Potrero View 2016: December

Driscoll’s Boycott Hampered by Poor Information

BY MICHAEL IACUESSA

Since calls for a boycott of berry distributor Driscoll’s began in 2013, San Francisco grocers have struggled to find more information about the issues driving the labor dispute. The boycott effort has mostly been grassroots, led by Mexican farmworkers, many of whom are isolated and speak indigenous languages, making it difficult to communicate with reliable news sources. Last fall, the issue got more confusing when word spread that the boycott was being called off.

The labor battle against the company has been fought on two fronts. In 2013, workers in Northwest Washington organized several walkouts over unpaid wages at Sakuma Brothers Farms. Then, in 2015, workers in Mexico’s San Quintin Valley, in Baja, California, launched a series of strikes over living and working conditions at BerryMex. Driscoll’s is the principal distributor for both farms.

The operations primarily employ migrant farm workers, many from Mexico’s Oaxaca region. The two groups of farmworkers committed to assist each other in elevating the boycott into an international affair.

However, in September Sakuma agreed to allow its workers to unionize; 77 of roughly 370 farmworkers voted to join Familia Unidas por la Justicia (FUJ). That led FUJ to call-off the boycott while they negotiate a contract with Sakuma.

Labor leaders hailed the unionization as a major victory. The union is only the third independent farmworker union formed in Washington in the last three decades, and the first led by indigenous workers. In 2014, in what was the largest wage settlement ever in Washington, Sakuma agreed to pay $850,000 for unpaid hours. The next year, berry pickers took their case to the state supreme court, where they won the right to paid rest breaks.

Maru Mora Villalpando, a FUJ spokesperson and longtime activist

Rebuild Potrero to Break Ground in 2017

BY MICHAEL IACUESSA

Next month, Bridge Housing will break ground on an ambitious effort, titled “Rebuild Potrero,” to redevelop the Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complex into mixed income housing.

Rebuild Potrero, which has already spent eight years in planning, will evolve over five phases, enabling current Annex-Terrace residents to be moved to new buildings as they’re constructed. Upon completion, anticipated by 2026, the site will feature the same number, 619, of public housing units that exist today, as well as 200 affordable and 800 market rate units. Those making half or less of San Francisco’s median income – for one person, $37,700; a three-person household, $48,500 – would be eligible for

affordable housing. There’ll also be 15,000 square feet of retail in a neighborhood that currently has two small stores, as well as a 25,000 to 35,000-square foot community center.

Bridge, a nonprofit that specializes in affordable housing, which manages more than 10,000 apartments on the West Coast, has been working with Annex-Terrace residents for the past few years to address issues of poverty, crime, and potential dislocation. “We felt it wasn’t enough for us to just have a master plan for the physical site. We thought it was just as important to also have a social services master plan,” explained Thu Banh, Bridge’s community developer assigned to the site.

“Obviously, it is going to take more than just having a new unit to live in. They are going to need support in

employment, education and health.”

In 2014, Bridge surveyed AnnexTerrace residents to identify ways it could improve the community. Leveraging other efforts, the developer created a series of programs designed to enhance health and well-being, including a garden, daily walks, healthy living workshops and exercise classes. “It is not just about building new units,” said Banh. “We have to ensure that residents are not only ready once their new unit is built, but that they are able to stay in the unit.”

The track record in similar redevelopments hasn’t been good. In the 1990s, the federal government created the Hope VI program, with a goal of turning isolated public housing proj-

Neighborly Assistance: The American Settlement Movement in San Francisco

BY BRETT YATES

It’s safe to assume that most San Franciscans—including those yoga classe participants at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House on De Haro Street, and those who drop their children off for preschool at the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center on Potrero Avenue—have never heard the term “settlement house.”

“Community center,” the more popular phrase of current times, may, for all its broadness, better describe the contemporary function of these establishments. But the term elides a complex history of Progressive Era

social outreach that forged many of the fundamental tenets that continue to inform the practices of San Francisco institutions like Chinatown’s Cameron House and the Western Addition’s Booker T. Washington Community Service Center.

In 1884, Anglican cleric Samuel Barnett and educator Henrietta Barnett conceptualized the “settlement house” as a new form of charity when they established Toynbee Hall in London’s East End. Their revolutionary plan was to create, in one of the city’s worst slums, a residence for educated, upper-class volunteers, who, by “settling” among the underprivi-

leged, would learn about the plight of the downtrodden while dispensing healthcare, education, and culture to their new neighbors. Their model caught on in the United States. San Francisco’s first settlement house, the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center, was founded in 1890 by two young Sunday school teachers. It continues to operate today.

Settlement houses functioned not only as volunteer dormitories but as recreation centers, meeting halls, and social service agencies. Foremost, they sought to bring the

Changes Pg.4

Arch Returns Pg.6

‘aina Wins Bib Gourmand Pg. 6

Police Work With Hill Residents to Combat Crime Pg. 9

SF in the Rearview Mirror Pg.21

PUBLISHER’S VIEW

1+1 = -1

BY STEVEN J. MOSS

Sara arrived like a beautifully wrapped present. The package was smaller than we expected – four pounds, eleven ounces – but we were delighted to receive her; she was perfect, just what we wanted! As the weeks, months and years went by, the wrapping was steadily shed, revealing new wonders: an openness to the world; acute sense of humor; keen curiosity; sensitive heart.

We ushered Sara, now a child, into the formal education process, kindergarten. The unwrapping continued in the academic realm: a preference for visual, over auditory, learning; a spirited willingness to engage in group exercises; a gift at storytelling. Sometimes the revelations seem to require a response – why is she having trouble holding a pen – but with no owners’ manual, and a school system that finds it challenging to cope with diversity of any kind, it wasn’t always clear what should be done.

Sara’s second grade academic reveal, at Alvarado Elementary School, suggested difficulty with reading. During class time dedicated to individual, silent, reading, she watched to see when her peers turned the pages of their books, doing the same on cue, even though she hardly comprehended the words passing by her eyes. When we discovered she was lagging behind, she was placed in a reading recovery program, which involved taking her out of math class to be taught reading.

Her reading was righted; her math skills, unsurprisingly, plummeted, triggering what emerged as a yearslong struggle with numbers. We spent thousands of dollars on mathematic tutors. Some seemed excellent, others not so much. Sara intermittently fought with them all. Her math skills advanced slowly, as if she was dog paddling in the ocean alongside a few other numerically challenged peers while a vessel filled with her classmates steamed directly away.

We abandoned the public school

ship, hoping that an independent education would unlock Sara’s secrets of learning. Now tens of thousands of dollars were being spent. At her new school, Brandeis, her fifth and sixth grade math teacher held her close, and Sara gained traction up slopes and variables. But the teacher left and the spin cycle of tutors began once more, into high school.

Near the end of her freshman year at Jewish Community High School of the Bay, Sara had gotten so far behind in math it threatened her ability to stay at the school. Other students who’d fared as poorly in the subject had been counseled to go elsewhere. My wife, Debbie, and I were called into the head of school’s office to discuss Sara’s future. I listened to the preliminary chit-chat with a familiar dread dully thumping in my heart, ready to hear bad news, prepared to grope, yet again, in the academic half-darkness to find another way to help Sara succeed. Instead, the head of school threw us a life preserver.

He started by flatly acknowledging that, in prior cases, a student with Sara’s academic profile would’ve been escorted, gently, but firmly, out the door. Three things kept that from happening: Debbie and my (financial) willingness to surround our daughter with extra help; the fact that Sara was doing well in all her classes except math; and her compassionate, determined, spirit, which contributed to the school community. He proposed that rather than leaving JCHS, Sara exit its math program, taking the subject at place that better matched how she learned.

Adoption of this strategy would create a fourth reason to keep Sara: she’d be the first scholastic pioneer to retain JCHS as her home while relying on another school to teach her an essential subject. If successful, she could help revolutionize JCHS’ educational

PUBLISHER’S VIEW continues on page 3

SHORT CUTS

Kansas Street resident Sherri Franklin, who leads Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, located on Alabama Street , is one of 10 individuals nominated to be CNN’s Hero of the Year. On December 11, at 2 p.m. West Coast time, she’ll appear live on the network in New York City with Anderson Cooper, Kelly Ripa and the other nine nominees…Experience Corps Bay Area, is seeking volunteers, age 50 or more, to tutor kindergarteners through third graders at Starr King Elementary School . Almost twothirds of Starr King’s students read below grade level. Experience Corps is an inter-generational tutoring and mentoring program that’s served Bay Area schools since 1998.  Interested volunteers should contact 415.759.4222 or ecba.today@gmail.com.

Homeless Shooting

A man was shot and injured at 23rd and Vermont streets last month, according to Battalion Chief Michael Thompson of the San Francisco Fire Department For several hours after the shooting

police closed 23rd Street to vehicle traffic, between Kansas Street and Potrero Avenue, and the 48 bus line was halted…Also last month, the body of an adult male was discovered behind a building on 20th and Minnesota streets. “It has not been declared a homicide, but that’s still under investigation,” said Officer Giselle Talkoff, a San Francisco Police Department spokeswoman…Last month Anchor Brewing Company installed lighting on its historic Mariposa Street building. The corner had become a dark pocket, attracting campers, vans, and buses. The lighting highlights the structure’s notable architecture, and has improved neighborhood safety.

Campus Design

California College of the Arts (CCA) selected Studio Gang to enlarge and re-shape its San Francisco campus. In collaboration with Studio Gang, over the next five years the college hopes to create a campus that’ll be a model of sustainable construction

SHORT CUTS continues on page 12

September

1,910 1,203 860 77 28

Individuals used the adult emergency shelter system for one or more days.

Single Adult Shelter System beds were available.

Average number of clients on the shelter waitlist. Individuals were provided transportation outside San Francisco to friends or family who agreed to provide them housing upon arrival. (Homeward Bound).

Average wait time for a shelter bed (in days).

October

1,908

1,203 749 72 28

Individuals used the adult emergency shelter system for one or more days.

Single Adult Shelter System beds were available.

Number of clients on the shelter waitlist, of which 209 were women, 540 men.

Individuals were provided transportation outside San Francisco to friends or family who agreed to provide them housing upon arrival. (Homeward Bound).

Average wait time for a shelter bed (in days).

Typical Complaint:

On October 20, a client stated, “I’ve been calling for nine days straight and I’d call a few minutes right before the line opens. I only have two days left. The last four days I’d call 30 seconds before the lines open up and I’m told to call back. There is someone below me that got a 90-day bed. They are picking and choosing who they put in 90-day beds.”

Source: Department of Homelessness & Supportive Housing

Editor,

Letters to the Editor

next couple of days.

I am a registered Democrat, but that does not change my absolute disgust for your front page story in the November issue (“Clinton Wins!”). I find the headline to be wholly misleading.  Yes, if you take the time to read the article you’ll understand that it’s a prediction. But in my mind you have completely discredited your paper. It is pure speculation, which is not be confused with news, and I find it ridiculous.

This is absolutely appalling.

Susy Siddens Rhode Island Street

Editor,

Would you happen to know why a cover such as November’s was chosen for The Potrero View a while back?  Was is overconfidence?  Wishful thinking?  I was bothered by this weeks ago, but seeing it today is just like another punch in the face. I believe this cover choice was really irresponsible.  Most of San Francisco is still in tears over the election results. My two cents.

Leslie Brown

Editor,

I’m a San Franciscan working in Potrero Hill, an avid Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter.  I came across your paper in three separate locations yesterday while walking through the neighborhood. Your headline in the most recent addition, “Clinton Wins!,” is deeply disturbing and upsetting to me. How is this headline serving the community in a positive way and encouraging voters to actually vote on November 8? Why proclaim a ‘ landslide victory’ ahead of election day, especially during such a deeply contentious and uncertain race?

Tim Balon

Editor,

You sure stuck your foot in the political muck. Announcing Hilary as president sure backfired on you.

Nine La Dow Connecticut Street

Editor, My devotion to the Blue Party goes way back to helping with the 1972 George McGovern campaign. My disdain for the Red Party has only increased as it gets crazier and crazier every year. So of course Hillary gets my vote this year, and perhaps 90 percent of the Hill does the same, if previous voting is any indicator.

But, what were you thinking with the November The Potrero View’s premature announcement of her victory? While it may be overly clever by half, and may – hopefully – end up true, I find it an irresponsible gesture that can only invoke disgust turned into red meat by the opposition. I’d be surprised if it doesn’t end up on Fox News in the

It’s confrontational, in your face, maybe even too partisan, though I can’t prove that. Debbie Wasserman Shultz was too partisan, her replacement Donna Braziel was too partisan, many of our officials’ aides/advisors are too partisan. By that I mean they are too often making political decisions rather than the right moral decision.

Tom Strahan 18th Street

Editor,

Did you get all of that egg off your face yet?

Paul Kozakiewicz

Publisher, Richmond Review

Unfortunately, the View’s November headline turned out to be inaccurate, to the surprise of many, perhaps even President-elect Donald Trump himself, as evidenced by his scramble to pull together a credible transition team. The View’s caption was prompted by a deep-felt belief that it was inconceivable that an individual who voiced such hurtful and harmful language – towards women, immigrants, Muslims, and others – as well as an astonishing disrespect for the truth could garner sufficient votes to be elected. We also suffered from hubris, influenced by the “bubble” in which we live. Nine out of ten San Francisco voters preferred former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president, as did more than six out of ten California voters; she garnered more than two million votes nationally than the President-Elect. While it wasn’t astute for the View to prematurely, and erroneously, predict Secretary Clinton the winner, by doing so we did not impact the election’s outcome. Notably, the View produced a similar headline for Barack Obama in October of 2008, which turned out quite well.

Editor,

In “Trans Bay Cable Pumps Pittsburg Power into San Francisco” (November) it states that “The Trans Bay line is maintained and operated by Pittsburg Power, which is run by the City of Pittsburg. Trans Bay Cable pays Pittsburg for the service.” This is incorrect. Trans Bay Cable is an independent company, operated by TBC. It is wholly owned by SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners. TBC provides roughly 40 percent of the electricity to the San Francisco area.

Michael Cyrus Chief Executive Officer,

Trans Bay Cable approach, opening up opportunities for diverse learners to seek what they need at other academic institutions, or even at other places of learning, such as museums, think-tanks, and research organizations.

OP-ED Fight On!

BY SARA MOSS

The up swelling of post-election demonstrations – in Golden Gate and Dolores parks, and throughout the Bay Area and nation – shows how we can coalesce with one voice and that we can fight for what we want if we put our minds to it. We can’t let the election of Donald Trump be the end. We need to battle for our beliefs, be proud that we got a woman so far in the presidential race, and take a step back, look at why half the nation’s voters supported the President-Elect, and ask ourselves what we’re not doing right.

There are reasons why so many people voted for President-Elect Trump, and it’s not just because he was running against a woman. I’m sure most Trump supporters would be fine if a woman won the presidency. But former Secretary Hillary Clinton didn’t take Trump supporters’ ideas seriously. They thought she was “bad” because she and those around her – including us – weren’t listening to all of the people.

I don’t like President-Elect Trump at all. But he listened to the others, the people who have been silenced for so long. They are finally being heard after eight years of a president – who I think is great – they didn’t like.

