outh America, the Middle East, Philippines and former Yugoslavia. The late 90s-2010s brought the gentrifiers and professionals into the district, especially in the western and northern sides of the neighborhood. The neighborhood’s Chicano/Latino residents, still reside on the eastern and southern sides.
With its highly diverse population and dense development, this is one of my favorite districts in the City. It also boasts great urban form with high quality transit, bike infrastructure , tons of cultural and retail amenities, and great walkable schools. There are several commercial districts (Mission, Valencia, 24th Street, 16th) and most of the neighborhood is highly mixed-use. With 65% of its units rent controlled, many can still live in relative affordably. For sale prices are certainly very high but a decent amount of condos selling between 400-750K, which by San Fran standards is “moderately priced housing”. There are some minor areas to improve including the redevelopment of surface parking and industrial uses along the district’s northern edge, outdated streetscaping, and a somewhat lack of street trees throughout the district.
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Excellent Density.
* Great public transit access. All around a very walkable district.
* Wonderful mixed-use development throughout the entire district.
* Excellent bike infrastructure, public transit access, and general walkability here.
* One of the most economically and racially diverse districts in the City.
* 65% of all units are rent controls helping to create a large amount of affordable/moderately priced units. Medium rent at $1,700 is lower than the City average.
* Good park amenities starting with expansive and well known Mission Dolares Park. Plenty of small-medium sized parks spread throughout the district. Most are in good shape and amenity rich. Largest skatepark in the City.
* Culturally the district offers a great array of restaurants (esp. ethnic ones), plenty of bars & cafes, a good number of breweries, art galleries, clubs, and live music venues. There are also several performing arts centers, a pair of cinemas, the historic Doloares Mission Church, several smaller museums and historic sites.
* Neighborhood amenities include several full-size supermarkets (esp. along the northern edge), lots of small grocerias, a couple drug stores, a Best Buy and Office Max, plenty of banks, boutiques, florist’s, and antique/thrift stores, 2 post offices, a library, tons of bookstores/gift shops, dessert places and salons, a couple gyms, a major hospital (Zuckerberg General), and a decent # of churches.
* Walkable access to a wide arrange of schools for all ages. Public receive decent rankings.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* For sale prices are certainly expensive but this district actually has some condos 1 bedrooms selling between 350K-750K. Fair amount of modestly priced condos selling between 750K-1 M. SF homes sell anywhere from 1-3M depending on size and condition.
* Market rate rents are typically in the 2000s for 1 bedrooms, 3000s for 2 bedrooms, 3.5K-6K for 3 bedrooms. Some studios rent in the $1,000s.
* Overall a good tree canopy but below average for San Fran.
* The district is generally safe especially nowadays. Still some blight in along Mission and other commercial streets in the southern edge of the district, a vestige to its past.
* Northern edge of district has a good amount of surface parking and industrial uses.
* Streetscaping is solid but dated. No recent investments.
* The image of the Mission district has certainly improved in recent history (just look at the hsg prices), but still a prospection with some that it is a rough, unsafe place.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 