Top 15 Mission Local Stories of the Year

The past year was a heavy one. Housing and evictions dominated the scene, with more fully affordable projects slated for the Mission District than any time in the last 10 years — but also the resumption of protests against evictions in a neighborhood not worn-out of fighting against them. 

There were also a good number of shocks: the closure of a 93-year-old tamale shop, the death of a Google landlord who fielded his share of protests, an illegal gambling den and brothel that continually evaded police shutdown, and the harassment of guards for Mark Zuckerberg’s multi-million dollar Mission house. Crimes, from deadly shootings to petty thefts, continued to mark the neighborhood — though until December, it looked like the Mission would go a full year without a gun homicide.

And, of course, there was the deadly fire at 22nd and Mission that took one man’s life and displaced dozens, including us. Mission Local was on-site throughout the ordeal, taking testimony and investigating the landlord of the building, uncovering real estate holdings throughout the Bay Area rife with problems.

Through it all, we reported on stories big and small. Traffic on our site rose by 22 percent to more than one million unique visitors for the year, an average of more than 80,000 a month. Just under half of our users are regular visitors, so thank you for continuing to support our site! We cannot do the work we do without you, so please consider signing up for a membership to keep your source of local news alive and well.

In reverse order of popularity, here are our most-read stories of the year:

15. Roosevelt Tamale Parlor in SF Mission Closing Down. The beloved Roosevelt Tamale Parlor on 24th Street announced its closure early in December, a victim of “unsustainable wage expectations” from workers finding it more and more difficult to live in San Francisco, to say nothing of the Mission District. It’s a problem Mission Local has documented before, but the death of a 93-year-old business — though it had been under new management for the past three years — put the issue in starker relief for readers.
16. SF Mission’s Kink Cuts Ties with Performer Accused of Rape. The national scandal over boy-next-door porn actor James Deen, who was accused by multiple women of rape and sexual assault, found a Mission District connection in November when Kink.com was named as the locale of an alleged assault. The porn company, located in the historic Armory building, cut off ties with Deen after the allegations emerged, saying consent was a mainstay of the studio and that they did not take the accusations lightly.
17. SF Market Rate Housing Projects Goes Fully Affordable. In a rare piece of good housing news, Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor David Campos were able to announce in July that 72 units of formerly market-rate housing at the corner of 16th and South Van Ness would become 100 percent affordable. This year was a hot one for new fully affordable construction projects in the Mission, but it’s rare for a market-rate project to be converted into affordable housing, and readers flocked to the news.

12. Performance Artist Endures 8-Hour Barrage of Catcalls to Fight Harassment in SF Mission. In one of our few audio pieces this year, Mission Local documented the performance of Mirabelle Jones, who stood in a gallery window space on Valencia Street in just her underwear. Signs of catcalling she has heard adorned surrounding walls as Jones stood under balloons tied to razor blades, some of which would drop and graze Jones. The reactions Jones elicited from passers-by, including one 13-year-old girl, were as revealing as the piece itself.
13. Gentrifiers to SF Mission Now Fear Eviction. In a cruel twist of fate, four self-described gentrifiers to the Mission District faced eviction themselves back in October when their older landlords got tired of managing the property. Though not the typical face of gentrification — the four were artists or non-profit workers — their eviction highlighted the danger of displacement for newcomers and old-timers alike.
14. Mission Landlord and Google Employee Jack Halprin Dies at 46. After a year-long attempt to evict his tenants — and a six-month battle with cancer — landlord Jack Halprin died in July from his illness. Groups like the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, which had previously been engaged in protests at his house, found themselves expressing condolences for his death, and friends and family remembered a fun and loving companion, not the controversial landlord he had become to others.

9. Day After Fire, Dozens Look to Uncertain Future. The day after a four-alarm fire at the corner of 22nd and Mission killed one man, destroyed dozens of businesses — including our own — and displaced some 54 residents, Mission Local gathered testimony from residents, spoke to the landlord, and was on-site throughout the ordeal for briefings from city and fire officials. Some residential and commercial tenants were briefly allowed back into their old building to collect burnt belongings, but most had been lost to the fire, and many are still displaced from both the Mission and San Francisco.
10. SF Businesses Find New Hires Hard to Find. In a little-thought of consequence of gentrification, restaurants and shops in the Mission have found it more difficult to hire new employees, who need higher and higher wages in order to live in the neighborhood or the city. Even with the recent minimum wage spike, businesses said new hires could only afford to work in the Mission if they received a living wage for the area — and Mission businesses are finding themselves unable to afford paying that wage.

7. Guy Steals Phone, Young Woman Gets It Back. A lighter crime story for the Mission District, and the first of ours to feature a staff-drawn crime sketch, featured a young woman texting and walking near 16th and Shotwell when a man in his late 20s grabbed the phone from her hand. The two got into a wrestling match that saw the suspect flee with the phone, but the quick-thinking woman chased after him, and a swift kick to the derriere was all it took to retrieve her stolen property.
8. SF Buys Six Buildings, Keeping Artists and Others in Place. Another rare housing victory of the year was the use of funds from the city’s Small Sites Program to buy six buildings with more than 60 tenants, preventing their evictions and ensuring their stay in the neighborhood. René Yañez, a long-time Mission artist and co-founder of both the Galería de la Raza and Mission Cultural Center, was one of the tenants whose unit was saved.
9. Two Wounded in 24th Street Shootout. If it bleeds, it leads, and such was the case for this story of a shootout at the 24th Street BART Station in August — though both victims were hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries and survived the ordeal. One of our reporters and a former reporter happened to be on-site when the shooting occurred, so Mission Local quickly pieced together a narrative and photos of the aftermath.

4. Illegal Gambling Den and Brothel in SF Mission Evades Shutdown Despite Police Presence. In true Mission fashion, the former soda and candy shop The Fizzary turned into an after-hours gambling den and brothel after its owner was duped into leasing the place to a couple who claimed they would open up a vitamin shop. A few weeks later, and after a shooting on-site, the den was a trouble-spot on the block that avoided being shut down despite a nearly continuous police presence. (A hat tip to Capp Street Crap for originally reporting on this story.)
5. Man Shot by Police Dies from His Injuries. A suicide by cop was one of three fatal police shootings in the Mission District this year (and one of either six or seven deadly shootings overall) when a man walked into the Mission Station on Valencia Street and pointed an airsoft gun at officers, prompting officers to shot. The man wrote a suicide note the day before the shooting and had allegedly visited the station earlier, wondering what would happen if someone were to bring a gun there.

2. Four-Alarm Fire at Mission and 22nd Kills One, Displaces Dozen. One of the more traumatic stories of the year for the neighborhood and Mission Local was on the four-alarm fire that engulfed the historic white apartment building — and our second-floor office — on the corner of 22nd and Mission in January, killing one man, leaving dozens suffering from smoke inhalation and small burns, and displacing dozens of residential and commercial tenants. The fire was just one of many this year that have heightened people’s fears of displacement, and our subsequent investigation of the landlord revealed real estate holdings with myriad issues.
3. Zuckerberg’s Guards Harassed: Restraining Order Approved, Arrests Made. Even our news pieces are gentrified: Our most-read story of the year was not about housing, crime, small businesses, or muralists, but about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, or more to the point — about his guards. Zuckerberg’s multi-million dollar 21st Street home required constant security while it was renovated, and the tale of a man who allegedly harassed guards interested readers more than any other piece this year. Security guards took out a restraining order that, because of the proximity of the alleged harasser’s sleeping quarters to Zuckerberg’s house, not only barred him from the Facebook founder’s home but also from his own.