http://potreroview.net/ The Potrero View en-us Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:58:13 -0800 http://potreroview.net/news10315.html Three fifteen Connecticut Street, which has been owned since 1999 by Irving Zaretsky, a Pacific Heights resident, has been home to numerous cherished Potrero Hill businesses, including Eliza’s, Just for You, and The Good Life Grocery.  Just for You and The Good Life Grocery vacated the building years ago as a result of rent increases.  Both relocated nearby:  Just for You to 22nd and Third Streets, The Good Life Grocery to 20th Street between Connecticut and Missouri streets.  Eliza’s closed late last year in part due to increased operating costs associated with Healthy San Francisco, which requires business with twenty or more workers to pay for their employees’ health insurance. http://potreroview.net/news10314.html Potrero Hill Family Resource Center (PHFRC) – whose funding was threatened as a result allegations of financial misconduct by its parent agency, the Economic Opportunity Council of San Francisco (EOC) – will continue to receive full City funding at least until this summer, with no service reductions.  The center’s fate had been in question after a state review last summer revealed financial negligence within the EOC.  None of the alleged malfeasance involved PHFRC or its executive director, Joe Tasby. http://potreroview.net/news10316.html The faded sign identifying Hilltop Grocery has a sad feeling to it; a wistful reminder of bygone days.  The placard is accompanied by vintage ads announcing “7-Up,” “Cold Beer Wine” and “Milk,” recalling cool beverages and retro jingles like “the pause that refreshes.”  Located on 20th Street between Mississippi and Texas streets, Hilltop Grocery was built in 1916.  The store has been owned by Sam and Linda Wong since 1958.  Despite, or perhaps because of, the paucity of information about the place, the store is a bit mysterious, thought by some to be an odd little place, occasionally provoking disparaging reviews on yelp! for the perceived eccentricities of its proprietress, limited product selection and sporadic hours.  It’s ironic that the family that owns the store doesn’t have a computer and has no idea what yelp! is.  http://potreroview.net/news10317.html In early January a tenth candidate for District 10 Supervisor introduced herself to members and friends of the Potrero Hill Democratic Club. http://potreroview.net/news10318.html According to public health and social service experts, persons with HIV/AIDS often don’t seek treatment for the disease for a myriad of reasons, including ignorance of their status and mistrust of the public health system. Understanding those reasons is of particular importance to Potrero Hill and Bayview residents, since San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) research indicates that the City’s sickest AIDS patients live in Southeast San Francisco. http://potreroview.net/news10319.html A proposed “energy-plus home,” that would replace an existing structure located at 448 Pennsylvania Street  may be a pioneer in an emerging movement towards an “organic energy” system in which energy users rely on a diverse, place-based set of resources, rather than large-scale energy facilities.  The home would be developed as the City completes a planning process to determine how to meet a goal of producing no greenhouse gas emissions associated with electricity consumption by 2030. http://potreroview.net/news10320.html Located at Griffith Street and Fitzgerald Avenue at the Alice Griffith Housing Development in Bayview, Double Rock is one of San Francisco’s largest community gardens. Nearly two fenced acres enclose a young fruit tree orchard – including plum, fig, apple, lemon, cherry, and mulberry trees – vegetable beds for individual gardeners – some of which feature built-in benches to make gardening easier for people with limited mobility – a greenhouse and compost area, and a wood-fired oven sculpted from cob, a building material made from a mixture of clay, straw, and sand. http://potreroview.net/news10321.html Saving energy saves money.  It’s a simple enough mantra in the age of global climate change and sagging economies.  And with recent environmental legislation – particularly California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, Assembly Bill (AB) 32, which mandates a 25 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 – Californians may have little choice but to become more efficient, fast.   http://potreroview.net/news10322.html For years, homeless individuals have been encamped on the western side of McKinley Park, which slopes down toward Highway 101. Some of the make-shift campground is under the San Francisco Department of Public Works’ (DPW) jurisdiction; some under the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans). The Caltrans property is fenced off, and a wall separates Vermont Street from the open space where the encampment is, but campers have found multiple ways to enter the area. http://potreroview.net/news10323.html The Green Sleeves Corporation, LLC, located on 18th Street, has created a new product which allows users to quickly and properly secure a tree to the ground, and easily make adjustments as the plant grows.  According to the Green Sleeves’ website, www.greensleeves.com, many new trees die because the “tie around the young tree trunk isn’t moved regularly.  It will eventually scrape through the bark of the tree and damage the cambium layer.”  The cambium layer lies between the bark and wood of the trunk, and is important to a tree’s health.   Because of the time involved in readjusting existing staking systems, many trees don’t get the attention they need, which can compromise their health and lead to fatalities. http://potreroview.net/news10324.html Last fall’s Dubai Star oil spill, coming less than two years after the Cosco Busan debacle, reminded Bay Area residents of the bay eco-system’s vulnerability.  While changes in municipal sewage treatment systems have led to improved water quality, challenges remain related to storm water runoff, invasive species, coastal development, climate change and oil spills.  “The bay belongs to all of us living in the Bay Area,” said Jessica Castelli, communications director for Save the Bay, the oldest regional organization dedicated to the bay’s health. “Our economy and quality of life here depend on a healthy bay.” http://potreroview.net/news10325.html It isn’t easy to make a living as an artist. Yet, long-time Potrero Hill residents Les Seymour and Brenda Cole Seymour have found the ideal niche for doing what they love. As the owners of Mural Arts on Missouri Street, this talented team has been designing and creating magnificent murals for more than 20 years. I asked them a few questions about their work.   http://potreroview.net/news10326.html The Thrillpeddler’s revival of the Cockettes 1970 show Pearls Over Shanghai, at the Hypnodrome, is regularly sold-out.  Its run has been extended four times, now through April 24. The Cockettes performed at the Palace Theater in North Beach from 1969 until their break-up in 1972. Their first show was an impromptu can-can line. Performances – which included women and bearded men in dresses – grew into elaborate musicals that parodied and celebrated Broadway and Hollywood glamour. Over-the-top costumes, glitter, nudity, and gender-bending were essentials. http://potreroview.net/news10327.html OVO, Cirque due Soliel’s latest offering, is a delicious, delirious, hyper-energetic romp through the world of insects.  The show centers on a lighthearted love story between a voluptuous ladybug and a goofy, silly, smitten fly.  OVO means “egg” in Portuguese, and symbols the beginning of life that’s the performance’s visual signature. http://potreroview.net/news10328.html The 17th century tragedy Phedre, recognized as French playwright Jean Racine’s finest work, has been recrafted with a modern English translation and an avant-guard soundtrack at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater (ACT). In this world-premier run, Director Carey Perloff leads a cast of ACT actors and members of the Canadian Stratford Shakespeare Festival Company, whose classical acting abilities captivate the audience with portrayals of tormented characters carrying out a series of betrayals fueled by illicit desires. http://potreroview.net/news10329.html Free tastings from Napa winery Artesa, Pernod absinthe cocktails, and a mix of works by local artists – from sculpture and photography to 3-D collage, paintings and lithographs – drew an eclectic, large and lively crowd to a sleek Market Street gallery in a neighborhood more famous for its grime, crime, graffiti, junkies and homeless than art last month.  The opening reception for Selections 2010, produced by nonprofit ArtSpan, creator of San Francisco Open Studios, featured the work of 20 Open Studios artists, chosen from a field of more than 300.  Selections 2010 jurors included artist Ray Beldner, author and arts writer Alison Bing, and Inga Fischer, director of the California Modern Gallery, where the show was held.  Featured artists included Steven Allen, Tim Baskerville, Flora Davis, and Schnetzler Photography. http://potreroview.net/news10330.html Photographer Bob Hayes, the indefatigable and unofficial "mayor of Potrero Hill," passed away on December 15 of natural causes at his Potrero Hill home.  After not hearing from Hayes the day before the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House’s (Nabe) annual holiday party, Edward Hatter,  Hayes’ good friend and Nabe’s executive director, discovered Hayes’ body upon entering his home.  Hayes had lived in his Southern Heights apartment for thirty five years, and worked with the Nabe in various capacities for thirty years, before retiring in 2002.  He would have turned 79 on January 12. http://potreroview.net/news10331.html Erwin Bernard “Bernie” Gershater passed away August 27, 2009 at his Potrero Hill home.  He was born January 15, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York to Russian-Jewish parents, Harry Gershater and Anna Kaplan. After serving in World War II, Gershater moved to San Francisco and attended the California Labor School, where he met the love of his life, Nina Carloss, whom he married in 1949 and cherished until her death in 1996. While raising three children Gershater worked as a cabinet maker, remodeled the family home, and was active in his union and the civil rights and peace movements. In 1969, he attended law school at Lincoln University, where he earned his law degree in 1973, and taught Legal Writing.      