I am saddened by the election’s outcome, but I want to fight. We need to look at what happened and realize that there are things going on in this country that need to be fixed. The post-election demonstrations – and the popular vote – prove that we aren’t alone. There are so many people out there who care and want to help. And there are even more people – 100 million Americans – who weren’t even motivated to vote. They are waiting on the sidelines. Right now, we need to engage them. We can’t fight this alone; that will only dig us into a bigger hole.

Sara Moss is a sophomore at Jewish Community High School of the Bay.

We were delighted, and, surprisingly, so was Sara. We thought she’d fight against the difference that’d be prominently exhibited by her absence from JCHS math. Instead, she acknowledged that she was arithmetically drowning, desperately wanted help. Before the freshman year ended, we’d found a teacher at Fusion Academy San Francisco, an accredited private school for grades six to 12 that specializes in one-on-one learning. More money spent; there’s no JCHS discount for relieving them of the math teaching burden. Debbie and I tossed in our sleeps, hoping the strategy would work, worried about what we’d do if it didn’t.

After each session Sara’s teacher, Adam, emailed us a progress report. They were so immediately remarkable that we almost didn’t believe them: “Sara’s doing great in math, and mastering concepts at a steady speed…Sara sometimes needs more time to grasp a concept, but she always finds a way to get there…” In a couple of months Sara had caught up with the material she was supposed to have learned in her freshman year, ready to move on. What’s more, she was eager to go to math class, buoyant afterwards, even volunteering to continue the lessons through the summer to make sure she was fully caught up. This was unprecedented. How had it happened?

It was Sara who explained the breakthrough. Tutors, she told us, were fine, but while they were busy helping her master a concept she hadn’t yet grasped, the rest of the class moved on, creating a kind of always-behind, headache-inducing, whipsaw effect; she never caught up with the herd. This, in turn, deeply embedded an anxiety that she couldn’t shake in the classroom; she wasn’t able to fully concentrate amidst the pool of other students visibly grappling with the concepts. One-on-one, consistent, consolidated learning, by a skilled teacher, was the key.

Sara’s experience, her breakthrough, points the way for the legions

of families similarly dealing with learning challenges, or yearning for a more expansive instructive experience. In addition to specialized schools, home schooling, and tutors, there’s an educational pathway that remains largely unexplored, outside of sports: creating a scholastic web of learning opportunities, rather than relying exclusively on a single campus.

Under this approach a sixth through 12 grade “campus” could serve as home base and quality control, while enabling its students to create a course mix from a plethora of places, a kind of expansive dim sum learning. San Francisco is especially well-suited to this approach, with the potential to create accredited one-off classes at different schools that specialize in specific methods – one-on-one teaching at Fusion, religious studies at JCHS, theater at the School of the Arts – as well as art at the Museum of Modern Art, De Young Museum, or even Disney; math at the Exploratorium; science at the Academy of Sciences; industrial arts at the Pier 70 shipyard, or perhaps a construction site; history at a host of organizations, all accessible by public transportation.

Waves of students with learning differences, as well as restless minds not satisfied with what’s offered in a classroom’s four corners, crash against our schools’ shoals. Many of them fail, out of a subject or high school entirely, because they can’t afford to pursue the same opportunities Sara has had, and with no effective alternative available, regardless of money. Meanwhile, our City, and the surrounding region, offers a cornucopia of exhilarating educational possibilities. We should leverage the former to benefit the latter, to create a course catalogue that’s inexpensive, exciting, enlightening, and deeply engaging. The world is our educational oyster; we should dive in.

PUBLISHER’S VIEW from page 2

Annex-Terrace Residents Cautiously Optimistic About Change

BY MICHAEL IACUESSA

Ana Garay , 44, lives in a threebedroom apartment on Connecticut Street in the Potrero Terrace housing complex with her 25-year old daughter, Stephanie, and two grandkids, ages seven and three. Her unit, she said, is in reasonably good shape, kept that way by her son-in-law’s carpentry skills. The family won’t be relocated to a new home until Rebuild Potrero’s last construction phase, expected to begin in 2024.

“It’s going to be worth the wait. No matter how long we wait, we are going to have a better building, a new house, new everything. Hopefully it will come true,” she said. Garay has been told that as long as people pay their rent, there are no police issues, and they’re clean, they’ll be allowed to relocate.

Garay has embraced the community building activities provided by Bridge Housing. She walks around the complex three mornings a week, volunteers at the family garden and takes Zumba classes on Wednesdays at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. She feels more secure being outdoors when other people are around. “It’s not too safe around here. Two weeks after moving in, my daughter got robbed at gunpoint. I hear shootings sometimes,” she said.

Garay is attracted by the incentives Bridge offers for her engagement. The nonprofit allows residents to choose activities from two calendars, orange Healthy Living and green Healthy Eating and Gardening. Participation in six events on either calendar monthly earns a $25 Safeway gift card. While admit-

ting the gift cards are the catalyst for her involvement, Garay recognized the intended benefit. “It motivates people. It’s a way to get people out of the house and exercise,” she said.

During one 10 a.m. walk, Garay pointed out the community mural on Coral Road, with obvious pride noted that her grandchildren were among those that helped paint it.

Garay came to Potrero Hill from her native Nicaragua in 1990. Her older brothers arrived first, in 1979, fleeing the initial stages of the Contra-fueled Civil War. The rest of her family eventually followed. “Being poor in America is better,” she said, noting that basics like clothes and shoes could be scarce in Nicaragua, particularly when war raged.

Garay volunteers to distribute food to about 70 seniors at the Neighborhood House’s weekly pantry. “I like to serve people. They don’t pay, but I don’t care because I really want to do it.”

From Monica Ferrey’s eastside window on a clear day she can see the Berkeley hills and the Mormon Temple in Oakland. On the west side, her front door opens up to the wooded area behind the Potrero Hill Recreation Center. She can park her car on Connecticut Street’s dead end and walk home along a dirt path. It’ll be a prime spot, she pointed out, when the new development comes.

At the moment, however, it’s hard to imagine anyone paying top dollar to live in Annex-Terrace. Over the past three years, gunmen have struck the outside of Ferrey’s building thrice, bullets reigning down from the woods. On

another occasion, a gunman fired down on Missouri Street from the shared balcony outside her second floor. She keeps furniture in front of the lower balcony’s door to fend off squatters living in a vacant unit a couple doors down.

Ferrey, a San Francisco native, has lived in the Annex for seven years. She shares a three-bedroom apartment with her two boys, aged 15 and six, and her daughter, age eight. Her oldest daughter, Alexandria, 22, moved off the Hill and attends San Francisco State University, majoring in Kinesiology. An adopted nephew, age 20, moved out two years ago when he went to work with the Treasure Island Job Corps. He now goes to City College of San Francisco.

Besides the trauma looming outside her door, there have been tragedies. Two of Ferrey’s cousins were murdered, one in a drive-by shooting in the Mission; another shot in an attempted robbery on Broadway Street. Her adopted nephew’s mother died of a drug overdose in Las Vegas.

Ferrey is working toward an undergraduate degree herself, attending SF State alongside her daughter. She’s majoring in health education, with a focus on holistic practice, and runs a meditation class for Annex-Terrace residents twice weekly. She started the course four years ago; it’s now on Bridge’s activities calendar. “A lot of people come because it is a safe place. I almost feel bad to have to wake them up and tell them it’s time to go.” Some use the class as an opportunity to socialize; others, several with language barriers, keep to themselves. Ferrey plays a recording that offers a variety of mindfulness exercises. “It teaches you to try to be creative for yourself and things will change for you,” she explained.

Ferrey is president of the Annex Tenant’s Council. The position doesn’t have much pull. Despite several meetings with the Mayor’s Office, it took three years for those first bullet holes to be patched. It was only last fall, when a worker hired to paint the bathroom agreed to spackle them, that it got done; the white patching is still visible against the beige wall. The two security cameras recently installed below her on Missouri Street aren’t pointed at her building, and didn’t capture the upper balcony shooter.

Ferrey hasn’t had much success in her dealings with the San Francisco Police Department either. Calling 911 can be hit or miss, she explained, depending upon which officers respond. She’s hesitant to deal with cops she doesn’t know. The “rookies,” as she referred to them, treat residents with as much suspicion as they do culprits.

She’s thankful for the 2011 closure of the Potrero Power Plant, whose smokestack is visible directly though her window. Her oldest son suffered from a variety of respiratory illnesses. “You’d open the windows for the mold, but then you’d let in toxic air,” she recalled.

When it comes to redevelopment, she worries that the community will end up divided, challenging how well the

new factions will blend. “Right now you know who your neighbors are. I know about 60 percent of people in Annex by face and name.” She’s also concerned that public housing units will be lost, aggravated by Bridge’s plan showing 619 existing now and Hope SF’s website listing only 606.

“Magically this is all going to happen like this?” she asked, with a skeptic’s smile.

At 6 a.m. six days a week, 56-year old Donald Green wakes up, walks across the street, makes coffee and puts out pastries in a two-room first floor unit on Dakota Street. The site houses the Community Awareness Resources Entity (C.A.R.E.), a 501c3 founded by Green and lifelong Annex resident Billy Ray Courtney.

Around the same time, Green’s wife, 51-year old Uzuri Pease-Green, gets ready to drive children to One Purpose, a charter school near Candlestick Point that caters to impoverished students. She’d previously gone door to door in what was called a “walking school bus” to collect children and take them to school. The effort was in response to a 2011 study that revealed that 53 percent of five to 12 years olds living in Annex-Terrace were chronically absent. Uzuri’s 22-year old daughter, Urell, is one of six community members who continue the walking school bus effort, working in two teams of three to ensure that up to two dozen children make it to Starr King and Daniel Webster elementary schools.

Students traveling off the Hill sometimes pass by C.A.R.E.; Green or Courtney will pack a lunch for them, and occasionally cook breakfast. Green recalled one girl who’d carried a lunch pail with her every day. “One day, I opened it and nothing was in it,” he said.

The couple’s lives are a far cry from when they met in Bayview 17 years ago. Both were homeless. Each had a place that wouldn’t accommodate the other, so they stayed together on the street. “It was love at first sight,” said Green.

Both struggled with drugs and alcohol; according to Green taking drugs can make a bad life more tolerable. They were offered public housing in 2001; Pease-Green chose Annex-Terrace because, despite being a lifelong San Franciscan, she’d never used in Potrero Hill. Eight years ago she freed herself from intoxicants; Green followed three years later.

Attending redevelopment meetings gave Pease-Green something to focus on. In 2010, Bridge hired her as a community liaison, to help recruit people to participate in healthy living activities, and encourage them to come to planning meetings. She acknowledged that she sometimes has to tell people what

Ana Garay

Monica Ferrey

22 year-old Urell and her parents Donald Green and Uzuri Pease-Green

hat she’s wearing at a given moment: employee of the landlord, or voice for the community. Pease-Green obtained a degree in human services management from the University of Phoenix in 2014; she’s trying to find a way to pay for a master’s in public administration.

According to Green, C.A.R.E. was started because, “We wanted a safe place for kids and wanted our own resources.” He said that the neighborhood is made up of “predominantly good people. There a just a handful of knuckleheads.” Pease-Green added that the San Francisco Police Department has the same characteristics.

In addition to distributing vegetables grown at The Garden Project, located at the County Jail Complex in San Bruno, C.A.R.E. provides information technology assistance. Hill resident Taga Tavale volunteers to maintain a small computer laboratory, and assists with job searches.

Most of C.A.R.E.’s operating money comes out of Green’s and Courtney’s pockets. Green works part-time at the Neighborhood House and doing grounds maintenance at an apartment building. Courtney labors at the Starr King School and drives for UPS on the side. Their current goal is to obtain a 12-passenger van to use as a school bus, to help seniors get up the hill and take children on trips. “A lot of them are shut-in,” said Green. “This area right here is all they know.”

Although C.A.R.E. was started three years ago – one of its features has been an annual Thanksgiving Dinnerit only secured its Dakota Street space earlier this year. A grand opening was held last spring featuring a barbeque grill-off between the police and fire departments, the latter bringing in two trucks for the kids to play on. Nobody from the media came, Green bemoaned, “but someone gets shot and they are all here.”

Two nights a week, Eddie and Brenda Kittrell gather with families at 5 Watchman Way, which houses the Healthy Generations Project. The unit features a narrow hallway that leads to a large room. On a recent Wednesday, 15 school-aged children –but only three parents – sat around a

large table that takes up all but a tiny kitchen area of the room. The children watched a movie and ate a Somali-based pasta dish with vegetables and beef. After dinner, they sang and danced to the Alphabet Song from Sesame Street.

Healthy Generations, a part of the walking school bus initiative, offers activities three nights a week, in service of achieving five goals: good nutrition, positive activities, non-toxic environments, non-violent communication and education. Tuesdays feature a catered dinner with a fully set table sandwiched between a brief meditation and a reading hour. Wednesdays are movie nights, with fresh food provided by Leah’s Pantry, a nonprofit in the Mission. Thursdays, the Kittrells night off, generally feature art and crafts.

“It gives the parents an hour break to not have to prepare dinner and gives quality time with the children,” said Brenda, whose favorite activity is reading to the children. “A lot of kids don’t have fathers in their home, so having nurturing adults other than their parents that care for you and talk to you; I think it makes a difference in a child’s life.”

The Kittrells met 26 years ago, introduced by Brenda’s brother. Both are from the South. Eddie, 66, is a Vietnam veteran from Arkansas; 62-year old Brenda grew up in Mississippi. Soon after meeting, they wound up homeless, the result of what Brenda called bad lifestyle choices. They moved into the Annex 22 years ago, where they raised two daughters – they had five children each before they met – who have since moved out. Two grandchildren, ages eight and six, remain. “We’re helping our kids raise their kids,” Eddie said.

Eddie believes that Annex-Terrace residents aren’t the ones instigating crimes in the area. “We know all the cats around here since birth. We can talk to the young people. It is mostly outsiders,” he said. “If you come looking for trouble, you can find it, like anywhere.”

A former Annex Tenant’s Association president for 16 years, Eddie served on the original redevelopment task force that met with Mayor Gavin Newsom ten years ago, which eventually led to selecting Bridge to lead Rebuild Potrero. “We were under the impression they were just going to rebuild up to standards,” he recalled. He never anticipated the large mixed use plan that’s now underway.

The Kittrells’ engagement with public housing issues runs deep. In 2000, Eddie was named Resident of

the Year by the National Organization of African-Americans in Housing; 11 years later he became the first San Franciscan African-American to sit on the organization’s board. He won an appreciation award from the Housing Authority in 2007, and a community service award from the Red Cross in 2014, the latter for his dedication to the walking school bus. Brenda worked with him on all those efforts. Last fall, the couple spent three days in New Orleans attending the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials conference, which serves as a leading resource for subsidized and affordable housing in Washington D.C.

Despite regularly attending Rebuild meetings, Eddie no longer feels fully engaged in the effort. He understands Bridge Housing, being a large company, is going to have high personnel turnover, but “The newer people don’t know us,” he said. “And the staff is who they choose, not representatives from the community. If we are not on

the table, we are on the menu. We want crime to go away. We want the drugs to go away. But I don’t see it. We’ll see what happens.”

