Earlier this year the long-awaited renovation of the 80,000 square foot – 1.84 acre – Esprit Park in Dogpatch commenced. Ceremonial shovels were wielded by local dignitaries, residents, and park users, including District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton and students at Red Bridge, a kindergarten to eighth grade independent school located on Third Street. “Finally. It’s…
The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department’s (RPD’s) renovation of 1.8-acre Esprit Park, located at 19th and Minnesota streets, includes controversial plans to create a partially fenced, partly artificially turfed, dog-friendly zone on the park’s north side. More popular modifications include installation of exercise stations, construction of protection platforms for large trees and planting of…
After a contentious years-long debate over how best to renovate Esprit Park, the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association, supported by the Potrero Boosters, among others compromised on Plan W, selecting it from six redesign plans offered for the 1.8-acre open space. Plan W calls for two meadows, the south designated “family” – dog-free – the north an…
Esprit Park will be renovated in the “second half of 2022,” closed to the public for “about a year” during construction, said San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department’s (Rec-Park) Alexis Ward at a December online community meeting, which drew 84 participants. The Department wants public input on which of six design options – ‘U’, ‘V’,…
Plans to freshen up Esprit Park remain unsettled, with renovation unlikely to begin for at least another year. Enjoyed by people and dogs alike—as evidenced by the brown dirt patches and fenced off areas to allow grass to regrow— the almost two-acre green space in Dogpatch has been subject to competing visions over how it…
The Esprit Community Advisory Group (ECAG) was formed last year to recommend approaches to the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department about how to best maintain and renovate Esprit Park. Members include Dogpatch resident Susan Fitch, Irma Lewis of Toes and Paws for Green Space, Green Benefit District executive director Julie Christensen, and Dogpatch Neighborhood…
When the San Francisco Planning Department’s Central Waterfront-Dogpatch Public Realm Plan released preliminary blueprints for Esprit Park improvements last spring, some park users were alarmed by proposals to restrict off-leash dogs to a small section of the space. At 1.8 acres, Esprit Park is Dogpatch’s largest green space, frequented by dog owners, who tend to…
Recent improvements to paths at Esprit Park are just the beginning of possible changes to Dogatch’s oldest and largest green space. As part of the Dogpatch Public Realm Plan, launched in 2015, the San Francisco Planning Department has been soliciting comments for a possible re-design of the park, which borders 19th and 20th streets at…
No More Needles The California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) has decided to shutter the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM), which first opened in 1980. ACTCM will no longer accept new students but will work with currently enrolled scholars to complete their degrees within a designated schedule. CIIS and ACTCM merged in 2015,…
Dogpatch has a long history as a textile center. Esprit – formerly Esprit des Corp – launched in the late-1970s, located its headquarters on the 900 block of Minnesota for the ensuing 30 years. The company pioneered a building approach that evolved into the dominate style in the neighborhood, consisting of luxury warehouse-converted structures that…
Opened in October 2020, Crane Cove Park – located at 18th and Illinois streets – has quickly become a beloved neighborhood asset. But community members are concerned that the seven-acre regional park is being maltreated, with poor landscape maintenance and a lack of enforcement to keep dogs leashed. “The Port thinks this park is their…
Amazon has paused development of a proposed 5.8-acre parcel delivery facility at 900 Seventh Street in response to municipal legislation passed earlier this year. The location is the site of a former waste maintenance facility, now empty, which Recology sold to Amazon in 2020. The land use law, authored by District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton,…
Esprit Park Late last year the Eastern Neighborhoods Citizens Advisory Committee (ENCAC) approved $800,000 for Esprit Park improvements, which’ll be used to pay for material and labor cost increases largely related to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It really isn’t a case of one particular item. It’s that everything costs more across the board right now. We…
In response to pressure from Dogpatch residents, Amazon will make improvements to the area around 888 Tennessee Street, a two-story industrial building that the almost two trillion dollar company leases to serve as an UltraFastFresh site to deliver groceries. “It looks like we’ll be getting a new sidewalk on 20th Street between Minnesota and Tennessee…
Residents are concerned about potential impacts on community cohesion, economic activity, and transportation caused by University of California, San Francisco developments in Dogpatch. Some say UCSF is expanding far beyond its intended footprint when it first moved to Mission Bay. “UCSF made promises to not come south of Mariposa Street when it was granted…
The San Francisco Planning Department issued a 55-page response in April that calls for changes to a proposal Amazon submitted to develop a last-mile parcel delivery facility in Showplace Square. The planned 900 Seventh Street facility would be three stories and 650,000 square feet, according to the Preliminary Project Application (PPA) that Amazon submitted in…
Shootings Two men were shot to death, a third critically injured, in separate Potrero Hill incidents last month. The first occurred near 25th and Connecticut streets. After a 10:08 a.m. report of a shooting, San Francisco Police Department officers found Darryl Haynes, 61, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. He was transferred to a hospital, where…
Plastic Pooch Pollution San Francisco’s dog population seems to have exploded during the public health crisis; so too has the resulting stream of canine poop. The dominant way to dispose of this doo-doo is through the use of plastic bags, which’re no less environmentally damaging than plastic shopping sacks, cups, and straws. Long-time 20th Street…
Bus Stop Housing Moves The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved construction of more than 500 housing units, at least half of them affordable, at the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency’s Potrero Bus Yard. As part of the five-year project a 100-year-old storage yard and trolley bus maintenance yard located on 4.4-acres at 2500…
Virtual — AlwaysTravel: Tour of the Great Barrier Reef with David AttenboroughAttenborough, who first visited the Great Barrier Reef more than 60 years ago, gives an introduction and narrates different videos. Free. https://bit.ly/36WGMUB Virtual and In-person — All MonthHolidays: Backstage Art AidWhile the nation waits for live performances to return, the stagehands of the International Alliance of…
Construction of Crane Cove Park began in 2019, following years of neighborhood advocacy. Now, after missing its targeted spring inaugural, the Port of San Francisco hopes to partially open an unfinished park by this fall. Work at the site stopped in April, due to the City’s shelter-in-place order, resuming in May with a limited workforce.…
During almost two months of sheltering-in-place parks and open spaces have become central to maintaining people’s health and sanity. Many of the largely community-created commons in Dogpatch and Potrero Hill are kept up, in part, by the NW Potrero Hill/Dogpatch Green Benefit District (GBD). The GBD provides “…additional maintenance and capital improvements to parks,…
Over the years I’ve periodically encountered cheek kissers; people whose preferred greeting consists of a series of puckered lipped head maneuvers. When I was younger the kissers were usually someone’s girlfriend, a “glamourous” White girl from Seattle or Los Angeles who pronounced “Nicaragua” as if ordering a fancy cocktail and blurted out “Guatemala” so that…