potrero view

June 2009

Community Leaders: Neighbors that Make a Difference

By Kerry Fleisher

A couple moving to Potrero Hill needs help.  Their infant daughter requires immediate daycare, they’ve burned through their start-up capital for a new business, and they discover that a proposed development threatens to block the view from their new apartment.  This couple is in luck:  dozens of Hill and Dogpatch-based community activists dedicate themselves to providing cooperative daycare, networking local businesses, negotiating with developers, and generally improving the lives of their neighbors.

These mostly behind-the-scenes leaders brainstorm how to cope with new development at Potrero Booster Neighborhood Association meetings, and debate the virtues of parking permits at Dogpatch Neighborhood Association (DNA) meetings.  They juggle child-rearing, jobs, and other responsibilities to spend a Sunday morning planting flowers at Daniel Webster Elementary School.  Even in a diminished economy their volunteer work remains steadfast.

Sara O’Neill is a founding member of Slippery Fish, a cooperative childcare center located at Axis Café on 8th Street.  When daycare costs proved to be steeper than they’d imagined, O’Neill and three other mothers decided to rent out a shared childcare space and create a learning environment where their children could “grow up in the presence of people they trust” and parenting tips could be exchanged.  A First Five Parent Action grant, acquired with the help of former Potrero Hill Parents Association leader Natalie Freeberg, gave the group the boost they needed.  Soon kids from 18 months to three years old were settling into a two day a week “play care” routine with parents - rather than hired staff – nurturing their growth. O’Neill’s two kids, John Haley, three, and Solveig, one, are part of a growing brood of young Slippery Fish members.  Twelve families now participate in the cooperative, including three dads and one grandmother.  Parenting workshops are routinely offered.

It’s hard to live in the 94107 zip code without encountering the ubiquitous Tony Kelly, a trusted community leader who serves as the Booster’s president, and founded Thick Description theater company and Arts Forum, an artist-based political group with more than 1,000 members.  Whether arbitrating community-based land use meetings, advising District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell on current affairs, or directing a controversial play at the Thick House, Kelly’s life revolves around civic engagement.  Born at St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission, Kelly traveled to New York before returning to Potrero Hill and evolving into what he calls, “an accidental activist.”  Prioritizing transparency in the political arena, Kelly keeps Booster members well informed of the encroaching office and biotechnology development that’s increasingly affecting Potrero Hill.

Just down the Hill, in Dogpatch, Janet Carpinelli keeps her neighbors abreast of a mixed bag of issues.  Carpinelli has lived in Dogpatch for more than a quarter of a century, serves as DNA’s vice president and chairs GreenTrustSF, a nonprofit she founded to help enhance green infrastructure along the central waterfront.  Carpinelli got involved in the Potrero Hill League of Active Neighbors in the early-1980’s to fight oversized, poorly designed residential buildings known as “Richmond Specials.” Since then she’s helped establish the Dogpatch Historic District, worked with the City to acquire Esprit Park, and been involved with the Board of Supervisor’s Live-Work and the University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF), Mission Bay Community task forces.  She’s presently working to preserve the Bluepeter Building, located at 555 Illinois Street, and restore the historic Scott School at 1060 Tennessee Street, the oldest San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)-owned school campus in the City, which currently houses the Omega Boys Club and other nonprofit groups.

Potrero Hill Association of Merchants and Businesses (PHAMB) president Keith Goldstein, who has lived on the Hill since 1974, would like to see more people get involved to help Potrero Hill and Dogpatch grow cohesively.  Goldstein does his share of community work.  In addition to his PHAMB responsibilities he’s joined the Booster’s board, and an Eastern Neighborhoods Public Benefits Fund advisor.  He co-founded the nonprofit Nepal SEEDS, was past president of Food Runner, and is a board member of Golden Gate Senior Services, which offers services to developmentally disabled senior citizens.  Wary of haphazard development, Goldstein looks “forward to more integration between the neighborhoods on the north slopes of the Hill and the residents of the housing projects.”

Cris Rys, who has lived on the Hill since 2002, focuses much of his volunteer time on McKinley Square Park.  He organized a recent weed cleanup, moderates the McKinley Square Community email group, and is the Neighborhood Parks Council contact for the park.  Rys is “looking to get grass back at McKinley Square, and make the hillside dog compatible.”  The space is a City-designated leash dog area, yet it’s covered with foxtail weeds that can be fatal to dogs.  His vision for the area surrounding McKinley Square is beautified walking trails, with tree-lined and flower-lined streets, alongside public art.

 

While watching Board President Dianne Feinstein announce that Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were murdered in 1978, Hill resident Kepa Askenasy was “struck by the vulnerability of our political system and the humanness that is at its core.”  Askenasy had just moved to the Hill when the murders occurred.  Since then she’s advocated on behalf of the community at City Hall.  Askenasy is constantly engaged in safety and transportation issues, and attempts to shed light on conflicts of interests between the manifold parties involved in developing Southeast San Francisco.  According to Askenasy, “Community advocacy is never dull, but it’s the friendships I’ve made over the years with my neighbors – their support and their own endless hours of community volunteerism – that have made it so interesting.”

Karen Cliffe attended a neighborhood meeting about San Francisco General Hospital’s (SFGH) proposed helipad that’s currently on hold, and immediately saw the broader implications of bringing non-trauma patients from other counties to an already overcrowded public hospital.  As a longtime social worker, she knew that SFGH serves as a safety net for the City’s poor and uninsured, and believes that a helipad will undermine that mission.  An active member of the Stop the Helipad Coalition, Cliffe has spent many hours forging ties to neighbors who oppose the helipad.  According to Cliffe, SFGH and the Department of Public Health need to reassess their public health priorities.  For example, San Francisco still has the highest rate of tuberculosis infections in the U.S., and now with the budget cuts, there is even more reason to focus on badly needed basic health care clinics and services.

PHAMB secretary Bradley Vaccaro keeps the tight-knit camaraderie amongst Hill enterprises going strong, helping local businesses network and become more connected to the community.  Vaccaro discovered the business association through the View’s calendar – “Meets second Tuesday of each month, 10 a.m. at Goat Hill Pizza” – and after attending one meeting he immediately joined.  He appreciates Potrero Hill’s and Dogpatch’s unique character, with a large percentage of businesses volunteering on community projects, and is dedicated to buying local.  Since Vaccaro joined PHAMB, membership has tripled, to 150 members, and marketing efforts have expanded to multimedia formats that help encourage greater participation in the association and local business partnerships.  He recently attended the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies conference in Denver, and is “looking forward to bringing back ideas and tools that we can use in Potrero and Dogpatch.”

Joni Eisen “got serious about politics” four years ago, when she discovered how strongly money influences elections.  Eisen realized that “we’ve got to get our politicians out of the fundraising game – and the paybacks it involves – if we’re ever going to achieve our goals, like reversing global warming, restoring public education, and health care for everyone.”  Eisen organized a local group, part of the California Clean Money Campaign, which meets monthly on the Hill, and is trying to place the California Fair Elections Act on the ballot next year.  Two years ago Eisen co-founded a reinvigorated version of the Potrero Hill Democratic Club, which hosts monthly political speakers, such as City Attorney Dennis Herrera and candidates for local and statewide office.  A 36-year Hill resident, she’s a passionate organic gardener and served as Potrero Hill Garden Club president until recently.  Eisen would like to see Potrero Hill evolve into a place in which “everyone is growing food. If not chickens and fruit trees in every yard, at least a pot of Italian parsley or wild onions on the windowsill.”

Julie Jackson and Brian Liles started Jackson Liles Architecture in part because they saw the role the firm could play in the development of their community.  After graduating from the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture, the couple moved to the Hill in 1994.  They recently provided pro-bono architectural services to two neighborhood projects, the Potrero Kids at Daniel Webster preschool and the preliminary design for re-use of the BluePeter Building in Dogpatch. Julie is co-President of the Leonard R. Flynn Parent-Teacher Association, and initiated the popular Potrero Neighbors Yahoo group a half-decade ago after a series of neighborhood criminal incidents.  Brian is the Friends of Potrero Hill Nursery School’s board chair, and is a member of the YMCA Camp Jones Gulch Property Committee. The couple hopes that the Hill’s “eclectic and involved community continues to thrive” with the addition of more gathering places, enhanced open spaces, and improved pedestrian connections between open spaces and activity areas.

In 2005, a group of parents of preschool age children rallied fellow Potrero Hill residents to save Daniel Webster Elementary School from a SFUSD proposal to close the campus and merge it with Starr King Elementary School, gathering more than 600 signatures opposing the proposal.  They were successful, but didn’t stop there. They formed Potrero Residents Education Fund (PREFund), a working group of Potrero Hill parents and neighbors dedicated to creating excellent educational opportunities on the Hill.  As a result of PreFund’s efforts, a Spanish immersion program was launched at Webster last year, as was an on-campus Spanish bilingual preschool, Potrero Kids at Daniel Webster, which serves 36 children and acts as a feeder school to Daniel Webster.

Seven advocacy-minded mothers lead PREFund: Stacey Bartlett, vice president of preschool operations and PKDW director, enjoyed championing the first grant that refurbished Daniel Webster’s exterior.  Jennifer Betti, PREFund president, fondly remembered the long line wrapped around the building for PKDW’s first day of enrollment.  Dena Fischer, PREFund vice president of community relations, recalled registering sons Sam and Henry for kindergarten at Webster, and “realizing how truly far we’ve come since that first casual conversation back in 2005!”  Katherine Doumani, PREFund vice president of project development, enjoyed building a garden at Webster.  Debra Grassgreen, PREFund chief financial officer, remembers replacing the courtyard weeds with a garden just in time for the school year.  Melissa Millsaps, PREFund political director, was proud to gain everyone’s trust, from the San Francisco Board of Education, to SFUSD staff, principal, and teachers.  Laura Mitic, PREFund vice president of fundraising, is delighted that sixteen people placed DW first on their list of schools they wanted their children to attend.

Many other neighborhood leaders contribute to the neighborhood landscape, and deserve mention for their hard work.  Let us know about your favorite community leader:  editor@potreroview.net

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