A strange and curious thing happened the other week: the long-shuttered Wizard Smoke Shop space on 24th at Treat suddenly sprang back to life as Alleycat Books.  The signage was nonchalantly covered in a bright green paint, with the word “BOOKS” bluntly scrawled across the sign without any regard for design or kerning.  A stray construction barricade was repurposed as a hasty sandwich board and the yellowing bed sheets that obscured the room behind the windows for years was removed, revealing the new bookstore.

How could anyone consider even opening one of these relics anymore?  Hadn't bookstores gone the way of the record shop and movie rental store?

Turns out “The Death of The Bookstore”—at least, local bookstores—is little more than a myth.

An employee at Alleycat (which isn't officially opening until December) says Valencia's Dog Eared Books is admist their most profitable year ever.  They explain that as Border's and other national literature retailers retreat from San Francisco, the chain's former customer base have been flocking to local shops such as Dog Eared.  So the shop's owners decided to open a larger, sister shop (their fourth in San Francisco), choosing 24th because “it resembles the way Valencia Street looked 10 years ago.”

Unlike Dog Eared, Alleycat has a giant event space “that will eventually house a ping pong table, gallery, and possibly chess tables.”

As for prices, there was a copy of The Last Temptation of Christ on sale for four bucks, which I didn't buy, if any of you are interested in picking up some cheap Biblical fan fiction.

If you live in the Inner Mission and are supposed to vote at Cesar Chavez Elementary at 22nd and Folsom, you're going to have to do a little hunting to find your polling place.  The Voter Information Pamphlet mailed out a few weeks back says voters in precinct 3907 are supposed to “enter off Folsom btw 22nd and 23rd sts,” the signage outside indicates the same thing, but the fences surrounding the school are all shut and padlocked.  As of half an hour ago, there was no signage or person posted up outside directing people where to go.  There were, however, a half dozen would-be voters looking very lost and confused—many of whom just turned around and left.

After a little searching, it turns out you are supposed to go vote on Shotwell between 22nd and 23rd (none of this information is posted anywhere and there is no official signage out front).  I told the people who handed me my ballot that this was a problem, and they seemed concerned, but a couple entered five minutes later complaining about the same thing.

Perhaps this explains why the electronic vote counter only registered 78 ballots (which is only 39 individual voters) being cast in the first 3+ hours of voting?

Look SFPD, we get it.  Between all the gang wars, drug dealers, and cyclists riding through stop signs, you have your hands full.  The Mission is happening nearly every hour of every day, yet you somehow manage to keep the 'hood from looking like 7th and Market.  You deal with the complaints of geezer neighbors without totally ruining the fun.  You look away when we spark a joint.  And no one has ever watched you slap a pair of cuffs on Cold Beer Cold Water.

For all that, most residents give you well-deserved credit.

But every time we start thinking SFPD isn't all that bad, you go pull a stunt that reminds us all that you employ some of the most toolish douchebags to ever live in the City and County of San Francisco.

Take yesterday's closing of Sunday Streets.  Argubly one of the most successful civic events in the city, Sunday Streets brings thousands of San Franciscans from every corner of the city together to enjoy motor-free streets for five measly hours.  The streets are lined with musicians, neighbors barbequing on their stoops, local merchants and cooks flipping their wares, children learning bike polo, people adoring low riders, kids going nuts with chalk, art bikes, costumed rollerbladers, and even dance lessons.  The community the event fosters is enough to bring a smile to even the most cynical dipshit's face.

So when the public's time was up, how'd you close down the event?  Send officers walking down the street, politely telling people to move to the sidewalks? Dispatch the Mission's bicycle cops down Valencia to assist in winding the event down?  Strap rollerskates on officers dressed like The Village People and kick people off the streets?

No, you sent Officer Power Trip and his sidekick Sargent Shitbag down Valencia on motorcycles, wailing on their sirens, yelling over the loudspeaker to get on the sidewalk, and accelerating into crowds of people so they'd jump to the curb.  And it wasn't jump unemployed kids on fixies you treated like this.  No, these trailblazers in misdirected anger chirped their horns at families in the street, yelled at merchants that hurriedly dragged their belongings to the curb.  Hell, I even saw the officer pictured above accelerate his motorcycle right into former city supervisor and mayoral candidate Bevan Dufty and his volunteers.

Your department treats families, neighbors, and generally lovely people with the same respect you show #OpBART protesters.  What the fuck is wrong with you?

Google updated their Mission Street View photography over the summer and the gems keep coming.

(Also, be sure to check out how that second scene plays out.)

[First catch by 9-eyes, second by Hood Rat Stuff]