Speaker in the House
A group of KQED members touring the station last month were delighted to run into Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as she left her interview with Nina Kim for the “Forum” program. Potrero Hill resident, Laura ODonovan, second to the left, behind Ms. Pelosi, submitted the photo. Keep Reading
City Ponders Ways to Oust JUUL from Pier 70
San Francisco Port Commissioners want vaping company, JUUL, to relocate from Pier 70, by shortening the firm’s lease or enacting a municipal ordinance that bans vaping firms and firearm manufacturers from leasing or subleasing commercial property. The nicotine-supplying e-cigarette enterprise sublets offices in Building 102 on 20th and Illinois streets. As reported in the View,… Keep Reading
Dogpatch/Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District Pursues Success through Partnerships
Improvements to the 22nd Street Caltrain station are on schedule, with work to remove the asphalt walkway and replace it with a larger concrete plaza – along with additional plantings and lighting – on the facility’s southbound platform starting this month. Covered scooter and motorcycle parking opened at Iowa and 22nd streets earlier this year.… Keep Reading
Fires Between Highway 101 and Potrero Hill Fanned by Interjurisdictional Challenges
Most San Franciscans probably believe that if a neighborhood experiences a plethora of intermittent fires someone would attempt to find a way to stop them. But when it comes to blazes occurring between Highway 101 and Potrero Hill, overlapping jurisdictions amongst several state and municipal agencies has left oversight largely to nearby homeowners, who are… Keep Reading
Publisher’s View: Transformation
Each of us is born into a beautifully flawed world, though the balance differs depending on individual circumstances. Some of us, emerging newly slick from the womb, are welcomed into a family full of hugs, smiles, and material well-being. Others are left cold on the table, confronted with immediate, wrenching, long-term physical, emotional, and spiritual… Keep Reading
Short Cuts
Hotel for Warriors The Golden State Warriors want to add lodging and condominiums next to the Chase Center basketball arena under construction in Mission Bay. The basketball team plans to propose a 142-room hotel and up to 25 upper-floor condos at the northeast corner of the 11-acre project site, near the intersection of South Street… Keep Reading
Other Neighborhoods Less Enthusiastic About Adopting Green Benefit District Model
Since 2016, the Dogpatch/Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District (GBD), the City’s only GBD, has focused its efforts on greening streets and improving common spaces. During that same three-year period residents of other neighborhoods – Mission Dolores, Buena Vista, and the Inner Sunset – have engaged in heated debates about whether to establish a GBD… Keep Reading
826 Valencia to Open in Mission Bay
The newest arrival to Mission Bay is 826 Valencia, a nonprofit that works with under-resourced children and youth, ages eight to 18. The organization opened its 1310 Fourth Street location last month. It offers a three-part program: homework help, writing projects and reading support. Sessions are three hours long, from 2:45 to 6 p.m., Monday through… Keep Reading
Doctor Addresses Gap in Care with Cooking Classes
When Dr. Linda Shiue became Kaiser Permanente’s first-ever director of culinary medicine at the San Francisco Medical Center three years ago, she saw an opportunity to address a gap in care that she recognized over 15 years of practicing medicine. “I realized that in my career as a primary care doctor I could only do… Keep Reading
Community Calendar – March 2019
Now through 3/17 Sunday — Theater: VioletSet in the early-1960’s, the Tony Award-nominated Violet tells the story of a young woman’s bus ride from Spruce Pine, North Caroline to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she wants to find a televangelist, whom Violet believes will heal the axe scar which cuts across her cheek. Her journey takes a different… Keep Reading
View Kids’ Photo Contest – March 2019
Development Threatens Historic Power Plant Buildings
Developer Associate Capital’s preferred plan for the 28-acre Potrero Power Station site, located along 23rd Street, calls for 19 new buildings and demolition of all the early-20th Century historic brick structures, three of which are individually eligible for the California Register of Historical Resources and contributors to the historic Third Street Industrial District. The San… Keep Reading
