Bow Wow Wow Yippy Yo Yippy Yay!

Check out the band "Dogpatch Junction"

There's so much going on in Dogpatch these days. Actually it's been going on for the last few years but the SF Biz Times article about Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's music start-up music streaming service, Beats Music, choosing Dogpatch (555-19th St)   for their "kennel" caught my attention. With an estimated 150 new jobs being created that's great news for the City.

The more than 100 year history of this approximate 9-block enclave in the south-eastern part of the City, adjacent to Portero Hill, is an interesting one which you can read about more here.

For most of its history Dogpatch was of an industrial nature but with the City's continuing move south it's no surprise that Dogpatch has morphed into a hip urban area home to our growing local artisan manufacturing base (thanks, SFMADE) and a happy confluence of eclectic shops and eateries (including great places like Hard Knox Cafe, Serpentine, Piccino and Guido). According to the Portrero Dogpatch Merchants Association membership has increased from 60 in 2004 to 170 today. And with all of this there are significant residential development projects, either in construction or planning, that will bring more than 1,000 additional housing units to the area.


I imagine that without all the development going on in Mission Bay, just north of Dogpatch, it would likely have remained a more "isolated" community for many years to come - and I'm sure there are many residents who would prefer that it keep that status. But like they say "the one thing you can count on is change".

When I think about Dogpatch, I think of the Haight-Ashbury -  which I remember from its pre-"flower power" days", to the transformational music-artisan-hippy scene, to what came of that, and what came after that, and what it is now. I'm by no way anticipating that is what is going to happen to Dogpatch. Today with more access to information, more transparency and more grass-roots community interest I think it's doubtful. It will be interesting to see how Dogpatch continues to develop and I'm keeping my eye on it.

p.s. as you may have noticed, I like closing my posts with some music. The first thing that popped into my head was "How Much Is That Doggie in The Window". After I recovered from shuddering I came up with this which I think is much more befitting. Maybe Dre, Jimmy and Trent can bring some funk to that Patty Page classic.