A state law that took effect this year could provide a method to funnel money to Southside neighborhoods to finance such things as parks, transportation, affordable housing, childcare facilities, and libraries. Senate Bill 628 allows local governments to create “enhanced infrastructure financing districts,” or EIFDs, and issue bonds if a super-majority of voters in the… Keep Reading
Two months into the 2015 school year Potrero Hill’s public schools are completing or commencing campus renovations and modernizations. Some schools have introduced new courses, one is piloting a revamped curriculum, while another is grappling with significant enrollment declines. Daniel Webster Elementary has moved temporarily to the Enola Maxwell/International Studies Academy campus, as its 20th… Keep Reading
Housing is today’s top conversational topic at upper middle class dinner parties in San Francisco. It’s displaced jockeying over whose been to the best, most recently opened, restaurant; discussions over whether a $50 bottle of wine is really worth it; and debates about yet another Bush versus Clinton presidential race: would it be a deeply… Keep Reading
Editor, Apropos of “Drought Impacts,” in the August issue, Paul McDonald should simply submerge his entire hose in the tub, make sure all the air is out of it and that it’s totally filled with water. Then, while underwater cap one end of the hose. Take the capped end down to the tree; the… Keep Reading
City Hall asserts it’s protecting neighborhoods from short-term residential rentals to tourists, like those offered by Airbnb. It claims it’s protecting the availability and affordability of scarce housing. I wholeheartedly disagree. City Hall passed legislation that’s so weak that every independent analysis reached the same conclusion: the current law is unworkable and unenforceable. These tourist… Keep Reading
The Center Won’t Hold By well before Thanksgiving, Mission Bay Development, with support from the California Department of Transportation, plans to rip-out the driveway in front of Center Hardware & Supply Co., Inc., eliminating access to the front parking lot, to install a new sidewalk. Center already faces rumors that it’s going to close permanently. … Keep Reading
On a sunny day last summer the crisp smell of fresh vegetables could be detected on Texas Street’s southern slope, as families and individuals harvested produce at the Texas Street Farm. The farm, where the crops raised are eaten by those who work the garden, is managed by the Potrero Hill Sustainable Living Group and… Keep Reading
Property owners on the 800 block of Rhode Island Street and 900 block of Wisconsin Street have partnered with Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) to make their streets a little greener. The effort involves removing concrete blocks from the sidewalk and replacing them with rocks, plants, and mulch. Rachel Gordon, director of communications and… Keep Reading
Last month the Potrero Hill Democratic Club (PHDC) hosted discussions on upcoming local ballot propositions, as well a mayoral debate, though without the incumbent. The conversations often pivoted off of the theme of affordable housing and the need to address unfulfilled demand for homes. Edwin Lindo, for the Committee to Save the Mission, spoke on… Keep Reading
San Francisco’s last significant fossil fuel electricity generating station, the Potrero Power Plant, was shuttered in 2010. More than five years later, developers are looking at the facility’s footprint with visions of what could be constructed in its place. The power plant site, which covers roughly 21 acres, is located in Pier 70, at 1201… Keep Reading
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House’s executive director, Edward Hatter, lies awake at night worrying about what would happen should the facility close its doors. “It scares the hell out of me,” he said in an interview with the View, adding that it would be “devastating.” The Nabe, as it is known, located at 953 De Haro… Keep Reading
By next month The Connecticut Yankee, located at 100 Connecticut Street, will change hands from Fritz Frisbie to The Pour Guys, a partnership composed of restaurant industry veterans Joey Christensen, Tony Cooney, Stephen Crawford, and Eric Mejia. The Guys own two other bars: the Tempest, at 431 Natoma Street, and Louie’s, 55 Stevenson Street, which… Keep Reading
In 2007 Phil Klay was deployed to Iraq’s Anbar Province. During his six month’s serving as a Marine public affairs officer Klay gathered stories for his book Redeployment, which won this year’s National Book Award. I read Redeployment, with great interest; Klay and I both served in Iraq during the troop surge. In Redeployment Klay… Keep Reading
As new residents settle into freshly built market-rate housing located at the former Hunters Point Shipyard, artists who have long maintained studios in the area are also anticipating a move, just a parcel away. Lennar Urban, developer for the Shipyard, is required by the City’s Office of Community Infrastructure and Investment (OCII) to construct 106,000… Keep Reading
On October 17th the 26th annual Potrero Hill Festival returns to 20th Street, offering a day of fun, food, music, and crafts, plus a dazzling display of aerial arts. This year’s event features new kids rides, a line-up of local musicians, and a human scale kaleidoscope art installation, sprawling over a four blocks between Wisconsin… Keep Reading
Catharine Clark, a native San Franciscan and art gallery owner, has worked with visual artists from across the globe for more than two decades. Her Utah Street-based Catherine Clark Gallery offers an elegant, multi-room exhibition space for artists to present various themes. Every six weeks the gallery changes its exhibits. Clark represents more than 20… Keep Reading
“You can’t put ten, twenty, sometimes forty kids in a room and expect them all to learn the same material, at the same pace, with the same structure. Everybody has their own learning style.” This opening observation sets the stage in the provocative and powerful new documentary Beyond Measure. It’s spoken not by an educator,… Keep Reading
Through October 11 Theater: CRANE In the world premiere of JC Lee’s CRANE, directed by Mina Morita and performed by Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company, when Sadako stumbles into a mountain cabin in the dead of winter she meets Bradley, a young, hermitic artist who once created a great art work but has since descended into… Keep Reading
Each year, Potrero Hill-based ArtSpan hosts a citywide month-long event, SF Open Studios. With nearly a thousand contributing artists, SF Open Studios is a celebration of San Francisco’s art culture. Artpsan is committed to “cultivating a vibrant, accessible, and sustainable arts community in San Francisco”, including helping to safeguard access to physical spaces for creative… Keep Reading
Five years ago I was laid-off from a sales position at a Redwood City printing and packaging concern that was going out of business. For the next 18 months I took unemployment insurance, and wrote for the View. On a Sunday in 2012, with my unemployment insurance at its end, my wife handed me the… Keep Reading
This is chapter three of a serialized tale of politics, capitalism, and corruption in San Francisco. Look for the next fiction installment in each new issue of the View. “Mr. Mayor?” Nash gently knocked on the Honorable William E. Wong’s executive office door. The Mayor often did not want to be disturbed. But neither did… Keep Reading
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,… Keep Reading
Police in the Bayview district, which serves Potrero Hill and Dogpatch, made two automobile burglary arrests in the first two weeks of September, as they continue to struggle to counter high rates of vehicle-related crime. In the same two weeks, district residents reported 17 auto burglaries and 13 auto thefts, according to Officer Ellina Teper.… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading