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… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
Southside residents have been frustrated by the perceived lack of police attention to the relentless vehicle thefts and burglaries from cars, with attendant smashed windows. In January, the latest month for which data is available, the San Francisco Police Department received reports of 75 automobile thefts and 95 burglaries from vehicles located in in the… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
The Potrero View is San Francisco’s longest-running neighborhood newspaper. We’ll celebrate our 45th anniversary this August. Throughout its years, the View has had an ongoing commitment to and engagement with the arts and artists. The paper’s founding publisher, Ruth Passen, was part of the mix of craftspeople, artists, activists, and writers who settled on the… Keep Reading
Commercial Crime Last month four businesses in Dogpatch and Potrero Hill – Invention Hub, Poquito’s, Papito’s, and Chat’s Roasting Company – were burglarized, in Chat’s case for the seventh time in the last eighteen months…In the meantime, in the face of chronic automobile break-ins and thefts, the San Francisco Police Department posted sentries at the… Keep Reading
I did my best to avoid journalists like Brian Williams and Bill O’Reilly, as well as politicians such as U.S. Senator John McCain and Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald, when I was with the U.S. military. I believed then, as I do now, in press freedoms and representative politics. People have the right to… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
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… Keep Reading
In a neighborhood known for its concentration of artists Creativity Explored fits right in. The fine art studio, located on Arkansas and 16th streets, works with artists who have developmental disabilities. Founded in 1983, the nonprofit was initially launched in the Mission, after artist Florence Katz and psychologist Dr. Elias Katz noticed a lack of… Keep Reading
Occupying fuseproject’s lobby, the Fused Space gallery, now in its second year, hosts new art shows every two to four months, with a focus on exploring the overlap between art and design. The building, located at 1401 16th street, was covered with graffiti in 2011 as part of a Sean Parker/Shawn Fanning event celebrating the… Keep Reading
Wanxin Zhang considers his art to be a question, not an answer. That quiet curiosity is evident not only in his sculptures, but his demeanor. Zhang’s personality and artist sensibility can likely be attributed to his formative years in China, which coincided with the Cultural Revolution. Born in 1961 in Changchun, Zhang grew up in… Keep Reading
Born in San Francisco in 1932, raised in Alameda, artist Robert Bechtle has lived most of his 82 years in the Bay Area. He received his Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, and taught painting at San Francisco State University for 30 years. He currently resides… Keep Reading
With the opening of the $1.5 billion UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay earlier this year came hundreds of art installations throughout and outside the facility’s three buildings. Complementing the pieces installed in lobbies, terraces, atriums, elevator bays and outdoor plazas, the center offers art therapy programs for patients occupying the nearly 300 hospital beds.… Keep Reading
You never know what might be behind a front door or garden gate in Potrero Hill. Indoor swimming pools, high-tech lighting arrays, lavish tropical gardens, elevators, dungeons, and hand-hewn homes can all be found on the other side of fences and exterior entryways. Inside Jeff Dauber’s Hill residence is a dense collection of artworks,… Keep Reading
Jan Padover grew-up in the Potero Hill of the 1960’s, a close-knit, creative community. The neighborhood was a magnet for bohemians and artists drawn by its affordability. Padover was raised in what he described as an “open house,” where friends of his father, Carl Padover – all of whom were artists or interested in the… Keep Reading
The perplexing question of what happened to sculptor Henri Marie-Rose’s infamous public statue, Sailor and Mermaid, remains unanswered after 44 years. Marie-Rose, a 58 year Potrero Hill resident who died in 2010, created the piece from bronze and copper sheets; cut, pounded and welded. It sat atop a cement base installed in front of the… Keep Reading
Ten years ago Charles and I bought a house on Potrero Hill, not far from Ferlinghetti’s. We were led here by a need we didn’t know we had for seclusion, privacy and a distance between us and the restless ambitions of North Beach life. Potrero Hill is one of the oldest settlements in San Francisco,… Keep Reading
Programs for Adults Digital Drop In: Have questions about how to download eBooks to your device or how to use the library’s databases to read magazines, research genealogy, and more? Get one on one time with a librarian to explore your library’s free digital collection. Wednesdays, April 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29, 6:30 to… Keep Reading
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Potrero Hill Artists’ Exhibition, reputedly the oldest annual art show in San Francisco. Various news accounts suggest that the show emerged sometime between 1951 and 1955 – most likely in the latter year – when artist Charles Griffin Farr heard that the City was planning to close… Keep Reading