Mac
How much macaroni and cheese can Potrero Hill eat? We’re about to find out. After just five months, Dat Spot, on 18th Street, closed and, last month, reopened as Mac Daddy. The cheesy move followed Jocelyn Bulow’s shuttering of Chez Papa Bistrot, shifting Chez Maman into its former space. Mac Daddy’s chef, Brandon Peacock, of Lungomare, is offering a dozen variations on the mac and cheese theme, available daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Odds are the concept will last until next year, after which it’ll morph again, into…a deviled egg emporium? Peanut butter and your choice of spread palace? Chilly’s Chili?
Parks
Originally slated to open in May and June respectively, Mission Bay’s one-acre Children’s Park, located at the intersection of Long Bridge and China Basin streets, and the 2.4-acre Mariposa Park, at the corner of Mariposa and Owens streets, are now expected to become available to the public by the end of summer. In addition to a large multi-use lawn, Mariposa Park features a plaza and picnic area on its northeast corner, a small children’s play area near the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, and gabion rubble wall benches throughout.
Generations
New Generation Health Center, a reproductive health clinic located on Potrero Avenue that was scheduled to close this summer, will remain open another year, according to University of California, San Francisco officials. The facility serves primarily low-income teenagers and young adults; the extension came after patients, neighbors and health providers expressed concern and anger over UCSF’s plans to shut it down. University officials had insisted that New Generation close because of an annual budget deficit of more than $400,000, which they said stemmed from a decline in patients and grant revenue over the last five years. New Generation staff had begun reaching out to more than 2,200 patients to connect them with nearby clinics that offer similar services. UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood now says that the university will cover the clinic’s budget deficit for a year with funds from his office, the School of Medicine and the Division of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Health, which oversees New Generation. “This clinic has served a critical need in our community, especially for teens from low- and moderate-income families,” Hawgood said, in a press release, “and we are committed to ensuring that these young people continue to be served.” UCSF will partner with the San Francisco’s Department of Public Health and the broader community “to best secure these services” for young people. School nurses and other health providers had feared that at-risk Latino and African-American teens who trust New Generation’s confidential services would experience an increase in unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
