The Mission

The Mission is a district of San Francisco where I stayed for 4 days, see the map on the right. It has a few similarities with my suburb Newtown in Wellington. Its an urban area with an eclectic mix of people, shops and food. Gentrification is kicking in with many young professionals moving to the area.

This is what wikipedia had to say about the Mission:

The Inner Mission was viewed as a Hispanic neighborhood through much of the 1960s and 1970s. However, the Mission today is both the nexus of the Chicano and Latino community and a neighborhood of artists and hipsters. While Mexican, Salvadorian, and other Latin American restaurants are pervasive throughout the neighborhood, residences are not so evenly distributed. Traditional residents, including most of the neighborhood's Hispanic residents, tend to live on the eastern side. Hipsters center around Valencia Street and Mission Dolores Park on the western side. However, there are certainly no distinct racial lines. A fusion of the conceivably disparate cultures is evidenced by the many colorful Mexican and Latin American themed murals throughout the neighborhood.

These murals are what fascinated me about the Mission so I took a few photos and I've embedded them below. Most of these murals come from Balmy Alley where many of the fences and walls have been painted with amazing murals.