Bartlett Street

The makeover of Bartlett Street between 21st and 22nd in the heart of the Mission is about commence, establishing a permanent Mercado Plaza, a flexible urban space to accommodate the weekly Mission Community Market and other neighborhood gatherings.

Mercado Plaza Rendering

The Bartlett Street roadway will be narrowed and the sidewalks widened; more trees and greenery will be planted; and a permanent pergola/canopy structure will be installed at the southern end of the street.

Mercado Plaza Plan

Construction of the Bartlett Street makeover is being funded in part by the sales of the 114 condos at Vida (aka 2558 Mission Street), a development which is now officially half sold out.  And as part of the project, power and lighting for vendors will be added as well, setting the stage for evening markets and events.

Mercado Plaza Rendering Night

31 thoughts on “Mercado Plaza Coming Soon, Night Market In The Mission Too?”
  1. I really hope they allow street food vendors to appear here between 12-3am. We have a pretty terrible street food scene in this city, something like this might help to kickstart it. It only takes a visit to Portland to see how successful and delicious street food can be.

    1. Agree wholeheartedly! I would love to see something like the food courts of Singapore established somewhere in the city. The ability to access a variety of great food is something I think could become a pretty big draw. I know we have the food truck scene, but I much prefer an established building with stalls to eating food from a vehicle.

      1. Singapore, never been but I’ve certainly fantasized about any city in the US having a food scene on par with it. To me the perfect location for a late night food scene like in Bangkok or Singapore would be Chinatown. Just a seedy awesome multi faceted scene, would really be the stuff of my fantasies and Phillip Dick / William Gibson loving self. This is probably the most well suited city in the country for it.

  2. The whole notion of eating food from trucks or street vendors– I wonder about sanitation, workers etc.–are there infrastructure enhancements which can result in spotless bathrooms, sink stations and the rest? Portland has fully gone to other side of goodness, and refreshingly and unlike SF, they’re not a 24/7 self promotional marketing machine. They’re already there living the good life.. Have a condo there and need to revisit their street food scene.

    1. Street food should only be a health concern in situations where you’re dealing with a foreign microbial environment, like in Singapore, Manila, Taipei, Bankok, etc. where you’re more likely to get your immune system compromised by something totally unfamiliar. Manila is a huge culture shock for most Americans and eating the street food there would be fine as long as you’ve been “baptized” into the environment 😛

  3. I am enamored with the photorealistic people in the renderings. Whose job was it to present ethnically-appropriate images that don’t cross the line into parody?

    The trackstanding singlespeeder.
    The photographer hopefully not shooting the twirling-skirted girls’ skirts.
    The befuddled asian family staring longingly at the ice cream cart.

    1. LOL , yea the renderings of the people looked more like one would expect from a Poster rather then from a developer 🙂

    2. I see real Turkish Döner Kebab! And cheap too, only 1 Lira, that’s about 50 cents. I think I’m gonna buy one of those Vida condos just to be near that. They’re horribly overpriced, but I’ll save so much money on food.

    1. This is in The Pission. The people aren’t actually homeless, they just look and smell that way.

        1. Of course. Nowadays they look like they’re convulsing, and smell like they just died. (namelink)

          Really, a jab about the city’s outdoor-dwelling population will be de rigeur for many more years to come. Just accept.

    2. Thankfully we have people like YOU to make sure that every single thread does mention “the homeless”. Because most Bay Area residents are blissfully aware of this population!

  4. I wonder why they kept curbs at all? Wouldn’t this have been a good place to do a single level to maximize utility for everyone? Or does that run afoul of ADA concerns? I’m serious…there is an ADA issue about keeping the “sidewalk” distinct from the “street”….which I understand in a speeding car scenario, but which I don’t understand in a block long alley context. I’m not sure if there are hard and fast rules or not…but it’s one area where European street design is sooooo much better than ours at creating shared car/bike/ped space.

    1. @curmudgeon: They looked at removing the curbs, but it didn’t work for a variety of reasons — I think ADA was one of them. Remember also that most of the time this stretch will still be sidewalk, parking and street — it is not solely a pedestrian plaza.

  5. great for those a few blocks away and others across city, but can you imagine how much it would suck to leave on the blocks where a night market existed until 3AM? the majority of people after midnight would be drunk and loud

    1. This is one thing about drunks in this country that I have never understood. The constant need to scream and shout at each other. In other countries, people are well-behaved drunks and don’t feel the need to constantly yell. It must be a cultural defect related to the 21+ drinking age.

  6. My friend was sending me pictures from a couple of the night markets in Taipei last weekend. And she’s Singaporean.

    If we did it on a pier or somewhere where there could be some noise, a couple of restaurants, an ethnic food court, some vendors, and maybe even live music could be amazing, it would make SF more of a destination.

    1. I always though this would be great in SF on a Pier. The ones in Asian I have seen are kind of like outdoor food courts with permanent stalls and then common seating. They are usually covered but open air but in SF maybe an indoor/outdoor one would be best. I also ate a similar food stalls at the flea market in Guadalajara.

      These places over time become absolutely awesome at the one or two things they specialize in.

      A great complement to the upscale Ferry Building.

        1. The night markets (in Taiwan) and circuses (Singapore) are known for being relatively cheap. I’ve eaten like a king from 3 stalls (dinner, dessert, drink) for under about 10 bucks in Singapore. At 3am.

          1. In SF it will be “artisanal”,”sustainable” and of course locally sourced ingredients and a bowl of noodles will be $21 made by someone who just quit their high tech job

  7. terrible idea. all this going to do is increase street feces with side order of pot, diarrhea and tropical diseases and the ever wandering homeless we get from other states and cities. no one will be able to sleep on this block. expect police there all the time and soon a neighborhood with people actually who need to sleep because they have to earn wages to make a living to petition this place be turned into anything but a night market and rightly so!

  8. Here we are, December 16, 2015, 11 months after the projected opening of the so-called Mercado Plaza, and the site remains chaotic.

    The one-block part of Bartlett Street between 21-22nd streets has been a construction joke since the project started, at least 2 years ago. Contractors associated with this lame-ass, ultra-messy project should be forever stripped of their licenses and permits.

    About 3 months ago, it looked like the trash and mayhem was finally starting to get cleaned up and what do you think happened? They brought back earth-moving and heavy equipment and dug up what had been completed! A messy, dusty, LOUD project that was often conducted in the middle of the night and no doubt exceeded its original budget by $$$$$$$, Reminds me of the Eastern span of the Bay Bridge. Total ineptitude!

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