Mission

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Code: 94110

Large, vibrant neighborhood with an ethnic mix that can be described as United Nations. Having escaped the 1906 fires, the Mission has a fair number of Victorians. Also many apartments. www.mccormacks.com

Duboce-Division streets mark the north border, Potrero Avenue the east, Chavez (formerly Army) Street the south. At least some Realtors mark the western border as Guerrero Street but this line excludes Mission Dolores and its namesake park and Mission High School. We place the west border at Dolores Street.

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Site of the first Spanish settlements in San Francisco. Mission Dolores, built in 1791, still stands and is popular with tourists. About 5,000 Indians are buried in the churchyard.

The Mission District, however, is not touristy. Too many working people for that. But it has a reputation for being colorful, exuberant and cosmopolitan, and at the same time friendly. Parts of Mission are moving upscale, especially on the west side, Valencia and Guerrero streets.

Realtors say that you have to take the Mission block by block and they're right. Within two or three blocks, conditions can change dramatically. When rents shot up in the late 1990s, rent control dampened increases somewhat and allowed many low- and low-middle income residents to stay in the Mission.

Small shops, groceries, lively restaurants, cheap food. Culturally adventurous. Dance clubs and saloons. www.mccormacks.com

People crowd the shops along Mission and Dolores streets. Murals decorate walls. The Mission has over a dozen churches that provide social outlets and services, such as childcare, and recreational opportunities. Some churches are striking or historically famous. Several private schools.

Crime a problem despite many efforts to improve matters. Drug dealing, shootings, prostitution — not everywhere, not as bad as in many inner cities, not as bad as in the past, but enough to demand wariness.

New library. About 10 parks, playgrounds. Summer concerts and assorted musicals at Mission Dolores Park.

Commute great. Buses. BART runs through Mission. A short hop to downtown, to Giants stadium at China Basin and to Mission Bay, a big development now swinging into high gear.

Mission District is protected from fog and cold winds of the Pacific by Twin Peaks, the range of hills to the west. www.mccormacks.com

• Valencia Gardens, public housing, was opened in 1943 and employed a block design that in later decades was criticized as sterile and conducive to crime. In 2006, a new Valencia Gardens, built on the rubble of the old, opened — 260 apartments, larger windows and rooms, back decks, statues and paintings, internet wiring, day-care center, and rents that mix low and middle income.

• The name Mission shows up in two small neighborhoods that we don’t list: Mission Terrace near Balboa Park and City College and Outer Mission, just west of Crocker-Amazon on the south side. Both neighborhoods straddle Mission Street.