Crime
Last month, Wok & Go, located on the corner of 24th Street and Potrero Avenue, received a order for a delivery to Connecticut Street between Wisconsin and 25th streets. When driver Xiong Zou arrived three young men, one brandishing a gun, robbed him of the food and $31 in cash. Zou wasn’t injured during the incident. Between this and last February there were 25 robbery incidents in Potrero Hill, up from 15 the previous year. Over the same period between 2019 and 2020 there were 33 robberies in the neighborhood.
Faux Crime
Parts of Splash City, which chronicles the story of two brothers caught on opposite sides of the City’s “bipping” epidemic, were filmed last month near the Potrero Hill Recreation Center. San Francisco rapper Berner is co-producing the “urban crime film;” a trailer has already been issued featuring the tagline, “Every 30 seconds in the Bay Area a car is bipped.” Berner, a Sunset District native who’s made more than 20 albums, was inspired to create the movie about six years ago, after he was approached by a young man trying to sell stolen products at his Haight Street business. San Francisco Police Department data indicate that car break-ins dropped by 12 percent from 2022 to 2023, averaging around 59 car break-ins a day.
Design Reach
Design Within Reach opened its new Potrero Hill showroom last month. The 15,000-square-foot furniture “studio” at 1400 17th Street replaces the former flagship store on Kansas Street. The newly renovated space, once occupied by California Caster & Hand Truck Company, features upscale furniture arrangements and designs, as well as a gallery and exhibition space for temporary art and furniture installations. Amongst other set-piece offerings there’s a Steve Jobs-inspired living room, ringed by curved velvet Togo sofas and armchairs reminiscent of curled-up caterpillars, specifically designed with the iconoclastic Apple co-founder in mind. Many visitors’ reach may exceed their grasp at the pricey furnishing emporium.
