San Francisco is the birthplace of two of America’s oldest chocolate makers: Ghirardelli and Guittard Chocolate Company. Both have their roots in the Gold Rush, when enterprising businessmen realized that wealthy miners with a sweet tooth had money to spend on luxuries. The companies continue to make confections in the San Francisco Bay Area. And,…
Some churches in the View’s readership area have reported recent growth in attendance and membership despite the City’s reputation for having a high percentage of religiously unaffiliated individuals. According to 2014 data from the Pew Research Center, 35 percent of San Franciscans are unaffiliated, compared to 23 percent nationally; 48 percent classify themselves as Christian,…
At the western elbow of Cesar Chavez Street and Highway 101, between Potrero del Sol and James Rolph Jr. Playground on Potrero Avenue, a new and perhaps surprising neighbor arrived last January to what’d previously served as a Philz Coffee warehouse. The Eristavi Family Winery was founded in 2006 by Victor and Lia, a husband…
Southside San Francisco is home to a surprising array of wineries, tasting rooms, cellars, and bars that reflect the spirit of European and Central and Northern California grape growing regions. Bluxome Street Winery, located at 53 Bluxome Street, between Fourth and Fifth streets, features an events space and tasting room. Its production facility specializes in…
“The neighborhood is evolving quite a bit, and it’s nice to see some community-focused breweries in the area,” expressed Joanne Marino, executive director of the San Francisco Brewers Guild. The Guild, a nonprofit, was launched in 2004 to celebrate the craft of American beer and the City’s brewing heritage. It sponsors Drink SF Beer, a…
Rising Financial District rents, along with a focused effort to reinvigorate Southside San Francisco’s arts community, has led a large number of art galleries to locate in Dogpatch and Potrero Hill. Catherine Clark, whose eponymously-named gallery had previously moved three times, was among the first to shift from Downtown to Utah Street. Shortly after arriving…
As the contractor is readying its shovels, a neighborhood group is appealing to temporarily stop construction of the Mission Bay Loop, a turn-around for light rail vehicles on the T-Third line. Contractor Mitchell Engineering has the go-ahead from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and construction is expected to be complete by the end of…
After more than a dozen years of political wrangling, CleanPowerSF, also known as San Francisco Community Choice Aggregation, launched last spring, with a goal of enrolling all of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s current San Francisco customers into the program. According to San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) public relations officer Amy Sinclair, the initial…
An influx of new inhabitants is altering Dogpatch, Potrero Hill and surrounding neighborhoods’ character, particularly from the perspective of longtime residents. There’s concern about an imbalance between intensifying land uses without additional amenities, such as sidewalks, greenery, grocery stores, public spaces, and transit. “People are sort of shell-shocked,” commented Katherine Doumani, Dogpatch Neighborhood Association member.…
The Dogpatch Neighborhood Association (DNA) borrows space at the University of California, San Francisco, local bars, and other places to hold its meetings; the neighborhood lacks a multipurpose community center. Finding a building to house a potential Dogpatch “hub” has proven challenging for DNA member Katherine Doumani, who is spearheading the effort. Recently, Doumani identified…
In May, Mark Dwight, founder and chief executive officer of Rickshaw Bagworks, a messenger and laptop bag, sack and sleeve manufacturer on 22nd Street, launched the Dogpatch Business Association (DBA), a nonprofit collection of enterprises located in Dogpatch and Pier 70. DBA will serve as a networking platform for companies, promote neighborhood businesses, and represent…
Frustration over the City’s inability to effectively address homelessness, on the part of homeless advocates and Southside San Francisco residents tired of walking by encampments, remains high. However, municipal efforts have helped thousands of people get off the streets over the past 15 years, and new attempts are emerging to identify possible ways to progress.…
Last November the View reported that The Good Life Grocery’s 20th Street location was facing fines of upwards of $3,100 a month for failing to comply with the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act (CalRecycle). The law, known as the “bottle bill,” and passed in 1986, aims to “…make redemption and recycling convenient…
Wagly – a year old startup co-founded by Shane Kelly – will open its newest facility at 1400 17th Street this summer. Starting from its flagship location in Bellevue, Washington, the company is launching outlets in Seattle, San Jose, and Orange County, in addition to San Francisco, offering daycare, grooming, boarding, and veterinary services all…
As the number of gasoline stations in San Francisco steadily declines, one facility, located at Potrero Hill’s western edge, is thriving. Performance Shell, at 17th Street and Potrero Avenue, attracts a steady stream of customers, who refuel, grab a snack or lunch at a taco truck parked on the corner, or get their car serviced.…
The University of California, San Francisco announced its support for the construction of a new kindergarten through fifth grade public school in Mission Bay last month. “UCSF strongly supports the San Francisco Board of Education designating a portion of the November 2016 General Obligation Facilities Bond to be used to build a new school in…
It took a while, and wasn’t in the form she expected, but Karen Erlichman eventually achieved her dream. When she was nine years old, growing up in Philadelphia in an assimilated Jewish family, Erlichman wanted to be a rabbi. But at that time – 1971 – there were no female rabbis. Today, Erlichman considers herself…
When Pennsylvania Avenue resident Loic Maestracci founded the San Francisco Music Expo in 2014, inviting seasoned producers and engineers to speak on the subject of “Inspiration to Completion,” he had a hidden agenda of sorts. He’d been dabbling in music for years, producing a countless supply of melodic fragments. “From a personal point of view,…
Potrero Hill resident Andrea Laudate, 70, isn’t shy. She recently massaged talk show host James Corden’s butt on air when he passed her walking down an aisle during a taping of “The Late Late Show with James Corden”. And she has a bit of a purple obsession. “My clothes are purple, my kitchen is purple,…
“She was a larger than life person,” said Mark Iverson, reflecting on Marla Zamora’s influence as a lawyer in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. Iverson, a senior trial attorney at the PD, first met Zamora 25 years ago. Their professional relationship deepened 16 years ago, when the pair worked in the juvenile unit together;…
The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in San Francisco has been rising steadily over the past several years, mirroring a national trend. And Southside neighborhoods – including Potrero Hill, Bayview, Hunters Point, Visitation Valley, and the Mission – have among the highest STD rates in the City, with the Castro and Duboce Triangle/Upper Market…
One of the possible train routes to the under-construction Transbay Transit Center, located at First and Mission streets, being studied by the San Francisco Planning Department would include dismantling the last 1.2 miles of Interstate-280, from Mariposa Street north. However, judging from skepticism exhibited during public presentations earlier this year, the I-280 takedown proposal may…
San Francisco has a long history of investing in municipal improvements, including preserving open spaces, cleaning up the Bay and beautifying the Embarcadero. But one effort to improve aesthetics has struggled to find funding: undergrounding the City’s 400 miles of utility wires. Overheard wires are more than an eyesore; underground wires are safer during natural…
The City and County of San Francisco maintains more than 60 commissions and boards, which’re overseen by individuals nominated either by the Mayor or the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (BoS), and confirmed by the BoS. Each of these bodies is responsible, in some fashion, for a different issue area. For example, of the seven…
The blocks surrounding Showplace Square and the California College of the Arts (CCA) have been a longstanding parking haven for commuters, oversized vehicles, and residents. Over time regulations have tightened parking availability throughout Potrero Hill, increasing parking pressures from Division to 16th streets and east to Seventh Street. Now, the San Francisco Mu-nicipal Transportation Agency…