By Steven T. Jones
The streets of the Mission District came alive for a few hours yesterday, transformed into vibrant public spaces filled with bicyclists, children, skaters, dancers, walkers, yoginis, and neighborhood residents and merchants – pretty much everything except the motorists that usually dominate the roadways.
The occasion was Sunday Streets, the car-free events created by a partnership of progressive groups and the Mayor’s Office. And this was by far the best of the five Sunday Streets events that San Francisco has staged, mostly because it was in a dense, lively neighborhood rather than along the sterile Embarcadero where previous events have been.
Mission dwellers used the occasion to haul out barbecues or sound systems, to set up garage sales or lemonade stands, or simply to sit on their porches or driveways and enjoy the street life. “Aren’t you my neighbor? Hello, good to see you again,” a friendly young hipster on a bike said to an older Latina at one point, a warm exchange that seemed emblematic of the event’s community-building potential.