This week: Michelle Tea’s Valencia turns 25, and California turns 175; Boozie Brunch boosts local restaurants while Culinary Cinema pairs films with three-course meals; a state park thrives post-wildfire and Point Molate is opening to the public; plus, puppy yoga, cat Pilates, and Bay Area makers.

Boozie effect

Local influencer Novi Mitchell, who’s Oakland born and raised, has built a 169,000-strong Instagram following with her Boozie Brunch account by spotlighting Bay Area restaurants big and small.

Between a full-time job at Microsoft and weekend filming, she turns casual food adventures into a platform that boosts mom-and-pop spots. One rave review can transform business overnight — Samara’s Southern Creations says reservations haven’t slowed since she posted their deep-fried waffles with peach cobbler butter. — KGO

Dinner and a movie, elevated

At Pruneyard Cinemas in Campbell, classic movies come with a side of chef-crafted flair. The Culinary Cinema series pairs films with three-course dinners inspired by the story, characters, or setting.

Think pink-hued appetizers for Legally Blonde, or a cannoli nod for The Godfather. Mixologist Jacqueline Aguirre tops it off with specialty cocktails echoing the films’ moods, providing a full sensory experience. — Bay Area News Group

New shoots, old giants

Five years after the CZU Lightning Complex fires, much of Big Basin Redwoods State Park’s forest floor is exposed to full sunlight where old-growth redwoods once formed a dense canopy. The trees are tapping into decades of stored energy, sprouting green shoots in a “bottlebrush” effect that hints at their resilience.

Down below, tiger lilies, California lilacs, huckleberry, blackberry, Pacific madrone and tanoak seedlings fill the gaps, stretching toward the sun. Birds, pollinators, and other small critters have moved in to stake their claim. As the canopy slowly rebuilds, the forest’s plant and animal communities continually respond and adapt. — Santa Cruz Sentinal

Michelle Tea’s Valencia, 25 years later

In her 2000 novel, Valencia, Michelle Tea captured San Francisco’s 1990s butch-dyke lesbian scene with a raw, immediate voice, gaining her widespread acclaim. The 25th-anniversary edition revisits the book’s impact, highlighting its cast of real-life characters and its portrait of a generation.

Valencia was later adapted into a feature film, which premiered at Frameline Film Festival in 2013, per SFist. Fast, chaotic, and unflinching, Valencia captures the streets, bars, and poetry readings of an iconic era in San Francisco. The book remains a touchstone of lesbian history, art, and rebellion. — Autostraddle

Point Molate preserved

After decades of plans, proposals, and lawsuits, 82 acres of Richmond shoreline at Point Molate have officially become open to the public. The East Bay Regional Park District bought the land from the Guidiville Rancheria for $40 million, securing space for trails, open access, and environmental preservation.

The site includes Ohlone shellmounds, the Winehaven castle, and former Navy warehouses. A 2.5-mile trail is in the works, connecting the area to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge. Once complete, visitors will be able to explore a new stretch of Bay front open space. — SFGate

Sixteen artists in SOMA

September at Arc Gallery in SOMA blends small-scale art, music, and conversation. The FourSquared exhibition features sixteen Bay Area artists, each showing sixteen works under $800.

Events include Art & Sound with the Berkelium String Quartet on September 10, a SOMA West CBD Happy Hour on the 18th, and an Artists Talk and Reception on the 20th, all in the heart of Arc’s multi-gallery, studio, anyone d arts hub.

The show continues through October 4, alongside Arc’s supportive artist community, Kearny Street Workshop, and Café Suspiro. — Arc Studios, Cafe Suspiro

Berkeley vendor who gives

If you’ve ever bought an African hat or basket on a Berkeley corner, there’s a good chance it came from veteran street vendor Viveca Jones, who's been part of the community for nearly four decades. Jones tells Berkeleyside she was the first to use a cash register at the Berkeley Flea Market back in the ‘70s. These days, she can be found at Shattuck & Vine, Monterey Market, and the downtown farmers’ market.

Jones spends her earnings feeding people twice a day, setting out food boxes and fruit she’s picked from neighbors’ trees: “Helping others keeps me going.” — Berkeleyside

Puppy planks & cat pilates

Move, stretch, and find your balance—sometimes with a paw in the mix. The Bay Area’s animal-assisted fitness scene includes puppy yoga at The Puppy Sphere and Puppies & Yoga, cat-centered Pilates at KitTea Café, goat yoga at Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay, and even early-morning sessions among zebras at the San Francisco Zoo.

Mats, cuddles, and unexpected companions included — just be ready for a little animal-assisted improvisation. — 7x7

Presses, prints, and local makers

The Box SF’s historic 1920s building opens September 6–7 for its monthly fair, where local artists and makers fill two floors with handmade goods, crafts, and vintage finds. The ground-floor Pressroom and Mercantile, a museum-like antique letterpress shop, adds another layer of curiosity with restored printing presses and millions of pieces of printed history.

Free and open to the public, the fair turns the space into a hands-on, browse-and-shop experience celebrating Bay Area creativity. — The BoxSF, teresa.sw

California turns 175

California celebrates 175 years of statehood on Tuesday, September 9, at the State Capitol in Sacramento, featuring family-friendly activities, food trucks, birthday cake, and California-grown treats. A laser display follows 30 minutes after sunset. The State Library marks its own 175th birthday that same day with tours and cake.