John W. Smith

John W. Smith said that he’s a “Potrero Hill snob.” The 69year old lives at the same Wisconsin Street address in the Terrace he was raised in. Even through a stint in the army, stationed in Germany in the 1960s, and living in other San Francisco neighborhoods during his working years, he always kept the address on formal documents. “I’m fortunate to be from here,” he said. “Whether rich or poor, it’s like salmon coming back to spawn. If you grew up here, you come back to Potrero Hill.” Smith’s earliest childhood memo -

ANNEX continues on page 18

Grassroots Organization Advocates for Dog-Friendly Policies at Esprit Park

BY BRETT YATES

When the San Francisco Planning Department’s Central WaterfrontDogpatch Public Realm Plan released preliminary blueprints for Esprit Park improvements last spring, some park users were alarmed by proposals to restrict off-leash dogs to a small section of the space.

At 1.8 acres, Esprit Park is Dogpatch’s largest green space, frequented by dog owners, who tend to allow their pets free run of its grassy meadow. Off-leash dogs are legally prohibited inside the park, a rule that’s widely overlooked; Esprit is well-known as an open play area for canines. Occasionally, however, complaints about uncontrolled animals are made; park rangers show up to distribute tickets.

The Public Realm Plan sche -

matics—which, according to project manager Robin Abad Ocubillo, are intended to inspire discussion, not to represent a final Esprit Park design—sought to formalize the off-leash dog presence within an enclosure on the park’s central-northern end. In the illustrations, formal plazas with seating mark northwest and southeast corner entryways; a picnic area abuts Minnesota Street, above a “natural play area” for children, who, according to the appended notes, feel “unsafe” in the park as it stands, due to “the amount of dogs.” Developed at a series of public workshops, the design reflects concerns raised by the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association, Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefits District and Potrero Boosters.

ESPRIT continues on page 19

Eddie Kittrell

‘

āina Wins Bib Gourmand

BY BRETT YATES

Last fall, the Hawaiian restaurant, ‘ā ina, was awarded a Bib Gourmand award from The Michelin Guide, the first Dogpatch or Potrero Hill restaurant to receive the accolade.

The Michelin Guide , published annually as an iconic red manual by the eponymous French tire manufacturer, is widely viewed as the world’s most prestigious and influential fine-dining handbook. The first edition, issued in 1900, was intended to encourage automobile travel in France. Today, the company’s restaurant inspectors range over most of Western Europe, as well as parts of Asia, Brazil, and four North American cities, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.

Each year, just before Michelin releases its coveted “stars” to mark the best of the high-end culinary world, it issues its Bib Gourmand list. The starred restaurants offer formal dining experiences, with costly tabs; the Bib Gourmand honors casual eateries that provide excellent food at a moderate price point. For an establishment to qualify, a customer must be able to order two courses and a dessert or glass of wine for $40 or less, excluding tax and tip. “Bib” refers to the company’s white mascot, Bibendum, better known in the English-speaking world as the Michelin Man. In French “gourmand” means “a person who eats a lot, or who has refined tastes in food.”

In the Bay Area, 75 neighborhood restaurants made the cut for the 2017 guide; ‘ā ina was one of 12 new additions.

Started as a weekend-only pop-up in Bernal Heights, ‘ā ina moved to a brick-and-mortar space in Dogpatch last sprng. Until mid-October, the restaurant served only brunch, adding dinner to its operations the day of The Michelin Guide announcement. Chef-owner Jordan Keao said that he and his business partner, Jason Alonzo, received the good news from a friend’s text message while they and their team “were all really busy getting ready.”

“It was great to know that we were headed in the right direction, and this award definitely let us know that we were on the right track,” Keao said.

So far the restaurant hasn’t seen “any large increases” in business, as they “are still trying to get the message out that we are open for dinner.”

Although ‘ā ina was known locally for its brunch-only concept, expanding its hours and menu to include dinnertime at the restaurant’s “six-month mark” was part of the original plan, according to Keao.

Chef Keao was born and raised in Hawaii, and previously cooked for La Folie on Polk Street, in addition to serving as a chef for technology companies like Google and AirBNB. He explained that, like his well-known brunch, his dinner menu “focuses on local foods in Hawaii, but digs deeper into the less mainstream dishes. We also serve more

fish and seafood and are able to start applying more technique to our food.”

In 2015, before ‘ā ina moved into its 22nd Street location, a San Francisco Chronicle reviewer praised Keao’s “sugar-coated malasadas,” referring to a type of Portuguese doughnut that came to Hawaii in the late 19th century, as well as “a menu of elevated Hawaiian dishes, like house-made Spam and Kalua pork belly. Ingredients like hau-

pia, starchy Okinawan sweet potatoes and tangy li hing powder testify that Keao is working with the real flavors of the islands, not the faux-Polynesian ones from ’50s suburbia.”

In Hawaiian “‘ ā ina” translates to “the land which feeds us.” The restaurant, which sits catty-corner to the trattoria Piccino, plans to install outdoor seating in the near future.

Arch Returns to Potrero Hill

BY PAUL MCDONALD

For nearly 15 years, Arch Art and Drafting Supplies catered to design students, engineers, architects and artists from the corner of Missouri and 17th streets. The more than 7,000 square foot facility, painted a stunning copper color and adorned with a thatched wire sign spelling out A-R-C-H, offered a rare resource for anyone looking for materials with which to make unique creations for a multitude of purposes.

As the neighborhood attracted high-end condominiums and wellfunded (bio)technology startups, property values skyrocketed. Arch founder Susie Coliver was confronted with a 500 percent rent hike, with a 90 day deadline to depart. After a stop at a small temporary location, the story has a happy ending, with the company freshly settled at 10 Carolina Street, “beyond the end of the road” as Coliver puts it.

Coliver, a San Francisco native, received a degree in Environmental

Design from the University of California, Berkley in 1976. She took an entrylevel position with Robert Herman Associates. Initially the office “go-fer,” she realized she was spending an excessive amount of time running errands to get supplies for the office. In 1978, when she was 26 years-old, with the help of a partner Coliver opened Arch Drafting Supply in an alley located in what was then San Francisco’s design mecca, at 43 Osgood Street, between Broadway and Jackson streets.

Almost 40 years ago the internet wasn’t available to source products, or search for unique, niche items that appealed to architects, urban designers, structural engineers, graphic designers, illustrators, advertising agencies and landscape architects. By amassing a store full of carefully curated objects, Arch eventually became – as Coliver puts it – the “Cheers” of the design community, then a tightknit group, professionally and geographically.

ARCH continues on page 7

451 Kansas Street #471

Sold $830,000

862 De Haro #A

Sold $1,380,000

1275 Rhode Island

Sold $810,000

1219 19th Street Sold $1,435,000

879 Rhode Island Sold $1,850,000

350 Missouri Street Sold $2,700,000

After six years at 43 Osgood, Arch re-located to nearby 407 Jackson Street, purveying its wares from that location from 1984 to 2001. After a 17 year stint, according to Coliver, “Times changed, rents rose, the need for drafting supplies waned as computers came into pervasive use and design professionals scattered throughout the City.” In 2001, Arch found a new home on the Hill, close to the California College of the Arts, at 1111 Eighth Street. The store became a comforting neighborhood beacon of quirky offerings.

Coliver’s Missouri and 17th streets landlord was an elderly man, who eventually died at age 103. The owner’s family inherited the property, and, unaware of how much Arch had become

a beloved part of the neighborhood fabric, sought to secure higher rents. Rather than negotiate a possible compromise, Coliver’s new landlord gave her 60 days to come up with the rent increase, extending that an additional 30 days.

Coliver turned to her network to find a new home; she feared Arch was hopelessly close to shutting down. With CCA students and other regular customers taking up the cause, word made it to Greg Markoulis, who owns the massive American Industrial Center, which extends two long blocks on the eastern side of Third Street, from 20th to 22nd streets, housing hundreds of businesses. Markoulis was sympathetic to Coliver’s plight, and aware of Arch’s revered neighborhood standing. He asked Coliver what she could afford; they worked out a deal which saved the business, now significantly downsized.

During the two years of running Arch from a small storefront next to Long Bridge Pizza, Coliver searched for a spot that’d enable her to expand back to 7,000 square foot, sufficient to accommodate all of her more than 20,000 items. She found that with an unusual partner, Larry’s Towing, Inc., with whom she now shares a building, the deal sealed with a handshake.

Arch now operates from a spruced up portion of a large building that used to house tow trucks, batteries and other automotive detritus. The vehicles are parked outside at night now, in the large parking area that accompanies 10 Carolina Street. Arch and Larry’s Towing harmoniously split the rent on the property.

The front door, dating from 1852,

Arch along its 38

been installed. According to Coliver, the store is about 70 percent complete, with a seminar/ lecture room still to come, along with the constant challenge of managing inventory.

Throughout her time with Arch Coliver has simultaneously been a principal with Herman Coliver Locus

A MONTHLY UPDATE

SPONSORED BY BRIDGE HOUSING

VOLUME 75 DECEMBER 2016

Architecture, which specializes in designing affordable housing, schools, and spaces for nonprofits As the longstanding Arch staff settle into their new digs, Coliver can ease back into spending more time on her other career.

Meanwhile, the Missouri and 17th streets building is unoccupied, married by graffiti.

Community Building Group (CBG) moves to monthly meetings

As the Rebuild Potrero project draws closer to breaking ground in early 2017, once bi-monthly Community Building Group meetings are now monthly, so community members can stay abreast of the latest developments.*

On November 10, 2016, Potrero Hill residents gathered at the Rebuild Potrero CBG Meeting at Starr King Elementary School. One of the main topics was dust monitoring.

Daniel Adams of BRIDGE Housing and geotechnical engineer Brian Flaherty from Engeo gave an overview of the Dust Control Plan (DCP) for the 1st phase. The plan specifically identifies the steps to be taken to reduce dust emissions during demolition of the existing structures and the soil disturbance or excavation associated with grading, utility work, and construction of site infrastructure. For instance, two such dust control methods are stockpile management [covering any stockpiled construction materials (soil, aggregate, concrete, treated lumber) that are not actively being used] and watering both the site as well as construction vehicles to keep dust contained on the site. Moreover, earth-disturbing activities will occur primarily in the winter months when the air is most heavy and moist, which is an added natural mechanism to keep the dust down. If you have any questions about the DCP, please see the DCP Fact Sheet on our website at www.rebuildpotrero.com or contact Dan Adams, Director of Development for BRIDGE Housing, at 415-321-3566, dadams@bridgehousing.com.

Stay informed! The next CBG meeting is on December 8, 2015, 6-9pm at Starr King. Join us for updates and a year-end celebration!

*Rebuild Build will also release a monthly newsletter.

For more information: website: rebuildpotrero.com, e-mail potrero@bridgehousing.com

Original 1852 front door. PHOTO: Paul McDonald

Plenty of parking at Arch’s new location.

PHOTO: Paul McDonald which accompanied

year history, has

Changes to 9-San Bruno Bus Stop Worries Local Business

BY ANNIKA DARLING

In 2014, the City and County of San Francisco adopted Vision Zero, a policy to create safer streets through more expansive traffic safety education and law enforcement, among other elements. Vision Zero prompted an overhaul of the 9-San Bruno bus line – including removing 19 stops, and relocating three – to make the route safer and more efficient. But some businesses are concerned that the changes will hurt their revenues.

One of three new bus stops will be located in front of Flowercraft Garden Center, at the corner of Bayshore Boulevard and Cortland Avenue. Jeff Lerner, Flowercraft vice president, has opposed the bus stop siting since it was first proposed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) two years ago. “We have been part of an exhaustive effort trying to advocate to the City to leave the stop where it is,” said Lerner. “Because right now it is out of the way, there are no safety concerns, it doesn’t take away parking, it doesn’t take place on a very busy corner; a vendor delivery and receiving corner, and, well, they were not so moved. It has been a frustrating process.”

The bus stop is currently located on the northwest corner of Bayshore Boulevard and Cortland Avenue. Plans are to move it to the southwest corner of the intersection, and to extend the sidewalk to make a bus bulb, protruding from the street so buses don’t have to pull out and into a traffic lane.

“We have a huge issue with this proposed bus stop,” said Lerner. “The proposed bus stop location would create several immitigable operational problems for our garden center business that we believe would result in disruption to our business,” he wrote in a letter to SFMTA.

Among the problems, according to Lerner, would be increased traffic accident risks at an already unsafe intersection; utilizing Flowercraft’s front driveway, which is constantly in use, creating congestion; and using up to four of the eight parking spots in front of Flowercraft.

Lerner also believes that the move is unnecessary; the current stop performs well, with minimum disruption to his business. Lerner acknowledged that the change will cut time from the bus route, but insisted it wasn’t worth the adverse impacts on his enterprise.

SFMTA’s Paul Rose said that “often these stops are moved from just behind a stop light to just past one, which saves buses from being trapped behind a red light while passengers board. It will shave five minutes off a trip for each bus. The cumulative time savings are equal to adding an additional bus to the 9-San Bruno route. It’s actually safer to have the bus pull in and out of a zone after the intersection. That was really the impetus to moving it to the far side of the intersection.”

Relocating the stop is part of a plan to reduce the high number of trafficrelated injuries in the area. The 9-San Bruno falls within the High-Injury

Network, a web of San Francisco roads on which the highest number of roadway injuries occur. The High-Injury Network makes up 12 percent of City streets, where 70 percent of San Francisco’s severe and fatal traffic-related injuries happen. “Every year in SF, about 30 people lose their lives and over 200 more are seriously injured while traveling on City streets,” according to Vision Zero.

“This improvement is one element in a number of transit reliability and pedestrian safety projects along the 9/9R San Bruno corridor, and will benefit over 20,000 daily transit riders,” SFMTA stated in its proposed project plan.

According to SFMTA, the 9-San Bruno and 9L San Bruno Limited are among Muni’s busiest routes, carrying more than 10,000 customers on an average weekday, 6,500 riders on the 9 San Bruno, and 3,500 on the 9L San Bruno Limited. On Bayshore Boulevard about 450 customers board the 9 San Bruno; 200 customers embark on the 9L San Bruno Limited.

Flowercraft Garden Center opened in 1974, when Lerner’s family purchased a “defunct and blighted carwash at Bayshore Boulevard at Cortland Avenue and transformed it into a successful, full-service garden center,” said Lerner. It operates 363 days a year, and serves thousands of businesses, landscapers, and government agencies.

According to Rose, SFMTA has “been working with the merchants in the area to make sure they have

everything they need, including options of coloring the curb, making it a green zone, providing more loading zones around the area. We listened to their concerns and we are trying to move forward in a way that they feel they can continue business, and that’s why we’ve offered to provide more commercial or loading zones around their business if they need it. We haven’t heard back from them on that. But we did move forward in moving the bus stop for safety and transit improvement. We are willing and want to work with merchants in the area that are affected by this project in any way.”

“We have altered the design so that there will be no parking loss for the intersection…four parking spaces will be removed north of the existing Flowercraft driveway; however, four additional parking spaces will be added to the NW corner of the intersection in front of Floorcraft,” stated Muni Forward project manager, Sean Kennedy, in a letter to SFMTA supervisors. “Based on communications with Flowercraft representatives, the location of these replacement parking spaces are within the walkshed of existing customers, and is a reasonable distance for their customers to access the store entrance. Additionally, the existing driveway is being incorporated into the transit bulb design. The revised design will start the transit bulb taper before the Flowercraft driveway on Bayshore Boulevard, so there will be no parking

BUS STOP continues on page 12

BY REBEKAH MOAN

Potrero Hill is one of the City’s safer neighborhoods, due in large part to its residents, according to Bayview Police Captain Raj Vaswani, who oversees law enforcement in the community.

