My walk to work continued

[gordonzola]

The meanest used car lot in the world sat at this corner. It was one of those places that was hopeful and desperate at the same time. Hopeful because there were always cheap cars that anyone afford to buy. Pieces of crap for sure, I wouldn’t take ‘em onto a bridge or anything, but available for a couple of hundred dollars. This hope, however, was tempered by the personality of the owners.

They had a little raised shack in the middle of the yard. They’d stand at the railing at the top of the stairs and glare at anyone walking by. Occasionally they’d take sips out of paper bags. Sometimes they’d yell at each other, only the cuss words comprehensible to the passerby. They obviously hadn’t accepted the post-industrial news that customer service had become a constitutional right. Sometimes they’d have helpers because they weren’t really in condition to sweep the lot or pick up garbage. I’d see people work there for a week or so then they’d either disappear or get in a huge fight with the owners, usually involving the phrases "You owe me money!" and "Prove it, asshole!"

I had my sole verbal interaction with them during one of these blowouts. I was across the street but the argument took a turn. One of the owners ran down the steps and got in the face of one of the helpers. I stopped to see what would happen. The other owner saw me. "What the fuck are you looking at?" he said.

Somehow these guys managed to get Nash Bridges filmed in their lot one week. Their name for the business was Trader Joe’s Used Cars and the Nash Bridges people decorated the entire lot in tiki stuff. Fake palm trees, totem poles and, if memory serves, a fake gorilla. It was like Modesto or something. The decorations that the TV people didn’t want back stayed up for months until they finally rotted away.

This corner became even more cheery when a Discount Casket Outlet opened across the street. Despite the location-location-location storefront between two projects, it failed as a business.

Further down the street is the Armory (scroll down to landmark 108). Now we all know why the armory is in the Mission right? The armories always went up in working class strongholds so that working people could be more easily killed when class uprisings came round. Long abandoned, it was severely damaged in the 1989 quake. Last I heard, It was available for $1 if the buyer would take on the retrofitting costs. We went to look at it when we moved our store, but the 1996 price for getting it up to earthquake code (forget putting in fixtures, power, etc for a grocery store) was over $20 million. The lake and rivers that run under The Mission had reclaimed the basement and there was at least a foot of standing water.

If you can ignore the rich against poor class war symbolism, it’s a beautiful building. Huge, brown-red uneven brick, turrets, tall skinny windows for shooting at workers, it has it all. During the dot-com boom, some Dallas company wanted to refurbish it. I happened to be at the North East Mission Business Association Meeting for my workplace when they came in to get neighborhood approval. They were incredibly arrogant and managed to alienate even the non-communist workplaces. The truth can now be told, I called the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition and left a message telling them about an "Open House" the development corporation was hosting for the "business community" that night. By the time I left work, the cops were out in force and a huge group of protestors had already joined the party. I’m sure the demo was already planned, but I like to think my spy mission helped.

Across the street from the armory, behind the sweatshop and the junk shop that I never saw opened once, is Woodward Street, one of the hardest streets in the Mission. It used to be Woodward’s Gardens and I can’t even picture the idyllic scene pictures in the link. I assume it’s looking from Mission Street towards Valencia. Wow.

Comments

[ilipodscrill.livejournal.com]

wow, that woodward gardens photo is the perfect example of how earthquakes change the face of the city. never knew that restaurant just off woodward was named for a real garden.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

all that space! it's insane.

[amarama.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo! I went to that demo! My old workplace was on the other side of the armory and we and all the other dinky, barely-surviving nonprofits in our building were seriously threatened by the prospect of all those dot-com folks moving into the armory. We took all the free food, it was lovely.

And yes, those Trader Joe's auto people are hella mean and weird; and also my former co-worker and hillaroon's sister worked on that Nash Bridges set.

Well done, good block. Makes up for that boring block a while back.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

yeah, by the time I got there, I couldn't get in. Police were guarding the doors to keep out area residents.

[rzr-grl.livejournal.com]

I have long considered doing a photo project on used car lots, and have eyed that lot in particular. Armed with this knowledge, perhaps I'll keep looking...