Additionally, the California Museum will host a Statehood Celebration on September 6 with historic artifacts — including the original 1850 California Constitution — live music, dance, crafts, and a film screening.

The anniversary is part of a broader slate of in-person and virtual events throughout the month across the state. — CA.gov

Top Image: Lily Moon/Flickr

Previously: Field Notes: Muttville's New HQ, Tactile Maps, Pavement Plants, ‘Fairyland’ Flick, and a Hidden Mansion

The 17-month experiment of moving Valencia Street’s bike lanes to the center of the street has just been officially reversed, as the SFMTA just voted to move the bike lanes back to the curb in early 2025.

Back in April 2023 when the SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) approved the new center-running bike lanes on Valencia Street, the meeting was interrupted by an earthquake. Fast-forward to 17 months after the new lanes were installed, on Tuesday afternoon when the SFMTA was considering plans to move the Valencia bike lanes back to the curb side, the meeting was interrupted by someone pulling a fire alarm at City Hall.

Does this indicate the center-running bike lane on Valencia Street was cursed? Maybe. Because after everyone returned from the fire alarm scare, the SFMTA board of directors unanimously voted to approve moving the bike lanes back to the curb on Valencia Street.  

When the unconventional and some would say counterintuitive center-running Valencia Street bike lanes were installed last summer, some frustrated bicyclists nicknamed them “the Valencia meat grinder." In multiple instances, bicyclists were struck by vehicles, particularly those trying to make U-turns. And businesses on the Valencia corridor absolutely hated the center bike lanes, blaming them for an alleged drop in business.

So after months of bitter controversy, the SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) decided to end this center bike lane experiment and move the Valencia bike lanes back to the curbside. Tuesday’s meeting was to approve the final design.

“Over this long odyssey, this feels very much like the couple that has moved the sofa to every conceivable location in the living room,” board member Paul Heminger said before the vote. “At some point you just have to stop looking and put it down and sit in it.”

The area in question only encompasses Valencia Street between 15th and 23rd streets. The new design creates “protected” bike lanes where parked cars separate the bike lane from moving car traffic. (Green lines represent the bike lane in the above image, the parking spaces are white lines.)

And you’ll notice the bike lanes are not a straight lines, but an occasionally swerving design referred to as “floating parklets” where the bikes go around the parklets. SFMTA says this floating parklet model has been successful in Oakland and New York City. Through per the Chronicle, only three of the 26 parklets in the area in question are floating parklets.

It will still be illegal to make left turns on this eight-block stretch of Valencia Street, but with the bike lanes moved, it will now also be illegal to make a right turn on a red light.

And Valencia Street is going to lose parking spaces with this new bike lane layout. SFMTA estimates there will be 79 fewer parking spaces and loading spots under the new design, and that’s a 40% reduction in parking. According to Mission Local, the agency says they have signage promoting nearby parking garages at 16th and 21st streets “that are rarely full.”

Still, businesses are not happy with the loss of parking spaces.

“Our concerns are that all left-hand turns are still eliminated, nearly half of parking/loading spaces will be lost making it difficult and frustrating for customers to park, and pedestrians, deliveries, and cyclists will collide with each other in the lane,” the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association said in a press release to KQED. “Inconsistency in how the SFMTA has treated Parklets and Shared Spaces not only reduces customer parking, but makes the experience unpredictable and confusing.”

The SFMTA board seemed to acknowledge that they misjudged this one on a radically different bike lane design than any other in the city.

“We have to be very careful about experimenting in commercial corridors, specifically, and that requires a certain level of care that perhaps we did not perceive when we initially approved this particular item,” board vice chair Stephanie Cajina said prior to the vote.

Yet just like the last redesign, this new bike lane layout is a pilot program that will be reevaluated after six months.

So when will bicyclists get their protected curbside bike lanes on Valencia Street? SFMTA project manager Paul Stanis told the board that construction is “expected to start after the holiday, in the winter.” He estimated construction time could take “two to three months” from there, though inclement weather conditions could delay that timeline.

Related: Center-Running Valencia Bike Lanes Could Be Heading Back to the Curbside in January [SFist]

Image: SFMTA

Eight-year-old Valencia Street bar Amado’s apparently closed for good over the weekend, with the owner blaming the street’s new center bike lane. To add insult to injury, the SFMTA just delayed its evaluation of possible changes to that bike lane.

A sign currently in the storefront window of the Valencia Street nightclub Amado's does not mince words. “This bike lane is killing small businesses and our vibrant community,” the sign says.

And it did kill that small business, according to that small business. Mission Local reported Thursday morning that Amado’s had closed permanently. A follow-up report from the SF Standard noted that the venue's final day in business was Saturday.

“Unfortunately, it closed last week because of the bike lane,” Amado’s owner David Quinby told Mission Local.

Though, obviously, Amado’s was also struggling in recent months because of a June flood in their basement that rendered the lower level of the venue unusable.

“Usually the downstairs is saved for larger, more lucrative events, ticketed events,” Amado’s general manager Garsha Shabankhani told SFist about a month after that incident. “The immediate damage is that we are not able to produce many of the shows and events. We had to cancel a lot of shows. It’s unfortunate, because it hurts us financially, as well as the artists.”

