Clarion Alley

Before this was a mural alley in San Francisco's Mission District, it belonged to the teenagers of Vatos Mexicanos Locos, whose tags marked territory not to be touched. The guide follows artists Aaron Noble and Rigo 23, who lived on this block in 1992 between a heroin market and a police station as the AIDS crisis gutted their community, and their decision to invite about forty artists, including muralists Susan Cervantes and Chuy Campusano, to paint the garage doors and walls with no unifying theme. Painter Julie Murray remembered biking through the alley holding her breath against the fumes, past broken glass and the smell of stale liquor.