There Can Never be Enough Coffee
Modern Luxury selected the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House for its First Annual Best of the Bay Community Impact Award. The “Nabe,” a historic community hub at 953 De Haro Street, offers youth programs, senior services and food security support through a weekly pantry that helps more than 150 families…Zocalo Coffee, with locations in Oakland, San Leandro and Hayward, has opened an outlet inside Mission Creek Park’s Pavilion. In addition to espresso and coffee beverages, the café, owned by Sara Ubelhart and Dan Grace, offers sandwiches, salads, lasagna and quiche, amongst other items.
Power Station Chugging Along
JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest, and possibly most annoying, bank, has committed nearly $200 million in financing to construct 342 residences along the waterfront, with up to $15 million in separate funding to build middle-income housing. The backing marks the bank’s second infusion into the Power Station, being developed by Fifth Space – formerly known as Associate Capital – which ultimately plans to standup 2,600 homes and 1.6 million square feet of commercial space at the former Potrero Power Plant site. Although approved by municipal planners in 2020, it was just last year that Fifth Space opened the Sophie Maxwell Building, a 105-unit apartment complex for households that earn between 50 percent and 110 percent of the area median income; as low as $56,750 for a single person, and as high as $206,850 for that rare six-person family… Chase is known for terrible customer service, high fees, and a tendency to treat its account holders’ money as if it’s theirs. It’s likely the massive bank performs better with its multi-million-dollar clients than modest-income individuals or small businesses.
Wallet Cleaning
San Francisco is ridiculously expensive, in so many ways. New arrivals pay in the range of $6,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, groceries set the average household back $800 monthly, with a single cocktail that’s not even sufficient to drown one’s inflationary sorrows demanding $20. City Hall can do almost nothing about the price of any of these items. But it can influence how much it costs to accidentally leave your automobile on the wrong side of the road during street cleaning hours. Even compared to other notoriously pricey municipalities San Francisco’s fine is super-punitive. In Manhattan a street cleaning infraction costs $65; $45 in Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens. Chicago charges $60; Los Angeles, $73. In San Francisco it’s $90. That’s more than three days of groceries. Um, Mr. Mayor…?
Corrections
“Here Comes Trouble,” in the August issue, had several troubling mistakes, including that the quote should’ve been “too many people are named Michael Lin,” with no need for the middle name. Lin’s extended stay in Taiwan was with his parents, not in-laws, and the assault was on his father, not father-in-law.