The sign saying “This bike lane is killing small businesses” was not made by Amado’s, but instead by the San Francisco Small Business Coalition. That organization has an online petition calling for immediate changes to Valencia Street’s new center bike lanes that critics say create unnecessary safety issues, and businesses on the corridor say is driving off customers because of reduced parking options.  

But if the SF Small Business Coalition is hoping for immediate changes to the Valencia bike lane, they are going to be disappointed with the latest news from SFMTA. KGO reports that the transit agency just delayed their review of the bike lane, which was supposed to be finished by year’s end, until some undetermined time in 2024.  

"We will continue to make adjustments while we do our larger and more formal evaluation that will be coming to you with in early 2024," SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin said at last week’s board meeting.

And that’s infuriating to Valencia corridor business owners who say the center lanes, and their affect on parking, is absolutely driving down their revenue. "It has gone down a lot ever since the bike lane was built," Chick-n-time owner Michael Ho told KGO. "I think I lost about 20% of revenue due to parking. I'm here every day and they are out here even at night giving tickets."

It can be debated whether the center bike land is what did in Amado’s, considering they had separately lost a lucrative aspect to their business, and were forced into a massively expensive repair job. And it’s highly debatable how many Valencia Street bar patrons actually drive to get there.

But it cannot be denied that a consensus chorus of Valencia Street merchants argue that the bike lane has been a disaster for their business, and that SFMTA has been slow to get a handle on the bike lane situation.

Related: Valencia Street Music Club Amado’s Reeling From Basement Flood, Needs Community Support [SFist]

Images: Joe Kukura, SFist

The Batman and Mr. Potato Head of Valencia Street ice cream shop Xanath are gone, but in their place is a new Sicilian gelateria called Hila, and the newlywed owner has a real sweet story.

The organic, artisan ice cream shop Xanath at Valencia and Liberty Streets was probably as well known for its Darth Vader, Batman, and Mr. Potato Head in the window than for its varieties of vegan ice cream. But Xanath melted down during the pandemic, closing in the summer of 2022, though Xanath owner Juan San Mames still owns the building.

And the place is not necessarily remaining an ice cream shop, but will still offer  very artisan sweets. Mission Local reported earlier this month the Xanath space was reopening as a Sicilian gelato shop called Hila, which opened last Thursday.

Hila owner Ilary Biondo ran a popular gelato store (gelateria) in Sicily, Italy, where she met her now-wife Cecilia Casarini. The two married last year, but Casarini remembers that Sicily shop, also a one-employee operation consisting solely of Biondo.

“The line was from the door to two blocks away, every single day,” Casarini tells Mission Local. “She was just doing everything, making the gelato, serving people."

Hila also offers coffee, cappuccino, and Italian pastries. That may help the shop stand out, because as Mission Local notes, there are nine ice cream shops in and around the Valencia Corridor.

Related: Quince Team Opening New Espresso and Gelato Café In North Beach [SFist]

Image: Hila via Facebook

The onslaught of gentrification has been blitzkrieging the Valencia Street Corridor for the better part of 30 years now, yet one little patch has always maintained the neigborhood’s old-school, punk-rock, outlaw roots. Thanks to the Clarion Alley Mural Project, the 400-foot lane between Mission Street and Valencia Street near 17th Street has been a colorful, showcase gallery of the “Bomb Condos! Not Murals” street art ethic since 1992. As the project celebrates its 25th anniversary this Saturday with the Clarion Alley Mural Project 25th Anniversary & Block Party, SFist sought out the creators and organizers behind the mural project to find out how they got more than 500 artists to paint 700 different murals over the decades, and for that matter, whether the new murals are painted specifically for the annual October block party or whether they go up fresh all year long.

“New murals go up on the alley all year long,” current Clarion Alley Mural Project co-director Christopher Statton told SFist. “The way we curate is very specific to each space and the history of the space.”

The history of that space — as a mural gallery, at least — goes back to a time when the Mission District was still just beginning to see its Latino population displaced. The year was 1992, an anti-immigration dick named Pete Wilson was governor of California, the term “full-blown AIDS” was still a morbid part of our everyday vernacular, and Valencia Street’s featured storefronts were of raggedy collectives like Leather Tongue Video and Artists Television Access. The Women’s Building was not yet covered in murals, but Clarion Alley would be.

The First Clarion Alley Murals: 1992
If you were in San Francisco during the 1990s, you’ll get nostalgic goosebumps from Fiona O'Connor Devereux’s documentary above that shows Clarion Alley before and during the painting of the very first murals. The film is narrated by Rigo 23, one of the initial muralists whose street sign murals still grace our city today.

“It was the first years where Burning Man was happening, ACT UP had been going on for a long time,” Rigo 23 says. “San Francisco was always seeking a dramatic reinvention of being in urban space and in society. With the AIDS crisis, a lot of people were highly motivated to do that, knowing they only had a few years to live.”

Rigo 23 shared the 47 Clarion studio space (which had once been the main theater for groundbreaking performance troupe The Cockettes) with painter Aaron Noble, a self-described “co-editor of a critical art zine called Bloatstick, which had an editorial goal of 90% negative reviews.” Clarion was a decrepit specimen of despair and junk, a prostitution and drug sale stomping ground littered with trash, needles, and human waste.

“Clarion Alley happened to be very close to a place where one could buy heroin that was I think heavily cut with baby laxative,” Rigo says. “So we had a lot of health-related issues right in front of our house when we walked out every day.”

The alley had blighted Mission Street on one end, and the Valencia Street police station on the other. Neither felt welcoming, so the two painters tried to create a Balmy Alley-style collection of murals. While Balmy’s art was more focused on U.S. military intervention in Central America, Clarion would present art about what was happening right here in the Mission District. An initial gang of six painters found themselves joined by the street’s landlords, handymen, and auto mechanics, all hoping to give Clarion a new character that wasn’t cops or crack.

“We were literally between this sort of this illegal drug market, labor market, housing market, and this institution that was supposed to regulate those kinds of things in the urban space,” Rigo says. “We always felt like this alley was supposed to be between the problem and the solution. So we just started painting the hell out of it.”

More Murals Appear: 1993-1997
Only a few murals went up in the alley that first year, but more would come. Painter Julie Murray, whose early 90s escalator mural is seen above, writes in her own remembrance that “They then went about seeking permission to paint the various walls and garage doors from whomever they could. In most cases they were successful and where the owner wasn’t to be found they painted anyway.”

The transformation had only started, and Clarion Alley was still a dump. Murray also lived on Clarion. “On various bicycles of dubious provenance I’d belt up the alley holding my breath till reaching the door of the loft, exhaling only when safely indoors,” she wrote. “Such was the prevailing breeze that whatever was fermenting further up wafted down toward the entrance collecting there in toxic eddies that could toss even the most stout hearted out of the saddle. It was a leaden sweet and sour tang of human waste and MD20.”

But the project caught the attention of some of San Francisco’s premier muralists. Precita Eyes co-founder Susan Cervantes painted a work there for free, as did local legend “Chuy” Campusano (who painted his last mural on Clarion before his death in 1997). The resurgent alley would then find itself used as a regular location for late 90s cop drama Nash Bridges.

Image: doesdont via Flickr

The First Clarion Alley Block Party: 1998
The concept of an annual Clarion Alley Block Party in October was not established until 1998. “Back in 1998, the block party was on a Sunday and it went till 11 o’clock at night,” Statton told SFist. “Now it’s on a Saturday and we have to end by 8 p.m.”

Co-founder Aaron Noble recalls the first Clarion Alley Block Party as “free, unsponsored, anarchic, and for the most part peaceful and unpoliced. It demonstrated the reality of the life the mural project proposes, and has become an organizational focus, with many artists working to a late October deadline.“

Photo by y KayVee.INC/Flickr

The Tagging of the Murals: Pretty Much Every Year Since the Beginning
SFist readers know that deplorable teens tagging Clarion Alley murals is a long-running and unfortunate tradition. But it really is a “tradition” — and goes back to the early 90s, when a teenage street gang called the Vatos Mexicanos Locos argued that the murals were actually desecrating their fabulous tagging work on the alley.

“Their sensibility was shaped by video games, gang culture, and hip-hop,” Noble wrote. “They had a keen sense of style and never failed to tell me if I looked or sounded gay, which was often. They gave me fashion tips that I should, perhaps, have followed. They were ruthless in critique. A mural was either machin [respectable] or it was not, and if it was not, then what possible reason could there be not to bomb [tag] it? Also, red sections of any mural had to be bombed, as a matter of honor; and any mural on their own garage doors, regardless of quality or content, had to be bombed.”

The teens were eventually placated with their own mural space, which they used to produce a crude painting of Beavis and Butthead. But the tagging issue, obviously, persists to this day.

“We always end up facing tagging and people coming in and painting over work,” Statton told SFist. “There’s a core group of us who help to maintain the murals. Walking into the alley and seeing tags is always a tragic thing, but it’s a public space. And it’s amazing that we get to work in such a noted environment that draws so much attention. It just kind of comes with the territory.”

Notably, a 2012 mural of trans activists was quickly tagged in what appeared to be an explicitly transphobic gesture. Statton sees it all as the conversation the alley creates, and the evolution it fosters. “Not everybody likes every piece,” Statton said. “It’s meant to be a project where everybody can find something they like in it, and find something that they don’t like in it.”

Rigo 23 seconds the notion. “We wanted there to be something you wouldn’t like, because that’s just how diverse the neighborhood was,” he says in the documentary.

Evictions Blow Up the Alley: The 2000s
The above time-lapse video shows the painting of Megan Wilson’s “Home/Casa” in 2000, a mural literally painted on the street’s surface with the word “Home” on the Valencia Street end and “Casa” on the Mission Street end. Wilson took over as co-director of the Clarion Alley Mural Project in 2001, and not under the most pleasant circumstances.

Previous director Aaron Noble was forced to move to Los Angeles, as the original 47 Clarion space that served as his home and studio was demolished in 2002. Evictions and demolitions were rampant in the neighborhood, as sure-fire, can’t-miss dot-com internet businesses like Pets.com, Napster, and Excite@Home moved in a new generation of Valencia residents and marked the a new phase of the neighborhood’s slow but sure fancification.