“Overall, if you look at Dogpatch and Potrero hill, it’s safer than SoMa and the Mission,” Vaswani said. “The neighbors are involved; they really care about the direction of the neighborhood, including future development and traffic. We work on those issues together. The big lure to neighborhoods like Potrero Hill and Dogpatch is they are little towns in a big city. That stability is really important to keep an area safe, because the residents are involved and care.” Roughly 60,000 crimes were reported in San Francisco in 2015.

Vaswani and the officers that serve under him are in regular telephone and email contact with residents, who keep them informed of neighborhood happenings. Vaswani regularly checks the Twitter and Facebook accounts of community groups, as well as newspapers, including the View, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner.

Last fall, resident cooperation, acting as witnesses, lead to the arrest of four people connected with a robbery on the 700 block of Vermont Street. Likewise, the police worked with Arkansas and Texas streets residents to investigate house break-ins, using

DNA to identify and arrest suspects. In another case, a woman was arrested and linked to three burglaries. Officers found her near Vermont Street after she assaulted a property owner.

“The Hill is an extremely active, small neighborhood in San Francisco,” Vaswani said. “Most people know what’s going on in the neighborhood.”

In another incident, an individual was making children and their caretakers uncomfortable by following, watching, and talking about the kids. “Many times our officers do offer DPH [Department of Public Health] services when we can. In this case, we were able to communicate what he was doing was inappropriate and parents/caretakers were concerned. We offered him shelter, which he declined.”

A Hill resident secured a stay-away order, a court-issued civil instruction that notified the person in writing that he wasn’t allowed to harass, follow, or communicate in hostile ways. The person is no longer harassing the kids; Vaswani increased patrols in the area.

Automobile break-ins remain a common criminal activity. Bayview police officers attend Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association meetings, network with business owners, and remind people not to leave belongings in their cars. Plainclothes officers are dispatched to dine or hangout nearby popular restaurants, which Vaswani declined to identify, to watch for people casing cars; if a break-in occurs an arrest is made.

Officers’ work hours vary depending on crime trends, deployed in unmarked cars, on foot, and on special projects. They patrol from behind bushes and vehicles, or stroll sidewalks to watch areas where there’s been a spike in burglaries, robberies, or shootings. They also work on gang cases and investigate gang members that have a crime specialty in attempts to solve wrongdoing.

“For example, many times people that are paroled out of robberies or shootings come out of prison/jail and

commit crimes again; they will look at unsolved crime in an area and see if some of the career criminals might be connected,” Vaswani said. “I generally give them locations based on what I read in reports, crime data, emails, and community feedback.”

Undercover officers look for people who are on probation or parole for crimes related to robbery, home or auto burglaries. Most undercover officers are familiar with parolees/probationers and gang members in the area; if they see them on the street, especially if they’re looking into a car, the officers

POLICE continues on page 12

the Central Waterfront Cultural Resources Survey, and was assigned National Register Status Code “4D2.” In bureaucracy speak, that means the structure is

notable – it’s been continually occupied since 1889 – but, without “restoration or meeting other specific conditions,” the government doesn’t see a reason to prohibit modifications to it.

Although DNA chose not to pay for additional analysis, a group of Dogpatch residents believe additional review is merited. “The building has been occupied for more than 125 years,” said Janet Carpinelli, former DNA president, who is spearheading further historical evaluation efforts. “It’s been a vital part of the Dogpatch community

MOSHI MOSHI continues on page 12

ects into mixed income neighborhoods. Those efforts ultimately resulted in a loss of low income tenants. Hope VI didn’t require developers to replace public housing one-for-one. According to the Urban Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, erratic relocation methods resulted in less than half of public housing residents returning.

By 2006, federal housing funding was dwindling. The City decided to create its own program, Hope SF, with a goal to maintain at least as many public housing units as currently exist. Rebuild Potrero falls under Hope SF, as do two other redevelopments underway at Hunters View and Alice Griffith. Another effort, at Sunnydale, is following the same timeline as Rebuild Potrero. In all cases, public housing residents are, or will be, given a choice to be relocated offsite or wait to be moved to a new unit as construction is completed. Bridge isn’t the developer for the other three projects.

The first 100 families at Griffith will be moved to a new building at the site early next year. The Hunters View’s revitalization will be complete by the end of the month. City agencies contacted by the View didn’t return requests to provide the number of public housing residents who remained at Hunters View. Public housing advocates believe that the number of returnees is low.

One of the reasons Rebuild Potrero is being built in five phases is to move residents at a manageable pace. Under

phase one, Project X, a 70-unit building will be constructed on the southeast corner of 25th and Connecticut streets, currently a vacant lot except for a basketball court. In future phases the plan is to site market rate and affordable housing buildings side by side as each parcel is developed.

According to Banh, Rebuild faces challenges related to topography –steep slopes – and the extra communication needed to navigate two tenant organizations. Bridge hopes that redevelopment will connect Annex-Terrace with the rest of Potrero Hill. “In terms of mixed use, Potrero Hill is already mixed income, but not integrated,” Banh said.

When the Annex was built on the steep southern slope in 1941, and the Terrace four years later, the complexes were separated from the rest of the Hill geographically, with limited street access. “It’s very much an isolated pocket of poverty, and that isolation has made it difficult for them to advance socially and economically,” said Banh. To address this separation, as part of redevelopment Missouri, Arkansas and Texas Streets will be reconnected to the northern part of the street grid.

Violent crime at Annex-Terrace is five times the City average. One-third of the complex’s residents don’t use the Internet. A quarter is unemployed and looking for work; one-third are disabled. Less than half of the residents surveyed by Bridge reported having a bank account.

However, to close to 1,400 people Annex-Terrace is home. One third of this population has lived in public

housing for more than a decade. It’s not hard to find multiple generations who’ve grown up in Annex-Terrace, with deep family connections. In 2015, 727 residents were under age 17. Another 88 were older than 62.

A sense of powerlessness permeates Annex-Terrace, possibly due to long waits for repairs by the Housing Authority, or actions by municipal agencies. A Bridge survey found that three-quarters of respondents have high expectations for revitalization; somewhat less than that think redevelopment is in their best interest.

It’s been seven years since the 53 bus was taken out of service, a decision that’s remains a sore point for many Annex-Terrace residents. The “mountain goat bus,” as it was nicknamed, connected the complex with the 16th Street Bay Area Rapid Transit station; it looped around Annex-Terrace and negotiated the 23rd Street hill, providing a link with the rest of the community. According to one oft-told story, an Annex resident tipped his wheelchair thrice trying to get up the slope after the line was cancelled; the Housing Authority had to move him off the Hill. Many of the elderly won’t walk up the hill now, making it even more difficult to keep people informed and get them to attend meetings. “Once it left it kind of ostracized a lot of people on this side,” said Banh, referring to the Annex.

Confidence in Bridge waned after the nonprofit backed out of a promise to include washers and dryers in Project X. That plan was actually nixed by the Mayor’s Office of Housing, one of

Bridge’s primary funders for the development. Bridge now says it’ll put laundry facilities on each floor.

Tensions have also surfaced related to recent promises of employment. Cahill Contractors, Rebuild’s construction contractor, is required to fill half of work site jobs with Annex-Terrace residents, but only if qualified individuals can be found. Citibuild, the municipal agency tasked with recruiting and preparing potential workers, won’t offer its next 18-week training program until January, after construction will have started.

“Don’t get the community’s hopes up and then not deliver,” said Billy Ray Courtney, a lifelong Annex-Terrace resident, at a contentious public meeting with Bridge and Cahill representatives held at Starr King Elementary School last fall. Residents were also concerned that local workers will be scrutinized more closely; if they show up late once, they could be laid off and replaced with a “preferred” worker to skirt the 50 percent requirement. In Hunters View’s first construction phase, 23 percent of jobs went to residents living in the same zip code as the project, but Hunters View residents logged just 5.4 percent of work hours.

Potrero Hill Neighborhood House executive director Edward Hatter, who has been an advocate for Annex-Terrace residents, thinks Rebuild should be win-win. “We can negotiate a real opportunity to get low income people jobs instead of waiting on a work list,” he said.

REBUILD continues on page 11

REBUILD from page 10

The biggest concern among tenants, however, is a line in current lease agreements that states that occupants need to be in “good standing” to be relocated. Community leaders are aware that at Hunters View relocated residents received a 31-page set of rules, including requirements that all linens were to be inspected before being brought into homes; and, in case of infestation, bathing was required. The rules also declared residents “shall not loiter, hang out, stand idly about, linger aimlessly, or remain without an obvious purpose.”

The fact that it’s common for relatives to be living together without all occupants appearing on a lease complicates things further. Hatter said he knew of a grandmother that lived alone in a four-bedroom unit after her children left. She was supposed to be moved, but the Housing Authority never acted. Since then, her grandchildren have moved back in with her. He added children who are now young adults were particularly in “no-man’s land” when it came to the lease. “The bad apples do need to be routed out but let’s give everyone a fair opportunity,” he said.

DRISCOLL from front page

for indigenous people’s rights, told the View that a contract is expected by March; the parties have agreed to arbitration if an agreement cannot be reached. She said all farm workers

remain in solidarity, but that issues in Mexico make unionizing more complicated, including the existence of “protection” unions, which are forced on employees who have no say in them.

A week after the FUJ announcement, the Sindicato Independiente Nacional Democratic de Jornaleros Agricolas (SINDJA), which is organizing farmers in San Quintin, stated in a press release, “We clarify and reiterate the Driscoll’s boycott is in full force.”

While Sakuma Brothers is an independent company, BerryMex is closely related to Driscoll’s. Some grocers question the validity of the boycott based on concerns that Driscoll’s is being targeted because it’s America’s largest berry distributor. The company got out of the farming business in the 1960s, and instead now provides seeds to growers, and packs and ships berries to market. BerryMex is owned by Reiter Affiliated Companies, whose chief executive officer, Garland Reiter, is the brother of Driscoll’s chairman of the board, Miles Reiter. Driscoll’s was founded by their grandfather, Joseph Driscoll, and his cousin, R.O. Driscoll.

The San Francisco Labor Council last year endorsed the boycott. A statement penned by its executive director, Tim Paulsen, primarily referred to Mexican workers who were living in “rat-infested camps” with wages often withheld and forced to purchase goods from overpriced company stores. Paulsen is currently on medical leave and unreachable.

Farm workers from the San Quintin Valley have been touring the West Coast in support of the boycott. One of them, 28-year old Carmen Mata,

has been a berry picker in Baja since she was nine years old. In an interview, assisted by a Spanish/English interpreter, she stated bluntly that “Driscoll’s is one of the most exploitive companies in Baja, California.” While Driscoll’s doesn’t directly employ farm workers, workers claim that the company actively advises farmers.

Mata explained that in addition to discrimination toward indigenous peoples, as well as sexual abuse, workers are poorly paid and often uncompensated for extra hours. She said indigenous workers are kept in labor-intensive positions and passed up for better paying jobs. For a day that runs from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., she made between 120 to 150 pesos, or $6 to $8. Traveling in the U.S. for the first time, she was startled to see how much berries sell for.

Mata was among several hundred workers who were fired shortly after a march of 70,000 striking laborers from several farms turned violent in May, 2015. The Mexican army was called in to assist state and local police. There were widespread reports of government buildings burned, rocks thrown and rubber bullets fired. The protest was preceded by a petition to the state of Baja for the right to unionize, which was ignored.

Driscoll’s didn’t respond to inquiries from the View. After the uprising, BerryMex increased pay to the 226 pesos a day, about $12, which is high for farm workers anywhere in Mexico.

Mata said the farm workers’ goal is to have SINDJA be recognized, and replace the Mexican government unions to which workers are currently

subjected. Until that happens, she wants businesses not to sell Driscoll’s.

While major supermarkets, including Whole Foods, stock Driscoll’s berries, some exclusively, many grocers have grappled with the boycott. Whole Foods, which has been the target of picketers at several West Coast stores, declined to comment about the issue. Rainbow Grocery, however, has had a long-standing policy against carrying Driscoll’s. One of the store’s produce buyers, Victor Kobayashi, said the rule predates the boycott, and is “based on how they treat their workers.” Nonetheless, Driscoll’s links to Rainbow on its website as one of the 59 stores it sells to. When informed of that, Kobayashi called it disturbing. “In the 20 years I have worked here not a single Driscoll’s berry has entered this store,” he said.

The Good Life Grocery stopped carrying Driscoll’s last spring. “We had a number of customers ask us not to carry Driscoll’s berries until these disputes were settled,” said co-owner and produce manager Kayren Hudiburgh. “That’s a hard one to hold because they almost have a monopoly for raspberries.” Hudiburgh eventually found a small Watsonsville company, Medina Farms, which grows raspberries as well as strawberries. They cost more, but she said they are sweeter and fresher. “We are fortunate because we actually came in with a better product. Everyone loves them,” she said. It’s more work on her part however. Because Medina doesn’t deliver, she has to go to farmer’s markets to buy them. They also don’t farm blueberries, which she sources

DRISCOLL continues on page 12

and practice, and which’ll unite the college’s 2,000 students, 600 faculty members, 250 staff members, and 34 academic programs. “The selection process was extremely thorough, involving intense review and significant input from many constituencies,” CCA board chair C. Diane Christensen commented. “Studio Gang’s visionary work, commitment to innovation and sustainability, and collaborative work style makes the firm an excellent fit for this project and for CCA. Jeanne Gang leads an extraordinary team that is very familiar with San Francisco and our still-emerging neighborhood at the intersection of the City’s innovation corridor, the new DoReMi arts district, and Mission Bay. We are thrilled with the prospect of working with Studio Gang and have high hopes that our new campus will help redefine 21st-century arts education.”

A couple of data errors appeared in last month’s “Publisher’s View.” Roughly 125,000 dwelling units were constructed over the past 65 years, rather than 80,000, bolstering the notion that housing supply might not be as pressing a factor in the homeless crises as widely believed. However, there are roughly 43,000 fewer less-than-18year-olds in San Francisco, rather than the whopping 100,000 less, as stated in the article.

8

implications south of the driveway…In addition to the design changes, we will also reach out to Flowercraft to see if they are interested in adding Green Zones that support short-term parking south of the bus bulb on Bayshore. This would help support parking turnover for patrons of Flowercraft and help reduce the likelihood of long-term parking in front of the store…I believe we have been able to address the major concerns voiced by Flowercraft.”

Lerner said that while SFMTA amended its initial plan, he’s unsatisfied with its decision to move forward with the changes. “I’m very, very concerned with the interruption of our business once it’s under construction, but also after it’s constructed,” said Lerner. “Our customers’ ability to reach our business; and what if it gets too difficult for our customers to shop with us? It’s gonna hurt.”

San Francisco Public Works Department plans to begin construction early next year on the stop in front of Flowercraft. According to Rose, erection should be finished with weeks of the start date.

POLICE from page 9

will watch them to see if they recommit a crime.

