San Francisco Citizen

The 35th Annual Nihonmachi Street Fair continues today. Look at the schedule and check it out. But you should also check out Akit’s Complaint Department, where there’s trouble a brewing. It seems that the President of the 1600 Webster Street Homeowners’ Association, David H. Zisser, has some issues.

Read all about it here. 

The lively Nihonmachi Street Fair adds a little color to an otherwise dreary day. There were no signs of life at the million dollar condos at 1600 Webster on the left. Click to expand:

And since we’re here, let’s go through a bit of the letter:

…this Association (along with other members of this neighborhood) must tolerate what seems to be an endless use of Post and Webster Streets

“Members” of a neighborhood? NIMBY alert!

 for a series of look-alike street fairs with the same purveyors of schlocky souvenirs,

You can find a lot of schlocky stuff at street fairs, that’s true.

mediocre food stands and exhibitors

One person’s mediocre exhibitor is another’s treasured community member, right?  

There is no other neighborhood which is asked to put up with these sorts of disruptions, and that, of course, doesn’t include the disruption presented by the Fillmore Street Fair which is only one block away.

That’s the plaintive wail of the NIMBY, no doubt about it now.

The streets and sidewalks of this neighborhood are usually filthy,

Boy, this reads just like a real estate agent’s brochure, doesn’t it?  

especially those that surround that appalling mall,

This appears to be a reference to Post Street’s Kintestsu Mall, which probably wasn’t the best idea to come out of the 1960′s. You can ride your bike down cycle-friendly Post Street all the time and be unaware all the activity going on up inside the mall at night. Of course, it’s kind of an old-fashioned idea to wall off all these folks from the street, as J-Town appears to be a dead area most of the time.

Indeed, the whole place could use something like a Starbucks on the street, but that’s a matter for another day.  

Today’s issue is the question over why people who seem unable to handle Japantown’s rich pageant would move into a building specifically designed to have a “Japanese look” and then hate on harmless street festivals. The world wonders.

Read of further developments here and on the Yelp Talk.

See you there!