Halfway into a three-year lease, the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association (DNA) is generally supportive of extending the Central Waterfront Homeless Navigation Center’s stay and expanding its number of beds from 63 to 68. A presentation last fall by the City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) to DNA drew a positive response. DNA president Bruce…
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has floated a plan to deploy several types of parking management tools on Potrero Hill’s North Slope, including weekday time limits to discourage commuters from leaving their cars and parking meters to offer short-term options for shoppers, visitors, and other daytime users. If implemented the proposal would impact…
Last fall, Measure D, which’ll place an additional tax on cannabis businesses, garnered 65.7 percent of the municipal vote. City Controller Ben Rosenfield estimates that the tax will generate between $7 million and $16 million, with proceeds to be deposited into the general fund. Cannabis businesses and advocacy groups want some of these funds to…
Shamann Walton was elected to the District 10 Board of Supervisors seat last month. He’ll be sworn into office on January 1, 2019. As of election data available in mid-November, Walton received 8,891, or 42 percent, of first place votes cast in the District. “I’m definitely excited and ready to get to work,” said Walton.…
Casually discarded roaches or dropped bits of edibles, inside and outside homes, are increasingly being gobbled up by canines, with unpleasant results. The instances of dogs sickened from ingesting marijuana has more than doubled in recent years, according to the National Animal Poison Control Center of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to…
Closed in 2011, the Potrero Power Plant sits on more than 28 acres located on a central piece of waterfront property. It was purchased from NRG Energy by Associate Capital in 2016, which in 2017 started planning to develop the area into a multi-use complex that’d include 2,682 residential units, according to an environmental impact…
Starting last month, the 22nd Street and Fourth Street Caltrain stations are no longer open on weekends. The closings are to accommodate installation of a catenary rail system that’ll allow Caltrain to convert the majority of its line from diesel to electric trains, known as Electric Multiple Units (EMU). Until construction is completed, weekend train…
According to Inc., San Francisco is the country’s most expensive city. Business Insider recently reported that Northern California is among the most prosperous economies in the world. While this may be great news for young people engaged in the lucrative sectors fueling growth, such as social media, high living costs have made life challenging for…
A proposed merger between Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives has raised concerns about access to care for women, transgender, and low-income patients, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nurses in Dignity’s California hospital system are also worried that the merger could disrupt labor union contracts and job security. At the same time, the…
According to SpotAngels, in 2017 San Francisco had the country’s highest average parking ticket cost – $97.40 – ahead of New York City, with an average price of $71.40. That same year, parking ticket revenues generated South-of-Market produced $11,383,000, the most in the City, with Downtown having the greatest number of tickets levied per available…
The first two decades of living in her home near the top of Arkansas Street were mostly peaceful for one Potrero Hill resident, but over the past year the quiet has been regularly shattered. According to the Hill dweller, who requested anonymity as she’s concerned about her property values, airplane traffic is more frequent and…
Despite an economy marked by high growth and low unemployment, motor vehicle repossession rates have risen in many parts of the country, including California. According to California Department of Business Oversight data, there were 44,897 auto repossessions in the state in 2017. In 2016, that number was 39,948, with 39,690 repos in 2015 and 41,492…
According to San Francisco Police Department data, between 2016 and 2018 the number of violent and property crimes in the City increased, the former jumping by 11.8 percent last year. In 2017, the number of homicides declined by 3.4 percent. Human trafficking – transporting and harboring people for forced sexual or labor services – was…
Last month, Mayor London Breed signed an $11.1 billion budget for each of fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-20 that reflects greater emphasis on reducing homelessness, increasing housing affordability, and keeping streets clean and safe. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, much of the budget had been composed by former Mayor Mark Farrell, who negotiated with…
Starr King Open Space is slowly being returned to its indigenous flora, with the cultivation of a native plant garden and creation of a plot to be conserved by students at adjacent Starr King Elementary School. “We have been coordinating with Literacy for Environmental Justice, a nonprofit in southeast San Francisco that promotes environmental health,…
Last summer, Animal Care and Control (ACC) picked up an abandoned a dog at Progress Park that was so emaciated and dehydrated that staff had no choice but to euthanize him. Dubbed “Sweetie Boy” by ACC because “he seemed like a sweet dog and could use a boost,” ACC spokesperson Deb Campbell said the mastiff…
This month, the Dogpatch Parking Management Plan, a long discussed set of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency regulations intended to prevent extended use of street parking, will take effect. The scheme is supposed to increase access to the community’s 2,600 parking spaces for Dogpatch residents and customers of neighborhood businesses. The plan was approved last…
With District 10 San Francisco Board of Supervisor, Malia Cohen, termed out of office in January, the race is on to fill her soon to be vacated seat. Now that London Breed has been elected mayor, media attention has shifted to the November poll, in which supervisorial Districts 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 are…
A new way of city living is emerging in San Francisco, especially in Dogpatch, where many apartment buildings are being constructed. The days when higher rents meant certain neighborhoods and impressive square footage are giving way to an era in which expensive residences instead translate to an abundance of common space and amenities. It’s not…
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,…