Over the past decade and a half former Alabama Street resident Kieron Sinnette experienced all the elements of a rags-to-riches-to-rags story. Sinnette, an immigrant from Trinidad, arrived in San Francisco in 2001, less than a month after 9/11. He was an 18 year-old high school graduate, gay, homeless and unemployed. After securing assistance from Larkin… Keep Reading
After a quarter of a century as director of community relations at the University of California, San Francisco, Barbara Bagot-Lopez retires this month. She hopes to use her free time to reconnect with her neighborhood, Bernal Heights, and rededicate herself to her activist roots. “Hitting 25 years was like ZING!” laughed Bagot-Lopez. “Wow, 25 years.… Keep Reading
Gardening is often praised for the beauty it creates, as well as the benefits it provides the gardener in terms of mental clarity and stress relief. Mission Creek resident Maria Suarez, 75, is a great-grandmother who takes recreational gardening seriously, using the pastime to achieve personal tranquility and to give her neighbors an eyeful. Suarez’s… Keep Reading
My 11 a.m. was at a rundown house in the Excelsior, not far from Highway 280. No one answered the door. I called the potential customer, who showed up about 15 minutes later in a late-1960’s beat up panel van. He was in his early 60s, with dirty fingers, wearing a filthy jumpsuit, big, smeared,… Keep Reading
Three women, Mary and Alice Goodwin and Elizabeth Hammersley, started the Boys and Girls Clubs of America in the state of Connecticut in 1860. They wanted to give kids a place to go who otherwise might not have one. More than 150 years later, the Boys and Girls Clubs in San Francisco alone serves more… Keep Reading
Longtime Potrero Hill resident Judy Baston’s passionate commitment to Jewish genealogy earned her the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, awarded at the Association’s annual conference in Jerusalem last summer. Baston was born in Oakland to parents who encouraged her to pursue a professional career. Her father suggested that she… Keep Reading
The electronic rock band Fifty Foot Hose emerged from San Francisco’s iconic 1960s music scene. Its music, including its sole album, Cauldron, issued in 1967, was influenced by a mixture of jazz, rhythm and blues, rock, and electronic music. The latter genre’s current popularity was sparked by pioneers such as Cork Marcheschi, a Bay Area… Keep Reading
Trippy slammed his laptop shut and hurled it against the wall. The two cats didn’t move. Mischief, the asthmatic Siamese, opened his one good eye before falling back asleep. Hemingway, the fat Tabby, didn’t flinch. She’d been on the losing end of another backyard brawl, a two-inch gash on her forehead still oozing. Always a… Keep Reading
PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS Write Your Own Will: Stuart Bronstein, estate planning and probate lawyer in San Francisco for more than 30 years, helps participants create a fully functional will. Bring a blue ink non-erasable pen. Class size is limited, sign up in advance by calling 415.355.2822. Wednesday, November 4, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Choosing a… Keep Reading
Crime & Safety Report — Sponsored by Mainline Security A front page article in last month’s View cited government statistics that indicate that less than half of all murders committed in San Francisco are solved. But according to Bayview Station Captain Raj Vaswani – partially supported by other public sector data – violent crime cases… Keep Reading
Nationwide, the country’s homicide closure rate stands at just 64 percent, down nearly 30 percent from 50 years ago, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation data. Based on information gathered by the Department of Justice and police and sheriff’s departments, San Francisco had the ninth highest closure rates in a roster of 14 Bay Area… Keep Reading
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