The ‘bap! bap! bap!’ of low volume ambulance sirens echoes along the echo chamber of 14th street apartment buildings outside my window and there is only that and the hum of the old refrigerator compressor across the room from me.
I like middle of the night pretty much anywhere but mostly in a city.
Cleaning with Skippy and a VA appointment I walked the 4 miles home from and a couple of vigorous workouts and I was crashed by 5pm and up at 1am going over email.
Then, on to Mission Local to comment on Oscar’s latest …
Reporting from the Mission District and other District 9 neighborhoods. Some of his personal interests are bicycles, film, and both Latin American literature and punk. Oscar’s work has previously appeared in KQED, The Frisc, El Tecolote, and Golden Gate Xpress.More by Oscar Palma
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Greg on 26says:May 20, 2026, 11:19 am at 11:19 amWe cram more and more services for addiction and mental health into an area crammed with drug dealers and users. Then we complain about abhorrent street conditions. I have to laugh otherwise I’d cry. Kudos on the training and mentorship programs though.+10votes. Sign in to voteReply
Clean up the Missionsays:May 20, 2026, 7:31 pm at 7:31 pmIn agreement with you. Why are we pouring more and more people into a place that is overrun with drugs and squalor. Residents are so sick of the deteriorating condition in the neighborhood. Too bad they have to make the Mission worse while aiming to help, it’s become the dumping ground for addicts, druggie and thieves. Would the Brat brothers want to live here? Probably not.00votes. Sign in to voteReply
h. brownsays:May 21, 2026, 2:38 am at 2:38 amYour comment is awaiting moderation.Campers, Stand back a little further and you’ll see how much that hood has improved. Before we had the old folks enclave at Valencia Gardens there were housing projects on that spot teeming with desperate Poor and their gangs dominated the area where you could get killed for walking off the 14 Mission at 16th or 24th and Mission wearing wrong colored shirt. Now, the downtrodden there mostly just kill themselves, literally, by the hundreds. As a retired teacher of SED student’s who taught the neighborhood’s toughest kids at Potrero Hill Middle School (OJ’s alma mater and we watched him beat the murder rap on TV there to loud cheers from the kids) … Best me and my dog can do is spend our morning’s cleaning the sidewalks and gutters in front of apartment houses and 30 storefronts and brass at DPW has even cut off most of our supplies for that. Seriously, while Lurie has opened the Public wallet to contract outside cleaning services I can’t even get them to replace the ammonia and cat litter I go through (outta ammonia now) daily spiffing up Valencia to Guerrero and 14th to Duboce which is a lot of feces and broken glass and urine stains I’m here to tell you. go Niners !! h.
I’m h. brown, the creator and author behind this blog. I’m a political blogger covering San Francisco local politics. Everything I write from now on is my attempt to carry on the torch for Linda Laflamme (Neska) and Roscoe Robinson (Frank Leslie/Mickey/Roscoe) two gifts to so many many thousands.
So far.
“I’m supposed to play here.”
That’s what Linda Laflamme said the first time I saw her under the snow topped skylight in the old Steam Auto factory my friends and I had converted to h. brown’s in 1977 I believe it was.
Greg on 26says:May 20, 2026, 11:19 am at 11:19 amWe cram more and more services for addiction and mental health into an area crammed with drug dealers and users. Then we complain about abhorrent street conditions. I have to laugh otherwise I’d cry. Kudos on the training and mentorship programs though.+10votes. Sign in to voteReply
Clean up the Missionsays:May 20, 2026, 7:31 pm at 7:31 pmIn agreement with you.
h. brownsays:May 21, 2026, 2:38 am at 2:38 amYour comment is awaiting moderation.Campers, Stand back a little further and you’ll see how much that hood has improved. Before we had the old folks enclave at Valencia Gardens there were housing projects on that spot teeming with desperate Poor and their gangs dominated the area where you could get killed for walking off the 14 Mission at 16th or 24th and Mission wearing wrong colored shirt. Now, the downtrodden there mostly just kill themselves, literally, by the hundreds. As a retired teacher of SED student’s who taught the neighborhood’s toughest kids at Potrero Hill Middle School (OJ’s alma mater and we watched him beat the murder rap on TV there to loud cheers from the kids) … Best me and my dog can do is spend our morning’s cleaning the sidewalks and gutters in front of apartment houses and 30 storefronts and brass at DPW has even cut off most of our supplies for that. Seriously, while Lurie has opened the Public wallet to contract outside cleaning services I can’t even get them to replace the ammonia and cat litter I go through (outta ammonia now) daily spiffing up Valencia to Guerrero and 14th to Duboce which is a lot of feces and broken glass and urine stains I’m here to tell you. go Niners !! h.
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