Six Mission District residents and business owners describe how their neighborhood transformed from gritty to upscale over decades. Rents rose, Latino-owned shops closed, and the population shifted toward Asian, white, and Indian residents. They want to preserve the culture through festivals and affordable housing while acknowledging gentrification's grip.
Chapters
I've been in the Mission for at least, I think, 2 and a half years.
Living in the Mission for 1 year and working in the Mission for about 3 and living in San Francisco for about 4 years. I am from Moscow, Russia.
I'm originally from Guanajuato, Mexico. I have 11 years in this restaurant, but I have 32 years in this country.
12 years. I think we opened our shop in 1998.
25 years ago. I'm old now.
I came to the Mission because I began to work here, Black and Blue Tattoo.
I came here because, uh, to enjoy this weather. the culture and open this beautiful restaurant.
It's just a business opportunity.
I was, a few years ago, I was looking for a place to open my own business, and I find out that the Mission has the cheapest rates, you know, they fit my budget.
Mixcoac means the Milky Way, and Mixcoac is written in Nahuatl.
That's the language that our, my grandpa and my ancestors Oh, this neighborhood has changed quite a bit over the years. I'd say, you know, when I first came here, it was definitely a little rougher around the edges, a lot more, you know, junkies on the street. Not that they're not there now. But it was just a little, I guess, grittier for the most part. And then since then, there's slowly been sort of more upscale businesses moving in and then closing and then more opening. And now it just seems like it's sort of getting a little more polished, you know, as the years go on, for sure. And definitely a lot of the sketchy factors have been sort of getting pushed out to the side.
Less gangs, less drugs, and neighborhood cleaning.
I remember when I came here, it was a lot of, a lot of violence. There's been a lot of shootings around the Mission, but it's been better every time, better and better. So it's good.
I see more diversity right now because, you know, Mission has always had this reputation it's more of like Latino Hispanic population, but I see more Chinese, Asian, white people, people like me, you know, Indian/Filipino. Yeah, there's more diversity now.
There's a lot of people from different cultures, which is very nice. I can see that affect a lot of business before because nobody come want to come to the Mission because it was very dangerous. People didn't feel safety, but now it's very good. I mean, it's getting better and better for businesses. Now people can come and feel more secure. So I've seen a lot of changes, very good changes. I couldn't imagine before having my family here around in the Mission and be around with all these issues.
I work hard with my family. I have 2 sons over here, and we work together, and we make it okay over here.
We're working on it to keep the Mission alive.
How you been? In the next 5 or 10 years in this neighborhood, I mean, I would expect it's probably going to get a lot more upscale.
I think it's gonna be— we're gonna see less Latinos and more white people and other kinds of people except Latinos. We're gonna see less Latinos in this area.
I think it's gonna keep getting gentrified, more little boutiques and expensive little stores.
Before, before, a lot of owners were from, were like me, you know, the ones who speak Spanish. They all have business here in the Mission, but now nobody. I mean, they're gone now. Mostly they're all gone, and I would really love to, if I could change that, like bring them in again or Encourage new people to come and have a business here on the mission on 24th, especially 24th, and that would be great. That will keep the spirit of the mission because I know I remember a long time ago when I came, that was part of it. Like everybody walked and all the owners were the ones who speaks. Spanish, which is nice. Those are the ones who encouraged me also to have my own business.
See more activities for kids because, you know, like, we have a few parks, but something that, you know, can bring the community together with adults and kids. I would like to see more stuff like that. And a few more festivals, you know, like, why not? You know, we have to celebrate the mission.
We teach— I'm a traditional Aztec dancer— free classes. Whoever wants to come and take the classes, everybody's welcome. Something spiritual that you can feel. We need it right now in these very hard times. We need it.
I would like to see more low-income housing, more services available to the poor, and less trust fund babies moving into the neighborhood.
I ask the authorities to bring more protection to us, to the business people, to open more longer in the nighttime because the nighttime sometimes is dangerous.
We need to see more police officers in the corners and, you know, the hoods. It has areas where, you know, you see crime sometimes. You see a lot of graffiti on the streets.
Some people complain about the police, you know, presence, but I think a lot of people like it and they're just not vocal about it.
I hope one day Mission will be like Noe Valley, but here in 24th and Mission. Yeah.
Because the Mission will always be the Mission, but, you know, we need to take care of stuff like that.
The shop has been here since the '90s when Adakta opened it. And at that time, this neighborhood was more working class, queer people, and Latinos.
I'm going to go to the bathroom.
I wouldn't change anything. That's the beauty of this neighborhood. Like I say, you know, that's the heart of the Latin community. We love the Mission.
My favorite thing? Everything, but mostly the weather and food and the people from this neighborhood.
The murals. Like the murals, you know, it's a lot of people— actually, me working here in the store probably 10, 12 hours every day, a lot of people come in and ask for the murals, you know. So it's kind of like a spot where people come in, look for those things.
I don't know, I like the spirit, the spirit of the Mission.
It's so vibrant, so colorful. There's great food. There's always something crazy happening on the street, you know, good or bad, but there's something. It's just a great neighborhood. There's just so much life here. It's definitely not touristy, so you don't get, you know, people coming in and just gawking, you just get people who are from around here just living, which, you know, it's a very real place to be. It comes with the good and the bad. There's things that drive me crazy and make me want to get the hell out of the city too, but, you know, for the most part, I just— that comes with the good, and that's part of what makes it what it is.
My favorite thing about the Mission is living 2 blocks from everywhere I will ever need to go.