http://potreroview.net/news10332.html Betty Berenson died December 13. Her community of friends spanned birders, nature lovers, writers, artists, and progressives.  Berenson helped restore Land’s End and Pier 94, and educated children visiting Audubon Canyon Ranch. Her enthusiasm for birds, spring wildflowers, and the natural world was infectious.   Berenson’s professional career included abstract and nature photography and college textbook editing. She left behind this fine natural world, a sister, nieces and a nephew, and numerous friends. http://potreroview.net/feat10153.html In the early 1980s “industrial policy” – government attempts to direct investment into specific economic sectors, not just exclusively manufacturing – was a key part of political discourse.  In 1982 gross domestic product (GDP) – the estimated value of all goods and services produced in the economy – fell by 6.4 percent.  That same year California’s unemployment rate peaked at ten percent.  Policy makers and economists struggled with ways to jumpstart the economy, and attract businesses to job-weakened areas.   http://potreroview.net/feat10154.html Late last year Muni changed a large number of their bus routes and schedules.  I don’t know about other Hill residents, but I’m having trouble with these changes.   Have you tried to take a bus to the Potrero Center, to visit the U.S. Post Office, Petco, Peet’s, or Safeway?  Or traveled to 20th Street to The Good Life Grocery, Dave’s Food Store, All State’s Best Foods, or Thinkers Cafe?  The new Muni routes make it much harder for me, a fat, old woman with arthritis and asthma, to get around.  Maybe this is part of that Healthy San Francisco plan: “Just haul your arthritic bones up the Hill and use your inhaler, old woman.”   http://potreroview.net/feat10155.html Dear Editor,   On December 18th, sometime after 2 a.m., a family vehicle was stolen from across the street from the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (Nabe).  It was recovered on January 5th in the neighborhood.  I’m writing to ask for the return of a beautiful nylon kite that was in the car’s back seat.  If it’s returned to Jean at the Nabe, no questions will be asked.  After verifying that it’s the kite that was in the stolen vehicle, she’ll give the person who turns it in $25, again, no questions asked. http://potreroview.net/feat10156.html Potrero Power Plant on Death Watch   With the early completion of the Transbay Cable, a 53-mile long high voltage direct current transmission line originating in the City of Pittsburg, the California Independent System Operator announced last month that it would allow the Potrero Power Plant to close by the end of 2010.   The precise date of the closure will be determined by achievement of intra-city transmission upgrades being undertaken by Pacific Gas and Electric Company.  It’s been a long and windy road, from Mirant Corporation’s original proposal to bulk-up the power plant to 540 megawatts (MW); City efforts to develop its own 150 MW plant; brief attempts to repower Potrero’s back-up units, to, finally, a transmission-dominated solution.  During this ten year period a new, economically viable, solar industry emerged, and steady progress has been made adopting energy efficiency and demand management measures.  We are on the road to a new energy era. http://potreroview.net/feat10157.html The View asked Hill resident and career expert Mauri Schwartz, President / CEO of Career Insiders, www.CareerInsiders.com, to answer questions from job seekers.  Submit your questions to editor@potreroview.net. http://potreroview.net/feat10158.html February 4 to 18   Music and Film: San Francisco Indie Fest   Potrero’s own Thee Parkside and Bottom of the Hill will be the two main venues for this year’s Winter Music Fest.  The Fest, which runs through February 4th, showcases several bands, including Bhi Bhiman, Duckmandu, Kuma/Koshka, and Damn Handsome and the Birthday Suits. The entertainment baton will then be passed to the 12th Annual Independent Film Festival, which will take place in various theatres, including Roxi Cinemas. Various show times and ticket prices. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th Street; Thee Parkside, 1600 17th Street; Roxi Cinemas, 3117 16th Street. Information: www.sfindie.com. http://potreroview.net/feat10159.html Abby Bridge, Potrero Branch Librarian   Jasmin Springer, Mission Bay Branch Children’s Librarian http://potreroview.net/feat10160.html Bayview Police Station Captain’s Community Meeting is held on the first Tuesday of each month in the Bayview Police Station Community Room at 201 William Street. Access can be gained by entering through the Newhall Street door. Next meeting: February 2nd, 6 p.m. http://potreroview.net/feat10161.html In Iraq it’s truly the best of times and the worst of times.  The Presidency Council and the Council of Representatives, or Parliament, have passed an elections law.  Prime Minister Maliki has signed the law, and it now looks like Iraq will hold its second national elections in March, one that could result in a maturing political system in which strong man rule, an emerging representative process and Islam seek to coexist.