Jackson Efforts to rename Jackson Playground are being resisted by longtime Potrero Hill residents who insist that it’s never been widely known that the appellation was taken from a U.S. President famous for killing Native Americans. Perhaps a way forward is simply to repurpose the designation. Musician Michael Jackson may not be a good pick,…
Pennsylvania Avenue Extension The San Francisco Planning Department, San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) and Caltrain are jointly studying the potential to construct a rail tunnel under Pennsylvania Avenue, improve the 22nd Street Caltrain Station, and build a station in Bayview. The agencies will collectively hold community meetings on November 4 and 6 over Zoom…
Recall Last month, Recall San Francisco School Board turned in what appears to be a sufficient number of signatures to trigger an election to unseat San Francisco School Board President Gabriela López, Board Vice President Fauuga Moliga, and Commissioner Alison Collins. The campaign needed 51,325 autographs, 10 percent of registered voters, per candidate; it submitted…
Enola Maxwell Gently Weeps The school site at 655 De Haro Street is commonly referred to as the “Enola Maxwell Campus,” named for civil rights leader and longtime Potrero Hill Neighborhood House executive director, whose moniker was applied to a middle school that occupied the location during the first decade of this century. It’s presently…
Odds and Ends San Francisco Police Department has a new Bayview Station captain, David Maron… Jackson Park will be re-named through a public process to be kicked off in October by Friends of Jackson Park…The closure of the 18th Street commercial strip hasn’t resulted in the hope-for deluge of happy crowds. Enthusiasm has perhaps been…
#MeToo Peskin News that District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin is an alcoholic bully, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area 7, and elsewhere shocked pretty much nobody. Peskin has been bursting into angry, expletive-soaked, personal attacks on boatloads of people for two decades or more, often calling colleagues, enemies, frenemies, anyone late-night to…
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…
Herrera Sues Last month, City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against the San Francisco Unified School District to compel it to reopen public schools as allowed by public health officials. A hearing is set for March 22, 2021. The submission details the harms being visited on children as a result…
Walton Board President District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton was installed as San Francisco Board of Supervisors president last month, becoming City Hall’s second most powerful politician. Walton was elected to the Board in 2018 to represent Bayview-Hunters Point, Dogpatch and Potrero Hill after serving eight years as the executive director of Young Community Developers, a…
Twenty years in the future, 2040. “So, Grandpa, what was it like during the pandemonium?” “That’s pandemic, sweetie.” Robert squinted into the iAir; his eight-year old granddaughter’s face pixilated into a rectangle, then a triangle, until finally settling back into being recognizably Mona. “How’re things on Mars?” “Good! Wanna see?” the view into the…
Mission Bay School Designed San Francisco Unified School District staff presented design details for the Mission Bay elementary school and Linked Learning Hub planned for Block 14 to the Mission Bay Citizens’ Advisory Committee (CAC) at a virtual meeting in December. The design was enthusiastically received by CAC members, and prompted remarks that school construction…
Slow Streets Phase III of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Slow Streets program launched last month, with the addition of Minnesota Street from Mariposa to 22nd Street, 20th Street from San Bruno to Pennsylvania, Arkansas from 23rd to 17th streets, and an extension of the Mariposa Slow Street from Texas to Mississippi. Enjoy! Food Union…
Jackson Park Bonded Two thousand postcards sent to Mayor London Breed calling for Jackson Park to be included in the 2020 Health and Recovery Bond that’ll appear on the November ballot resulted in the inclusion of $10 million towards park improvements in the proposed measure…one-fifth of Crowded Fire Theater’s acting ensemble has fled San Francisco,…
Park and Rec Hassles Kids Four San Francisco Park and Recreation staffers took the time to hassle a teenager, two adolescents, and two eight-year-olds for playing soccer at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center last month. The officials accused the group of not being a “coronavirus pod,” even though two were siblings, and all have been…
Flowers At an April Potrero Boosters online video meeting the San Francisco Flower Mart design team presented its latest plans for 901 16th Street and 1200 17th Street. According to Brian Liles, Jackson Liles Architecture principal, the existing water tower at the back of the site would be removed and a modular office constructed on…
Merchants The Good Life Grocery is limiting customers at its Potrero Hill store to five at a time. Raises have been given to all employees, along with bonuses and unlimited paid sick leave…San Francisco Natural Medicine is seeing chronic patients who receive injections, as well as offering telemedicine…Rickshaw Bagworks is selling masks, which can be…
Coronavirus COVID-19 triggered a run on grocery stores, and a collapse of other economic activity. Early in the shelter-in-place period, Good Life Grocery’s co-owner, Kayren Hudiburgh, said the store’s Bernal Heights outlet has been swamped with shoppers. “They are buying the usual…lots of toilet paper, water, disinfectant, juices, chips and tons of canned food. Lots…
Flower Moola Last month Kilroy Realty Corporation, the company developing a large mixed-used complex on top of the current home of the San Francisco Flower Mart at Sixth and Brannon streets, bought 901 16th and 1200 17th Street for $99 million. Kilroy has launched a “community process,” with an eye towards siting the Mart at…
News Year The New Year wasn’t kind to print publications, starting with a sharp decline in the number of neighborhood newspapers informing San Franciscans. The Castro Courier, New Fillmore News, and Westside Observer all suspended their operations in December or January. “Extra, Extra, Read All About It!” is quickly morphing into “Nothing to See Here!”…
Murder One woman is dead, another in custody, after a stabbing last month that occurred on the 1400 block of Kansas Street, according to the San Francisco Police Department. The victim, identified by the San Francisco Medical Examiner as Latanette McDaniel, 35, was transported to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. Officers arrested Vernisha…
Shots A 27-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries last month when he and another male were shot while walking in the area of 17th and Mississippi streets at around 10:45 p.m. on a weekday. The younger fellow was taken to a hospital; the older bloke was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. No suspects have been identified…In another…
American Patriot On a lovely summer day last month, Farley’s was packed with caffeinated conversationalists and computer-focused singles, spilling onto the outside parklet. Suddenly, a voice bellowed, “Go back to where you’re from! You’re ruining our country!” A White guy sporting shades, a straw hat, and accompanying white mustache and soul patch started loudly haranguing…
Industrial Plant Potrero Hill’s northern neighbor, the Design District, is host to both an increasing concentration of high-end condominiums and specialized manufacturing. Not long ago, Tempo Automation opened on Alabama Street, producing prototype circuit boards. The future is unfolding right before our eyes. Blink once, and family-owned pharmacies and soda fountains are gone; blink twice,…