Can the city bring more Latinos to shop in the Mission District? The answer will become clearer on Saturday as the city launches a series of events to lure the Bay Area’s Latino population to the neighborhood that still has the highest concentration of Latinos in San Francisco. The city has already dedicated the Calle 24th Latino Cultural District and...
A survey of 584 households with children in the Mission District and surrounding area shows that while the city overall enjoys low unemployment rates and high incomes, local Latino families experience a starkly different economy. Nearly all of the respondents were Latino and the majority of them were women. Most – 77 percent of the 447 who answered the household...
The San Francisco Planning Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to move forward legislation that would regulate new businesses opening along the Mission’s 24th Street corridor. Already distinguished by the city as a Latino Cultural District in 2014, the five-block section of 24th Street running from Mission Street to Potrero Avenue and some of the surrounding area would be recognized as...
The San Francisco Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office released a report Tuesday indicating that the city would have needed to add some 459,000 units over the past 30 years to bring housing prices down to national trend levels. Should current trends in the types and quantities of housing built continue, the report also says, the Mission will only be 31 percent...
If you check out Galería de la Raza right now, you’ll see a photographic collection of beautiful people and beautiful rides. But there’s a layered history to each of the photos. “The Q-Sides” is a photo exhibit that recreates album covers of the classic soul and do0-wop anthologies East-Side Stories and combines it with images celebrating the queer community. The show opens...
A little bit of Shakira, Ricky Martin, Celia Cruz, Vicente Fernandez and other icons of Latin pop music have disappeared from the Mission. Though, if you walked by quickly enough, you may not have even known they were there. Before it was a T-Mobile store, the big corner storefront at the corner of 20th and Mission was Ritmo Latino. Open...
If San Francisco city planners had known more about the former thriving North Beach Latino neighborhood near Guadalupe Church, they would have done more to minimize the negative impact of the Broadway Tunnel, which ultimately displaced the community in the early 1950s. Now, a team of scholars working with the San Francisco Latino Historical Society and San Francisco Heritage are in the midst...
Cranes and construction crews have become a common feature of many a Mission corner these days. But for as many projects currently under construction, there are about half a dozen working their way through the planning process. We’ve done a fair amount of reporting on these projects throughout the years, and thought it’s high time to write a handy guide of...
The Other Barrio, now finishing up post-production, offers viewers a feature-length noir crime-buster that uses the Mission’s evictions and gentrification as a backdrop. Adapted from a short story by San Francisco’s Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía, the film follows Housing Inspector Bob Morales as he investigates a fatal residential hotel fire in the city’s Mission District. It is based on the true tale of the Mission’s...
Crystal Gonzalez says that when people see her comic books, they often assume a man created them. “From an early age, I would draw imaginary that is considered not female,” Gonzalez said, referring to the dark, disturbing and mutilated creatures that she would cast in horrific, profane and sometimes uncomfortable stories. “[People think] it’s OK if you’re a boy, but...
Radio Bilingüe honored the anniversary of two community radio stations last week, KBBF 89.1 of Santa Rosa, and KPOO 89.5 of San Francisco. The stations celerated 40 years of programming with a party at the Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics. About 100 people attended the event, where volunteers served pupusas, rice and beans while a string band played...
Julio Lucero migrated to the United States in 1979 because of the brutal civil war that was then escalating in his homeland of El Salvador. About a decade later, Lucero became the owner of a music and Latin American souvenir store in the heart of the Mission, where he still works today. Lucero had been working at a record store...
El Cine Latino, uno de los cines más viejos de la Misión, ya no tendrá matinés, pero si todo sale de acuerdo a los planes del propietario del edificio, pronto se convertirá en un restaurante y gimnasio. La propietaria, Vera Cort, declaró que el proyecto encaja con su ética familiar. “Simplemente compramos, lo arreglamos y luego nos lo quedamos”, dijo....
Cine Latino, one of the Mission’s oldest theaters, may not screen another double feature, but if all goes according to the building owner’s plans, the theater will soon house a restaurant and a gym.