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

it's under new management now. no more drunken yelling at 10 am.

[fightingwords.livejournal.com]

about a year ago, my friend nick decided he was sick of apartment living and flew down to florida to buy a used airstream. after many parking mishaps around the city, he's now finally settled down: he's the caretaker of said armory, and for just $1 a month, is able to park his airstream there in relative safety. we're figuring that one of these days, we simply must throw a big, dirty rave there.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

invite me please!

[ilipodscrill.livejournal.com]

wow, yeah! i've always imagined having parties/punk shows in that building.

Just call me Enemy of the People, but

[jwz.livejournal.com]

I sure don't see what's wrong with turning a vacant, flooded, rotting decades-abandoned building into office space. How's it better for the neighborhood to have another burned out shell instead of somewhere that people work?

Re: Just call me Enemy of the People, but

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

because then some of the few remaining affordable places to live in this city would become astronomically expensive. sometimes a little squalor can save a neighborhood. and it's pretty much the last "burned out shell" remaining, not "another" one.

having met the people who were developing it, (no roots in SF whatsoever, no market rate housing or discounted office space within the building, the original plan called for no parking inside) I can say that their motivation was purely money, not helping the neighborhood.

I think it could be done in a good way. just not by them.

Re: Just call me Enemy of the People, but

[torgo-x.livejournal.com]

sometimes a little squalor can save a neighborhood.

In fact, I lived in an extreme case once: actual ruins making a neighborhood. That is, the Treadwell ruins and tatters and heaps are what made the sleepy town of Douglas, where I lived all last year.

And even the next-door town of Juneau, the big city, has its many little corners of cruft.

Re: Just call me Enemy of the People, but

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

wow. it's beautiful.

[sanmiguelmalo.livejournal.com]

i would have responded to the above comment but i think someone else can probably do it much better. i'm generally assuming you're against gentrification..

it's interesting seeing what spots in SF qualify as landmarks.

I love that old armory

[slipkid.livejournal.com]

even as a shell it is still quite a formidable presence. it should be restored as a State park but old brick buildings just weren't meant to last in San Francisco. if I were mayor I would raze the interior and tranform it into a park. then, in the next big quake, the rest of it would come down.

Re: I love that old armory

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

that's a really good idea.

Re: I love that old armory

[slipkid.livejournal.com]

it would probably be a better idea if I could spell m-f'ing transform correctly. sometimes I give retards a bad name.

[superchones.livejournal.com]

It was like Modesto or something.
Modesto, home of the wicked swayed by false idolatry...or just a haven for tackiness?

I had no idea that the Woodward's Gardens used to exist where that sketch block is at now. How sad, but I am not about to go walking around up the block trying to figure out what was where and such, you know?

And, awwww, I was hoping Cheryl would be on this block, with a tank top against the wind, pulling on a cigarette.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

cheryl's on the next block. heck, she's practically the only thing of interest I can write about on the next block.

[superchones.livejournal.com]

oh huh! oops. you are in between valencia and mission right now, aren't you? i am just excited for my stretch, that's all.

i can get a nice photograph of cheryl if you want. her tank top and shorts blowing in the summer breeze...

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

and I can't believe none of the Modesto folks noticed that line. I put it in just for them. guess they're not reading.

[superchones.livejournal.com]

there are modesto folks reading this?!


hmm. i don't know what else to type.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

well, usually there are. but apparently there aren't any today.

[superchones.livejournal.com]

aw well, their loss. ;)

hey, at least somebody picked up on it!

[freshwater-pr0n.livejournal.com]

I'm so sad that Discount Casket Outlet is gone. It was my favorite.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

I think there's still one over by Lake Merritt.

[magpiesf.livejournal.com]

ah, trader joes used cars... the rumor always was that that was a fence, at least for stolen bikes.

i love the armory building despite its lingering overtones. i have a recurring dream that i win huge was of cash in the lottery, buy it, and refurbish it with a big indoor velodrome and start holding six-day races, 30s style.

and woodward gardens, would that you still were! stupid earthquake.