Foodies: Mission Gang Violence is "Fun"

Mission Local, fresh off their much-tweeted about cupcakes and gang violence map, has published a detailed story about the recent gang murders and their effect on foodie culture and restaurant staffers:

Less than a week after three fatal shootings occurred in a section of the Mission that has become one of the hottest restaurant districts in San Francisco, the sidewalks are full of eager patrons. Diners know about the shootings.

It’s kind of scary, but kind of fun,” says Dana Humphrey, 28, as she sat eating at Graçias Madre, a vegan restaurant where the tacos aren’t cheap. Her friend Alexis Papeshi, 28, who lives in the Marina, agrees. “It has some cachet,” she says. ’Oh we are in the Mission, we are so cool.’”

[…]

I’m not scared, I still feel safe,” says Manny Torres Gimenez, the owner and chef at Mr. Pollo, a small Peruvian restaurant that has acquired a cult following among foodies who come from all over the city for its tasting menu. “I’ve been walking the same streets every night for three years by myself and I’ve never seen anything happen.”

That said, he adds that the edginess of the neighborhood is attractive to many customers. “That is part of the experience, to be in that crazy dangerous neighborhood.”

Read on.

Comments (6)

If it wasn’t for the food, obviously nobody would care about the violence.

“It’s kinda fun!” Yes death is like that.

i enjoy the violence and quirkiness of my block. it has cachet too.

Sentiments will change when someone non-brown dies.

So they went to the most pretentious cult run eatery they could find and asked the most pretentious non-neighborhood person they could find about the recent uptick in violence? Gimenez’s comment is at least from someone who lives here, but those first two remind me why I’ve stopped eating at anyplace that’s part of the “Mission Food Culture” - the patrons.

If the Marina dwellers wanted REAL danger they would eat a couple of “mission sliders” then hide the bathroom key.