Mission Dispatch

Re: The Mission District to Get New Bike Lanes
Jul 15, 2009
Great article, Jonathan, the one important aspect I don't see — San Francisco has, since the 1970’s committed to promoting biking, walking, and transit over personal autos in the City Charter. This means that, when making decisions about how to best use each and every foot of scarce road-space and sidewalks in this 7x7 city, it is the city's responsibility to put car parking last. As former Mayor of Bogota, Enrique Penalosa, recently said, “nowhere in your constitution does it require the government to provide car parking.” No reasonable person would buy an elephant with the expectation that the government to provide you with space to store it — why is that different for cars? — marcSFBC marcac-nospame-aswell@gmail.com

Fighting Crime in the Mission: Racial Profiling & Police Misconduct May Be Part of the Package
By Pedro Tuyub, Mission Dispatch Publisher Mar 20, 2009
A PERSONAL STORY — ON THE EVENING OF FRIDAY, JAN. 30, I was detained and later taken into custody by two plainclothes police officers while I was walking along 16th Street. During this ordeal, I was handcuffed, insulted, and generally treated as a criminal for nearly 8 hours without being allowed to contact my family or anyone else. All of this took place without ANY explanation or justification then or now as to why this occurred. Many friends tell me I was picked up for “Walking While Mexican.” Around 7 that evening, I was contacted by a childhood friend who is from the same town in Mexico. He is selling a house down there and I had expressed some interested in buying it. We decided to go to the El Tin-Tan Bar and Restaurant on 16th Street to discuss the matter over dinner and a few drinks. That restaurant is frequented by many other people from our area of Mexico, the Yucatan, and so we both encountered many friends we had not seen in awhile.

What Can be Done?
Jan 14, 2009
Two years ago we — a group of neighbors — adopted a block of San Carlos Street under the City’s Adopt a Block Program. It has been working. The neighbors have learned that clean streets keep not-wanted visitors away — most of the time, that is. Illegal dumping has decreased dramatically. On street-cleaning day, several neighbors come out and sweep their sidewalks before the mechanical sweeping time. On Saturdays a few of us come out and pick up visible garbage. Then call the City to collect our garbage bags. And the City truck shows up quite fast. So far, you might think, all is wonderful. Wrong.

D9 Debate at the Victoria
Oct 07, 2008
Congratulations to the organizers of last night’s D9 debate. Nice Round Robin format. However, the questions the candidates made to each other were dull. They did not really touch on the most pressing issues affecting our neighborhoods. No candidate really discussed the Eastern Neighborhood Plan (Quezada brought up but did not go further than that). How about the future of St. Luke’s Hospital? How about Mission’s public school? How about the future of middle class in our neighborhoods? How about healthcare? Drop Universal Healthcare. It’s not working.

D9 Debate on Tuesday, Oct. 7
Oct 01, 2008
On Tuesday, Oct. 7 at the Victoria Theater (2961 16th @ Capp streets) the six candidates running to replace D9 supervisor Tom Ammiano will debate about the most pressing issues the Mission, Bernal Heights and the Portola neighborhoods are facing. The debate will be from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Submit your questions for the candidates at www.d9debate.com. Don’t be shy.

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