Short Cuts
How Our Gardens Grow
Urban Sprouts has partnered with International Studies Academy (ISA) to plant a garden on the campus’ 19th and DeHaro streets corner. ISA students will tend to the plot during and after school, and their families will be able to grow their own food and receive a $250 stipend for doing so. Potrero Hill residents are welcome to volunteer…Sixty-six families included Daniel Webster Elementary School’s Spanish Immersion program on their list of preferred seven schools on their 2009 kindergarten application, and 16 of them placed it in the top slot. That’s 66 more requests than last year. Potrero Residents Education Fund founding members Jennifer Betti, Katherine Doumani, Dena Fischer and Laura Mitic have all proudly registered their kids at Webster...By the by, if you’re a second grader the way to make something permanent – like the rules of a schoolyard game – is to shout out “that’s the only specialty!” or “Dr. Pepper!” The origins of these contractual magic words are as mysterious as “puppy guarding,” which refers to the person designated as “it” staying close to home base in a game of tag, a practice that’s frowned upon…And speaking of gardens, Friends of the Urban Forest will plant a street tree in Dogpatch of Potrero Hill for the low, low price $120. You need to sign-up by mid-May, and attend a meeting on May 13, to participate. Contact Bonnie Bergeron for details: 285.2003.
Toxic Wall
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) will build a barrier to keep toxins from leaching into the bay in the area around the Potrero Power Plant. The utility has known for at least a decade that coal tar-related contaminants, which are harmful to humans and marine life, are present at the site, but has been slow to do anything about it. Coal tar is a byproduct of manufactured gas, which lit the City’s homes and street lights two centuries ago. PG&E sold the plant – which spews particulate matter and discharges millions of gallons of heated water into the bay every day, killing hundreds of millions of fish larvae (see this month’s “Publisher’s View”) – to Mirant Corporation in the late-1990s, but is legally responsible for the cleanup…Biodiesel may be beloved by some environmentalists, but a biodiesel plant, to be located on Pier 92, is not so popular with others. Last month Bayview-hunters Point Community Advocates, represented by Golden Gate University’s environmental law clinic, sued to halt Darling International, Inc.’s proposed facility until an environmental impact analysis is conducted. Community advocate Karen Pierce indicated that her group generally supported the plant, but needed to know more about its implications to the local eco-system…The Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association isn’t happy with a proposal to increase the building envelope and potentially add a large driveway easement across Starr King Openspace. The Association is challenging a Planning Department decision to bypass environmental review of the 1321 De Haro Street project, which is located just west of Starr King Elementary School. The Boosters believe that the project could impose significant adverse environmental impacts on the open space, which was created almost a quarter of a century ago (see Starr King article in this issue).
Willie Boulevard
Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was originally appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by Willie Brown, wants to gift the former mayor with a street for his 75th birthday. The current mayor proposes to rename Third Street, which stretches five miles through Bayview-Hunters Point, Dogpatch, and Mission Bay, “Willie L. Brown Jr. Blvd.’’ Hundreds of San Franciscans, many of them peeved by Brown’s pro-development efforts, are rallying against the plan, which needs to be endorsed by the Board…Speaking of Third Street, the house that Willie helped build, AT&T Park, is hosting the San Francisco Giant’s 10th season at the park. While the ball park is allegedly one of the greenest in the county, by drawing hundreds of thousands of fans every year, many of whom park their car in the neighborhood, it’s also no doubt one of the largest indirect sources of polluting air emissions in South-of-Market and Mission Bay. Take Muni the next time you go to a game.
Low
Home improvement chain Lowe’s may be looking to occupy the Bayshore Boulevard location that competitor Home Depot recently abandoned. The North Carolina-based retailer recently signed a lease on the old Goodman Lumber parcel that gives them almost until the end of the year to decide whether they’re going to proceed with a 100,000+ square foot store. If they do, they’ll be on the hook for providing the same community amenities that Home Depot had promised, including a $750,000 contribution to workforce training, a $100,000 gift to San Francisco’s day labor program, and hiring half of the store’s employees from the neighborhood. Lowe’s interest in the site is a bit perplexing, given that the chain just opened an outlet in South San Francisco, less than 10 miles a way from the proposed new location, and the home improvement market isn’t too lively these days…Speaking of hardware stores, Cole Hardware has launched a trial program to collect soft plastic, which it will make permanent if it’s successful. Soft plastic consists of those bags your newspaper, bread, and hanging clothes from the cleaner are wrapped in. If you’re not using yours to pick-up dog poop, when you have a bagful bring it to one of Cole’s four locations. They’ll also take bubble wrap, as well as cell phones, batteries, paint, lightbulbs, scrap metal, and printer cartridges. Check their website for details: www.coloehardware.com. And apropos of environmental goodness, if you were intrigued by the water recirculation device Potrero Hill resident Brian Liles recently installed (see “Potrero Hill Copes with Drought” in last month’s View) you can find the Metlund® Hot Water D’MAND® System at www.gothotwater.com.
Sunday Streets
Sunday Streets is back. Starting last month, the City will close miles of roadways on six Sunday mornings to provide recreational opportunities, inspire physical activity and create car-free open space. Yoga, roller skating, bike repair, cycling education classes, and dance lessons will be on offer. The May 10 event will focus on Southeast San Francisco – from AT&T Park to the Bayview Opera House, along the Bay – highlighting the San Francisco Bay Trail, which will celebrate its 20th Anniversary.
Stimulating
Federal stimulus monies are flowing into San Francisco, initially to support repair work at public housing complexes, including the Terrace and Annex complex on the top of Potrero Hill. All told more than $2.5 million will be dedicated to making improvements at the complex.
Questions
Where do bus drivers relieve themselves? Why aren’t there king bees?