Success and Resistance: 2010 - Today
Clarion Alley has since been popularized as a backdrop on shows like Sense8 and the terrible thing above called Girlboss. But the mural project’s leadership has been careful to control what work appears onscreen and to ensure that the artists are compensated. And they’ve maintained the alley’s original political spirit of resistance.

Notably, these days you will see Jose Guerrea Awe’s anti-police violence mural “Rise in Power” — placed very noticeably across from a police station. The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project’s “Narrative of Displacement” also sits in a prime corner spot that had previously been used for murals announcing the schedule of the bands playing at the Block Party.

The project still goes to great lengths to include disenfranchised communities’ artists, like a new mural by the Arab Resource & Organizing Center and Art Forces. “We had been working with them for the past two years in hopes of having them find the time to paint something,” Statton said. “It was really important to give them the space in the alley to have a voice.”

The Clarion Alley Mural Project has remained an island of resistance in a sea of gentrification for an entire 25 years. It’s presence may have something to do with with any trace of counterculture remaining on Valencia Street, and any continuing feeling of community in the area.

“No one could say this is mine, but a lot of people could say this is ours,” Rigo 23 says.

The Clarion Alley Mural Project 25th Anniversary & Block Party is Saturday, October 21, from 12:30 - 8 p.m. Admission is free.

Related: More Than 20 Years Of Clarion Alley Murals Now Available In Online Archive

The Borderlands Books saga may well be turning a page to a novel solution that ensures the sci-fi and fantasy bookstore’s permanent survival. Not long after announcing the closure of the Valencia Street bookshop famed for its late, great hairless cat, Borderlands owner Alan Beatts told Mission Local that “Unless something really astonishing and perhaps almost biblical happens in San Francisco, we will not be able to pay rent in San Francisco.”

The good book has apparently allowed that “almost biblical” something to begin realizing its prophesy. A Wednesday morning report from Mission Local declares that Borderland Books is in the process of trying to buy the 1373 Haight Street building that’s currently home to Recycled Records (whose owner has plans to retire soon). Beatts is trying to raise $1.9 million — though the mixed-use retail and residential building is listed at $2.35 million — but tells Mission Local’s Laura Wenus that he’s already got $500,000 secured and another $300,000 pending.

“The only reason I have the nerve to do something like asking people to lend me $1.9 million — a dude who runs a bookstore — is the way that the sponsorship program worked out.” Beatts tells Mission Local. “I have no idea if this is going to work out, but it beats figuring we’ll be out of business in 2025, so I might as well take a stab at it.”

Beatts elaborates further on the Borderlands Books blog. “This week I made an offer on a building that is meant to be a permanent home for Borderlands,” he wrote last Friday. “But (you knew there had to be a ‘but’), due to a number of factors, not the least of which being a lower-than-normal down payment, the institutional lenders that I have talked with are not interested in financing the purchase. So, if I'm going to make this work, I need to find individuals who would be willing to lend directly to the company.”

Borderlands has survived its original planned closure thanks to a $100/year customer sponsorship program.

Hoodline notes that the current adjacent Borderlands Café would probably not survive the transaction. Hoodline’s Camden Avery also points out that Borderlands’ current Valencia lease runs through 2025. So if they can’t cobble together the $1.9 million in the two weeks required to buy the Recycled Records building, it doesn’t necessarily mean curtains for Borderlands.

If you have a few thousand (or million!) dollars laying around and want to invest, you can pop into Borderlands and ask for Beatts or email him at abeatts[at]borderlands-books[dot]com.

Related: The 12 Best Independent Bookstores In SF

The development boom has lowered the boom on the late, great Lexington Club, displaced the iconic Doc’s Clock, and taken the lives of many beloved longtime Valencia Corridor restaurants and bars because of “whacked out” rent and proliferation of condos. But one particular watering hole and music venue has been reliably able to delay its own displacement, and has done so again. The Elbo Room will remain open at its current location until January 2019, Mission Local reports, having signed an additional one-year lease on top of the current extension that allowed the bar to stay put until 2018.

“We are excited. It means everybody still has jobs,” Elbo Room co-owner Matt Shapiro told Mission Local before a Monday night staff meeting announcing the news. The Elbo Room was originally slated to get kicked out its 647 Valencia Street location in November 2015, but has won one reprieve after another as the development of a proposed condominium remains embroiled in red tape.

Here we see the unpleasantness proposed for the Elbo Room’s current location, held up in Discretionary Review with the Planning Department as neighbors object to blocked views and other environmental impacts. Those delays have nicely enabled the Elbo to grease yet another year at Valencia Street and Sycamore Street as building owners Dennis and Susan Ring continue to wrangle for building permits — and it should be noted that the condo project is slated to include a home for them as they plan for their own retirement. "Dennis and Susan are still working towards their condo project, however, as far as we know, they have yet to acquire the building permit," Shapiro told Hoodline.

"They decided to offer us another year, since that will be mutually beneficial to both parties,” he added.

Mission Local also points out that Elbo Room had nearly signed on to move to the El Valenciano location at Valencia Street and 22nd Street, which is up for grabs. But the aforementioned “whacked out” rent undid that deal. "We got pretty far with it actually But the further we went with it, the more outrageously expensive it became," Shapiro told Hoodline. "This lease extension could not have come at a better time."