“We have people that usually carry guns or have ties to gangs that rob people on the street or break into cars/ homes,” Vaswani said. “Many times we

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get them with guns/stolen property again, based on a probation contact or parole contact. California Department of Corrections and Probation notifies us when a gang member or violent felon is released back. When some of these people are released, we will see an increase in shootings/homicides and violent crime. We try to reach out to them before when we see them out on the street and let them know that we are aware they are out. CDC and many of the nonprofits/City services will also try to get these folks jobs, training, and education should they need that to be successful and not return to violence. Many of the patrol and undercover officers have a good relationship with the ‘regulars’ that get arrested a lot; we know their families, kids, girlfriends/ boyfriends, where they hang out, and who their friends are.”

Recently, two undercover officers spotted a probationer carrying a shopping bag, which was being used to carry loot taken from automobile burglaries. When the police made contact, the suspect began to fight, revealing that he had a gun. He was arrested.

“We have good success with residents keeping their eyes open to noticing suspicious people when they go out walking their dog or going for a run,” Vaswani said. “They will call us and tell us that a person is casing a car, or sometimes even that a person is inside a car with a broken window.” Occasionally residents provide videos or photographs of unusual activities, which can be used by the police to develop a case.

Break-ins tend to rise between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, with concomitant increases in police patrols. “Even if an item is not valuable, but it looks valuable, a car will be broken into,” Vaswani said. “The residents are passionate about the neighborhood. They take it personally if something bad happens. And I also take is very personally when residents in my district are victimized.”

similarly, however. Messages on social media site Nextdoor concerning the edifice’s preservation revealed neighborhood opposition to the idea. “Good grief; let Mitz move forward with his plans to modernize the building. He has worked really hard and deserves the upgrade to the facility. It’s his building, and if that building is “historic,” then we should be ‘hysterically preserving’ the homeless tents.”

Akashi plans to update the commercial space and residences on the second floor. Moshi Moshi will reopen after the renovation or rebuild, although it’s unclear what form the restaurant will take after construction is completed.

through our history; it’s worth taking the time.”

Mitz Akashi, who owns the property and Moshi Moshi, wants to comprehensively alter the building, and retain the restaurant. One renovation company walked away from the project, reportedly due to complications with the kitchen remodel. Akashi is being courted by other developers interested in investing in his restaurant, which is close to a T-Muni stop.

In the meantime, residents are searching for architects or historians who can provide expert opinion on the building’s historical relevance. Carpinelli emphasized the need to preserve Dogpatch’s older structures, noting that the neighborhood hasn’t engaged in significant historical preservation efforts for a decade. “DNA has not spent any resources on historic review since 2005, when we did the Dogpatch Historic District,” said Carpinelli. “Except for an attempt to stop the demolition of the brick office/warehouse at 815 Tennessee Street. We were too late for that one, but not for this building.”

Not all Dogpatch residents feel

from farmer’s markets or the Wholesale Produce Market on Jerrold Avenue.

Relying on small, local, farms isn’t without other problems. One week in October, Good Life didn’t carry strawberries because a rainstorm damaged Californa crops. Hudiburgh struggled to get more information about the boycott to share when customers wonder why she doesn’t carry Driscoll’s. It would be ideal, she said, if there were some kind of handout she could distribute.

Simon Richard, Bi-Rite Market’s produce buyer, has had the same trouble getting specifics on the boycott, particularly whether Driscoll’s is worse than other companies. He’s even tried to contact farmers directly, without success. When in season, Richard primarily carriers berries from local growers, but added, “Driscoll’s is the only option in the winter months. They have a pretty high quality winter berry.”

Wholesaler Veritable Vegetable lists Driscoll’s on their availability chart, although they buy from a variety of local farms when berries are in season.

Watsonville-based Driscoll’s, which has offices on five continents, is difficult not to do business with. It is the biggest seller of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries in the U.S. Strawberries are its biggest commodity, having cornered 48 percent of the American organic, and 34 percent of the overall market.

DRISCOLL from page 11

SHORT CUTS from page 2

Damn Statistics!

MOSHI MOSHI from page 9

COMMUNITY | DECEMBER

Now through 1/1/2017

Outdoor Exhibit: Winter Walk SF

Back after its popular inaugural year, this year’s Winter Walk features food vendors, live performances, appearances by the Macy’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal’s window puppies, and other wintery surprises. Free. Stockton, between Geary and Ellis streets.

For more information: http://www. visitunionsquaresf.com/winterwalksf

Now through 1/29/2017

Science Exhibit: Curious

Contraptions, Featuring Cabaret Mechanical Theatre

An exhibition of more than 20 charming and hilarious sculptures, known as “automata.” Like complex mechanical toys, these whimsical machines are brought to life by intricate arrangements of handmade cams, cranks, and other simple mechanisms. Each sculpture performs an absurd miniature drama, often reflecting its maker’s dark and British sense of humor. Exploratorium, Pier 15, Embarcadero at Green Street. For tickets and pricing information, visit exploratorium.edu/tickets.

For more information: http://www. exploratorium.edu or 415.528.4444

12/1 through 1/17

Art Exhibit: Touch On, Aesthetics in the Art, Politics, and Ontology of Touch

Fourteen multidisciplinary artists reflect on the meaning and power of touch through painting, sculpture, photography, performance and video. Free. Opening reception and performances, December 1, 6 to 9 p.m. SOMArts, 934 Brannan Street, between Eighth and Ninth streets. For more information and gallery hours: http://www.somarts.org/touchon

Festival: Tree Lighting for the Holidays Join Westfield San Francisco Centre for its Tree Lighting Event on Level Four, Under the Dome. Open to the public, featuring live music and performances, hosted holiday treats and beverages, and new, spectacular holiday décor. 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Free. Westfield San Francisco Centre, 865 Market Street. For more information: http://tiny.cc/n092gy

Art: Dimitra Skandali:

Meltemia and Other Stories Skandali’s first solo show with the gallery includes site-specific multimedia installations, with smaller pieces made of found, natural, and manmade materials. The exhibition’s title refers to the Aegean Sea’s annual periodic winds, which bring trash to seashores, can be dangerous if

strong, pleasant if smooth; a reminder that everything passes and moves in circles. Skandali received her master of fine art from the San Francisco Art Institute. She’s received numerous awards; her works have been exhibited throughout the Bay Area and abroad. Don Soker Contemporary Art, 2180 Bryant Street. For more information and gallery hours: http://www. donsokergallery.com or 415.291.0966.

12/2 through 12/4

Education: Christopher’s Books

Christopher’s will donate 20 percent of its receipts to Everett Middle School. Be sure to mention the school at the time of purchase. Teacher and staff wish lists will be on hand for those who want to buy books for the school. The store is well stocked; stop by for pre-shop browsing. Special orders placed or picked up the weekend of the book fair qualify for the fundraiser. Christopher’s Books, 1400 18th Street. For more information: chrisbookssf.com or 415.255.8802.

Art

Tsungwei Moo. 7 to 9 p.m. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

Performance: Bay Choral Guild Presents Christmas Jubilations

Bay Choral Guild presents Missa Brevis for the Refugees of War by Saratoga composer Henry Mollicone, conceived as a musical prayer for the millions of refugees from Middle Eastern and African conflicts. 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. $25 general, $20 senior, $10 student. St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal, 500 De Haro Street. For tickets: http://baychoralguild.org/tickets. For more information: http://www. baychoralguild.org

Family: Yoga This song- and play-filled class will help teach your crawler or toddler, up to two years, yoga basics. 10 to 10:30 a.m. $25 per family. Recess, 470 Carolina Street. Reservations and more information: http://www.recessurbanrecreation. com/calendar-of-events/family-yogadec

Community: Proposed Child, Teen, and Family Center Part one of this meeting, 2130 Third Street Preliminary Design Presentation, will be from 6 to 7:15 p.m.; part two, 2130 Third Street Draft EIR Public Hearing, will start at 7:30 p.m. Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street. For more information, contact Michele Davis at Michele.Davis@ucsf.edu or 415.476.3024.

Film: Not Without Us

Join the Green Film Festival to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the COP21 Paris Agreement, with a free, encore screening of Not Without Us The film’s director, Mark Decena, will introduce the movie, which focuses on seven grassroots activists from around the world who attended the United Nations Climate Talks in Paris, France. A deal was signed, but with the election of a new U.S. president, it’s far from clear that catastrophic climate change can be stopped. 6 to 7:30 p.m. Free. San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin Street. For more information: http://www.greenfilmfest. org/2016encorenotwithoutus

Comedy: Good Times in the Grotto

The Sports Basement Bryant Street store hosts Good Times in the Grotto comedy night on most second Fridays of the month. Start your weekend off with a laugh. Host, local comedian Anthony Medina, orchestrates a diverse lineup of Bay Area comedians. Free drinks and snacks. 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. No cover, but a suggested donation of $5. 18 and over unless accompanied by an adult; 21+ to drink. Sports Basement, 1590 Bryant Street. For more information: 415.575.3000.

Family: Date Night Drop-Off

Need a night out? Drop your two to seven year-olds off at a familiar, fun environment. Your little one can enjoy the play space, have dinner, and participate in an art project. Our friendly, knowledgeable staff provides childcare. 5 to 8 p.m. $45 per child/ $15 for sibling add-on. Recess, 470 Carolina Street. Rservations and more information: http://www. recessurbanrecreation.com/calendarof-events/7dj73ldlbtb5aczctrfmw2r5 8f22nj

Environment: Garden Party

Featuring live music, locallysourced food and drinks, and plants. Learn about sustainable living, feed the goats, meet the roosters, bring your kids, and start a garden. Fall is the beginning of planting season for drought-resistant native plants. The celebration continues every second Saturday afternoon. Noon to 5 p.m. Free. Bay Natives Nursery, 10 Cargo Way. For more information: http://www. baynatives.com

Music

Eli and the Approach, an acoustic band from Potrero Hill, featuring lead singer Eli Becker, Dave Gabine on percussion and Chris Martin on guitar, performs classics from the 1970s and 1980s, mixed with hip hop and alternative songs. 7:30 to 9 p.m. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

Family: Day Date Drop-Off

Drop your eighteen months to three year-olds off and enjoy some grownup time. Run errands, get brunch, take a midmorning nap. Snack’ll be provided, as well as free play in the play space and an art activity. 9 to 11:30 a.m. $35 per child/$15 for sibling add-on. Recess, 470 Carolina Street. Reservation and more information: http://www. recessurbanrecreation.com/calendarof-events/day-date-drop-off

Music

Potrero Hill resident Daniel Berkman is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and innovator of the kora, a 21-stringed harp/lute from West Africa. 7:30 to 9 p.m. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

Family: Holiday Happy Hour

Enjoy sweet treats, art activities, crafts, face painting, and live holiday music from cellist Lori Hennessy. 3:30 to 6 p.m. $25 per family. Recess, 460 Carolina Street. Reservations and more information: http://www. recessurbanrecreation.com/calendarof-events/holiday-happy-hour-1

Music

Afterparty performs old-school barbershop, a mix of upbeat tunes and ballads. 7:30 to 9 p.m. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

Art: “F*ck U”

More than 40 self-identified feminist artists speak-out against misogyny in the provocativelytitled exhibition, F*ck U! Organized in response to the 2016 presidential campaign and election, the exhibit examines in raw detail how the artists react to patriarchy, and shines a spotlight on women’s identities and embodied experiences. The show features the works of groundbreaking artists from the beginning of the feminist art movement, as well as internationally-known contemporary artists. 7 to 9 p.m. Free. Arc Studios & Gallery, 1246 Folsom Street. For more information: http://www.ncwca.org/ events.html

Through 12/17

Art: I Dreamt Bees made Sweet Honey From My Past Failures

Paintings by Charles Arnoldi, David Becker, Jenny Bloomfield, Linda Geary, David Maxim, Jacob Melchi, and Ann Harrold Taylor. The exhibit’s title is a paraphrase of a line from Spanish poet Antonio Machado’s famous poem, “Last Night As I Was Sleeping.” The seven works in this exhibition, each in their own way, embody the spirit and revelation of Machado’s theme, that new life, creativity, can be seen as an aqueduct cut through the stubborn ground by false starts, exploration and learning from mistakes. George Lawson Gallery, 315 Potrero Avenue. For more information: http://www.georgelawsongallery.com/

Food: Holiday Wine Event

Join Alice’s Table to learn how to craft festive holiday flower arrangements while enjoying wine tasting from Bluxome Street Winery. Take your holiday arrangement and enjoy fresh flowers in your home! 3 to 5 p.m. Cost: $85. Bluxome Street Winery, 53 Bluxome Street. For more information: https:// alicestable.com/events/bluxome Music

Soul Delights. 7:30 to 9 p.m. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

12/23 through 12/25

Comedy: 24th Annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy

The legendary Jewish-comedy-onChristmas-in-a-Chinese-restaurant extravaganza has featured Jewish comedians, including Henny Youngman performing his last show, Shelley Berman, and David Brenner, Chinese food, and Yiddish proverbs in fortune cookies for more than two decades. Kung Pao Kosher Comedy is San Francisco’s longest-running comedy show, drawing more than 2,000 people annually, some of whom have attended all 20+ years. This year’s headliner is Elayne Boosler, a comedian for more than 40 years, who has appeared more than 30 times on The Tonight Show and Politically Incorrect, with five Showtime specials. For tickets and more information: http://www.koshercomedy.com/

Curious Contraptions exhibit, at the Exploratorium.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Exploratorium

12/24 through 1/1/2017

Festival: Bill Graham Menorah Project Celebrate Hanukkah 2016 with the 42nd annual lighting of the 25 foot tall mahogany menorah in Union Square. This San Francisco tradition, the brainchild of rock and roll concert promoter Bill Graham, began in 1975. Lighting ceremonies take place from 12/24 through 1/1/2017, at approximately 5 p.m. on most days; Friday at 3 p.m.; Saturday at 7 p.m.. Free. Union Square. For more information: http://www. billgrahammenorah.org/

Art: Contemporary Jewish Museum

The Museum’s Community Day is an admission-free, fun-for-all extravaganza that’s become an annual tradition for Bay Area residents. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free. Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street. For more information: http://www.thecjm.org, info@thecjm.com, or 415.655.7800.

12/25 Television: ’90s Simpsons Trivia Night & Watch Party

Know The Simpsons like the back of your hand? Then join 1990s Simpsons Trivia Night every fourth Sunday of the month. Watch 1990s Simpsons and answer trivia. Prizes for true Simpsons nerds. 6 to 9 p.m. Free. The Knockout, 3223 Mission Street. For more information: https://www. facebook.com/SimpsonsTriviaSF

Why I Choose to Raise My Family in San Francisco

BY NIK TAN

The result of the presidential election brought home my reasons for wanting to raise my kids in a densely populated urban environment like San Francisco: diversity, diversity, diversity.  Socio-economic, racial, ethnic, cultural and gender identity diversity.

Parenting is a tough job wherever you reside. We all make decisions in attempts to make that job a little easier. Some move to the suburbs for school districts that’re perceived to deliver better academic results; others leave San Francisco for more affordable homes and an abundance of physical space; and yet others depart to be close to family members that reside elsewhere.

