It’s just past noon on a Tuesday in April, and I’m bottle-feeding a seven-day-old black-tailed deer fawn on top of Potrero Hill. Energetic young squirrels perform gymnastics in a cage; a 60-year-old tortoise slowly makes his way through the backyard of a small house on 25th Street, where animal babies are kept until they can…
Last spring, Sonic, a Santa Rosa-based internet service provider, launched service in several San Francisco neighborhoods, including Potrero Hill, advancing an internet access alternative for residents and businesses. The growing company offers Gigabit Fiber Internet, which transmits data at a rate of 1,000 megabits a second, with download speeds 50 times the national average. Unlimited…
Growing up in San Francisco can provide wider opportunities and exposure to culture, but it’s not without challenges to parents, particularly when it comes to navigating housing, child care and schools. The trend over the past 40 years has been for families to leave San Francisco when children reach school age. A mere 18 percent…
Over the past decade use of e-cigarettes, known as “vaping,” has increased, with 3.2 percent of American adults using such products in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. E-cigarettes are electronic devices that simulate cigarette smoking by releasing nicotine, the active component in tobacco, via a vaporizer that users inhale. The…
Hidden below San Francisco’s dense patchwork of homes, stores, and skyscrapers lies millions of years of geological history. Various physical processes over the past two million years have created diverse strata of Bay Mud, consisting of soft, granulated, clay, that lurks underneath much of the region’s shoreline areas. During the last Ice Age, more than…
We live in a spectacular city. Many of the gifts we enjoy come naturally: topography that creates fantastic coastal views; mild weather; diverse geographies. Others are human made: dynamic, delicious, and abundant food, music, art, theater and cultural scenes. We’re sufficiently wealthy to support more than $10 billion in annual municipal expenditures without much trouble,…
Three years ago, the View reported on the health risks nail products pose to salon workers in the United States, in “Nail Salon Industry Slow to Clip Health Hazards,” July, 2015. Since then, hundreds of salons throughout California have improved their health and safety standards. Known as the “toxic trio,” three chemicals commonly found in…
The San Francisco Police Department reported a 31 percent decrease in automobile break-ins from January to February, with the number of year-to-date thefts down 15 percent across the City. All 10 police districts experienced fewer incidences. Municipal officials have been combating an automobile break-in epidemic that’s besieged the City over recent years. In 2017, 31,000…
Most of the 380 million metric tons of plastic created each year worldwide winds up in landfills or the natural environment. Despite California being one of the more successful states at recycling, San Francisco Bay isn’t spared. In 2016, samples taken from the Bay indicated it has more plastic pollution be weight than any other…
“I think District 10 is the future of San Francisco,” said supervisorial candidate J.R. Eppler. “District 10 will see the most change over the course of the next decade than other parts of the City. It is the place where all of the problems the City is currently experiencing will either be exacerbated or come…
Five months into the purchase of Anchor Brewing Company by Japanese beer giant Sapporo, Anchor president Matt Davenport has promised that the company will continue to be San Francisco’s largest manufacturing employer – currently with 124 staff members – with all of its beer brewed on Potrero Hill. “Sapporo is committed to preserving and maintaining…
Last month, San Francisco parents submitted their school choice lists. If demand during the 2017 academic year is any indication, Lowell High School, A.P. Giannini Middle School and Clarendon Elementary School will be the most popular requests at their respective levels. San Francisco parents submit as many choices as they want into the school lottery…
St. Ignatius College Preparatory, a Catholic Jesuit high school located on 37th Avenue, has been educating Bay Area children for 160 years. Tuition for the 2017-2018 school year is $22,780 per student, unaffordable for most families. To better prepare scholars for the challenging St. Ignatius curriculum, a tuition-free junior high school was created this academic…
The San Francisco Planning Commission’s October approval may not have been the fall victory San Francisco Giants fans would’ve liked, but it’s a solid leadoff single for the team’s plans to redevelop 28 acres south of AT&T Park. The project needs approval from the Port Commission, which will consider the matter at a January 9…
Following San Francisco Port Commission approval in September, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to endorse Forest City’s mixed-use Pier 70 project in late October. The scheme has entailed more than a decade of planning, beginning in 2007 with the Port’s issuance of a master plan for development of 69 acres of historic…
Last March, Shamann Walton formed a campaign committee to organize his run for the District 10 seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. As San Francisco Board of Education president, Walton entered the 2018 race boasting arguably the highest profile of any of the candidates. He quickly earned endorsements from Mayor Ed Lee, State…
Last summer, two schools moved into the Enola Maxwell campus, 655 De Haro Street, which’d been largely vacant for more than a year after International Studies Academy relocated to different grounds. One of the two institutions now housed on the site is San Francisco International High School, San Francisco Unified School District’s only school dedicated…
For nearly two years the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has been meeting with Dogpatch community members to develop a parking management plan for the neighborhood amidst increasing parking demand. Much of Dogpatch’s curbside is unregulated, resulting in a scarcity of spots within the context of a growing residential population and heavier commuter traffic. SFMTA’s…
As the late Tom Petty put it, “Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out.” The line is apt for many San Franciscans who find themselves at the end of a relationship, confronting the shocking cost of new digs. If the anger and heartbreak aspects of a breakup aren’t bad enough, the process of deciding…
Last month, the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing released a “Five-Year Strategic Framework” to address rootlessness. Under the Framework, chronic homelessness would be halved by December 2022, with an end to “…large, long term encampments by July 2019.” In addition, the outline called for implementing coordinated care systems, performance accountability, improvements to…
Last summer, Dogpatch Neighborhood Association (DNA) member, Constans Channon, and Friends of Potrero Hill (FOPH), an organization located at 1060a Tennessee Street, formally requested that the City’s Board of Appeals (BoA) halt development of a proposed medical cannabis nursery, to be sited at 1025 Tennessee Street, currently a one story, 9,550 square foot warehouse. As…
As the public perception of marijuana’s risks softens, a primary question complicating the drug’s newly destigmatized status is its effect on young people, especially in terms of brain development. Marijuana accounts for 90 percent of illicit drug use among American teenagers, according to the 2017 book Is Marijuana Harmful?, written by Bradley Steffens for the…
Following six years of tight quarters at its former York Street facility, San Francisco International High School began the 2017-2018 school year at the spacious Enola Maxwell Campus, 655 De Haro Street. With about 400 students, at York Street the school was challenged by a lack of classroom and programming spaces compared to other San…
An anniversary celebration was held in July commemorating Moshi Moshi’s 30 years of serving Japanese cuisine at 2092 Third Street. Phil Atkinson, front house manager, said that staff from the restaurant’s prior decades traveled from throughout California to participate in the event. The evening was filled with stories shared by founder and owner, Mitsuru “Mits”…
Last year, Ronaldo Cianciarulo distributed letters informing his neighbors about plans to expand the rear of his 825 De Haro Street residence, and invited them to his home to discuss the potential project. Twentieth Street residents, Mary Maglio and Diana Bowen, met with Cianciarulo, and expressed their concerns that the scheme would significantly block several…