Even before emergence of the novel coronavirus, San Francisco faced a hunger crisis, with one out of five residents at risk of being unable to afford a nutritious meal. Since March 16th, 2020—when shelter-in-place orders were first issued – that risk became a reality for many families. According to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s Keely…
Every two months, an informal group of individuals, public servants, and community-based organization (CBO) representatives gather to discuss issues that impact Bayview-Hunters Point residents. The relationships developed through Bayview Alliance meetings helps participants address such challenges as fostering art, educational disparities, housing and food insecurity, economic and employment inequities, access to parks, environmental education, and…
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’,…
In addition to hoverboards, unicycles, mopeds, and dog-pulled skateboards – as well as an occasional car or bike – San Franciscans will soon be sharing the roads with driverless robocars, zipping through traffic without the added weight of human passengers. Last October Cruise LLC received a permit to test up to five vehicles at a…
The site of the future Mission Bay School on Mission Bay South Block 14 is a quarter of an acre larger than indicated in the Mission Bay South Redevelopment Plan, which identifies “approximately” 2.2 acres for use as a public school. That .25-acre discrepancy is delaying transference of the 2.45-acre parcel from the University of…
Friends of Dogpatch Hub (FoDH), formed to establish a community center, wants to secure a long-term lease with the Port of San Francisco on the Kneass building, at 651 Illinois Street. Under its proposal the nonprofit would pay nominal rent but be responsible for repairing and restoring the edifice. FoDH would be able to sublease…
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…
RescueSF wants to end homelessness in San Francisco, not in the next 10 years, but now. The coalition of neighborhood associations and concerned individuals plans to accomplish that goal by calling for a set of common solutions to be implemented throughout San Francisco, and the Bay Area. “In the past when we talked to district…
Asked how COVID-19 was affecting Potrero Annex-Terrace residents, Bee replied, “Not much, it’s always been hard here…” Life at Annex-Terrace wasn’t getting harder. It’s always been hard. Bee knew someone who had the virus, and worried about how it was transmitted. She planned to get tested at the Potrero Hill Health Center, Wisconsin Street and…
Last month, Mayor London Breed floated a two-year budget in which $120 million would be shifted from the San Francisco Police and Sheriff’s departments to programs intended to benefit African Americans. Under the initiative $40 million a year would be redirected from SFPD, $20 million annually from the Sheriff’s Department. “We are listening to the…
A 1/8 cent sales tax to fund Caltrain will appear on San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara county ballots this November. It took the San Francisco and Santa Clara Boards of Supervisors until just before an early August deadline to be included in the fall vote to reach an agreement to strip the measure…
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…
The public health crisis, combined with economic, political, and social turbulence, has prompted a rise in anxiety and other mental health disorders. Last spring, as the number of COVID-19 infections rose, so did demand for antidepressants. “Zoloft prescriptions climbed 12 percent year-over-year to 4.9 million in March, the most ever in the U.S.,” reported Bloomberg…
San Francisco has been sheltering in place for almost six months. The full or partial closure of the tourism, restaurant, and retail sectors prompted the City’s unemployment rate to jump from 2.3 percent in February to 12.6 percent in June, damaging people’s ability to afford food and rent. Elderly and disabled people, among others, have…
Last month, outdoor dining, curbside pickup, retail stores, and gym classes were greenlit to operate in public spaces, such as on sidewalks, parking lanes, parks, and Port of San Francisco lands. The Shared Spaces Program (SSP), which’ll run until the end of the year, was created by the City’s COVID-19 Economic Recovery Task Force, a…
Project Artaud, pronounced Ar-toe, is a live/work nonprofit that houses roughly 70 artists at 499 Alabama Street, in a building that spans an entire city block, from Mariposa to 17th, Alabama to Florida. Many of the residents are older than 65 – some in their 80s – elevating the need for adequate COVID-19-related health protocols. The…
In May the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) released data that confirmed earlier results that the 94103-zip code, South-of-Market (SoMa), has the City’s greatest intensity of individuals testing positive for the novel coronavirus, approximately 46 per 10,000 residents. The 94124-zip code, Bayview-Hunters Point, has the second highest concentration, approximately 41 per 10,000 residents…
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.…
A group of Potrero Hill residents, with assistance from Hibiscus Studio, is creating a “Poppy Path” from Wisconsin and Coral streets to 23rd and Arkansas streets. The walkway will be lined with native plants – including poppies – as a means to create a beautiful and calming perambulation between Starr King Elementary School and the…
A distillery switched from making spirits to hand sanitizer. A factory that normally manufactures messenger bags and backpacks is fabricating fabric face masks. The COVID-19 pandemic, and associated shelter-in-place (SIP) orders, have caused businesses deemed non-essential to radically alter their operations to stay open, forced others to temporarily close, and demonstrated the adaptability of production,…
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,…
What if an earthquake’s time, location, and magnitude could be known days before it struck? That’s the promise of precursor SPC, a Washington-based company which, according to its chief executive officer, Clive Cook, is “on-track to deploy earthquake forecasting technology both in California and internationally” and is “in the process of closing multiple initiatives.” According…
On the day before Mayor London Breed announced a shelter in place order for the City and County of San Francisco, my daughter, Sara, and I hit the road to Tacoma. We were on a sad mission: to empty her dorm. Her college, like most others throughout the country, had shifted to online learning for…
Public schools in California have boosted their counseling staffs by 30 percent over the past five years, a trend that’s likely to continue due to a rise in mental health issues, and associated pressures from teachers’ unions. The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is ahead of the curve, boasting a 110-to-one ratio of counselors…