About San Francisco's Mission

Rumormongering : Fresh & Easy Coming to the Mission?

With all of the goings on in the City this past weekend (Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Bridge to Bridge race), we found time to volunteer at the MEDA 6th Annual San Francisco Homeownership Fair.

The diverse crowd strolled though the block long event in the Mission and checked out the various vendors and information sessions – including stabling and improving credit (something that most everyone needs to do these days) and one special session about foreclosure prevention – our specialty.

As with any event, people get out of it what they put into it. We think that information remains far more valuable than key chains and tchotchkes that some banks and other companies offered. We offered foreclosure lists and updates, detailed area statistics and buyer property updates. People ate it up.

The crowds certainly showed up (maybe some to win the flat screen TV) but most came to be educated and have motivation to buy. A few did want help with their distressed properties. Even if we tried, we couldn’t tell how many people attended this past weekend (the 2009 version attracted over 700 people) but it probably equaled last year.

Certainly, many people continue to fear the housing market (lack of trust in the banks, fear of additional price drops, and difficulty in securing loans) but a lot of solid information can often overcome a little uncertainty. We remain pretty certain of that.

Carnival San Francisco - Green Section

Carnaval here in San Francisco may not be as sexy, rambunctious or famous as its counterparts that take place in Rio or New Orleans but that doesn't mean that the 2-day event doesn't mean that the crowds don't enjoy the fun, sun (the weather actually cooperated with glorious 80 degree SF weather) music and sexy costumes.

With all of the things going for Carnaval why can't there be some added consideration given to making the event more Green. We did spy a plethora of compost and recycling canisters and the beer areas did utilize the non-plastic cups. The event did have a small cluster of vendors dedicated to products or services at least slightly aligned with being somewhat progressive. Earthlust sold slightly dented reusable water bottles at a discount, San Francisco Vegetarian Society, Zip Car, Rainforest Action Network and some others. Sure these aren't as sexy as some of the other venders but Green can be sexy as evidenced by some of the Hollywood A-listers creating Green events or supporting various green products.

Nos gusta gazing at the colorfully sexy costumes and gyrating to the various Latin beats but wouldn't it be great to see some of sexy thinking combined with some Green ideas?

Talk about crazy piece of real estate - a couple days ago we got to take a VIP tour of the inside of the San Francisco Amory building which now houses the production studio of Kink.com. Sure, the price that they paid for the building $3 million plus may have dropped in value but they don't exactly need a loan mod.

Competed in 1914, the 200,000 square foot Moorish Castle replica dates back to 1914 where it housed the National Guard facility until 1976. It retains original period details including wainscoting, stone staircases, sweeping corridors, and a gigantic drill court spanning almost an acre. We even got to see the mostly unknown Mission Creek, a fresh water creek that runs under the building.

The sexy tour gave us a view of the myriad of interesting rooms (such as the padded cell photo), the chain room and the prop room that the production company uses as sets. Okay, we're not telling property owners to turn their homes into production studios but if you need to get creative, then this is one example of a way to pay the mortgage.