A 450-unit residential development proposed to replace a commercial building at 300 De Haro Street has attracted significant opposition. Potrero Hill residents are upset that the apartments would be microunits, as small as 220 square feet. They’re also concerned about the complex’s size: 120 feet high, with 11 stories. “This is not housing. It’s lodging…
Recall SF School Board has gathered more than 20,000 signatures to recall two San Francisco School Board members, board president Gabriela López and Alison Collins, and in excess of 18,500 signatures to withdraw board vice president Faauuga Moliga. “We are recalling the School Board because they have consistently failed to put students first,” said Autumn…
Mission Creek Senior Community’s residents are celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of their Fourth and Berry streets home. Mercy Housing owns and manages the 139 rental units, affordable for very low-income people aged 62 and up. San Francisco Public Library’s Mission Bay Branch, 960 Fourth Street, around the corner from the senior community’s residential entrance, 225…
Three months ago, San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Education member Alison Collins was stripped of her leadership position in a five to two vote amidst calls for her resignation after a series of tweets she wrote in 2016 were unearthed. Before that, the Board triggered a nationwide backlash for proposing to rename 44…
The San Francisco Planning Department issued a 55-page response in April that calls for changes to a proposal Amazon submitted to develop a last-mile parcel delivery facility in Showplace Square. The planned 900 Seventh Street facility would be three stories and 650,000 square feet, according to the Preliminary Project Application (PPA) that Amazon submitted in…
The once iconic Potrero Hill mural at the corner of 17th and Connecticut streets is steadily fading, the wall on which it is painted in disrepair. “The cost to restore this mural would be at least $20,000, a number I estimated three years ago,” said Susan Cervantes, founder and director of Precita Eyes Muralists Association.…
Roughly $50,000 will be distributed to each of San Francisco’s 33 district merchant associations, including Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association (PDMA) and Dogpatch Business Association (DBA), as part of a $1.7 million donation from Chris Larsen, founder of the blockchain company Ripple. The funding is being provided through the Avenue Greenlight initiative, a partnership between the…
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…
In 1879, San Francisco opened its first public library on the second floor of Pacific Hall on Bush Street, which moved to City Hall in 1888. In 1918, a library station opened in the Daniel Webster School near 20th and Connecticut streets. Over time, with multiple reconstructions and expansions, this became the light-filled, seed-lending, Potrero…
The San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) is accepting proposals for “The Dream Keeper Initiative” – formally known as the City Reallocation Fund – under which $120 million from the San Francisco Police Department and Sheriff’s Office budgets is being redirected to nonprofits that serve the Black community. “We know that to actually see true…
A year has passed since Mayor London Breed issued one of the nation’s earliest shelter-in-place orders. Much has changed since then. According to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, less than half the City’s small businesses are open. Sheltering-in-place, with roughly 31,000 people unemployed, have drastically cut demand for such services as dining out and…
Michele Foy, a pediatric nurse at the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital, dreamed of becoming a foster parent since she was a child, but didn’t think it was feasible. She’s not a stay-at-home mom nor lives in a big suburban house. She and her husband, Sean, both work. They live in a…
Decreased sales and increased costs are threatening the survival of San Francisco’s breweries. On Second Street, 21st Amendment’s recorded message indicates that the brewpub is temporarily closed. On Howard Street, ThirstyBear Organic Brewing’s website states, “ThirstyBear has gone back into Hibernation. Hopefully just a short winter nap!?” Last year, Ferment Drink Repeat closed its doors…
Calculating the number of unlicensed dogs in San Francisco is a bit like estimating how many fish there are in a lake based on an afternoon of fishing. It’s a tricky business, said Virginia Donohue, executive director of San Francisco’s Animal Care and Control (ACC). “Nobody really knows how many there are; there’s not an…
With live entertainment dormant over the past year, theater companies have shifted to offering shows online, a tactic that hasn’t generated significant revenues. As operating losses grow, ongoing uncertainties brought by the pandemic make it difficult to plan for whatever seasons lie ahead. PlayGround pivoted to the web at the start of the public health…
Last December, the San Francisco Unified School District notified families that it was preparing a phased reopening of in-person learning, starting on January 25th. Different schools and groups would be invited back to in-person learning in tiers, reflecting specific schools and grades, such as younger and Special Education students, with tier assignments subject to change.…
Since the public health crisis began last year demand for furry friends has exploded. Thousands of people have signed up to foster an animal at the San Francisco Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SF SPCA). Muttville Senior Dog Rescue and other animal rehoming agencies have been deluged with applicants. This outpouring of pet love…
Dogpatch, Mission Bay and Potrero Hill are served by two San Francisco Police Department districts. The Southern and Bayview districts are located east of Highway 101 and south of Mission Street, an area that experienced a 45 percent decline in reported rapes, and a 40 percent decrease in claims of human trafficking last year. Larceny…
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…