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…
Early this year, Friends of Jackson Park (FoJP) and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) will seek RPD Commission approval of a proposed park redesign. The step follows San Francisco Planning Department endorsement of the plan to restore and relocate the historic clubhouse based on California Environmental Quality Act review. FoJP will launch…
The Potrero Annex-Terrace housing community, located on the Hill’s southeast slope, has long been largely isolated from the economically thriving neighborhood to the north. The complex is dominated by barracks-like residences that were built more than 80 years ago. For the past 15 years it’s been part of the HOPE SF redevelopment effort, a partnership…
The Canyon, the tallest residential tower built in San Francisco this year, is a 23-story residential building located on Parcel A in Mission Rock along the Mission Bay waterfront. Mission Rock Partners, a joint venture between the San Francisco Giants and Tishman Speyer, is redeveloping 28 acres of former surface parking with more than a thousand units of housing, offices, retail,…
Last month, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission voted four to one that the shadow from a proposed residential complex wouldn’t significantly impact Potrero Del Sol Park, formerly known as La Raza Park, which abuts the development site. Commissioners Mark Buell, president, and Kat Anderson, vice president, weren’t present. The single “nay” vote came…
The right-of-way located between San Bruno Avenue, 17th Street and Vermont Street sits atop ancient serpentine bedrock, composed of California’s rare state rock, serpentinite. Homes that once occupied the area were removed in the 1950s to make way for Highway 101. The largely derelict space is soon to emerge as Potrero Gateway Park, part of…
Mission Bay sidewalks continue to sink, a challenge that could point to greater problems than twisted ankles and scraped knees. “People fall a lot,” said Brian L. who has worked at Cafe Reveille for the past three years. The café, located at 610 Long Bridge Street, is moated by a separated sidewalk edged with a…
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…
Potrero Hill residents met over Zoom in October to discuss new designs, public art opportunities, and potentially renaming Jackson Park. Participants generally wanted a greater amount of open space and an American Disabilities Act-compliant community center with interior and exterior bathrooms. There was also support to add a dedicated off-leash dog play area, a larger,…
Dogpatch Hub faces an uncertain future after the San Francisco Port Commission rejected a proposal to site the hoped-for community center adjacent to Crane Cove Park at an October meeting. In response to Commission request-for-proposals (RFP) to repurpose the historic Kneass building at 651 Illinois Street, Friends of Dogpatch Hub, a nonprofit whose seven-member committee…
Last month, roughly 60 members of the San Francisco Southeast Alliance (SFSEA) gathered at Thee Parkside to discuss Amazon’s operations and proposal to develop 900 Seventh Street. It was SFSEA’s, also known as the SF Southeast Community Coalition, first in-person gathering in six months. SFSEA is a group of nonprofits, neighborhood associations, business organizations, environmental…
Over more than three decades Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP) has helped thousands of unhoused pregnant women and families, offering health, job training and child development services. The nonprofit may soon expand its assistance to include affordable housing. In May, the San Francisco Planning Commission recommended approval of the 18th Street Affordable Housing Special Use District…
Mission Creek Park P3 will transform a barren, nondescript strip of terrain into a lush, lively gateway to the Mission Bay South neighborhood. The new 1.65-acre park will serve to extend Mission Creek Park, located west of Fourth Street, and align it with China Basin Park, part of the Mission Rock development being constructed east…
Most of the roughtly 100 participants at last month’s virtual meeting about a proposed development at 1458 San Bruno Avenue vehemently opposed the project. “For the people in the neighborhood, it seems like an alien spaceship is landing and completely gentrifying the neighborhood,” said one attendee, who didn’t disclose his name. The Goode family has…
Condominiums offered at below-market-rates (BMR) to moderate-income buyers are being developed at 350 China Basin Street, where an eight-story building on Mission Bay South Block 9A (MB9A) is in the design process. The edifice will ultimately feature 148 BMR condos available to first-time homebuyers who earn 80 to 110 percent of San Francisco’s Area Median…
I’ve worked to save the historic brick buildings at the Potrero Power Station on 23rd Street since 2018 when the site’s developer told me all these buildings would be demolished. Thankfully, plans changed. Station A, the largest historic building, will be saved and added to. I was told in January that the 100 year old…
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…
Last fall Bridge Housing released 2020 Rebuild Potrero Impact Report, which reviews progress redeveloping the Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complex on Potrero Hill’s southside. The “Rebuild Potrero” project was launched in 2008 by the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development and Bridge Housing Corporation, a nonprofit headquartered in San Francisco. Bridge Housing operates twenty-one properties…
The commercial real estate market in Potrero Hill and Mission Bay has so far been largely immune to COVID-19’s economic disruption. Vacancies remain low, office rents are rising, and tenants are signing leases for newly constructed retail storefronts. Life science spaces with research laboratories have a waitlist. “It seems almost impossible when you look at…
Last spring, Mayor London Breed signed legislation approving construction of The Power Station, a 29-acre mixed-use complex located along 23rd Street. The development will have approximately 2,400 residences, six acres of publicly accessible parks and recreational areas, and 1.2 to 1.9 million square feet of office, lab, and retail space. It’ll also open access to…
More than a year after planning efforts began, municipal officials and advocates have determined that the Islais Creek Adaption Strategy should include a comprehensive vision for how the watershed can best serve nearby residents, workers and businesses, as well as address ways to manage increasing flood risks. Bayview and the Southern Waterfront are especially vulnerable…
Over the past decade and a half Potrero Hill has become denser and more lux. The latest development wave may have started in 2007, when Whole Foods moved into a 165-unit complex at 450 Rhode Island Street. In 2016, Martin Building Company started constructing 177 apartments at 88 Arkansas Street, across the street from Jackson…
A family that’s owned land for four generations at the southern tip of San Bruno Avenue wants to build a seven-story housing development utilizing the state Density Bonus Law to gain exemption from City height limitations. Early indications are that neighborhood opposition to the project will be fierce. San Francisco’s zoning restricts structure heights on…
The San Francisco Planning Department is studying how best to redesign roads, public transit and open space in ways that smooth connections between Showplace Square, Western and Central South-of-Market, and Mission Bay. The Showplace/SoMa Neighborhood Analysis and Coordination Study (SNACS) will also identify possible sites for additional market-rate and affordable housing, and evaluate demand for…