With summer break receding into the distance, Potrero Hill’s independent school classrooms are once again abuzz with energy, as students and teachers immerse themselves in the business of making friends, learning new concepts, and taking and grading tests. Annette Bauer, head of school of AltSchool’s Dogpatch campus, which serves about 52 kindergarteners to second graders,…
After roughly three years of community advocates’ organizing, petitioning and planning, on July 31 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the establishment of a Greens Benefit District (GBD) in the northwest corner of Potrero Hill and Dogpatch, a first-of-its-kind experiment in funding the creation and maintenance of public green space. The GBD will…
People have been coming to, moving out of, and sometimes returning to San Francisco since before the 1800s, and likely well before that. Often times new immigrants to California would spill into the City, and then spill right back out. “Realty Brokers Do Brisk Business” could have been a headline last week, but it actually…
Last month, the Potrero Hill Democratic Club (PHDC) sponsored a debate at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House that featured candidates running for Sheriff and the Board of Trustees, City College of San Francisco (CCSF). The packed hall listened to Board candidates Wendy Aragon, incumbent Alex Randolph, and Tom Temprano discuss issues related to enrollment, marketing,…
Advocates for seniors and people with disabilities are challenging the rerouting of the 33-Stanyan bus away from Potrero Avenue and San Francisco General Hospital. The activists argue that the change will cause a hardship to seniors and the disabled who have to transfer at 16th Street and Potrero Avenue to the 9-San Bruno bus to…
Over the past year, the Port of San Francisco, developers – Orton Development, Inc. and Forest City Enterprises, Inc. – and the ship repair company, BAE Systems, Inc., have held public events, calculated rehabilitation costs for historic buildings, and fine-tuned their plans for Pier 70. The roughly 69 acre pier has been largely closed…
When the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital opened last winter one of its features was San Francisco’s first rooftop helipad. The helideck allows critically ill newborns, children and pregnant woman to be transported to and from the facility in a way that minimizes complications associated with ground transportation, providing access to advanced,…
Construction along Potrero Avenue – part of streetscape improvements managed by the San Francisco Department of Public Works in conjunction with the Municipal Transit Authority and the Public Utilities Commission – will be completed this fall, according to a San Francisco Bicycle Coalition spokesperson. Potrero Avenue is the only direct bike route between South-of-Market and…
On a sunny summer day Meg Hilgartner, dressed in all black except for neon blue and pink shoes, was dispensing soft-serve at her freshly opened Twirl & Dip location. The ice creamery is new to Potrero Hill, but Meg Hilgartner and her business partner, Siri Skelton, aren’t new to the business. Hilgartner has worked as…
In April and May two earthquakes rocked Nepal. The tremblors devastated the country, destroying approximately 250,000 buildings and 20,000 schools. Nepal Social Educational Environmental Development Services, a San Francisco-based charity led by Potrero Hill resident Keith Goldstein, responded with a spirited effort to support relief efforts, raising $400,000 for earthquake relief. And its fundraising efforts…
This month artist and art gallery owner Paolo Mejia will re-open his namesake gallery on Grant Street, after operating it for two years in Hunters Point. Mejia first launched his gallery in 2013, and has already represented 20 fine Bay Area artists. When asked if there was a common theme amongst the artists he works…
A resolution by the San Francisco Board of Education to work with an Arab and a Vietnamese group to help develop new language programs sparked a two-month controversy that was resolved, at least temporarily, over the summer. The Board decision to encourage the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to work with the Arab Resource…
Calling long-time Potrero Hill resident Karen Larsen a publicist is “both accurate and absurdly insufficient,” wrote film critic Michael Fox, in a 2011 online profile. Fox’s sketch of Larsen, prompted by her receipt of the San Francisco Film Society’s Essential SF Award, described her as “…the most steadfast evangelist of independent films, filmmakers and festivals,…
The idea of starting a print newspaper today would be seen as quaint. The ease of communicating in the Internet age is sharply different than the challenge faced 45 years ago by five Potrero Hill residents who wanted to keep their neighbors informed about important goings-on. Bill and Jodie Dawson, together with Lenny Anderson –…
With 453 residential units, a striking design and an acre of public space, Equity Residential (EQR) developers announced last month that they’ll begin preleasing apartments at Potrero1010 this October, with move-ins scheduled for December. The project won’t be entirely finished until spring of 2016. A little more than a year ago the lot on…
In late-June, the San Francisco Giants submitted more than 16,000 signatures from San Francisco voters to the Department of Elections to place approval of their proposed Mission Rock development, under the Mission Rock Initiative, on the November 2015 ballot. The measure needed 9,702 signatures from San Francisco voters before July 6 to qualify. Under the…
An extraordinary amount of real estate development is occurring in the Southside neighborhoods, with nearly 5,000 units in the pipeline. These projects are transforming Dogpatch and Potrero Hill. What follows are profiles of some of the most active Southside developers. Trumark Urban Last May, Trumark Urban broke ground on a 91-unit mixed-use residential development on…
“I’m here because I’m thinking about a career change,” said a woman holding a plastic cup of wine. She and roughly 20 others were gathered in a brightly-lit building that itself had gone through a career change. Known as the Standard Oil Building, it was designed for John D. Rockefeller to house his California headquarters.…
A new residential building is planned for a vacant lot located directly across the street from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Benioff Children’s Hospital, on the southeast corner of Tennessee and Mariposa streets. The building is being designed by San Francisco architect Riyad Ghannam, of RG-Architecture. The proposed development, which is undergoing an…
SF Cheese Fest, a fundraiser for the California Artisan Cheese Guild, will take place on September 19 at Dogpatch WineWorks. Billed as a celebration of cheese and cheesemakers, the event will feature live and DJ’d music, small bites and, of course, beer and cheese tasting. Beer and cheese? Shouldn’t it be wine and cheese? …
Four foot beat officers, dispatched from the San Francisco Police Department’s Bayview Station, are working to improve the quality life in Potrero Hill and Dogpatch. Officer Eric Lau walks and rides a bicycle in the two neighborhoods from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Officers Matt Reiter, Sher Khan and Leo Bernstein monitor Third Street by…
Dozens of San Francisco residents, advocacy groups, and community organizations packed a late-June special meeting of the San Francisco Commission on Community Investment and Infrastructure to voice their opinions about the proposed Golden State Warriors Mission Bay arena. Attendees included the San Francisco Labor Council, which represents more than 100 unions in the City; Real…
The Potrero Hill and Dogpatch communities wouldn’t be what they are today without the help of extraordinary women. A few of whom – though certainly not all – are featured below. Janet Carpinelli, president of the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association (DNA) and chair of GreenTrustSF, has lived in Dogpatch since 1981, before the neighborhood was called…
What if there was a group of San Franciscans who wanted to send their kids to a neighborhood school, rather than placing them in a private academy or public school that might be miles away? What if they were savvy enough – as educated professionals – to deftly navigate school district politics and bureaucracy to…
Recent media has spotlighted the health care risks facing nail salon workers, as well as their customers. Earlier this year, a series of New York Times articles uncovered poor working conditions in East Coast salons, and a reluctance from the cosmetics industry to label beauty supplies that may contain harmful chemicals. Dubbed the toxic…