Suzie Milan receives a bouquet at the Visitacion Valley Street Festival in 2015. The neighborhood hosts the Visitacion Valley Night Market on Friday. Night markets have attracted big crowds in other areas of San Francisco.

Christine Mauia grew up in Visitacion Valley. She knows it has a reputation.

“A lot of times, Visitacion Valley is in the news for not-so-good reasons,” Mauia told me.

The San Francisco neighborhood is perhaps best known to outsiders for the crime that gets reported. Yet while Visitacion Valley has its challenges, it is much more than what people see on the news.

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That’s one of the reasons Mauia and All My Usos, the community nonprofit group she leads, is organizing the first city night market in the neighborhood.

“We’re hoping that this will bring some positivity into Visitacion Valley,” Mauia said. 

This Friday from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., more than 45 food vendors and businesses, many based in the neighborhood, will set up along Leland Avenue, the area’s main drag, for the Visitacion Valley Night Market.

Mauia said she wants people from outside the neighborhood to see what Leland — and Visitacion Valley — has to offer, and hopefully, “When the night market is done, people will keep returning and supporting the merchants.”

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Organized night markets have been wildly successful in other San Francisco neighborhoods, drawing huge crowds, another reason Mauia........

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