EV Chargers
Under a municipal pilot program, curbside electric vehicle charging stations will be installed in Dogpatch. The experiment is examining ways to make EV charging accessible to residents who lack off-street parking, a substantial challenge to plug-in adoption in a City increasingly dominated by multi-unit buildings. Upwards of 70 percent of residents don’t have access to garages. EVs are seen as an important means to reduce polluting air emissions, especially climate altering greenhouse gases. However, even with easier charging an almost 30 percent spike in Pacific Gas and Electric Company electricity rates last year, as well as federal withdrawal from climate-friendly subsidies, may serve to muffle EV sales growth, at least in the short-term.
No Driver
Daily Driver closed at the end of last year. Tamara Hicks and David Jablons, owners of Toluma Farms and Tomales Farmstead Creamery in Marin County, started the bagelry at 2535 Third Street in 2019, a welcome addition to a previous bagel desert. The two-story space in Dogpatch housed a cafe, bakery, and coffee roaster. Daily Driver grew to multiple San Francisco locations, including at the Ferry Building and Ghirardelli Square, until the dough collapsed.
No Walgreens
Walgreens will close 12 San Francisco locations this month, including the Market Street store where a security guard fatally shot alleged shoplifter Banko Brown in 2023. Among the expired pharmacies is the 189 Potrero Avenue outlet, which was recently targeted by a gang of a dozen thieves — seven of whom were minors — who stole $84,000 in merchandise from several stores. Perhaps its time to return to independent neighborhood medicine and sundries shop. A perfect location for such a business is 1607-1615 20th Street, a 4,663 square foot space formally occupied by a natural medicine clinic. If independent cannabis stores can pop up everywhere, why not other drug businesses?
Fine Dining
Partners David Barzelay and Colleen Booth, owners of two-Michelin-star Lazy Bear, will open JouJou, a French restaurant at 1 Henry Adams Street this summer. Reminiscent of the lofty fine-dining dishes served in the 1990s, the eatery will feature seafood barbicans, fish filleted tableside, and omelets crowned with caviar in a 6,000-square-foot remodeled space. Barzelay wants JouJou to recall an era in American restaurants, like Jeremiah Towers’ Stars, that embodied “this sense of grandness of going out,” he said. JouJou will occupy the former Grove space in the Design District. It’ll have about 120 seats, including raw and main bars, big semicircular booths and a large outdoor patio enclosed with a glass and metal structure. Jon de la Cruz, who created the look of restaurants like Che Fico, is designing JouJou.
Robot Parade
Potrero Hill residents have noticed an increased concentration of Zoox cars learning by doing near Daniel Webster Elementary School. On at least one occasion four test vehicles drove on Texas Street, between 18th and 19th, in the space of roughly 60 seconds. Likewise, Zooxs periodically jam the Chevron Corporation gasoline station at 17th and Potrero, spilling onto the street, crossing the bicycle lane, and generally mucking up traffic. Perhaps one should be sympathetic to what amounts to teenage drivers, but Zoox might want to be mindful of the lessons learned by dearly departed Cruise.