By Juliette Tang
The Mission District is gathering its forces in a fight against American Apparel. Yes, native Missionites are rebelling against skinny jeans, hoodies with white zippers, and colorful tights. (Irony! — Ed.).
American Apparel is trying to build a store at 988 Valencia Street, right next to the Artist Television Access, an artist-run, non-profit experimental media arts gallery that has been around since 1984, on an extremely vibrant corner of the Mission that includes independent, locally-owned gems like Dosa, the Sidewalk Juice Cafe, Herbivore, and Minnie Wilde.
“Oh, hell no!” says local writer Stephen Elliott of the Progressive Reading Series and other actively opposed Mission denizens. .