Dogpatch Technology co-founders Jean Miller Truelson and Palmer Truelson formed a business partnership before they fashioned a more intimate one: marriage. The two former Second Life employees came together when Jean left the San Francisco-based Linden Lab startup that created the once hugely popular online virtual world to develop a product to help with her…
On an unseasonably warm June day in San Francisco the Women’s Community Clinic was quiet. It’s a tidy place, with walls painted bright muted colors. The space sends a message that regardless of a person’s income or insurance status, everyone deserves great healthcare in an environment where they feel safe and respected. The clinic has…
Earlier this year Potrero Hill resident Heidi Zak moved her company’s headquarters from a South-of-Market location closer to home. Zak, along with her husband, Dave Spector, has lived on De Haro Street for almost three years. They have a 21-month-old daughter, Sloane. ThirdLove, which sells lingerie, is now located in the America Industrial Center (AIC)…
South of Market resident Lorrae Rominger, who serves as deputy director of the Goldman Environmental Prize, recently purchased the farmhouse she grew up on, which her family had sold decades ago. She plans to retire there eventually. In 1948 Rominger’s grandparents built the house in Winters, California, a small town in Yolo County. Her father…
Lyon-Martin Health Services, located in Hayes Valley, has long been known as the go-to clinic for the lesbian community. Founder Patty Robertson and a tight-knit crew of volunteers started the clinic at a time when health centers were springing up to fight against the AIDS epidemic, catering specifically to gay men. “It came about from…
On June 12 ballots were sent to property owners in Dogpatch and the northwest corner of Potrero Hill asking them if they’d be willing to pay an annual assessment, the revenues from which would go towards building, improving and maintaining public green spaces in the area. If the measure passes, the state’s first ever Green…
Almost seven years after it was adopted by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan has emerged as a perennial source of controversy for community groups. The Potrero Boosters, Save the Hill, and other advocates are concerned that insufficient municipal attention is being paid to ensuring that infrastructure – transit, parking, schools,…
Raj Vaswani, Bayview Station captain, is a soft-spoken man who believes that patrol officers are the backbone of the San Francisco Police Department. Vaswani took over as captain in April, after Robert O’Sullivan was promoted to lead the department’s Golden Gate Patrol Division. Now a few months into his new assignment, Vaswani is working to…
Construction is set to begin this summer on a Dogpatch arts hub that will give gallery owners, the latest casualties of San Francisco’s booming real estate market, a bulwark against skyrocketing rents. Dubbed “Minnesota Street Project,” a warehouse at 1275 Minnesota Street is being converted into affordable space for 10 permanent galleries, a large, open…
This month Dogpatch and Northwest Potrero Hill property owners will receive ballots asking them to tax themselves, the proceeds from which would be invested in parks and public spaces, as administered by a “Green Benefit District” (GBD). Under the GBD locals would “directly invest in the beautification and greening” of the two neighborhoods, according to…
In late April, the Mission Bay Alliance emerged to oppose plans to develop a Mission Bay arena to house the Golden State Warriors. The Alliance said it wants to preserve the University of California, San Francisco’s (UCSF) ability to use the proposed arena site to expand the university’s substantial array of research laboratories and medical…
An audit of municipally-funded violence prevention services has prompted District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen to call for new measures to stem aggression in Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill, and Visitacion Valley. The audit, conducted by the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office, revealed that the City and County of San Francisco has “no method in place to…
Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco’s sheriff, is a hard man to get a hold of. An interview with a View reporter was rescheduled twice through his office. But then he provided his personal cellphone number and email address, and invited the reporter to his Potrero Avenue home. Despite the digital and physical contact information, Mirkarimi remained…
Final touches are being made to the renovated San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) and Trauma Center building, scheduled to open in December. The new hospital inpatient tower was funded by Proposition A, passed in 2008. Public monies amounting to $887 million were recently supplemented by a $75 million donation from Priscilla and Mark Zuckerberg. Even…
Last semester, California College of the Arts (CCA) scholar-in-residence Chris Treggiari turned to Potrero Hill to serve as his studio class’s primary subject. Treggiari directed students in his Making the Invisible Visible course to develop new ways to enliven Starr King Open Space. Treggiari’s undergraduates focused on catalyzing public interaction, creating marketing concepts and…
San Francisco’s vibrant film scene, which offers a rich and diverse “ecosystem” of independently produced movies, can require as much creativity by viewers in search of a good, or provocative, time as it does to produce the work. According to Peter L. Stein, local film festivals that aren’t to be missed include the recently completed…
District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen has called for a hearing to examine the San Francisco Police Department’s efforts to combat violent crime and automobile break-ins. In social media and local gathering places, Dogpatch and Potrero Hill residents have complained that SFPD has largely left it up to community members to deal with vehicle thefts, burglaries…
By Marc Passen Denise was a lifelong friend of my mother’s, Ruth Passen, who served as The Potrero View’s editor for more than 30 years. They became instant friends when they met in San Francisco in the early-1950s, soon after Denise and her young daughter, Joanne – who later would sometimes “babysit” me! – moved…
The Noonan Building, located on Pier 70, has served as an affordable work space, with inspiring surroundings, for San Francisco artists for more than 35 years. For most of that time the building was off-the-beaten-track, surrounded by such industrial activities as automobile wrecking and ship yards. In 2012 the future of the idyllic arts haven…
Ask any parent of a teenager who was notified of what public or private high school in San Francisco offered them a spot last month about the application process. You’ll hear “stressful,” “overwhelming,” and “time consuming” in response. As with elementary and middle school, families can apply to any of the San Francisco Unified School…
Last month a California Appeals Court halted work on the Mission Bay Loop project, a Third Street T-line turnaround that’s planned for 18th, 19th and Illinois streets. The Loop would enable San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) trains traveling south to return downtown once they reach Dogpatch. As part of the Central Subway project, the…
California College of the Arts (CCA) students will soon get a respite from San Francisco’s high-priced housing market. The Panoramic, located at 1321 Mission Street, is set to open in August, and will house around 200 artists-in-training. Half of the 160-unit complex will be set aside for CCA students, with the other half dedicated to…
The “Harmonics of Unity” exhibition by the San Francisco Gurdjieff Society, held this month at two Potrero Hill locations, presents an overview of the interactions of art, science, and religion based on insights from Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. The society is mounting two concurrent shows: at Farley’s and the Entropy/Consciousness Institute…
Project Artaud – pronounced Ar-toe – on 499 Alabama Street is an artists’ village/cooperative/collective. Technically, the project is a nonprofit, but “nonprofit” doesn’t capture the undertaking’s essence, which is hard to characterize, admitted visual and performing artist Anna Dal Pino. “The difficulty and beauty of Project Artaud is that there is no consensus on the…
Behind a set of bright yellow doors on the third floor of the American Industrial Center (AIC) is a room filled with printmaking equipment: four etching presses, two litho presses, a letter press, an aquatint box, silkscreens and a hot plate. These are just some of the tools printmakers at the Graphic Arts Workshop use…