I have seen the slurry but never heard of this.

[gordonzola]

Did they just make it up? Is it a downtown business thing? Has anyone out there ever heard this term before? Anyone?

Market Street Milk Shake is an ironic term used in San Francisco, California to signify the city's continuing quality-of-life and homelessness problems. The term is derived from an ironic description of the slurry produced by street cleaners when they wash the sidewalks on Market Street between Fifth Street and Van Ness Avenue, a line historically accepted as the border between the Tenderloin, Civic Center, and South of Market neighborhoods. This area is characterized by extremely dense concentrations of homeless people and street crime, with the resultant effluent left behind.

An urban legend has developed around Market Street Milk Shake, to the effect that drinking it gives people the ability to accept the conditions in which they live, instead of actually doing anything about them. Some variations include the incorporation of belief systems such as those espoused by Carlos Castaneda, or Santería. Without corroboration, such inferences are difficult to verify.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Street_Milk_Shake

Comments

[georgia1313.livejournal.com]

I've never heard that, it sounds made-up to me. But that area is really fucked up so, who knows?

[odelenu.livejournal.com]

Ok, so I am a priest of Santeria and I can't quite get my head around what I think they are saying. WTF? Is this for real?

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

no, it makes no sense. I found it while looking up something else. weird.

[twoeggbreakfast.livejournal.com]

ew on the slurry. and ew on the urban legend surrounding it.

i've never heard of it. but then, i don't think this is our crowd using this term anyhow.

[ilipodscrill.livejournal.com]

it's a mystery to me.

no doubt it gives you special powers.

[trick.livejournal.com]

with the shit in there (pun intended), you'll be flying for hours

[magpiesf.livejournal.com]

i say its someone posting something to wikipedia to see if they can get people to drink street-cleaning effluent.

[mercyorbemoaned.livejournal.com]

never heard of it.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

i worked at 6th and market for two years (at a newspaper even) and never heard of this.

also, i'm "adding you" so this is your only warning!

[smushy.livejournal.com]

*calls bullshit*

Street cleaners don't leave rivers a' nuthin'. They slurp it up quick as they lay it down.

I don't know. I just like callin' bullshit.

BULLSHEEIT!

[magpiesf.livejournal.com]

not here in sf! here the "street cleaners" merely serve to push the dirt around. theres several types:

the spraying water type, which im guessing are involved in this whole "market street milkshake" bit of malarkey - they drive along the street, spraying the curb zone (and any people on the nearby sidewalk) with high-pressure water, whcih merely serves to push the crap up onto the curb, or wash it somewhere else on the street (thats "wash" with no implication of cleaning)

then theres your standard street sweeper with the whirling brushes. those ostensibly have vaccums, but they mainly seem to serve the purpose of rearranging the garbage in their path, as i never notice too much of a difference after they pass.

weve also got these small beasts called "green machines", which are like little mini-street sweepers, or riding lawnmower size vaccums. their drivers steer them in random patterns all over downtown, never actually performing any useful duty other than to warn people in their electronic voice "caution! sweeper approaching!"

and then theres the bands of people doing community service in lieu of jail time, who clean a block at a time, irregularly. these are the most effective of all our street cleaners, but they dont really care about the job theyre doing, cause its punishment. but the broom still beats the other types of cleaning for actual success at its job.

youd think with all those people cleaning, sf would be clean, but no, its a filthpit. filthy, filthy city. everyone i know who visits comments on it.

long reply, but i was thinking about this just yesterday morning on the way to work, as i rode past one of the spraying-water types, which was hosing down homeless people and laughing on its way through the tenderloin.

[kest]

What they do on market in the middle of the night is spray the sidewalk with highpowered hoses. Never heard the term tho, and never heard of anyone drinking the stuff.

[rootlesscosmo.livejournal.com]

Besides the lack of corroboration, note the way this "legend" supplies the basis for a slur on poor people who are once again blamed for failing to cure their own poverty and its attendant woes...

Gordon--what are you doing a week from Thursday, 9/2? Want to have dinner with us and amarama? Email me for more info. (Address is on my info page.)

[amarama.livejournal.com]

He already rejected us because of his coop conference, but we will press on!

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

actually, though Ama had good reason to say it, I'm calmer about the conference and we don't have a meeting that night. I do, however, work until 7 PM on thursdays so that may be too late and I don't wanna cramp your plans. I'm gonna go look up where you live now.

[rootlesscosmo.livejournal.com]

No cramp. We're going to a restaurant five minutes--OK, ten by bike--from Rainbow. And our reservation is for 7 which means you can be there as we're still sipping a nice pre-dinner drink. john.burke@mindspring.com for further details.

reminds me of the quote

[substitute.livejournal.com]

"New York: The City that Makes its Own Gravy".

original unknown, from my ex boss abatt

[albatrossity.livejournal.com]

This sounds bogus via its utter bogusness.

[saltdawg.livejournal.com]

My milkshake is better than yours...

[slutbunwalla.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I can't even believe that I didn't think of that.
No wait, I can.

[saltdawg.livejournal.com]

you crazy kids and your mescaline!!!

[de-gustibus.livejournal.com]

About seven years ago I used to walk down fifth after getting off the bus on Market. I remember the motorized sidewalk cleaners (yet another Willie Brown "Hey, I saw it in Paris" investment I think) often, but I never remember seeing any slurry. I think they mostly just brushed litter into a receptacle, no steam cleaning or anything. And yeah, along the lines of Rootlesscosmo, The portrayal of "down and out ritiuals" as it were seems a little more than off putting to me.

This is made up

[bebopmonkey.livejournal.com]

from the bizarre mind of a hater. dont be a hater.

[chitinous.livejournal.com]

It really does bring all the boys in the yard, though.

hmmmm

[slipkid.livejournal.com]

is that chocolate or oreo cookie???

please taste and get back to me.