Short Cuts
Hat Toss
A couple more hats have been thrown into the 2010 race for Sophie Maxwell’s supervisorial seat. Last month Eric Smith, who serves on the Mission Bay and Eastern Neighborhoods citizens advisory committees, filed his intent to run at the Department of Elections. He can be contacted at eric@ericsmith10.com. And View publisher Steven Moss – who also leads Dogpatch-based nonprofit San Francisco Community Power, and is an Adjunct Lecturer at San Francisco State University’s public administration program – says he’s going to run. Early in his career Moss, who has a graduate degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, worked as staff for the U.S. Congress and the White House Budget Office, and has intermittently provided budget policy advice to the Governments of Niger and Senegal as part of a U.S. Treasury Department assistance program. Those who want to support his campaign can reach him at steven@moss.net...Mean while, it looks like City Attorney Dennis Herrera will square off against State Senator Leland Yee in next year’s mayoral contest.
Crime
Although police reports indicate that on July 9 two people were shot on the 800 block of Kansas, neighbors say that the incident more likely happened on Wisconsin Street, where the two victims may have shot one another. Where the shooting occurred may not be as important as why, and how to reduce the frequency of this type of violence. According to Bayview District police sergeant Jedd Conley, most shootings in the City are targeted towards specific individuals, rather than part of random robberies or violent acts. There’s multiple communities out there; in some, disputes are fought by attorneys, in others by guns…In what turned out not to be criminal activity, a late night neighborhood roof-hopper, who drew the attention of the police, was trying to break into his own home after losing his keys while drunk. Last month Hill residents were awoken at 3 a.m. on a Sunday by a yell from a police officer, who was pointing his gun at a De Haro Street resident who’d been hopping from rooftop to rooftop on the east side of Rhode Island, between 22nd and 23rd streets. The De Haro resident was (temporarily) arrested. It’s apparently not the first time he’s tried this unconventional entry to his apartment. If you’re not Spiderman, stay off of other people’s roofs… Also last month, police received word from a neighbor that five cars on 20th and Rhode Island streets were being broken into. The cops quickly responded, and caught the thieves in action. Word to the wise: keep valuables out of your car…Meanwhile, contrary to earlier promises, the police department is chewing up parking spaces around its new tactical and motorcycle units headquarter building on 16th and De Haro streets.
Another Kind of Crime
Complaints from the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association that 1250 Missouri Street was illegally being developed for residential use prompted a hearing by the Board of Supervisor’s Land Use and Economic Development Committee last month. The property is located in an industrial protection zone that prohibits residential uses, and was approved for light industrial and commercial uses in 2001. However, the building’s kitchens and bathrooms seem to be designed for live/work housing. Concerns came to a boil when neighboring business owner and Potrero Hill Association of Merchants and Businesses president Keith Goldstein received word that bathtubs were being added to the development, and Boosters president Tony Kelly located online real estate listings for live/work housing at the property. A representative for the building owners assured the committee that plumbing would be capped within the walls so that the illegal kitchens and bathrooms aren’t installed, and the Planning Department flagged the building with a special notice so that the City’s zoning administrator can review future development applications, with the neighbors notified of any new activity.
The Grass is Greener
Responding to requests from the quite active McKinley Square Park Community Group, San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department’s Steven Cismowski announced last month that new sod, and an improved irrigation system, will be installed at the park. The grass will consist of Bermuda/rye, with an over seeding of fescue. That, with the remaining viable kikuyu that will likely remain, will produce a grass for every microclimate within the small park. With normal wear and tear, the grass combination should last a good long time.
Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut
Potrero Hill mom Katherine Doumani recently issued a warning to the Potrero Hill Parents Association listserv warning of “pine nut mouth,” which apparently is afflicting people worldwide who’ve eaten a particular variety of pine nut that may originate in China. Within a day and a half after eating the nuts the consumer experiences a bitter taste that makes eating entirely unpleasant, a sensation that can last upwards of two weeks. Pine nut poison appears to be individual-specific; neither Doumani’s husband nor her daughter were afflicted. Another subtle warning to know where the things you put in your mouth come from. Which is to say: buy local.
We Need a New Drug
New York drug giant Pfizer has flushed its plans to open a biotech research center near the University of California, San Francisco, Mission Bay campus. The pharmaceutical firm had announced last year that it would locate in the neighborhood, but reconsidered after its merger with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. Even without a large private sector anchor tenant, small biotechnology companies continue to eye the area to plant their facilities. Growth may be slower, but it will almost certainly come. The immediate question is what happens to the half-constructed building Pfizer was going to occupy on Third Street.
Repower or Die
In June the California State Water Resources Control Board issued draft regulations that would require power plants that use once-through cooling (OTC) – which, by sucking water out of the ocean or bays, kills millions of organisms – to repower, retire, or find another way to avoid destroying marine life. The Potrero Power Plant, which relies on OTC, would have to comply within one year after the effective date of the final policy; most likely by 2011. The rule, if adopted, would be yet another bullet into a plant that everyone but its owners, the Mirant Corporation, and the California Independent System Operator, wants to die. View readers are encouraged to throw a rock at the plant themselves, by acting on the plant closure advertisement that appears later in this issue.
Are You Kidding?
Last month the View received a press release that began, “Did you know that several police dogs in San Francisco (and throughout the SF Bay Area) do not have bulletproof vests?” The release went on to describe efforts to buy the dogs, particularly those serving Nob Hill, protective vests. The City and state are cutting funds for all manner of essential health and social services for humans, and buying bullet proof vests for dogs surfaces as a pressing issue? Ouch. To be fair, if you’d rather buy protective gear for an animal than donate to a local food bank or school, contact Louise V. Tully, Western States Police Canine Association, 650.652.5650…In another sign of the times, signatures are being collected for a ballot measure that would require legislators to certify that they understand what they’re voting on, and that they haven’t accepted a bribe. Nobody trusts no one, these days.
A Passing Age
The death of Marylouise Allen Lovett (see obituary later in this issue) reminds us that a profound set of chapters in world history is starting to be relegated to the back of the book. Those who survived the Great Depression and the Holocaust, who fought in World War II, and for civil rights, who worked through San Francisco’s industrial age, creating the City we currently enjoy, are reaching four score years or older. Many have died, their memories left to their children and friends, scattered monuments, and recordings. Each time a person who marched with Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, or Harvey Milk goes into that great divide, a small light is extinguished. It’s up to us to rekindle that spirit, holding in the cup of our hands the warmth of past victories, and in our raised fists the insistence that we continue to march on.