The one thing that’s kept our family stubbornly in the City has been the density of diversity that you find here, and the importance of preserving those interactions in our and our children’s daily lives.  On a car ride with my first grader son and his carpool buddy, we had a conversation about one of their classmates. The carpool friend wondered whether one of their friends had a dad. When I responded – a little too quickly due to my knowledge of her dad – with “Of course she does”, the friend quickly defended her question, reminding me that we couldn’t take that for granted, as they had other classmates who had either a single mum or two mums.

If we’re to get through the next four years of a presidency that won on a campaign based on fear and intolerance, more than ever before, we need to educate our kids on the power of love and tolerance. There’s no better way to do so than to expose them to the multitude of questions that come with sharing their school life with others who aren’t the same as them in all sorts of ways.  That would be nearly

on the

impossible to replicate in the ‘burbs. For that reason alone, my family and I shall remain in San Francisco!

Nik Tan lives on Sierra Street with her husband Gian Pablo and two boys, Javier and Rafi.  “Why I Choose to Raise My Family in San Francisco” is the brainchild of the

Potrero Residents Education Fund, a nonprofit committed to helping create a stronger, more vibrant San Francisco by ensuring that families from a diversity of income levels raise their children in the City. Submit your own stories to editor@ potreroview.net.

Fundraising Efforts Continue for Islais Creek Film

BY BRETT YATES

Like many independent filmmakers, Potrero Hill’s Bill Gollihur has big plans for the movie he’s working on. His in-progress documentary, The Islais Creek Film, is an ecological history of a vital water source of early San Francisco that exists today, in diminished form, as a small stream within Glen Canyon Park, then an underground culvert, and finally, just before emptying into the Bay, as a broad, gray channel crisscrossed by overpasses.

Advertising “the story of San Francisco’s forgotten waterway,” the film’s teaser trailer shows images of the creek – now incorporated into the City’s sewage system – surrounded by graffiti and litter. It includes a quotation from American naturalist, Joseph Wood Krutch, “If people destroy something replaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God, they are called developers.”

A January View article described Gollihur’s ambition to create “a cautionary tale” that would prompt audiences to “think more deeply about their surrounding urban environment.” Today, Gollihur imagines a six-part narrative that’ll begin in precolonial San Francisco and follow the Islais Creek through the early Spanish and American settlements, the Gold Rush, and the 1906 earthquake, detailing the changes wrought upon the waterway in each successive era, before examining its present-day state and making conjectures as to its future.

The film’s current challenge is funding, an ongoing issue since Gollihur began the project three years ago.

So far, Gollihur and his team have raised about $10,000 of an $86,000 goal.

Some shooting has been completed, but according to Gollihur more money is needed to pay for interviews, archival footage, and “older photos that show the history of the creek. We need to be able to purchase those from libraries and private collections.”

For the benefit of the film’s financial supporters, The Islais Creek Film registered as a nonprofit organization, Islais Creek Film Incorporated. Donations are tax-deductible. The organization boasts a five-person board of directors.

The nonprofit has hosted house parties, educational creek walks, and a social event at Dogpatch’s Harmonic Brewing. It’s solicited donations at the Potrero Hill Festival and Potrero Hill History Night, instituted an annual year-end letter-writing campaign, and applied for a multitude of grants. Its online crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, which offered an executive producer credit, among other prizes, to anyone willing to contribute $1,000 or more, ended in October with $3,000 pledged.

The Islais Creek Film will be the first feature film by Gollihur, a professional photographer who has served as an assistant director, producer, and production manager for independent films like Redwoods (2009) and My Eleventh (2014), and directed a short of his own. He’s determined to finish his movie. “We’re going to continue on and make it as best we can with whatever resources we have,” he said. He expects to release the final product in September, 2018.

Gollihur recognizes the importance of what he terms “the long view.” He doesn’t want to “compromise the FILM continues on page 17

The Potrero View is delighted to publish photographs celebrating our readers’ key milestones. Send yours to editor@potreroview.net.

Comedian Elayne Boosler.

PHOTO: Courtesy Kung Pao Kosher Comedy and Elyane Boosler

Happy sixth birthday, Zurie Bosch, a lifelong Potrero Hill resident. Love, Mara, Issa, Mom and Dad!

rich and poor into closer contact to raise awareness of the problems of the Second Industrial Revolution’s urban underclass, so that these challenges might be solved through large-scale social change. Ultimately, settlement workers became fierce early advocates for public housing, a minimum wage, and the Social Security Act of 1935; they assisted unionizing workers and helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The settlement movement’s approach to charity was modern and “scientific,” hinging on the novel idea that poverty was a manifestation of defective social conditions rather than personal dysfunction. Operated typically by willful, independent women, settlements were, according to Jane Addams of Chicago’s famed Hull House, considered “wicked” by some. Nevertheless, many settlement houses bore religious affiliations, their workers motivated by a traditional sense of Christian charity.

The Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, in Mishpot, was founded by the Episcopal Diocese of California in 1894 as the Good Samaritan Mission. From the beginning it was, in the words of former executive director Will Wauters, “more than just a church with a parish hall” for community activities. Taking cues from the settlement movement, Good Samaritan set itself the task of providing practical services to San Francisco’s immigrant population.

Similarly, what would become the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House –commonly known as “the Nabe” – was initiated in 1908 to help a group of Russian religious refugees, according to San Francisco’s Potrero Hill, by Peter Linenthal and Abigail Johnston: “With memories of persecution in their homeland still strong, the Molokans of Potrero Hill kept much to themselves. After one of them was injured in an accident at Union Iron Works, Dr.

William Parker, lawyer and pastor of the Olivet Presbyterian Church on Missouri Street, helped him get assistance from his employer. This event broke the ice, and the Russian community became open to the outreach efforts of the church, which included Sunday school activities, a choir for children, and English and citizenship classes for adults. By 1920, the small rented space in which the activities were held was no longer adequate, and the California Synodical Society of Home Missions acquired property. . .with the intent of building a community center.” The Julia Morgan-designed house at the top of De Haro Street was completed in 1922.

Unlike the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center, neither Good Samaritan nor the Nabe provided on-site worker housing, although the Good Samaritan building has included 20 three- and four-bedroom units of lowincome family housing since 1995.

In Settlement Houses and the Great Depression and Professionalism and Social Change, the historian Judith Ann Trolander links the decline of the American settlement movement in the 1930s to changes in the structure of charitable fundraising and professionalization of social work, among other factors. A precursor to the United Way, the Community Chest system originated in Cleveland in 1913 as a way to centralize nonprofit fundraising “by having one large drive replace many smaller drives and for the funds from the large drive to be distributed to the member agencies in such a manner as to eliminate needless duplication and inefficiency among the charities.” This model spread to other major American cities. Instead of accumulating donations piecemeal, a settlement house thenceforth lived or died according to its standing with the Community Chest, which typically was controlled by conservative business leaders who opposed labor organization and other liberal endeavors that initially defined the settlement movement’s central

impulse toward advocacy and political action.

As settlement houses lost their luster among high-minded reformers, they turned to paid workers—primarily holders of the newly invented Master of Social Work degree, who were institutionally trained in casework rather than social reform—to staff their facilities. In Trolander’s view, “an M.S.W. helped people on the basis of professional expertise through a professional, not a personal or neighborly, relationship. The separation of the professional from the personal could not be reconciled with the traditional settlement house idea. Something had to give, and it was residence in the settlement house.”

In 1979, the National Federation of Settlements, which had promoted the American settlement movement since 1911, changed its name to the United Neighborhood Centers of America. Whether the radical social experiment begun in the 1880s had truly ended or simply been absorbed within a broader movement of local activism, organization, relief, and recreation remains a subject of scholarly debate.

Many settlement houses refused to adjust to the changing demographics within the neighborhoods that contained them, as Trolander chronicled: “In 1919, Pittsburgh’s Kingsley House abandoned its new black neighbors and moved to a new location to continue serving whites. Chicago’s Eli Bates House closed its doors. On the other hand, when a settlement, such as Chicago’s Abraham Lincoln Centre, made a valiant effort to run an integrated program, white neighbors tended to quit using the house.”

According to Edward Hatter, executive director of the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, African-Americans were excluded from the Nabe until 1956, when his father, then a well-liked student at Daniel Webster Elementary School, was allowed to participate in the Nabe’s afterschool programs. The facility drifted into a stagnant period during the 1960s, when it became a squat for conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War.

According to Hatter, in 1972, the Nabe’s board of directors begged his grandmother, Enola D. Maxwell, a lay preacher at the Olivet Presbyterian Church, to take over leadership. Hatter recalled that she turned the job down at least twice before accepting it. Maxwell revitalized the house’s interior

decoration scheme, painting the walls psychedelic colors; and its programming, adding classes in photography, pottery, and music, as well as a youth crime prevention program,

A 1976 article in the Sun Reporter noted Maxwell’s observation that “a small racist element in the community” had sought to slow her progress, withholding previously pledged grant money and applying unusual legalistic scrutiny to the Nabe’s activities and conditions. Still, she predicted, “Black people are going to repair this house and they are going to use it.”

In the Mission, Irish, Scottish, English, and German immigrants had given way to a largely Latino population by the 1970s. Good Samaritan’s “faith values of treating people with respect and dignity, and helping them adjust to their new home” never wavered, according to executive director Mario Paz. Unlike the Nabe, which, with just 13 paid workers, relies mostly on volunteerism, Good Samaritan has a paid staff of “approximately 36 employees.”

During his tenure, from 1984 to 1990, Will Wauters strove to make Good Samaritan “the living room of the Mission. That’s what an immigrant is looking for. They’re not just seeking out specific programs; they’re seeking out a place they can belong to.”

In the 1980s, Wauters befriended Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers, who slept on the Good Samaritan gymnasium floor when they visited San Francisco. But during the Sanctuary Movement of the same period, Wauters regretfully declined to register the nonprofit as a refuge for Central American refugees, “primarily because I was worried, and the board was worried, that, had we done so, the border patrol would come. We were too easy a target for them; you could do a sweep of Good Samaritan on any given day and you could pick up 400 people that didn’t have documents. . .I tried to protect the institution.”

Mario Paz grew up in the Mission, and recalled visiting Good Samaritan’s food pantry with his mother when he was a child. He feels he’s come “full circle;” the same is true for many Good Sam employees who “were former clients—people who arrived here and went through several of our programs and pursued a career of giving back to the community.”

SETTLEMENT continues on page 17

The reformist mindset of the early settlement movement—though perhaps generally exercised more judiciously today—remains apparent at both Good Samaritan and the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. Maxwell was a well-known civil rights activist even before her Nabe directorship; her grandson, Hatter, is an active participant in debates over Rebuild Potrero. The Nabe seeks to reduce violence in the Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complex through casework programs for “transitional-aged youth” between 16 and 24, and with a new anger management program in local elementary schools to teach “coping skills for kids who are in trauma, coming out of trauma, or just angry about issues they’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” as Hatter put it.

Although Paz serves on San Francisco’s Immigrant Rights Commission, he acknowledged Good Samaritan’s emphasis is on “providing services” rather than “developing a social justice policy agenda. Our model today is really to build leadership among our community and let them be the leaders, so we don’t have a dedicated advocacy component; it’s primarily done through our involvement with many other partners in the community.” For the past two decades, Good Samaritan has conceived of itself as a “comprehensive family resource center,” reaching out to immigrant parents and children alike with English-as-a-second-language classes, early childhood development programs, and a Planned Parenthood satellite clinic.

The Potrero Hill Neighborhood House provides programming for the needy, including daily activities for mentally and physically disabled seniors; a daily $2 meal for seniors; a weekly general-population pantry; after-school tutoring; and meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, and Narcotics Anonymous. “Our goal is to bring everyone together,” said Hatter. “I’m still dealing with educating the northeast side of the Hill [so that residents know that] everything that goes wrong is not the fault of the housing development.” He distinguished his expansive community-based organization from “what my grandmother used to call the ‘designer CBOs,’ the ones that picked one certain task to do, and that’s what they did,” focusing all their efforts “behind that single task,” whereas “neighborhood centers have to focus behind the health of the neighborhood itself.”

Trolander believes that by “having twin objectives—immediate services and basic reform—settlement houses have had the flexibility to survive conservative as well as reform periods.” For her, the “common thread uniting settlement houses over time and distinguishing them from similar social agencies is their multifaceted focus on, and ties to, low-income neighborhoods. Other agencies, like [the YMCA], have neighborhood branches, but are essentially franchise operations with a national headquarters. Still other kinds of neighborhood organizations of a grass-roots variety lack the breadth of issues, programs, and varied people involvement of the settlement house.”

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FILM from page 15

quality of the project just for the sake of getting it done in a timely manner. It’s important to me to be able to hire talented people and pay them a fair wage. My goal is to tell an interesting story with great cinematography, music and editing.”

In the meantime, Gollihur will be working to “get as much of the film finished as possible” while writing

more grant proposals and continuing his fundraising efforts. His website, islaiscreekfilm.org, accepts donations through PayPal.

Remember the View in your will or trust.

Potrero Dogpatch Merchant’s Association meets the second Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. at Goat Hill Pizza, corner of Connecticut and 18th streets. Website: www.potrerodogpatch.com. Call 415.341.8949. Next meeting: December 13th.

Starr King Open Space meets for monthly Stewardship Day the second Saturday of each month from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Starr King Open Space, corner of Carolina St. and 23rd St. Come out and meet your neighbors, be a community steward, enjoy the natural grassland habitat, see spectacular views, and celebrate our beautiful neighborhood open space. Everyone is welcome. Find out more at www.starrkingopenspace. org or facebook.com/StarrKingOpenSpace.

SOMA Rotary Club meets the second and fourth Thursday of the month at Mission Rock Resort, 817 Terry Francois Blvd. We meet at 6 p.m. for a mixer and 7 p.m. for a dinner meeting. We provide community service to the Mission Bay, Potrero, and Bayview communities. The focus is on providing services for the under-served of our community. The website is located at: www.meetup.com/Mission-Bay-Rotary-Club. For more information contact Nine at: n.ladow@comcast.net.

Potrero Hill Garden Club usually meets the last Sunday of the month at 11 a.m. for a potluck in a local home or garden. We occasionally visit gardens such as Ruth Bancroft, Yerba Buena, Cornerstone, Filoli, and the rooftop garden at the Fairmont. We discuss gardening appropriate for Potrero Hill’s microclimates, and often have speakers on subjects such as drought, wind, shade, pests, and even flower arranging. For details, please contact us at Gardener@PotreroHillGardenClub.org.

Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District At the Dogpatch & Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District, our mission is to clean, maintain, enhance, and expand open spaces, parks, plazas, parklets, gardens, sidewalk greening and the public realm in general in the Dogpatch and Northwest Potrero Hill neighborhoods; support community and volunteer efforts; and promote sound ecological practices and green infrastructure with a locally controlled, sustainable and transparent funding structure. Next meeting will be January 18th. Visit our website to see what we are working on near you! www.dnwph-gbd.org

ries are of living in an Iowa Street bungalow, recollections helped by aging black-and-white photographs. His father died of a heart attack when he was five. When his mother moved him to the Terrace in the mid-1950s, he remembered thinking how lush it was. The projects were “pastoral” then, he said, offering sweeping views and an abundance of square hedges, green grass and even several gardeners working the blocks. Over time, the hedges were replaced by fences, which made one “feel incarcerated.” They eventually were torn down as well, but the greenery never returned. The area is now decorated by soil, weeds and the aging concrete structures themselves. “The dirt for grass depresses people,” he said.

