So a week ago, I moved out of the Mission neighborhood (the barrio) to the much nicer SOMA neighborhood (young professionals). If you recall, I avoided wearing red clothing in the Mission because it was the color associated with the local gang, the Nortenos. Here are some of the highlights from living in the Mission in the past 14 months:
- 3 stabbings on my block thus far in 2010 (every incident was gang-related so I need not worry).
- 1 fistfight in front of my house.
- 1 beat down at a local bar (Delerium) where 2 guys were kicking the crap out of a guy on the sidewalk. They also picked up a bicycle and hit him with it. (for the record, I tried to help the poor guy but the bouncer locked the door and stopped anyone from entering/exiting the premises)
- 1 undercover prostitution sting a block away that busted some middle-aged sucker driving a nice BMW.
- 2 guys chasing another guy down the street while trying to club him with a baseball bat.
- 1 crazy World Series victory celebration that involved burning mattresses and a hijacked bus.
- 100+ delicious tacos consumed.
Yes, the World Series street celebrations in the Mission were pure anarchy. There were multiple burning mattresses filling up intersections, which led to me to wonder, “How come people have so many spare mattresses to burn?” I also dodged a bullet because a (drunk?) driver plowed into a crowd of people where I had been standing just a minute earlier and several people were injured. Anyway, here is some home video of the craziness after the SF Giants won the2010 World Series: