I like to keep an eye on what’s going on in San Francisco. After the earthquake in 1989, we lived at 17th @ Valencia. We had a view of Dolores Park, which was always completely empty except for street people. We worried how the poor bartender at the 500 Club would ever have the money to retire. We would go in and buy a beer sometimes just cause we felt sorry for him all alone in there.
A few years later, in about 93, we stopped in and The 500 Club was packed with our entire generation. We stopped worrying about the bartender and bought a beer for fun instead of pity. Since then “the Mission” has come a long way from some GenXers in their black clothes and Docs dive-baring it.. You can’t swing a cat without hitting a TESLA or someone talking about getting their company funded (or both).
I have struggled, recently, trying to explain “the Mission” to some of you who still think it just seems dangerous and seedy; struggled with others who live or want to live there to understand the nuanced values that exist block to block (and the very differing crime factors) and in general have been noticing that there is no good way to show what’s going on value wise using the existing neighborhood definitions in the San Francisco MLS. The area people often want to live in when they say “the Mission” depends on the person. But what many are really saying “near” the Mission in the adjacent areas of Noe or Eureka Valleys – e.g., near Dolores Park.
This is an area that has started to really take off in terms of value – so much so that it is exceeding the rents and prices per square foot only previously seen on the north side of town or in a luxury high rise in South Beach/South Financial District buildings like the St. Regis. Read on to find out more about “The Quad.”