One of the Best San Francisco Street Fairs..(act of random kindness)

[AsahinaKimi]

Summer in San Francisco usually means street fairs. This means, that sections of the city often close down a portion of the streets for foot traffic. Its a place where people can come and sell their wares and listen to live bands. The more famous ones are usually the Mission Street Fair , The Haight-Ashburry Street Fair, and the Castro Street Fair.

There is also the street fair near City Hall (near the Tenderloin district). Last year's fair was pretty typical except for one small event. Now, many of the street fairs often have food booths and one in particular was a food booth that sold barbecue chicken.

The booth had up a menu up, with chicken running for about 8 dollars, and I might add, they gave you a hearty amount of chicken. There were also side dishes like baked beans, potato salad, corn on the cob, bottled water, and sodas stuck in ice boxes for about a dollar a can. Like most of the booths, this one did quite well at the end of the day, financially.

However, as the night grew on, with the sun going down, and vendors starting to pack up for the day, they decided to do something very special.

Now it seems this particular vendor, had brought way too much chicken with them. So, as the booths were coming down, someone grabbed a black magic maker, drew up a sign saying, "Free chicken for Tenderloin residents!!",and rather then closing down, they spent several hours continuing to barbecue the remainder of chicken until it was gone. Now, the Tenderloin area in San Francisco, is one of the poorest districts in the city.

This was an amazing thing for them to do, to stay open and feed anyone who was hungry!

If people had asked to take some chicken for later, they were more than happy to bag up some extra chicken into plastic containers, with their famous BBQ sauce and throw in some left over
baked beans, and corn on the cob, without taking a cent.

Last year was not that particularly good in San Francisco for most people, financially, but for these people to stop taking money, beyond the time of the end of the street fair, and to continually cook chicken and give it away to anyone who asked, really showed the true spirit of the City, and the Street fairs.

I have been to many of these fairs, and quite often look forward to going however, in all my years of going, I had never seen such an act of random kindness. The looks on all the faces were truly precious to behold, and I will have to admit, it was one of the best Street fairs ever... I hope they do it again, this year.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. I know exactly where you are talking about.

I used to work in that area, Social Services, took the BART and got off at 16th and Mission.

It was indeed an amazing thing to do.

If you can, let us know if there is a repeat this year.

[Luminous Animal]

2. You are off by a couple of miles. The Tenderloin is northeast of city hall.

[Luminous Animal]

3. Carnival is today and tomorrow. It is one of my favorite "street fairs"

mostly because of the music.

http://sf.funcheap.com/san-francisco-carnaval-festival-mission-district/


Edited to add that I really enjoyed your story. The Tenderloin can be an amazing neighborhood but also a scary one. I have a friend that repairs clothes for free once a month or so in the Tenderloin National Forest which, oddly enough had a write-up in the NY Times today! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/us/29bcintel.html


Here is my friend, Michael, sewing for the people! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UulJPa3x8SM

[EFerrari]

6. Wow. What a great idea that is.

[Luminous Animal]

7. Yep. Pretty cool. Michael is a fantastic person and a talented artist.

[Odin2005]

4. That is AWESOME!

[Raine]

5. That's San Francisco for you

some of the very kindest people on the planet. :thumbsup: