Short Cuts
Riding the Rails
Some Potrero Hill residents have found the sound of Caltrain’s horns less than soothing. The horn blasts start as early at 4:55 a.m., and can be intermittently heard throughout the day up until midnight. The recent increase in tootings may have been prompted by two vehicular accidents that occurred at the 16th street crossing within the past year. Both happened during the late-afternoon rush hour, and blocked traffic into and out of 4th and King streets for roughly two hours. One damaged the crossing signal, which caused trickle-down delays for the next week while it was repaired and certified for full-speed operation. Caltrain engineers are required to sound their horns a quarter mile before every grade crossing, where a street crosses the tracks. There are 44 crossings between San Francisco and San Jose. Engineers also sound the horn when they see a pedestrian near the tracks. The increase in horn volume was caused by a safety inspection that discovered that Caltrain’s horns were not producing the distinct, separate, sequential blasts required under federal rules. The horns had been placed on the underside of locomotives and cab cars in response to community concerns about noise. To comply with regulations, the Federal Railroad Administration asked Caltrains to return the horns to their original position on top of the trains. Moving the horns increased their volume and range. Caltrain is trying to come up with a way to return the horns to the trains’ undersides while still satisfying federal requirements. Grade-separated crossings, as proposed by high-speed rail, would eliminate the need for engineers to sound horns…Speaking of noise, Dogpatch, Potrero Hill, and South-of-Market residents are none to happy about the helicopter traffic that seemed to intensify over the neighborhoods last month. Some of the increase blade running was related to filming of NBC’s drama Trauma, an apt description of how the decibels affected the community.
Sidewalk Rest Stops
After more than a decade and a half run, Eliza’s Restaurant called it quits last month, though they’ll keep their California Street location open. Some Hill residents are blaming the restaurant’s avaricious landlord for forcing the popular eatery out. Either way, Eliza’s has been a Hill mainstay, a go-to place for a casual business lunch or family feast. It will be sorely missed…The Lower Potrero trial plaza – how’s that for a sexy name – is up on 8th Street between Axis Café and Wolfe’s. The space features three patches of lawn within frames of rough granite curbing, with polish black granite squares serving as seating. To keep out traffic the area is encircled by upended concrete sewer pipes, as well as graffiti covered Dumpsters planted with trees, a rather odd metaphor for the neighborhood. While Axis welcomes the new space, and plans to add street-side dining to their operation, they had trouble with the noise skateboarders were making while using the new fixtures for tricks almost immediately. Enjoy it now, and if you do let the City know about it: it’s temporary until proven permanent…According to Department of Recreation and Park spokeswoman Lisa Seitz-Gruel, one of the pylons in the Jackson Park Recreation Center is sinking, and must be replaced. Bids will soon be taken for the work. While the building is under construction, indoor activities which used to take place at the center are being held at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center on Arkansas Street…In Dogpatch, look for more construction along Third Street around 18th and 20th streets. A 16-unit, 58-foot tall building is being proposed on 20th Street, with construction starting as early as next year, if financing can be secured. Meanwhile, Martin Building Company is proceeding with its 68-foot tall, 196-unit – somewhat higher and denser than originally proposed – building along Third Street. That development will include a small, possibly upscale, grocery on the bottom floor, as well as an on-site day care. No small irony that children will be welcome at the one- to two-bedroom complex, which will almost certainly be inhabited by mostly single, and young, commuters or University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Mission Bay staff or students. Martin has started removing contaminated dirt from the Illinois Street side of the construction project.
Breaking Bad
A gang-related fistfight at Papa Potrero’s Pizza at 24th Street and Potrero Avenue erupted into gunfire last month, leaving two men dead of multiple gunshot wounds and a third man injured. Police arrested two suspects shortly after the shootings. One of the victims staggered down 24th Street and collapsed on the sidewalk in front of another restaurant, Manivanh Thai, where he was pronounced dead. The other two victims were transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where one later died and one is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries…Sundance Café, on the corner of Third and 20th streets, was broken into in the early morning hours on an August week day. Someone shattered a large side window, climbed into the café, and stole an entire cash register, leaving nothing but hanging cords and lots of broken glass. Unfortunately for the assailant, the register was empty, and the robbers neglected to grab the cash box under the register, or mess with the café’s recently installed ATM. After a brief clean-up and police investigation, the café managed to serve its patrons using a solar calculator and cash box to record transactions…
Biotechnology Award
Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a research scientist at the J. David Gladstone Institute, located at the UCSF’s Mission Bay campus, has been awarded the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his discovery of a method of reprogramming adult skin cells to become embryonic-like stem cells. The Lasker Awards are among the most respected science prizes. Yamanaka shared the honor with Cambridge University’s John Gurdon, who established the basic principles of reprogramming that led to Yamanaka’s discoveries…No awards were being offered to University of California regents when they gathered last month at Mission Bay. Police arrested 14 protesters, who briefly shut-down the meeting, and who are livid about proposed 32 percent tuition increases, on top of massive staff lay-offs and furloughs. We may still have the top scientists, but basic educational services are slipping out of our hands. If the downward slide in our state’s education system continues we’ll soon look more like a developing country than the world’s largest economy.
New Website
Potrero Kids at Daniel Webster Preschool (PKDW) launched its new website last month, www.pkdw.org. PKDW, a Spanish bilingual pre-school program, serves 38 children, a quarter of whom are on scholarship. Three-quarters of last year’s graduating class, the school’s first, are now attending Daniel Webster Elementary School.
View Changes
Michael Accomazzo, who has been ably producing the View for the past year or so, while also helping to implement San Francisco Community Power’s small business energy management programs, will be jetting off to Asia after this issue hits the streets. Accomazzo has long wanted to tour that continent, and is seizing the opportunity to visit friends. His work will be picked up by Lisa Tehrani, who lately has been wooing advertisers for the paper. Happy trails, Mike, and many thanks for your good work!