Nonetheless, it’s just an extension and a delay of the inevitable move. While the Elbo Room does have legacy business status, it falls just short of the 30-year status that can help keep a business in its original location. (One more extension would do the trick!) That 647 Valencia Street location does have historical and alcoholical significance, as it was previously the pioneering lesbian bar Amelia’s in the 1980s, and during the 70s was occupied by gay bars named The Gaslight and Gay 90s.

Related: Local Nightclub Owners Make Noise At City Hall Over Shutdown Threats From New Condos

There's some movement finally on the vacant space at 584 Valencia Street that once housed the original Slanted Door location, and in recent years was home to Wo Hing General Store and, briefly, Urchin Bistrot, which shuttered almost exactly two years ago. As Tablehopper reports via a liquor license application, the prime location is being snapped up by the Bon Vivants, a.k.a. BVHospitality, which is the consulting and design outfit run by Trick Dog’s Josh Harris and Morgan Schick that's currently working on the Proper Hotel project.

The DBA (doing business as) name is Bon Voyage!, but that could very well be a placeholder.

The move would bring craft cocktails further into the fold of the Inner Mission, where places like ABV, Mosto, and the Hideout at Dalva have been upping the ante in recent years, but where there haven't been many dedicated upscale cocktail dens like Trick Dog — besides Wildhawk, which opened last year.

And whatever it is called, this will be a bar with food, as it's a Type 47 license and the place is outfitted with a pretty newly remodeled kitchen.

Stay tuned for more details as we get them.

Mission Creek Cafe, which left its storefront at 968 Valencia in January, will be missed for its free wifi, cheap coffee, copious outlets, and fault-finding employees who took every opportunity to scream at perceived rudeness or non-payment from customers. Admittedly, these customers were a sometimes rude and always eccentric bunch themselves.

But as apparel shops like Azealia and Chrome opened on the block and Ritual took root down the street, the writing was on the wall. Now that reads Benny Gold: The longtime 16th Street skate-inspired apparel shop from local graphic designer Benny Weiner was hit with a rent increase at its previous location and packed its bags for Valencia where it's softly open while under construction.

As he quipped to the Chronicle this summer, “if I’m going to pay Valencia prices, I might as well be on Valencia.” Benny Gold's first sales at its new spot were made last week on Black Friday, and the store will be open intermittently until a grand opening sometime in January, Weiner tells SFist.

Caleb Pershan/SFist

The re-done space will serve coffee and tea in front, and Weiner envisions a spot for aspiring brand owners and creative types to lounge and generate ideas. Expect office hours with him, for example.

Benny Gold has been around since 2003 when Weiner put his first T-shirt in a store. Then, in 2010, Weiner quit his full-time job as a graphic designer, working within the skate industry and for such companies as Four Barrel, to pursue the brand. Of his connection to skating, says Weiner, I moved here for skateboarding in the '90s, and I still skateboard regularly and consider myself part of the community. But [Benny Gold] is more of a menswear brand with roots in skateboarding, because it's always been my passion. We're far from a skate shop, you can't put a board together here."

You can still assemble a nice outfit or dream up your own creative pursuit there — for now, just pop in when the door's open.

Caleb Pershan/SFist

Caleb Pershan/SFist

Related: SF's 13 Best Local Fashion Labels

Valencia & Kebab (525 Valencia Street), the relocated business formerly known as Hayes & Kebab that opened in the Mission last November, is fully papered over and appears closed as of today, though Yelp has still not been informed and there is no sign on the door explaining things. Also, no one answered the phone and there was no voicemail picking up.

A quick search on the restaurant's liquor license, for just beer and wine, shows that a temporary license was only issued in June and permanent license transfer from former tenant Gajalee was still pending.

According to SFist's Caleb Pershan, the place was rarely full since opening, but they enjoyed decent Yelp reviews and appear to have been open as recently as last week.

The possibility remains that the place is just undergoing some painting or a remodel.

That is a hot block of restaurant real estate however, on Valencia between 16th and 17th, which is shared with the likes of Locanda, Bar Tartine, Puerto Allegre, and West of Pecos. And, typically, the restaurant should have been open at 11 a.m. today, and no sign giving a reason for the closure is a bad sign.

More on this as we get confirmation or any further information.

Update: Mission Local got confirmation from the owners that they have indeed closed for good, citing staffing troubles and subsequent complaints from customers and "bad Yelp reviews."

Rapidly expanding fast-casual Greek sandwich spot Souvla, which just opened its second location on Divisadero in June, has snapped up the recently vacated Grub space at 758 Valencia. As Eater reports, owner Charles Bililies had been on the hunt for a Mission spot, and grabbed this one on the hot block that's also home to Craftsman & Wolves, The Vestry, and Tacolicious.

Bililies is aiming for an early 2017 opening for the Mission location, which follows just two and a half years after the opening of the first and incredibly popular location in Hayes Valley.

And it sounds Bililies is getting ready to keep expanding for years to come, in the Bay Area and maybe beyond. "Souvla has always been intended to be a neighborhood restaurant and to be there as an all-day place for anybody visiting or working in or living in those neighborhoods," he tells Eater. "The reality is right around store four or five, we're going to start looking outside the city and probably more into a new market."

