The Potrero View’s special History Issue in April features a cover showcasing Alison Pebworth’s map of the Phantom Coast and images of our neighborhood’s rich manufacturing and shipbuilding history. We encourage you to download this issue! Arctic Oil Works was established on Illinois Street between 16th and 17th streets in 1883, producing refined seal and… Keep Reading
Each of us, if we live long enough, is a part of history. Between the time I was born in 1960 and now, terrorist planes crashed into and toppled Manhattan’s Twin Towers. America landed on the moon and the world grappled with pandemics, one of which, HIV/AIDS, killed upwards of 20,000 San Franciscans. One U.S.… Keep Reading
Potrero Hill has starred in dozens of feature films, television shows, and commercials over the last fifty plus years, capturing our photogenic corner of the City, as well as inadvertently documenting its many changes. The intersection of 18th and Missouri streets often gets a casting call. In the remake of Sweet November (2001), Sara Deever… Keep Reading
Theater This year’s participants in Potrero Hill-based PlayGround’s Innovator Incubator include two companies new to the Incubator – The American Jewish Theatre and House Theater, both Los Angeles-based – and six returning troupes: Analog Theatre, The Chikahan Company, Latinx Mafia, Network Effects Theater, Oakland Public Theater, and Poltergeist Theatre Project. The Incubator was launched in 2019 to foster innovative theatre… Keep Reading
Andrew Roth fell in love with sound more than four decades ago, when he was eight years old. His doctor dad would drive him from their North-of-Market neighborhood to Tower Records, buying him cassette recordings of old radio programs like Fibber McGee and Molly, and Beatles LPs. The discovery of a reel-to-reel tape recorder two… Keep Reading
THE RICHARD’S HOUSE, 301 PENNSYLVANIA AND BETHLEHEM SHIPBUILDING CORPORATION. HOSPITAL, 331 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE The Italianate Victorian at 301 Pennsylvania, at 18th Street, is one of Potrero Hill’s oldest mansions, built in 1865 on a 13-acre tract owned by Captain Charles Adams. Captain Adams arrived at the Hill in the 1850s from the wealthy whaling capital… Keep Reading
Now through 4/7 Sunday Art: The 63rd Annual Potrero Hill Art ExhibitionOpen to anyone who lives, learns, works, and/or worships in Potrero Hill or Dogpatch. The first 50 artists to submit are guaranteed a spot in the show. Entry form is available at the Potrero Library, 1616 20th Street, by emailing potmgr@sfpl.org, or at https://bit.ly/3TJUK5U … Keep Reading
Although San Francisco high schools slightly exceeded the state average for students graduating within five years of starting, San Francisco International and Downtown high schools, both in Potrero Hill, had low graduation rates in 2023. According to the California State School Dashboard website, www.caschooldashboard.org, 88 percent of San Francisco Unified School District students graduated within… Keep Reading
As a result of Assembly Bill (AB) 413, as of January 1, 2024 drivers are no longer allowed to park within 20 feet of a crosswalk, marked or unmarked, on the side from which traffic approaches an intersection. In places with curb extensions – wider sidewalks that shorten the length to traverse the street –… Keep Reading
The Dogpatch and Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District (GBD) has its annual board elections this month, in advance of a year in which the organization will work to convince taxpayers to renew its charter for another 10 years, and launch new projects, including potentially to “clean and green” Dogpatch’s freeway underpasses. There are five… Keep Reading
Lots of indicators suggest that we Americans are struggling. Twice as many should-be students are missing more than 10 percent of the school year than before the pandemic. Drug overdose deaths rose roughly three percent in 2023, after several years of double-digit increases; well more than 70,000 dead annually. In the first six weeks of… Keep Reading
Crime Last month, Wok & Go, located on the corner of 24th Street and Potrero Avenue, received a order for a delivery to Connecticut Street between Wisconsin and 25th streets. When driver Xiong Zou arrived three young men, one brandishing a gun, robbed him of the food and $31 in cash. Zou wasn’t injured during… Keep Reading
In the heart of Potrero Hill, where the city’s pulse beats a little differently, Farley’s is celebrating a remarkable milestone; 35 years of serving up not just java, but a sense of community, warmth, and connection. The shop has woven itself into the fabric of Potrero Hill, evolving from a coffee accessory store into a… Keep Reading
