A new development complex in Dogpatch pays homage to an early technology pioneer who paved the way for Silicon Valley. The site – 815 Tennessee Street – used to be home to the Bowie Switch Company, which specialized in large-capacity electrical controls. In engineering, a switch is a component that can “make” or “break” an… Keep Reading
Last spring a bar opened in Dogpatch offering unconventional hours to San Franciscans. School Night, located at 601 19th Street, is named for its Sunday through Wednesday night schedule, a unique approach to carving out a niche in the City’s competitive restaurant and bar scene. The saloon occupies the same space as The Pearl, a… Keep Reading
Now through 9/30/18 – Art: “Truth and Beauty” “Truth and Beauty: The Pre-Raphaelites and the Old Masters” is the first major exhibition to assemble works by England’s nineteenth-century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood alongside the medieval and Renaissance masterpieces that inspired them. Through loans of paintings, compositions on paper, and decorative arts from international collections, as well as more than… Keep Reading
Curious about how to make a solarpowered flashlight, storyboard a film, draw Bugs Bunny or simply kill an afternoon learning to making slime? You’re in luck if you’re looking for a website to teach you all of those things. But only if you’re under the age of 18. On 20th Street in Mishpot, roughly a… Keep Reading
Last October, filming for Ant-man and the Wasp brought Marvel filmmakers to Potrero Hill. 298 Missouri Street became Ant-man’s home for exterior shots; interiors were filmed on a set in Atlanta. In this sequel to the first Ant-man movie, the hero can both shrink and become colossal. The cast and crew were in a good… Keep Reading
Family Programs Movie and a Meal: In partnership with the Potrero Hill Family Support Center (PHFSC), we’ll present a family-friendly film, and PHFSC will provide a meal. Our selection for August is Wonder. Based on the book by R. J. Palacio, Wonder is the story of a 10-year-old boy with facial differences who attends school… Keep Reading
San Francisco artist, Elaine Badgley Arnoux, had a vision after coming across a pile of toilets in her apartment building’s basement; she saw our 45th president sitting on top. Fourteen artists have transformed toilets into pieces reflecting on the state of democracy as part of FLUSH: a Protest Project, exhibiting at the Swedish American Hall,… Keep Reading
It’s just past noon on a Tuesday in April, and I’m bottle-feeding a seven-day-old black-tailed deer fawn on top of Potrero Hill. Energetic young squirrels perform gymnastics in a cage; a 60-year-old tortoise slowly makes his way through the backyard of a small house on 25th Street, where animal babies are kept until they can… Keep Reading
7/4 Wednesday – Independence Day: Safe and Sane Fireworks Show This annual tradition is a community favorite not to be missed. Free. About 8:30 p.m. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street. 7/4 Wednesday – Independence Day: Watch Fireworks from World War II Liberty Ship Celebrate Independence Day and enjoy the Bay Area’s finest fireworks showcase aboard the… Keep Reading
Last spring, Sonic, a Santa Rosa-based internet service provider, launched service in several San Francisco neighborhoods, including Potrero Hill, advancing an internet access alternative for residents and businesses. The growing company offers Gigabit Fiber Internet, which transmits data at a rate of 1,000 megabits a second, with download speeds 50 times the national average. Unlimited… Keep Reading
Growing up in San Francisco can provide wider opportunities and exposure to culture, but it’s not without challenges to parents, particularly when it comes to navigating housing, child care and schools. The trend over the past 40 years has been for families to leave San Francisco when children reach school age. A mere 18 percent… Keep Reading
1970. I’m 10 years-old, waiting for a haircut at what’d now be called an old-fashioned barber shop in West Covina. The chairs are filled with men, most likely in their 30s and 40s, but to my adolescent eyes they seemed Biblically ancient. I desperately wanted to grab one of the Playboys strewn around the side… Keep Reading
Out-of-State Politics Potrero Hill residents Steve Phillips and Susan Sandler are leading efforts to invest $10 million to support Stacey Abrams’ quest to become Georgia’s first African-American woman governor. Phillips is a former San Francisco Unified School District board member and author of Brown is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a… Keep Reading
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is considering a proposal by San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Deputy Chief Mikail Ali to permanently designate three blocks of red curbs and “police vehicles only” signs around a SFPD-leased 17th Street building. The facility, home to specialized equipment, and which hosts constabulary trainings, is located between 1700… Keep Reading
While the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency doesn’t plan to permanently alter the Muni bus route, 10 Townsend, riders may be impacted by a temporary redirecting due to construction underway on 25th Street between Dakota and Connecticut streets related to HOPE SF. The project, approved in 2017, is steadily redeveloping the Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complex,… Keep Reading
The San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) opened its Islais Creek bus facility last month and, if promises are kept, neighborhood groups hope that the long-neglected area will soon have a landscaped promenade featuring displays honoring the creek’s waterfront labor history. “Going forward a maintenance plan will be executed to ensure this space is welcomed… Keep Reading
Amidst a chaos of construction that includes the University of California, San Francisco Child, Teen and Family Center/Department of Psychiatry Building to the west, the Chase Center to the north and apartment buildings in between, there’s a 9.8-acre parcel along the waterfront that was supposed to have been turned into a park by 2017. Last… Keep Reading
Rapid economic growth, which has attracted more residents and commuters, congesting streets, has changed, yet again, the nature of City life. San Francisco’s homeless population remains stubbornly high, with a sense that erratic street behavior has become ubiquitous. Among the many demographics impacted by these vicissitudes are senior citizens, who struggle with age-related health and… Keep Reading
History buried for more than a century is regularly discovered during construction projects in San Francisco. Earlier this spring, foreman Mike Handyside led a team removing tons of old bricks to make way for the foundation of a development underway at 16th and Carolina streets. One brick caught Handyside’s eye. Crisply imprinted on it was… Keep Reading
Over the past decade use of e-cigarettes, known as “vaping,” has increased, with 3.2 percent of American adults using such products in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. E-cigarettes are electronic devices that simulate cigarette smoking by releasing nicotine, the active component in tobacco, via a vaporizer that users inhale. The… Keep Reading
Hidden below San Francisco’s dense patchwork of homes, stores, and skyscrapers lies millions of years of geological history. Various physical processes over the past two million years have created diverse strata of Bay Mud, consisting of soft, granulated, clay, that lurks underneath much of the region’s shoreline areas. During the last Ice Age, more than… Keep Reading
Construction will be returning to 16th Street this fall. The work, at the behest of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), will involve widening sidewalks at bus stops and installing boarding islands to make public transportation faster and increase pedestrian safety. Driving the changes, and of keen interest to Potrero Hill residents, is SFMTA’s… Keep Reading
When I first started working in Africa, as a U.S. Peace Corp volunteer more than 30 years ago, John F. Kennedy remained a warming American glow. In West Africa, where I was deployed, Senegalese would praise the long dead President, alluding to his charisma and grace. Kennedy’s popularity was no doubt burnished by his late… Keep Reading