Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Watch Graffiti in Clarion Alley
Most graffiti artists shun broad daylight - but not in
Clarion Alley
(btwn 17th & 18th Sts,
off Valencia St; admission free; 14, 22, 33, Z16th St Mission, J)
, San Francisco's street-art
showcase. On sunny days and with prior consent of Clarion Alley Collective, local
street-artists paint new murals and touch up tagged works. A few pieces survive for
years, such as Megan Wilson's daisy-covered
Tax the Rich
or Jet Martinez' glimpse
of Clarion Alley inside a man within a forest.
Sniff Roses in Dearborn Community Garden
Flowers push through sidewalks elsewhere, but in the Mission, a rogue garden has
taken over an entire parking lot. PepsiCo employees once parked on asphalt along
Dearborn St, just north of 18th Street and west of Valencia St. Neighbors gardened
along the edges - and when the Pepsi plant closed in 1991, they got organized. Ve-
getable plots were planted, property taxes paid, and benches installed. Today the
garden feeds 40 families, and delights all who pass.
Glimpse Goddesses in Women's Building Murals
The nation's first female-owned-and-operated community center has quietly done
good work with 170 women's organizations since 1979 - but the 1994
Maestrapeace
mural showed the
Women's Building
( 415-431-1180;
www.womensbuilding.org
; 3543 18th St;
; 18th St, Z16th St Mission)
for the landmark it truly is. Seven muralistas and dozens
of volunteers covered the building on two sides with goddesses and women trail-
blazers, including Nobel Prize-winner Rigoberta Menchu, poet Audre Lorde and
artist Georgia O'Keeffe.
Indulge at Bi-Rite Creamery
Velvet ropes at clubs seem pretentious in laid-back San Francisco, but at organic
Bi-
Rite Creamery
(
415-626-5600;
www.biritecreamery.com
;
3692 18th St; ice cream $3-7;
J)
they make perfect
11am-10pm Sun-Thu, to 11pm Fri & Sat;
;
33, Z16th St Mission,