This month Sequoia Fabrica – featuring a wood and textile workshop, 3D printers and laser cutter, electronics, crafts and fine arts stations – opened at 1736 18th Street. Co-founders Max Omdal, Maggie Frankel and Emeline Brule hope that the makerspace will foster the next generation of designers and craftspeople. “We’ll have a balance of two… Keep Reading
3/2 SaturdayArt: MakeArt Family Day & 20-Year Birthday PartyThe Museum of Craft and Design celebrates 20 years with MakeArt Family Day. Revisit favorite activities like Maia Scott’s soap sculpture and Chris Myers’ buildable ArtBots project, then create audible stitched stories with Liz Hernández and Charlene Lu’s Interactive Embroidery. Free with admission;12 and under always gratis. 11 a.m.… Keep Reading
Founded in 1909 on a lot presently occupied by the Potrero Hill Public Library, for a time Daniel Webster (DW) Elementary School was one of the Hill’s three main schools, along with Irving Scott and Patrick Henry. DW relocated to Missouri and 20th streets in 1917. Its building was remodeled for seismic safety in the… Keep Reading
MBC BioLabs wants to develop shared laboratory, office, conference, and community rental space for biotechnology startups at 700 Indiana Street. Prospective Dogpatch neighbors indicate that they don’t generally oppose life science/biotech labs but contend that the parcel isn’t zoned for what MBC BioLabs proposes to do. The 0.71-acre property is located between Indiana Street… Keep Reading
Pedestrians throughout San Francisco have noticed what appear to be random incidences of the grinding down of portions of sidewalks. The patches of polished cement are sometimes adjacent to trees. They often appear nearby unresolved cracks, bumps, and uplifted pieces of cement. The polishing is being executed through StreetTreeSF, managed by the San Francisco Public… Keep Reading
Nestled in a walkway outside Uber’s Mission Bay headquarters at Pierpoint Lane and Bridgeview Way is a tall, highly reflective serpentine structure that bounces sunlight from its geometric, shiny, stainless-steel tiles. The installation is roughly three and half stories tall. Its shape is akin to a futuristic spaceship composed of three slithering snakes coiling up… Keep Reading
Facts are facts. The sun rises and sets as expected by the clock, even if time itself is subject to deeper exploration. Black men are incarcerated at much higher rates than whites. The earth’s temperatures are rising more or less as predicted by complex, data-driven, climate models. Smoking cigarettes elevates the chance of getting lung… Keep Reading
Homicide The San Francisco Police Department has launched a homicide investigation after a man was killed and another injured following a Mission Bay shooting last month. At around midnight on a Sunday officers were called to the 100 block of Berry Street, where they found a man suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He was… Keep Reading
Four out of five San Franciscans claim they workout at least once a week, with almost half doing so as part of formal or informal group classes. A number of facilities offer a diversity of opportunities to “move it” in Dogpatch and South-of-Market (SoMa); a few are described below. Dogpatch Pilates is a new addition… Keep Reading
Rapid robotics creates mechanical arms that undertake the uninteresting, unclean, and unsafe work a human would otherwise have to do, according to the company’s chief marketing officer, Kim Losey. Numerous manufacturing facilities have challenging labor environments, such as meat-packing facilities, where employees are subject to near-freezing temperatures. Robots can replace people in those jobs. “The… Keep Reading
A concerned neighbor has requested that the proposed permit for 945 Minnesota Street be withdrawn from the Historic Preservation Commission’s (HPC) calendar, asserting that it doesn’t comply with the San Francisco Planning Code (SFPC). “It is not allowable to use illegal construction at the adjacent property to justify building in the Required Rear Yard and… Keep Reading
Edward Hatter has been the executive director of the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, also known as “the Nabe,” since 2004. He recalls applying for an internship at the Nabe in low-income housing development when his grandmother, Enola Maxwell, served as the nonprofit’s ED. “I remember seeing the announcement on her desk. Then I had to… Keep Reading