The Noe Valley Voice • June 2015 21
SHORT TAKES S
San Jose Avenue ‘Road Diet’
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Noe Valley’s Solstice Celebration
ummerFest, Noe Valley’s celebration of midsummer, is Saturday, June 20. Activities are planned all along 24th Street from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 24th and Noe intersection will be a children’s fun zone, with a petting zoo—alpacas and goats and sheep, oh my!—and bouncy house from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a balloon and magic show with Funnybone the Clown from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Through-traffic on Noe Street will be blocked 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. to accommodate the fair. No driveways will be blocked, however. The free hayride is sponsored by Zephyr Real Estate. Board the horsedrawn covered wagon from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Walgreens parking lot at Castro and Jersey streets and at 24th and Noe streets. Other sponsored activities are the photo booth, with costumes and props, operating noon to 3 p.m. next door to Cliché Noe Gifts + Home (co-sponsored by Edward Jones and Cliché Noe); the sidewalk chalk-drawing contest, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Olive This Olive That; and face-painting outside DavidsTea, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Rare Device, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Cliché Noe, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Live entertainment is on the bill, too. The Clef Divers, an a cappella singing group, will stroll and sing along 24th Street, starting at 1 p.m. Dancers will do the hula outside Just for Fun, also at 1 p.m., and musicians will play at the Noe Valley Farmers Market from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. SummerFest is a gift to the community by the Noe Valley Merchants & Professionals Association and the Noe Valley Association. You can find out more at noevalleysummerfest.com.
Can we ride him? No, but kids can have fun petting and feeding the miniature horses, alpacas, and goats arriving June 20 at SummerFest on Noe Street. 2014 photo by Sally Smith
Cars, Bikes, and Pedestrians
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free public forum on traffic in Noe Valley will take place Monday, June 22, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Noe Valley Ministry, 1021 Sanchez St. (between Elizabeth and 23rd streets). The meeting will be held in the church’s upstairs sanctuary, which is now accessible by elevator. Panelists include District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener; Deanna DeSedas, public outreach coordinator for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency; Livable Streets Project Liaison Neal Patel; and representatives from SFMTA Enforcement, the San Francisco Police Department, and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. The moderator will be the Rev. David Brown, interim pastor of the Noe Valley Ministry, Presbyterian Church (USA). The title of the forum is “Can’t We All Just Get Along: Cars, Bicycles, and Pedestrians in Noe Valley.” The goals are to clarify laws pertaining to traffic and to foster etiquette and courtesy on neighbor-
hood streets. There will be a questionand-answer period. Rev. Brown says, “This is the beginning of several forums on community issues” that the church is organizing. For information, call 415-282-2317 or email office@noevalleyministry.org.
Adda Clevenger Students Perform Oliver!
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liver! was both a popular Broadway musical by Lionel Bart and an acclaimed film based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. Now, the students at Adda Clevenger School on Fair Oaks Street will bring it to life again on Thursday and Friday, June 11 to 12, at the Mercy High School Theater, 3250 19th Ave., near Stonestown. Showtime both
proposed traffic plan that would have a major impact on drivers who use I-280 and San Jose Avenue will be the focus of a community meeting next month. The Upper Noe Neighbors is hosting the July 8 event, which starts at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Noe Recreation Center, 295 Day St. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is ready to implement the plan, which calls for reducing the freeway exit ramp onto northbound San Jose Avenue from two lanes to one. The project is Phase II of the agency’s effort to slow traffic speeds from the San Jose Avenue exit to the stoplight at Randall, Mission, and Dolores streets. The first phase cut the number of merging lanes from three to two and provided a safer bike lane. “These changes did not bring about the desired 15 mph speed reduction along the corridor,” according to agency engineer Damon Curtis. “We will be moving forward with Phase II beginning on June 2.” Both phases are part of the Northbound San Jose Avenue & I-280 Off-Ramp Road Diet Pilot Project, launched in June of 2014. Critics have complained that the earlier lane reduction led to traffic jams along San Jose Avenue, which feeds cars and shuttle buses into Noe Valley, Glen Park, Bernal Heights, and the Mission. They said merging the two lanes into one would exacerbate the gridlock. For information on the meeting, email president@uppernoeneighbors.com. To view the project, go to Projects at www.sfmta.com. —Corrie M. Anders
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FABULOUS FIXER IN NOE VALLEY 3817 26th Street | San Francisco, CA
Supervisor Wiener Paves Way for In-Laws
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oping to make a dent in the housing shortage in San Francisco, District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener has proposed legislation that would allow homeowners and landlords in Noe Valley—and in Glen Park and Diamond Heights—to construct new in-law units on their properties. “These units are the most affordable type of non-subsidized housing,” said Wiener, in introducing the measure April 14. “They are a piece of the puzzle” needed to increase rental space in a city that, according to the U.S Census Bureau, added nearly 50,000 residents from 2010 to 2014. The new legislation replicates Wiener’s Castro District in-law legislation, passed by the Board of Supervisors last year as a prototype. It allows owners to add new units in garages, basements, attics, and other vacant spaces within their buildings, and relaxes certain density limits and building code provisions. “Now, we’re expanding to additional neighborhoods in order to provide homeowners and apartment building owners with the same flexibility,” Wiener said. In Noe Valley, the change would apply to parcels within 1,750 feet of the Noe Valley Neighborhood Commercial District, which runs along 24th Street and parts of Castro and Church streets. Wiener said there had been “strong support” in the neighborhood. “When
I introduced the Castro legislation [in April 2014], a number of residents of Noe Valley asked me when I intended to extend the legislation to Noe Valley,” he said. Wiener’s legislation for District 8 neighborhoods contains several restrictions. A new unit cannot exceed 750 square feet and must be built within the envelope of the existing building—without increasing its height or bulk. The new unit also must have its own kitchen and bathroom. Subdividing a current unit is not allowed. Buildings with 10 or fewer existing units are limited to one new inlaw unit. Larger buildings are allowed a maximum of two. Any in-law unit created in a currently rent-controlled building also will be regulated by rent control. Last summer, the Planning Department noted that the looser rules in the Castro could produce as many as 400 new units. So far, only one new unit has been created since the trial began, though Wiener said “a number of other units” are in the pipeline. “These units don’t spring up overnight,” he said. In late April, the Board of Supervisors approved additional legislation that gives legal status to an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 illegal in-laws built before 2013 in San Francisco. For more information, contact Wiener’s office at 415-554-6968. —Corrie M. Anders
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