Smith was “a latchkey kid;” his mother labored as a domestic nurse for a wealthy Billboard magnate. He always worked himself, initially with a paper route through the Carolina Street projects, where the Enola Maxwell School is now located. In the military he drove trucks, which led to a long stint with the U.S. Postal Service as a distribution driver. He followed that job by becoming the second African American to work for the City’s water department before additional driving stints for the tree and sewer divisions.

Smith moved back to Wisconsin Street primarily to care for his mother, who has since passed away. His daughter Kaiwa, 40, lives two doors away. For the past three years he’s been Terrace Tenant’s Association president. In that capacity he participates in Rebuild meetings to try to ensure as many

residents as possible secure jobs on the coming construction.

“People need to work. If you give a man opportunity to provide for his family, he is not going to jeopardize it,” he said. “This City has so much growth, it’s going straight up, there should be enough work for everybody.” When asked how the process is going, he responded with a sigh that revealed a lack of energy to get into further details; he called it a “catch-22 mess.”

Smith took the Citibuild test last summer to determine his suitability for employment on the construction project. He was impressed by its balance of physical fitness and knowledge. Citibuild is responsible for enforcing the goal that half the workers engaged in the Rebuild effort are Annex-Terrace residents. Smith thought it was a longshot that someone his age would pass, but believed if others saw him get hired it’d inspire them to apply.

Smith remembered when an abled bodied person could walk into a place, apply for a job and get hired the next day. He believes the fact that it takes longer to secure employment now discourages young people from applying. And he wondered why he has to fill out a work order rather than just make a phone call and get immediate attention when pipes need to get fixed.

“I believe in progress, but sometimes a lot of people get trampled on for it. You live in a place that was avoided. It’s now prime real estate, and they want to move you,” he said. “You are going to have to drag me out of there. I grew up here. I’m going to die here.”

When asked where she lives, Shervon Hunter answered simply, “I live on Potrero Hill.” The insinuation is clear. There’s no need to differenti-

ate between public housing and the upper class homes surrounding it.

The 46-year old Hunter lives a stone’s throw away from AnnexTerrace, where she grew up, one of three generations in her family to live there. Her grandmother, Vera Blue, was an early resident, raising five children after a divorce while working as a teacher’s assistant at Daniel Webster Elementary School. In the early 1970s, Blue helped lead the fight to build the Potrero Hill Health Center, and sat on its board.

Hunter’s foray out of public housing came as a result of earning a basketball scholarship to Delaware State College, where she still holds the school record for points scored. The hoop skills came from many hours spent at the Recreation Center, which served as a regular hangout, a safe haven for neighborhood kids. “It was free then,” she said, using both definitions of the word; there were no fees and no reservations.

Hunter works at the Neighborhood House, where she counsels 16 to 24 year olds, helping them transition from probation or juvenile hall, overcome employment barriers, and deal with trauma. “There can be different needs even with one household,” she said.

Stability is one of the biggest challenges, she said. It’s not uncommon for students from Annex-Terrace to attend several schools throughout their childhood, adversely affecting their education. She believes that too few Annex-Terrace children are assigned to nearby Daniel Webster and Starr

King elementary schools. In 2015, Annex-Terrace kids attended 73 different schools.

Fear of losing one’s home, she pointed out, is traumatic, something that’s affecting Annex-Terrace residents; the uncertainty of where and how they’ll be transitioned to new housing. “The physical space of creating a new home for residents is wonderful, but if they don’t do anything about the trauma and isms – racism in particular – it won’t work,” she said. “Drugs are not even the biggest problem. It’s an accumulation of community violence.” She added that July 4th fireworks still give her flashbacks “of gunshots going off in Potrero Hill as a child. Trusting the system is not something poor people do.”

Hunter believes the City’s wellmeaning attempts at assistance sometimes miss the mark. She cited a recent allocation of $1 million for a Wellness Center to provide counseling to residents. Due to space limitations at the Potrero Hill Health Center, there’s talk of installing a trailer on open space at Dakota and 25th streets. Hunter questioned whether residents are going to want to be seen seeking mental health services not under the cover of the clinic.

She wondered why, with a 10-year construction project at a site with high unemployment, more people aren’t being employed. “Why not figure out a way to get people into career trades,” she said, adding the jobs that need filling are administrative as well as construction.

PHOTOS:

Michael Iacuessa

ANNEX

According to Dogpatch resident Robin Evans, the public workshops weren’t sufficiently inclusive. The San Francisco Planning Department made no effort to publicize the meetings at the park itself, she claimed, and as a result, the park’s regular users were omitted from the process. In Evans’s view, dog owners who comprise Esprit Park’s core constituency deserve a say in the fate of the “neighborhood treasure” they visit daily; or, in many cases, three or four times a day.

Over the summer, Evans, along with Irma Lewis, Susan Fitch, and other Dogpatch residents, founded Toes and Paws for Green Space “aiming to promote inclusiveness at Potrero Hill and Dogpatch parks for all members of the neighborhood.” They distributed surveys at Esprit Park to see what other users wanted for the park, and built a website. Within a few months, the group had accumulated roughly 80 members on its listserv; last month they held their first public meeting at Sports Basement on Bryant Street.

According to Evans, Lewis, and Fitch, the small dog run in Ocubillo’s blueprint wouldn’t be large enough to accommodate the park’s canine population, which can number as many as 30 in the early evenings. They emphasized that a restrictive dogs-only area of artificial turf would be unfriendly to dogs – which “love grass” – and their owners, who, they insisted, enjoy Esprit Park as a shared play-space where adults, kids, and pets mingle.

Many Toes and Paws members

value Esprit Park as a community gathering place – or “town hall,” as one participate put it – where they chat with their friends while throwing Frisbees for their pups. Wary of being portrayed as an advocacy group for dogs, they conceive of themselves as fighting for park users, and want to share Dogpatch’s green spaces “in a way that is fair to everybody,” according to Lewis.

They believe dog owners constitute a significant element of the community and, like tennis and softball players, deserve recreation areas that serve their needs. “It’s not dogs who go to the park; it’s people who go to the park with dogs,” Fitch said.

From Toes and Paws’ perspective, Esprit Park, in its current state, fulfills the demands of this subgroup: it became a dog park because Dogpatch needed one. Any major effort to reengineer Esprit to create new usage habits would likely damage the social health of a space that’s maintained organically by existing users, it claims. “When there is a crackdown [on offleash dogs], and the rangers come, people clear out, and it takes probably 24 hours for tents to show up,” noted Lewis. “We would like safe spaces to meet with each other and play with our dogs and socialize with our neighbors. I think what gets lost is what happens in our absence. Our numbers bring safety to the park.”

Toes and Paws isn’t opposed to a park redesign, identifying the need for “a water fountain” and “more lighting,” but it believes that, in the event of a reconceptualization of the space, a full half of the land—preferably the

south side of the meadow—should be designated as off-leash dog space. They point to the division at Duboce Park as a potential model.

Evans cautioned that “a balkanized field of separate user areas” would damage Esprit Park’s pastoral atmosphere. She hopes that people without dogs will be accommodated within any future park iteration, but contended that attempting to cram every variety of usage into Esprit’s small acreage would be misguided. She wondered whether the “concrete plazas” envisioned for coffee drinkers in the Dogpatch Public Realm Plan are necessary, given construction of the Dogpatch Arts Plaza on Indiana Street, and whether Esprit Park needs a children’s play area when a new one was just built two blocks away at Mariposa Park.

Toes and Paws wants a broader accounting of growing recreational needs in Dogpatch, where local infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with rapid population growth. The group’s vision extends beyond Esprit Park. Their goal is to help park users in Dogpatch consistently engage with the entities that’ll determine the future of their community’s green spaces—including the Planning Department, Eastern Neighborhoods Citizens Advisory Committee, Green Benefits District, Dogpatch Neighborhood Association, and San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department—and with private developers, who they believe must be urged to make positive contributions to the neighborhood landscape.

Member Gaynor Strachan Chun postulated that the most significant problem of the moment is Esprit Park’s physical well-being. Since the Esprit Corporation gave the parcel to the City in 2001, budgetary restraints have reduced the level of care given to it. A private gardening staff once maintained lush vegetation and San Francisco’s only grass tennis court. Today, two of the park’s redwoods are dying, and the grass, which is patchy and muddy due to “irrigation challenges” presented by

the area’s serpentine soil – as well, possibly, intensive use by dogs – functions as a breeding ground for mosquitos.

Toes and Paws estimates that restoring the park’s health—by replacing its dirt, re-sodding, and replanting— will be a costly and time-consuming endeavor that, when temporary closures inevitably occur, will bring into focus the need for additional parks in Dogpatch.

Election Produces Mixed Results for Housing and Homeless

BY CHRIS BLOCK AND STEVEN J. MOSS

In the View’s October issue, as part of its election recommendations the paper stated that “Rather than ad hoc solutions, or untethered mayoral promises about creating 10,000 new affordable units, San Francisco needs a comprehensive housing plan with measurable milestones and elected officials who are accountable to achieving these targets.”

Last month, San Francisco voters appeared to generally agree with this sentiment, rejecting four of eight housing-related ballot measures that reflected programmatic policy changes. Among those that lost were Proposition P, which would’ve required competitive bidding on municipally-owned parcels, and Proposition U, to raise allowable income levels on affordable units.

The Siamese twin proposals, J and K, were separated by an electorate that was in no mood to increase the sales tax. Under Proposition J – which passed – additional services would’ve

HOMELESS continues on page 24

Thirty Years of Dogpatch Advocacy

BY JACOB BOURNE

Nestled between the San Francisco Bay and Potrero Hill north of 23rd Street, Dogpatch is often described as edgy, eclectic and unique among the City’s neighborhoods. Its flat elevation and industrial nature, among other characteristics, have charmed its historically small but diverse population.

Located adjacent to the Central Waterfront and its associated trades, laboring people have been drawn to Dogpatch for decades. Industrial uses endured until after World War II, when factories and shipyards closed, resulting in employment loss for many. In the 1970s, an influx of artists who took advantage of available, albeit derelict, real estate sowed the seeds of change that’d sweep across the neighborhood, ultimately resulting in today’s stronghold of citizen-activists and a rising population.

Gentrification in the 1990s brought architecturally sterile live-work lofts, which threatened the existence of historic buildings and working class residents. In an attempt to slow the proliferation of the new structures, community members began to fight to preserve the neighborhood they loved.

“I moved to Tennessee Street in the beginning of 1997,” reflected Susan Eslick, Green Benefits District (GBD) board member. “Around that time, in ’98 to ’99, the Dogpatch community was small and the live-work lots began coming into the neighborhood. We started organizing and fighting those

developments, as they weren’t sensitive to issues around height and massing. Today we have 300-unit buildings coming in, but back then they were much smaller. We were a young neighborhood. We didn’t have a community organization or anything, but people began asking themselves, what if our interesting, industrial, rough-andtumble vibe neighborhood goes away?”

Despite the displacement that occurred during this period, Dogpatch’s mixed-use character continued to attract creative artisans and makers; demographics that remain in the neighborhood in the form of a recent proliferation of breweries and shops where people create things using their hands.

According to Eslick, in 1999, when the City reinstated district elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, members of the fledgling Dogpatch Neighborhood Association saw the importance of learning about the neighborhood’s architectural history, particularly after an 1886 historic one-story duplex was demolished in 2000. They educated the new District 10 Supervisor, Sophie Maxwell, about the area’s resources. Over four years, Eslick and others worked with Chris Verplanck – a preservation consultant who initially worked for San Francisco Heritage, then the architectural firm, Page & Turnbull – to conduct a study of Dogpatch’s history. The research identified 120 contributing properties –structures that bolster the significance of a historic district from an architec-

We are pleased to announce that we will begin accepting applications for

the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association.

tural or cultural standpoint – and cost the activists $35,000.

The efforts paid-off. The U.S. Department of the Interior named Dogpatch a “historic district” in 2002, listing the neighborhood in the National Register of Historic Places. Being on the Registry adds a layer of protection to contributing properties and the district’s historical aspects. And it marked an important step in the emergence of DNA’s influence. “We would have DNA meetings at my house, Watermark Press and local cafes,” Eslick said. “We got branded very quickly and easily. We worked with Muni on getting light rail, as it wasn’t here yet.”

Eslick served as DNA vice president from 1999 to 2002. John Borg, who still operates a business from Illinois Street, served as president. In 2002, Eslick became president, a post she held until 2009. Today, Eslick continues her involvement as a DNA member and an elected board member of the Green Benefits District, a green space advocacy group for Dogpatch and Northwest Potrero Hill.

“We created the GBD; I was on the formative committee of that,” explained Eslick. “You can’t keep putting people in an industrial area with no green space. That’s why GBD is so important.”

Janet Carpinelli has lived in Dogpatch since 1981, before the neighborhood was called “Dogpatch.”  In 1983, she purchased a fixer-upper Victorian on Minnesota Street.  Shortly after she bought her property she decided she wanted to help “…make my surroundings and neighborhood a more pleasant place to live and work and seeing other neighbors do the same,” Carpinelli said. She helped resurrect the Lower Potrero Hill Neighborhood Association in the mid-1980s, to provide Dogpatch residents with a greater voice in local politics and neighborhood issues.  When that effort dissipated, she joined

Carpinelli became a DNA member in 1996.  In 1998, she helped develop a neighborhood plan for the Central Waterfront, and worked on efforts to create the Dogpatch Neighborhood Historic District. She also suggested that Friends of Potrero Hill Nursery School approach the San Francisco Unified School District to lease part of the historic Scott School yard for a new nursery school and teaching garden, which was completed in 2012.

After a six year term Carpinelli was ousted from her position as DNA president in 2015 by Bruce Huie in a hotly contested race. A 23rd Street resident since 2001, Huie’s community involvement was sparked by concerns about the health and availability of open space near his home, which evolved into efforts to create Progress Park on Indiana Street.

“The spirit of what we’ve been doing is to transform what’s around our homes,” explained Huie. “So we’ve been creating small spaces where we can walk between. It’s like an emerald necklace of green spaces. My focus began with Progress Park; it was a labor of love. Mayor Lee made it an official City park in 2012.”

Huie explained that as Dogpatch moves from industrial to mixed-use residential, residents have become passionately engaged in topics such as the use of open space and parking changes. In addition to helping create Angel Alley, a street park near the Central Waterfront, and Dogpatch Playground, on 22nd Street, Huie was part of the three-year process to organize the GBD.

According to Huie, he vied to become DNA president because of a desire to get more people involved in the association. Hoping to engage the growing population in a purposeful way, he’s working on a survey about residents’ priorities for the neighbor-

DOGPATCH continues on page 24

San Francisco in the Rearview Mirror

BY PETER RUDOLFI

Last April, my wife, Rhonda, and I left San Francisco, our home for fifty-two years, to become permanent residents in Mexico. “We’re driving a car looking in the rearview mirror, meaning that the environment in which you believe yourself to exist is always a past one, it isn’t the one you’re actually in,” said Alan Watts Nothing could be truer of our new home in San Miguel de Allende.

San Miguel might be best described as a composite of Calistoga, Carmel by the Sea, Chinatown’s narrow back streets, Salinas, and, most definitely, Siena, Italy. Like any collage, the overlapping pieces aren’t neatly separated; experiencing the town feels like successive frames of a moving picture.

