Years ago, Erin edited a book on the San Francisco murals, and though she’d visited SF multiple times and stayed nearby many times, she’d never seen them until this trip. On our first day we took a walk down Clarion Alley, and on our last day we strolled down Balmy Alley—not to mention seeing all the murals on random buildings in the Mission. Clarion Alley, we’re told, is the less “savory” of the two streets, more likely to be the host of a drug deal than a painting in progress. When we were on Balmy Alley we actually saw two women painting a new mural. In general we’d say that Clarion’s murals were the more “current”—messages that seemed more contemporary and concerned with current events—but on Balmy the murals were traditional, depicting the ongoing struggles of the people who painted them.