Without ever getting formally reviewed, and entering a food scene that has long been pretty short on Greek options, Souvla was a pretty instant hit, and still enjoys a solid four stars on Yelp. Also, you'll find them on Caviar.

Previously: Souvla 2.0 Now Open On Divis For Gyros, Greek Froyo, And Backyard Patio Dining

It's kinda sorta the end of the line for Aquarius Records, the independent Valencia Street shop that's been in continuous operation in various locales since at least 1970 — as they say on their ca. 1990's website, they're the oldest independent record store in San Francisco, and they're "the store that's old enough to not
remember exactly how old it is." The late 60's and early 70's were, indeed, a blurry time for many. Pitchfork reports on the closure, which happens on July 4, but the store will remain a record store, reopening as a second brick-and-mortar location of Oakland's Stranded, owned by reissue label Superior Viaduct.

Aquarius owners Andee Connors and Allan Horrocks write on the site, "It's getting to be time for us to move on," saying that the Superior Viaduct team are "worthy successors" who will "carry on aQ's unique mission and legacy of 'getting the music to the people.'"

Horrocks, who's owned the shop with Connors since 2003 and who now has a two-year-old who's been occupying a lot of his time, tells KQED, "We were looking to have someone take it over, and after some searching and discussion, we knew the guys over at Stranded were interested in opening a new shop,” adding, “This store needed a reboot and we couldn’t really do it ourselves."

The store had its beginnings next door to Harvey Milk's camera shop on Castro Street, later relocating to Noe Valley before landing in the Mission in 1996, just as Valencia was showing the first signs of gentrification.

Aquarius has long been known for eclectic tastes and in-house reviews, and annual staff picks lists, and apparently there may be a book in the works collecting their reviews. As they always close out their newsletter announcements, "Please try to buy your records from us. That way we can keep on doing what we do, and we'll always be here with our ears to the ground, and with cds full of metalcore pitbulls, death metal parrots, gamelan playing elephants, recordings of glaciers cracking, ice melting, zamboni's, life support systems, drag races, audience applause, and of course self flagellating Norwegian dwarves, moaning telephone wires, recorded exorcisms, acapella straight edge metalcore, high school battles of the bands, movie theater organ music, Christian psychedelic folk, Bhangra Black Sabbath as well as all the metal, indie rock, electronica, punk rock, reggae, dub, sixties psych, krautrock, classic rock, country and anything else your heart may desire."

Following a couple weeks dark, Stranded will open on July 29.

Related: The 13 Best Record Stores In SF & Oakland

Surveillance cameras outside of Valencia Street theater Stage Werx captured a distressing scene this past Friday, wherein a thief cut the lock off a bike with some sort of power tool — making a huge scene in the process — while several people passed by and appeared to neither care nor really even notice.

Perhaps most bizarre are the two individuals who appear to be trying to get into the theater — they don't even bother to turn around even though the theft is happening right behind them. At some point in the video a cyclist pulls up, asking "Is that your bike?" before the man rides off. “Well, it looks like he just stole that bike,” she observes.

And let's just get this obvious point out there: No one is advocating that you try to physically prevent a bike theft in progress, especially if you're pushing a baby in a stroller. However, is it too much to ask that someone take a photo of the criminal to later show to the police?

SFPD Officer Carlos Manfredi spoke with the Chronicle, and pretty much summed up our thoughts after seeing the video. “Oh my goodness, did you see those sparks flying?” observed Manfredi. “It’s still daylight and he didn’t seem to care one bit. It’s very sad."

Indeed.

According to Manfredi, the bike has yet to be recovered.

Related: Video: Today Show Chases Bike Thief In San Francisco

"Time To Party" wrote Artists' Television Access, more commonly known as ATA, to Facebook last night in a post picked up by the Weekly that heralded their renewed lease at 992 Valencia Street.

Founded in 1984 and run by artist volunteers, the non-profit promoting "culturally-aware, underground media and experimental art" will stay put for another 5 years at least. That means more surprises as you walk by their strange, often surreal storefront, the ATA Window Gallery. You know, like this...

It also means more Periwinkle Cinema, a queer film series that migrated from the legendary big GAY warehouse to ATA and hosts events every third Wednesday, e.g. tomorrow's screening in advance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance

Last year, ATA held a successful $15,000 Indiegogo campaign that drew on matching funds of $4,750 from San Francisco Grants for the Arts. "We believe in fostering a supportive community for the exhibition of innovative art and the exchange of non-conformist ideas," they write.

Looks like the spot at 21st and Valencia won't be conforming anytime soon.

The long-running weekly dancehall reggae club Dub Mission has its 1000th show on Sunday night at the Elbo Room, with Subatomic Sound System and LUV FYAH joining DJ Sep and residents Vinnie Esparza and Maneesh the Twister. To mark the occasion, we talked to DJ Sep about the 19-year, 1000-show history of the Dub Mission dance night that has introduced us to so much great music, brought so many cheap Red Stripes and kept us out unreasonably late so many Sunday nights.

“We’ve been around so long, we’ve graduated two — maybe three — generations of clubgoers,” Dub Mission founder and full-time promoter DJ Sep (Sep Ghadishah, IRL) told SFist. “I feel very fortunate about that.”

Yes, 1000 shows is a pretty impressive run for a weekly reggae club held across the street from a police station.

The first Dub Mission (1996)

The very first Dub Mission was way back in 1996. It was called Dub Mission and was held at the Elbo Room, even from its first baby dub steps. But back then it was a monthly club night, not a weekly. The whole idea started when Sep got a phone call while doing her old radio show at KPFA.

“I became heavily interested in dub music,” Sep recalled “I got a call from a woman one night on KPFA saying. ‘Hey, where can I hear this music?’. And I hadn’t thought about that. So I thought, maybe I should start a night.”

“I went to some reggae clubs, and I had a different vision for what I wanted,” she said. “I wanted it to be a place where women felt comfortable coming by themselves.”

Dub Mission has been at the the Elbo Room since the club's inception. “Elbo Room looked different then,” Sep said. “We weren’t even on a stage. I was in what is now the back room of Elbo. And there was a window. I don’t think most people could see us. It really has had an evolution.”

Fire Forces Dub Mission Downstairs (1999)

Image: Dub Mission Facebook page

Three years in, Dub Mission was moved to the downstairs of the Elbo Room. An October 1999 fire at the nearby residential King’s Hotel (now the residential Hotel Tropica) rendered severe damage to the Elbo Room’s upstairs area.

“There was a residential hotel that caught on fire, and the fire progressed to the building next door, which was a hardware store,” Sep remembered. “There was damage. The club was closed for a little while. We did our night downstairs for a while, while the club was being fixed. And I remember going upstairs and besides the smell of smoke and water, I could see through the wall, into a hardware store.”

Dub Mission Blows Up In The Good Way (2002-2005)

Image: Dub Mission Facebook page

DJs Vinnie Esparza and Maneesh the Twister still remain onboard from an original Dub Mission resident crew that also included J-Boogie and Ludichris during those initial, lean years. “This isn’t a lucrative form of music to spin,” Sep said. “They really wanted to do it. It took a long time to grow. It’s been a journey of love for all of us.”

Dub Mission did grow, packing crowds, winning Best Of awards from alt-weeklies and attracting nationally known reggae acts and DJs to an increasingly crowded Sunday night Elbo Room stage. Maneesh the Twister told SFist why he thinks the appeal grew. "We've kept a foundation of dub and roots music while mixing in modern roots, UK steppers and dubby bass music which all have a common thread as the music evolves," he said. "And something unique about Dub Mission is that we play a unique style of reggae and dubwize music you won't hear at other parties."

DJ Sep remembers the moment when it really took off for her. “The fifth anniversary was the first time I thought, ‘This is the moment'." she said. "Our guest was Adrian Sherwood, who was heavily influential on me. It’s been a natural growth, and a slow one.”

DJ Sep Takes Breaks, Has Babies (2006, 2010)

Image: Dub Mission Facebook page

“I say Dub Mission is my first child,” Sep joked. She took maternity leave from Dub Mission to have her first (human) son in 2006 and her second son in 2010. “I didn’t take much time off. But anybody who’s had children knows that it’s impossible and really ill-advised not to take any time at all. But I love DJing, I never really wanted to stop.”

“When you do something weekly, it becomes a big deal in terms of your life, your schedule,” Sep said of these last 19 years. “My husband talks about the fact that our weekend is shortened. And that’s true. But if you know me at all, it’s hard not to recognize how important [Dub Mission] is to me.”

“It will be interesting when things change.”

Things Change: Elbo Room Loses Lease (2015)

Image: Dub Mission Facebook page

Regular readers of this blog know that the Elbo Room is losing their lease, though it has a reprieve until the end of the year with “monthly options in 2016.” DJ Sep tells us the Elbo Room will exercise some of those monthly options, and Dub Mission will continue at Elbo room for at least the first couple months of the new year.

“Elbo Room is not going to close ‘til March at the very earliest,” Sep said. “January and February are certain. But it obviously will close at some point. There is going to be a change.”

And what is that change going to be? There’s more big news for Dub Mission fans.

“We’re going to go monthly. We’re going to do the second Friday of every month,” Sep informed us, noting that Dub Mission will remain a weekly for the rest of 2015 and operate as a monthly party in the new year. “As far as what will happen [in terms of a venue], I don’t know.”

“I’ve looked at it as an opportunity to explore the next ‘What [Dub Mission] can be in addition to being a weekly party?’,” she said. “Doing a weekly has been great, but it’s also extremely time-consuming and there have been things in music that I haven’t been able to do because of it.”

“Most people don’t realize what massive commitment it is to keep that going.”

But that fire back in 1999 prepared Sep for the uncertainty of the Elbo Room situation. “It was the moment where you’re like, you know, things don’t last forever,” she said. “It was that moment where you learn very quickly that things can change and you’re not in charge, So this is similar.”

“But you just think, here’s an opening,” Sep said. “I feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to do a night that went this long, a weekly that went this long. One thousandth show. But I want to do more.”

Dub Mission’s 1000th show is this Sunday, October 25, 9 p.m.-2 a.m. at the Elbo Room. Tickets are $7 advance, $10 at the door.