View Changes
Jennifer Durrant, who has been producing the View, and managing advertisements, for more than the past three years, has moved on to new creative challenges. Durrant’s talented eye and careful execution took the newspaper to a new level of visual excellence. And her gentle handling of advertisers kept them engaged even in this age of Internet domination. The View will miss her. Durrant’s tasks have been taken up by Hillary Savage, who arrived in San Francisco just last fall, after significant experiences working for a weekly newspaper in Maine.
Chez What?
Rumor has it that the space formerly occupied by Chez Papa will soon become a rotisserie-style restaurant…Baked shut-down its ovens in January, after seven sweet years on Potrero Hill. The tiny bakery produced a month-watering assortment of cakes, cupcakes, and other confections, vended by down-home friendly proprietors. They’ll be missed…A warehouse located at 900 Marin Street is being transformed into “an all encompassed event space,” including a “teaching kitchen,” with plans for top chefs to cook meals theater style in front of an audience. The facility will also feature upwards of 10 free artists’ nooks, available to local creatives on a six month rotation, and a cafe. Construction is expected to be completed by this summer…The City and County of San Francisco has appointed Virginia Donohue to head the San Francisco Department of Animal Care & Control. Donohue co-owns Bayview-based Pet Camp. Her experience running a large boarding facility, as well as its sister location in Pacific Heights, Cat Safari, makes her an excellent choice to lead ACC. The City is lucky to have her.
Tunnel Top
San Francisco’s newest park may be developed on top of what’s left of a train tunnel, located at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 25th Street. Twenty-fifth Street residents Bonnie Bergeron and Richard Opteynde have been leading efforts to create Tunnel Top Park out of a roughly 30,000 square feet vacant lot owned by CalTrains. Park advocates have secured CalTrain’s approval to use the property as a park, and received an initial Community Challenge grant. They’re now trying to raise $78,000 to help pay for design and landscape services, to be provided by Groundworks and CatMex a landscape installation company which has worked on numerous open space projects in Dogpatch, including Progress Park, Espirt Park, and Woods Yard.
Monster Home?
A group of nearby residents – including Dorothy Larson, Peggy Snider, and Dan Chiang – are concerned about a single-family home proposed for 910 Carolina Street. The owners of the lot want to construct a three story on the street side, four stories in back building. The neighbors fear that the edifice would overwhelm the adjoining properties – one of which is an original Earthquake cottage; the other is two-stories – won’t fit in with other properties on the block, and create a huge blank wall to the South. The group is appealing San Francisco Planning Department’s approval of the plan.
Luxurious Eyesore?
An environmental review is near completion for a five-story luxury condominium complex proposed for 540-552 DeHaro Street. The site cur-rently houses a small commercial building from which a friendly neigh-borhood motorcycle repair shop oper-ates. Nearby residents, as well as Paul Fromberg, the reverend at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, have raised concerns about the project, includ-ing safety during demolition and site excavation – an estimated 32 foot deep excavation is being called for, to remove roughly 4,000 cubic yards of potential asbestos-containing serpentine rock – traffic congestion during and after construction; shading a large area, including the church; and that the complex is out of character with the block and immediate vicinity.
McClintock Building Re-Fashioned
Last month SKS Partners, ProspectHill Group and ASB Real Estate Invest-ments broke ground on a renovation of The McClintock Building, located on 16th Street. The plan is to transform the historic building – which was the headquarters for clothing designer Jessica McClintock for 40 years – into a contemporary structure for light industrial, manufacturing and office space. Open concept floor plans and naturally lit spaces will pay homage to the structure’s 1938 art-deco style. The 103,000 square foot edifice will feature a seismic update, all new build-ing systems, a central atrium with an operable “greenhouse” roof and a roof deck with panoramic views. The new McClintock Building is currently seeking tenants; it’s scheduled to open this summer.
Parking Spaces Munched
Earlier this year the Munchery, which delivers prepared dinners, moved its operation to Utah Street, along with eight trucks, a few rental vans and upwards of nine employees, each with their own vehicles. Despite the two hour parking restrictions, according to neighbors the company’s fleet lingers for most of the day, gumming up traffic when delivery trucks are dispatched, without recrimination from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency or Department of Parking and Traffic. Apparently the same situation emerged at the company’s former Alabama Street location.
Corrections
Last month’s “Traffic, Health Hazards Identified in Rebuild Potrero Report” included an incorrect spelling of Den-nis Montalto’s name, as well as an error in where he lives, which is 25th and Mississippi streets. Regrets, Dennis.
