Ah, the Mission District. Remember that place? What with its Dolores Park, coffee, and Valencia Street, the Neighborhood Facebook Built seemed to have locked in its hot-new-thing status when in 2015 Business Insider declared it “a million times more hipster than Brooklyn.” The New York Times even got in on the fun, obsessing over Linea Caffe and weighing in on a burgeoning Mission microhood. But the Gray Lady is a fickle lover, and her wandering eye has found a new object of attraction: The Dogpatch.

In a piece last week, the paper passes over its old Mission District flame for the hotness of a neighbor to the east. Headlined “A Guide to America’s Next Great Art Neighborhood,” the story focuses on the Dogpatch’s role as a mecca for “the city’s pre-eminent gallerists.”

“While its name conjures images of roving canines,” the Times tells us, “the only wild things you’re likely to find in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood are the gang of intrepid young art dealers who have set up shop in the formerly forgotten bayside section of the city.”

Yes, those wild art dealers. Like the ones inhabiting the real estate investor-founded Minnesota Street Project, who SF Weekly reports are soon to share a home with Daniel Patterson’s second Alta location—a restaurant whose $26 deconstructed beef stroganoff just screams edgy.

And while the patrons of Just For You Cafe, the Dogpatch Saloon, or any number of neighborhood mainstays may disagree with the Times’ “formerly forgotten” label, it will nevertheless force them to deal with that age old question so familiar to their Mission District neighbors: Is a neighborhood only truly hip after the Times writes a style piece about it? And, once the paper of record has moved on and all you’re left with is long lines and overpriced condos, was the love affair worth it?

[Photo: torbakhopper]