City Ignores Proposition K, Doing Little to Repurpose Surplus Land to Beneficial Uses
In 2015, voters approved Proposition K to streamline the process of identifying surplus municipally-owned land that could be used for affordable housing. The voter guide indicated that there’d be specific reporting dates for public agencies, hearings and oversight by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (BoS). Three years later, the City has passed on the… Keep Reading
Planning Continues for New Mission Bay Elementary School
The San Francisco Unified School District held a briefing last fall to collect community reactions to a planned pre-kindergarten through fifth grade campus, to be built adjacent to the Owens Street traffic circle. The first of many anticipated public engagements, the meeting, held at the Mercy Housing Community Room on Fourth Street, was well attended by… Keep Reading
Esprit Park Renovation Planning Process Continues
The Esprit Community Advisory Group (ECAG) was formed last year to recommend approaches to the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department about how to best maintain and renovate Esprit Park. Members include Dogpatch resident Susan Fitch, Irma Lewis of Toes and Paws for Green Space, Green Benefit District executive director Julie Christensen, and Dogpatch Neighborhood… Keep Reading
Women’s March in San Francisco 2019
Publisher’s View: Pacific Gas and Electric Company
John Martin and Eugene de Sabla started out as gold miners along the Yuba River, harnessing hydroelectricity to power their excavations. After successfully building hydro plants in Nevada City and elsewhere in Northern California, in 1900 they created the Bay Counties Power Company, constructing a 140-mile transmission line, the world’s longest at that time, to fire… Keep Reading
Short Cuts
Crime The San Francisco Police Department’s Bayview Station has a new captain: Valerie Matthews. Captain Matthews has been with SFPD for 28 years; most recently with the Major Crimes unit. She was posted to Bayview three years ago, and since then has noticed an alarming increase in the homeless population and street garbage. She’s working… Keep Reading
OP-ED: Potrero Power Station Should be Developed as a Neighborhood Asset
Development of the 29-acre Potrero Power Station could bring much needed public services and shoreline access to our waterfront. And yet, no firm commitment to any specific community benefits that would support area growth has materialized as the project moves rapidly through environmental and design review. Although we hear affordable housing is a priority at… Keep Reading
Pennsylvania Street Gardens Struggle with Urban Ails
Pennsylvania Garden is located at 249 Pennsylvania Avenue, underneath a John F. Foran Freeway off-ramp near 18th street. Pennsylvania Railroad Garden is on the east side of the 100 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. Collectively known as the “Pennsylvania Street Gardens” (PSG), the plots suffer from maladies that plague many San Francisco’s parks: pedestrians and dog-walkers… Keep Reading
Farley’s Celebrates 30 Years of Coffee Community
Farley’s, a cozy coffee shop located at 1315 18th Street, was founded by Roger Hillyard after he was unable to find a retailer that sold a glass insert replacement for his broken French press. He decided to open a coffee and tea paraphernalia store, which he named after his grandfather, Jack Farley, who disappeared in… Keep Reading
Fiction: Girth Worms
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I’d just come back from India, and had lost a lot of weight on account of a worm I’d picked up there. Ten, fifteen pounds, gone in a matter of weeks. I copied a bunch of signs and stuck them on telephone poles around the neighborhood:… Keep Reading
San Francisco’s Oldest Family-Owned Manufacturer Shifts to Retail-Only
McRoskey Mattress, which had been the oldest family-owned manufacturer in San Francisco, closed its Minnesota Street plant last fall after selling its production and brand rights to Fresno-based Pleasant Mattress. The shift marks a new chapter for the iconic company, which now focuses solely on retail sales. McRoskey was established in 1899 by brothers Edward… Keep Reading
Community Calendar: February 2019
Now through 2/10 Sunday – Theater: Playground Solo Performance Festival PlayGround Solo Performance Festival features 11 Bay Area artists, with new works by Ron Campbell, Julie Gieseke, Malcolm Grissom, Emil Guillermo, Michael Phillis, Fred Pitts, Kathryn Seabron, and Talisha Tolliver, as well as special guests Marga Gomez, Matthew Martin, and Nina Wise. The event, initiated last… Keep Reading