There's a new mural going up in Balmy Alley and it's about everyone's favorite topic: gentrification!  This time, the Hitler-stached policía are broing-down with white folks over coffee as they arrest and harass Latinos, making a safe place for yuppies plugged into the Matrix to type away on their MacPhoneiBookthings while being laughed at by monkeys.  I think.

From one Oakland resident participating in painting the mural:

This particular mural was the perfect adaptation of the culture of the mission changing from a celebrated Chicano community into basically, hipster-yuppy central. In my opinion the mural’s design really does a good job of emphasizing the politics behind gentrification.

The funny thing is, this mural is still relevant in Oakland and many other places around the world.  So many people are losing the heart and culture of their neighborhood, to high rise condo’s and pabst drinking hipsters.  It’s sad that the mission is becoming one of those areas, but so is Oakland, and many other places around the world.

Wait, I'm confused: is it the cops causing gentrification, with their deportations and questionably racist enforcement of the law?  Or is it the hipsters, with their PBR and high rise condo's?

Anyway, for more analysis and pictures of hipsters painting the mural, head over to 2AM Is the time.

(Click map for full-size)

(Click map for full-size)

Perhaps not much of a surprise here, but it's still somewhat jarring to learn that in just one year (from Q1 2011 compared to Q1 2012), apartment rentals are up 29% in the Mission, 65% in Bernal, 53% in Western Addition, and up by double digits pretty much everywhere else.  This all is according to Lovely (in conjunction with CurbedSF), “a local apartment hunting site, [which] compiled the data using figures based on indexed apartment listings posted on Craigslist.”

From Curbed:

It should be pointed out that while sometimes an apartment is listed for $2,000 but is rented for $1,800 or $2,200, we feel like the numbers are still very close to accurate. The norm is not to list an apartment for $5,000 and then take $1,000 instead.

It's also worth noting that the Mission is regaining its reputation as one of the “cheaper” (cough) “hip” (puke) neighborhoods: Bernal and Western Addition have all climbed ahead in average rental prices, Potrero Hill has soared past, and Bayview is hot on the Mission's tail.

Following all the damage done to some 30 Valencia Street businesses on the May Day Riots, Wells Fargo (a bank known for foreclosing homes of San Francisco residents) is donating $25k to aid the businesses vandalized in said riot.  SF Weekly reports:

Tired of being the 99 percent's enemy, Wells Fargo released the money along with this statement from Michael F. Billeci, president of Wells Fargo's San Francisco Bay Region:

“As San Francisco's hometown bank, Wells Fargo is passionate about supporting the communities where we live and work, and it's important to help our local merchants make the repairs they need to reopen for business and serve their customers again. Helping small businesses right here in the Mission is a win for everyone in the community.”

No matter how angry they are personally with Wells Fargo, merchants were pleased with the bank professionally. In fact, some merchants went as far as to call the big bank “caring,” and “generous.”

“Many small businesses in the Valencia Corridor don't have the cash reserves to handle unexpected expenses like vandalism,” said Deena Davenport, president of the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association.  “Wells Fargo's generosity will provide timely access to capital to help our merchants open for business again.”

Good on Wells Fargo for helping out, but the fact they're injecting politics and public relations into a community issue is a tad unsettling, if not disingenuous.

[Pic by Justin Beck]

Around 4pm yesterday, a washed-up William H. Macy-looking character decided he was 'sick and tired' of big bank's corporate greed and jumped in front of a southbound BART train, somehow not getting hit by it.  So, with his fragile life intact, he went on ranting and apologizing for making people late for a solid 5 minutes before chillin' out with the third rail:

Admist all the excitement, the notoriously trigger-happy BART PD deployed a shotgun-equiped army to deal with the situation.  And deal with it they did.  Eventually pulling the guy off the tracks, cuffing him, and letting people make their boring journey down to Daly City.

[Thanks for the heads up, Tuffy!]