets of the Mission District. Got ideas or suggestions? Let us know what you think by sending an email to info@missionlocal.com.
There’s no lack of construction going on these days in The Mission. The sound of jackhammers feels almost as ubiquitous as the dinging of the bells on the ice cream carts.
One recent project may be of special interest to all Mission residents, though. This afternoon, a crew of construction workers was hard at work in a hole on the sidewalk under a blue, polyester canopy outside Duggan’s Funeral Home on 17th Street just west of Valencia.
Inside the rectangular hole, large wires angled out. At their noon lunch hour, the crew of eight men chatted about the project.
PG&E has commissioned the Benicia-based company to repair and replace all the street lamps along Capp Street from 26th to 15th Streets, which started in the beginning of September, and on 17th Street from Capp to Castro Streets, which started last week.
“Some of these lights don’t work in the night and early morning. That’s why we are here replacing them,” said George Castro, the superintendent.
Some lights are in worse shape than others, Castro explained. There are eight in the whole project that need to be completely replaced. Some lights need new bulb covers or bases. Every single light needs new wires and electrical work.
The lamp outside of Duggan’s has provided unique problems simply because of its location. They started work on this one a few days ago but have had to stop multiple times when the funeral home has a service. Sometimes they get thirty minutes notice.
Today, though, they were told there should be no services, and the team will hopefully finish the work on this light.
“You can’t schedule death,” Castro shrugged.
The whole project needs to be done by November 1st, Castro said. This is because 17th Street is under what is known as a Holiday Moratorium. When a street is 50 percent or more made up of businesses, no construction is allowed from the day after Thanksgiving to January 1st to accommodate the influx of customers and traffic for Holiday shopping.
There was no feeling of the Holiday season in the air today as temperatures soared to nearly 90 degrees. The crew didn’t seem to mind, pointing to their canopy. They are all used to much high temperatures and many drive in traffic for two hours from inland to get here.
“This is nice weather compared to what we are used too. We are usually in 100 degrees,” said Ramone Mora, one of the crew members.
Underground Construction has completed many projects across the country but often does work in San Francisco. Castro said they will be soon be starting a similar street lamp replacement job off Ocean Avenue.
At 12:45 p.m., the half hour lunch break was over, and they crew was back to work.
Hot Off the Presses (or Off the Truck)
In other, very different news, Dog Eared Books just received a brand new shipment of Lena Dunham’s “Not That Kind of Girl.” The store had sold out in hours when the book was released on Tuesday. This second shipment arrived around 1 p.m. today. For those who are dying to immediately get their hands on this much talked about new release by “Girls” creator and oft claimed millennial representative, you should hurry down before this next batch sells out. This reporter was sure glad to snag a copy and immediately texted all her friends who would appreciate it this picture:
