One of 826 Valencia Mission Bay’s first year goals was to work with third-grade classrooms at schools in Bayview and Potrero Hill, providing weekly writing support. Since last August, 826 staff and volunteers have worked with Herman Shepard, Starr King Elementary School teacher, to design whimsical and weird, Common Core-aligned writing lessons. From personal narratives…
Like many other nations, Rwanda enforced a shelter-in-place order from mid-March to the end of April. Half-way through the social shutdown, as increasing numbers of people lost their livelihoods, a communique was issued: “In the context of the fight against COVID-19, and in solidarity with the most affected Rwandans, the Government of Rwanda has decided,…
HELPFUL LINKS AT THE END OF THIS STORY. Starting Tuesday, March 17, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) will provide free breakfast, lunch, fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, and shelf-stable meals to all children ages 18 and younger. A child needs to be present to pick-up food; no registration, identification, nor proof of school…
A handful of civic organizations track land use changes in Dogpatch and Potrero Hill, and advocate on behalf of residents at City Hall. Among the most prominent of these are the Potrero Boosters, Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association (PDMA), and Dogpatch Neighborhood Association (DNA). The Boosters focus on issues that impact Hill residents. “What makes the…
Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography, tells the story of a poet born in Elizabethan England who lives for three centuries. Along the way the main character, Orlando, meets several key figures in English literature and mysteriously changes sex from male to female, making the novel both a history of English letters and an…
Southside San Francisco has long hosted cutting-edge clothing companies. Almost a half-century ago Esprit de Corps transformed a former wine warehouse into its corporate headquarters, ultimately leaving behind Esprit Park in Dogpatch. The first generation of self-heating jackets were created at the American Industrial Center, on Third Street, by a former The North Face executive.…
The Tuesday before “The Big Show,” Castle Bing Bong – Rock Band Land’s Treat Avenue headquarters – is bustling with activity. Dozens of young rockers playfully wander throughout the building, excitedly greeting their bandmates with giggles and high-fives. The sounds of vocal warmups, synthesizer beats, scattered drumming, and enthusiastic chatter spill out of various rooms,…
Located a few steps from Muni’s 20th and Third Street T-Line stop, the Sea Star is a contemporary bar with a long history. The establishment’s décor – a canoe hangs above the pool table, there’s seaweed-esque wallpaper, a diving helmet sits behind the bar – pays homage to its name and Bay proximity. Its extensive…
There are roughly 1,600 species of native bees in California. The insects are active when their favored flowers – those that provide nectar and pollen to support reproduction – are available. When those florae aren’t present, neither are the bees. Although some bees are active during the rainy season, most are either still developing or…
PlayGround, a resident company and founder of Potrero Stage, located on 18th Street, is in its twenty-fifth season. The theater group started 2020 with its third annual PlayGround Solo Performance Festival, presented through February 9. “Showcasing eleven creator-performers, including eight Bay Area premieres, this festival pairs two one-act solo performances together into full double-bill evenings…
Decathlon, one of the world’s largest sporting goods retailers, opened an outlet at Potrero Center last fall. It’s the French merchants’ third Bay Area location, joining a large Emeryville store and a small space at 735 Market Street. The 40-year-old company fancies itself as the Trader Joe’s of sporting goods, integrating in-house design, production…
Over the past decade and a half Potrero Hill has become denser and more lux. The latest development wave may have started in 2007, when Whole Foods moved into a 165-unit complex at 450 Rhode Island Street. In 2016, Martin Building Company started constructing 177 apartments at 88 Arkansas Street, across the street from Jackson…
Dogpatch, once thought of as Potrero Hill’s ugly stepsister, not long ago emerged as San Francisco’s up-and-coming neighborhood. The area is in the midst of a growth spurt the likes of which it’s never before seen in its one hundred-plus year history. Cranes dominate the landscape, multi-unit buildings sprout from long-empty lots and cinderblock warehouses,…
A family that’s owned land for four generations at the southern tip of San Bruno Avenue wants to build a seven-story housing development utilizing the state Density Bonus Law to gain exemption from City height limitations. Early indications are that neighborhood opposition to the project will be fierce. San Francisco’s zoning restricts structure heights on…
Pera, a Mediterranean restaurant, is celebrating ten years on 18th Street. Irfan Yalcin and his younger brother, Metin, have been ‘serving the Hill with love since 2009.’ To celebrate the milestone, last month the restaurant expanded from offering wine and beer to purveying an extensive array of beverages. Yalcin recently acquired a full liquor…
A cannabis retailer plans to open at 667 Mississippi Street by next spring. Stay Gold is owned by Nguey Lay, Angel Davis, and Mike Hall, all of whom “have deep roots in San Francisco going back generations” according to Lay. Walton Chang, Lay’s uncle – who for several years provided delivery services to the View…
Starr King Open Space, a neighborhood park located at 1215 Carolina Street with sweeping vistas, has a new addition to the view. The majestic sights from the public space haven’t been altered due to real estate development, but by the addition of a new mural, intended to reflect and extend the beauty of the natural…
Assembly Bill 362 – which’d allow San Francisco to operate a trial facility in which drug users can inject themselves – was reintroduced in the State Legislature last February by State Senator Scott Wiener and Assembly-member Susan Eggman after being vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2018. The measure is a response, in part, to…
The San Francisco Planning Department is studying how best to redesign roads, public transit and open space in ways that smooth connections between Showplace Square, Western and Central South-of-Market, and Mission Bay. The Showplace/SoMa Neighborhood Analysis and Coordination Study (SNACS) will also identify possible sites for additional market-rate and affordable housing, and evaluate demand for…
A black bird is loudly, rapidly, caw-cawing in the tree outside your window. Others are flying in groups riding the air currents. Numerous black birds are eating on the ground. Are they Ravens or Crows? Sometimes they’re both or neither. Ravens and Crows, which are abundant throughout the Bay Area, are scavengers, part of the…
In August, San Francisco Recreation and Parks completed extensive renovations to the Potrero Hill Recreation Center’s basketball and tennis courts, resurfacing roughly 7,100 square feet of space. New basketball backboards and hoops were mounted, with fresh fencing around the tennis courts. “We installed new tennis nets and new black-painted posts in the tennis courts as…
This year’s Point-In-Time (PIT) census identified 8,011 individuals without permanent shelter in San Francisco, a 17 percent jump from the 2017 PIT, the last time the survey was conducted. The 2019 PIT count found 1,889 people experiencing homelessness in District 10, the City’s second highest level of rootlessness, after District 6. Just 455 shelter beds…
A long-time Goat Hill Pizza employee recently saved the restaurant’s iconic goat hoofprints from destruction. In early August, a San Francisco Department of Public Works crew began jackhammering the sidewalk outside Goat Hill Pizza on 18th and Connecticut streets to prepare to put in a new path. Embedded in the walkway were goat hoofprints…
Bayview community members hooked a fish too big to throw back. “The Red Fish” was installed in Bayview Gateway Park, located at Third Street and Cargo Way, from 2007 to 2014. The sculpture was removed to make room for the Blue Greenway Project, a 13-mile landscape expansion sponsored by the Port of San Francisco, which…
After a 2017 announcement by the Chinese government that it’d no longer accept shipments of recycled materials from foreign countries that contain more than one percent impurities, the world lost its largest market for recycled paper and plastic, driving prices down and turning trash back into garbage. Some cities, like Philadelphia and Memphis, have reduced…