All month, the phrase “Queers Hate Techies” has taken up residence in the window gallery at Artists’ Television Access (ATA) on Valencia and 21st. The words are printed on balloons, inscribed on a banner and written on stickers pasted to the glass. It’s one of the radical activist group Gay Shame’s well-known anti-gentrification slogans; they have used it in graffiti and...
When app developer Hamza Ouazzani Chahdi first arrived in San Francisco from Paris, Chahdi and a friend parked in a tow-away zone and got hit with a $580 fee for getting their car back – more than the vehicle was worth. His first app aimed at preventing parking calamity was met with a stern warning from the city for monetizing public...
Years after flyers around the Mission announced the production of a television series chronicling the tech life in the Mission District, “94110” has apparently made its online debut, Capp Street Crap reports. The casting call flyers caused quite a stir, but nearly 100 hopefuls attended the audition. At the time, producers insisted the show was a serious television program about techies living in the Mission....
Listen Local is Mission Local’s biweekly radio program. We broadcast live online at BFF.fm every other Thursday morning from 9:30 to 10:00. International Women’s Day is coming up and March is Women’s History Month, so Listen Local invited Laura Pereyra, on the Board of the Women’s Building, to talk about why we need the Women’s Building, why we need feminism, and the...
In light of the recent sexual harassment claims against the rideshare company Uber by former employee Susan Fowler, two local activists offered free rides to users who agreed to delete their Uber accounts. Thousands of riders uninstalled the app and publicly encouraged others to do the same under the #DeleteUber campaign that went viral earlier this month following news of Uber’s ties to the Trump administration. On President’s...
What’s this? It’s a delivery robot from Dispatch, as its handler must have told a million people today with impressively good humor (it literally says “delivery” right on the side but everyone who saw this little fella trundling down the street still had to ask, including me). The guys whose legs you see in the photo said they thought it might be...
Even the most brazen scofflaws can fall prey to San Francisco’s housing market – at least that’s what happened to Troy Do, an undocumented immigrant software engineer who set up a hacker hostel and illegal nightclub above a grocery at 19th and Mission streets. In June of last year, Do, who uses a fake first name, set up a hacker hostel...
A federal district court judge on Tuesday denied homesharing company Airbnb, Inc. its request for an injunction against a San Francisco law aimed at protecting local rental housing stock from being used as tourist lodging. Further discussions will be held in court, however, about the enforceability of the regulation. The law, authored by District 9 Supervisor David Campos, prohibits homesharing...
The tech industry, its money, and its political influence are hitting the silver screen next week in a new film critical of the “sharing economy” and the influence of Silicon Valley on San Francisco. “Company Town,” which will have its San Francisco premiere at the Roxie Theater on Friday, October 28, at 7 p.m., takes places over a few tumultuous weeks in...
Activists in the Black Lives Matter movement, Mission community organizers and newcomers, many of whom were tech workers, met Wednesday night to discuss ways to confront racial inequality that included collecting data, investing in communities and questioning the diversity within the rank-and-file of tech workers. “What sparked this for me was seeing the number of Facebook posts [following last week’s...
San Francisco artist and muralist Sirron Norris has launched a fundraising campaign to redo his first-ever mural – a surreal cityscape intertwined with cartoon characters and machines – to be replaced with one that reflects the city’s current struggles with inequality and police brutality. He wants the “makeover” to reflect and connect to the city’s “current political landscape.” It will...
Mission tech workers reacted to a proposal for a tech tax to curb the city’s growing inequality with comments ranging from skepticism to wondering why such a tax had not been imposed earlier. Mission-based tech worker Erini Blakey said that while the tax would rightfully “force tech companies to be good citizens,” she questioned its efficacy since it targets only...
Up until the five-alarm fire damaged the Graywood single room occupancy hotel and left 58 tenants without a place to live, the SRO was managed by a housing startup that matches roommates and manages co-living spaces for young professionals. Under its management, the Graywood’s tenants began to include tech workers and others able to pay up to $1,400 a month...
In a collaboration with local residents and KQED, Detour, a startup offering audio walking tours of 11 San Francisco neighborhoods launched its Mission District tour yesterday. The Mission’s tour offers insight into the lives of six locals and newcomers who share a love for the neighborhood but grapple with the question of belonging. The city package sells for $24.99, and...
A seven-year itch led former Google executive Azhar Hashem to trade her corporate career for her 66-seat dream – a restaurant space at 206 Valencia st., where she will open the Mediterranean eatery “Tawla” on Thursday. Tired after years of working long hours at Google and a daily commute between the Mission and Silicon Valley, Hashem decided it was time...