Though it might appear to an outsider as chaotic, our 17th century UNESCO World Heritage site, located at 6,000 feet in the central Mexican highlands, has for a longtime served as a cohesive system for 80,000 Mexicans. The 10,000 ex-patriots who arrived before us have in many cases also ‘drunk the Kool-Aid.’ One American neighbor told us that she enjoys blending in with a culture that exhibits more tradition, superstition and mythology.

Christian faith has it that Saint Michael, San Miguel’s patron saint, was sent to battle with Lucifer to banish him from Hades after he disobeyed God. St Michael’s combat with evil is acted out in the city’s main plaza, with copious exploding firecrackers and fireworks. The weekend fiesta and final eight-hour pageant, ending in the town square, Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel, starts at 4 a.m. from outlying areas, bringing indigenous tribes of every stripe into town in full regalia: colors, feathers, drums, horsemen, including an angelic female dressed in

light blue silk seated in the back of a white Mini Cooper flashing the Queen Elizabeth wave. During the finale I mingled with hundreds of others, camera borne aloft for two and a half hours, before staggering home to edit this experience down to fifteen minutes of video entertainment, https://vimeo. com/189339375

Within the expat community setting down roots from the United States, Canada and Europe, there are three social clusters: artists; volunteers, who help implement the business plans of others; and those frequenting the cocktail circuit’s Mobius strip. Crossover among these three groups is fleeting, and usually futile. Many new arrivals form non-government organizations that seek to change things: living conditions, rampant malnutrition, educational and legal systems, air, water and noise quality. A common thread is that all the expats have “left”. A selfselected socioeconomic group, we have, like Christopher Columbus, concluded that the only place on earth that’s really flat is back home, encumbered by history, routine and technologically accessible comforts. Here we have the possibility of remaking ourselves juxtaposed within a completely foreign environment.

Our journey is seen by friends and relatives in different lights. Some said that it’s crazy to settle in a place where we don’t know anyone; to us it’s one of the main reasons for taking the trip. Others admire our courage, though I’ll admit that for the first several months after arrival I was in a state of shock, as in “where am I ?” Some take comfort in our eventually “getting settled in”. In fact, there’ll never be a “there there”. We’ll always be minorities, outsiders, unable to become fully Mexican, unable to ever go back to where we were, now endowed with a different perspective.

Finally, there are friends who see the gesture as a logical progression of experimentation, like taking one more exotic vacation. But other than maintaining a small apartment in San Francisco for business purposes, we’ve permanently moved, demonstrating the principle that “kites can only fly against the wind”. This ain’t no weekend in Calistoga.

To further categorize fellow travelers as personality types, expats tend to make three kinds of living arrangements in San Miguel. The first personality does what Rhonda and I did. After visiting for a short or long time period – for us a single week; for others several years – these individuals purchase an existing home, typically fully furnished. The simplicity of this approach enables the lucky newcomer to immediately focus on more important aspects of their integration: replacing rubber belts and thermostats in appliances, locating leaking pipes and ancient root infesta-

tions deeply embedded in cement walls and rebar-reinforced patios; inviting various internally and externally wellestablished rodents to relocate, or die; and experimenting with ear-wear – aka ear plugs – to mitigate all manner of endearing sounds indigenous to the local population – loud fireworks – in perpetual celebration of every saint, departed relative or holiday.

The second kind of newcomer also purchases an existing home, but finds a property they can completely remodel. To them, the building is merely a structural shell in a good location crying out for a makeover, one in an imposing style to embody their wildest long-held fantasies. Gargantuan yard fountains; paintings hung on every vacant wall; white marble as far as the eye can see; multiple ovens and stoves; a refrigerator with space to house a frozen slain oxen; custom made furniture and shelving, often in shades

CLAUDIA SIEGEL (R)

“Claudia is the best real estate agent we have ever worked with.”

- Kristin K

Life in San Miguel de Allende.

PHOTOS: Courtesy Peter Rudolfi

REARVIEW MIRROR continues on page 25

MUNI PRICE CHANGES JAN. 1, 2017

UCSF is proposing to develop a new Child, Teen and Family Center and Department of Psychiatry building on the site of 2130 Third Street. The proposed project would provide a location for clinic and office space for the UCSF Child Teen and Family Center (CTFC) and the UCSF Department of Psychiatry. The outpatient clinic would be managed by the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and would comprise existing departmental patient care, as well as research and training activities, plus two Department of Pediatrics patient care and research programs. Other departmental activities include adult mental health clinical services, a broad array of research and training programs and administrative services. Clinicians, educators, researchers, trainees and staff in this new building would largely be relocated from the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute (LPPI) at UCSF’s Parnassus Heights and other campus sites

The project site is about 33,600 square feet and is located in the Dogpatch neighborhood, at 18th Street between Third and Tennessee streets, one block south of the UCSF Mission Bay campus site. The existing three-story office building is approximately 36,000 gross square feet (gsf), and the building and its associated surface parking lot would be demolished as part of the proposal. The proposed building would be approximately 150,000 gsf (excluding parking) and would contain outpatient clinics, dry research space, educational space, administrative offices, and may include some accessory retail. The proposed building would be three to five stories, measured between 45 and 68 feet in height with some underground parking

Preliminary Building Design Presentation for 2130 Third Street

During the first part of the meeting, the building project team will provide an update on its work to develop the proposed project design. We will share some preliminary design ideas, recently shared with the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association/Potrero Boosters Design and Development Committee (Committee). The project team plans to work with the Committee to refine the project design prior to a future building design presentation with neighbors. This part of the meeting will include an open discussion on the building design progress to date. However, the second part of the meeting, as described below, will involve a formal public hearing to take questions and comments on the draft EIR to be answered later in the published EIR.

After a brief recess, part two will focus exclusively on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (Draft EIR) public hearing for the proposed project. The purpose of the public hearing is to provide neighbors an opportunity to comment on the Draft EIR, verbally or in writing. No responses will be provided to comments / questions during the hearing.

JOIN US ON DEC. 6 FORTHIS TWO-PART MEETING:

 2130 Third St. Preliminary Design Presentation - 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm

RECESS 7:15 pm – 7:30 pm

 2130 Third St.Draft EIR Public Hearing - 7:30 pm

Date:Tuesday December 6, 2016

Location: Minnesota Street Project (Art Gallery) 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, CA

The meeting location at the Minnesota Street Project (Art Gallery) is accessible on MUNI T-line and the 22 and 48 bus lines. Curbside parking is generally available on the street.

Draft EIR

The Draft EIR, including a detailed project description, is available for public review and comment starting on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 at http://campusplanning.ucsf.edu/ The purpose of the public hearing is to receive comments on the adequacy of the Draft EIR. UCSF will not respond to comments / questions at this hearing. Certification of the Final EIR will take place at a later meeting.

You can obtain a paper version of the Draft EIR by calling 415.476.2911. To give written feedback on the Draft EIR, please write to Tammy Chan, UCSF Campus Planning, Box 0286, San Francisco, CA 94143 or email her at EIR@planning.ucsf.edu Public comments on the Draft EIR will be accepted from November 22, 2016 to 5:00 pm on January 6, 2017. If you would like to receive notification of future meetings, please contact us at community@cgr.ucsf.edu or at 415.476.3206

If you have general questions, please contact Michele.Davis@ucsf.edu or 415-476-3024

UCSF fully subscribes to the Americans with Disabilities Act. If at any time you feel you have a need for accommodation, contact UCSF Community & Government Relations at 415.476.3206 or community@cgr.ucsf.edu with your suggested accommodation. If you would like to be on our email notification list, please email community@cgr.ucsf.edu, specifying the campus site(s) of interest: Parnassus, Mission Bay, Mount Sutro, Mount Zion, and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

2130 Third Street Draft EIR Public Hearing

HOMELESS from page 19

been provided to the homeless, funded by Proposition K – which was roundly defeated – to fund those services through a sales tax hike. Mayor Ed Lee is now scrambling to rebalance the City’s budget, which imprudently assumed $150 million in additional sales tax revenues.

Voters approved Proposition C, opening access to $35 million in financing for affordable housing by repurposing existing municipal bond resources.  Proposition Q, the tent ban, also passed, the most significant action San Francisco voters took related to homelessness, a strong reaction to a situation that a many believe has gotten out of control. Under the measure voters expect the City to move quickly to demolish encampments. However, the collection of initiatives that won created no additional resources for the people to be removed under Proposition Q.

DOGPATCH from page 20

hood this fall. He expects Dogpatch’s population to double within the year, and triple within three years. Already DNA membership has doubled since 2015. There are now 150 members registered online.

Dogpatch merchants, Mark Dwight, owner of Rickshaw Bagworks, Patti Quill of Industrious Life, Michelle Pusateri of Nana Joes Granola,

and Adam Gould of Dogpatch Capital, launched the Dogpatch Business Association in September, with a goal to create a more viable and cohesive business community in the neighborhood.

Gould, who rents an apartment on Indiana Street, and has lived in Dogpatch since 2009, launched his business in 2014, and began meeting more community stakeholders. He joined the Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association, and has been a board member for more than a year. He’s DBA’s membership chair, focusing his efforts on outreach. According to Gould, DBA advocates expanding service for the E-Embarcadero Historic Streetcar Line, which begins its route at 25th and Third streets but doesn’t pick up passengers. Gould said that retrofitting the 25th Street platform to accommodate travelers would be a boon to Dogpatch’s retail and hospitality businesses.

“It’s the Dogpatch ethos, the feel that appeals to my personality,” commented Gould. “It’s edgy and industrial. I love that this neighborhood has such diverse subsets and still retains a bit of an edge. There are architects, chocolate makers, 3D printers, a whole range of people are here. This brings more people to the table and makes my life more interesting. People from other neighborhoods, like Sunset and Mission, have a good association with Dogpatch. I named my business after Dogpatch because I think it aligns with the spirit of the neighborhood itself.”

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December 2016

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Board of Supervisors Regularly Scheduled Board Meetings December 2016 Meetings

• December 6

• December 13

There will be no scheduled meetings on December 20th and 27th.

LANGUAGE INTERPRETATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST CHINESE…. SPANISH…. FILIPINO

Requests must be received 48 hours in advance required for interpretation. For more information see the Board of Supervisor’s website www.sfbos. org, or call 415-554-5184.

The City and County of San Francisco encourage public outreach. Articles are translated into several languages to provide better public access. The newspaper makes every effort to translate the articles of general interest correctly. No liability is assumed by the City and County of San Francisco or the newspapers for errors and omissions.

California Department of Transportation staff cleanup a homeless encampment at Vermont and 17th streets earlier this year. PHOTO: Steven J. Moss

Gold, Chapter Sixteen

BY STEVEN J. MOSS

Pete sat on his aging sofa in his cluttered apartment, wondering where he’d gone wrong. Twenty years ago he’d been in the thick of things, breaking important stories, appearing on local news programs to explain the complicated power struggles that made up City politics. He knew who hated who, and which of these haters slept with which of their purported enemies, physically or legislatively. He could list the community advocates who actually cared, and those that were in it for the money, shaking-down developers and municipal officials to help “expedite” the project du jour. You get fucked either way, became his catchphrase, uttered late-night in low-end bars that mostly no longer existed.

He’d never made any money, initially because he didn’t try to; later because he didn’t know how. The SF Lighting Bolt rose on a tide of community activism, the Red Diaper babies that populated Potrero Hill crowding in on production night, clutching a pizza slice from Goat Hill in one hand, a glue stick or editing pen in another, the chatter over headline and word choices as thick as summer fog. Then, the volunteer crew started to drift away, moving to retirement communities in Marin or San Mateo, finding jobs in other states.

After counting his quarters to buy a beer at The Pound or a tuna sandwich at Dago Mary’s too many times, Pete found ways to pushout the remaining poorly paid staff, so he could keep all the advertising dollars to himself. For a while he made a decent living, his housing costs kept low by rent control. Then, ad revenues started to decline. The cost of living in San Francisco accelerated towards becoming nearly unbearable. A Mission burrito that used to be priced at a few bucks now cost $10. Same pattern for a bag of groceries, or a movie ticket.

Worse yet, at least for his selfesteem, was the growing number of places Pete couldn’t even afford to walk into, even if he understood what, exactly, they were selling. The Daily Scoop, Klein’s Deli, and the Garden of Tranquility folded or were felled by rising rents. They were initially replaced by a wave of nail salons, followed by wine bars and sushi restaurants. Then, the high end sushi restaurants started eating the family friendly burrito places; an affordable lunch with enough left over for dinner gave way to a costly sushi-burrito creature at twice the price. Bobo tea outlets popped up where a donut shop

of black; and a master bedroom fit for a medieval nobleman. This refurbishment entails knocking out numerous weight-bearing walls, adding patio roof decks, ripping out kitchens and baths and changing the surfaces of just about every part of the interior and exterior building skin.

One reason a do-over becomes so extensive is that as soon as the stairwell’s tile is changed, the living room floor no longer fits. And so on.

might have previously located. Newly “curated” bars sold $20 cocktails made of vodka distilled in the Himalayas, infused with the breath of Buddhist priest. In an era of low or no inflation, at least according to the Feds, Pete’s buying power had deflated like a cheap kids’ balloon the day after a party catered by Safeway.

Pete looked around his apartment, at the stacks of old newspapers, ancient office supplies, and wrecked appliances. “Here I sit, broken hearted,” he said out loud. He stared at a tattered United Farm Workers poster he’d tacked to the wall a thousand years ago. “You get fucked either way,” he pronounced, mustering a hoarse chuckle.

A shrill ring cut his laugh short, causing his throat to catch, triggering a coughing fit. Pete pushed aside a wire basket filled with old bank statements to get to the phone.

“Hello,” he croaked.

“Is this the Lighting Bolt?” asked what sounded like a synthetic voice, with a pitch between Stephen Hawking and a Muni announcement that a train was about to arrive. Pete thought about hanging up.

“Uh, yeah. Who is this?”

“I have a tip for you, something I think you’ll be interested in.”

Pete rubbed his forehead. Was this an IRS scam; some kind of robo call?

“Uh huh, okay. What’s the tip?”

“Your penis,” he thought he heard someone whispering in the background, but it may have been static. “I need to tell you in person. Meet me at the Yankee in one hour.”

“Is this a joke?” asked Pete. “Who are you?”

“Need to know basis,” said the voice. “You’ll find out soon enough. At the Yankee.” The caller hung up.

Pete sighed. “I guess it’s better than sitting here,” he said to himself. He twisted around, rummaged under the sofa cushions for spare coins. Finding none, he went through the pockets of the jackets in his closet, then the pants half folded on a shelf. Setting aside a lighter, a few business cards – his and others – he finally came across a tiny clump of bills in a pair of jeans he hadn’t worn in a year. A five and three ones. Enough to buy a beer.

Each month the View publishes a chapter from Gold , a serialized tale of politics, capitalism, and corruption in San Francisco. Previous chapters can be found on the paper’s website, www. potreroview.net. Advertisers or supporters interested in sponsoring future installations, or publishing the final manuscript, should contact editor@ potreroview.net.

There’s also an irrepressible impulse to modernize the look of the home, altering the ‘colonial’ style that’s ubiquitous throughout this 17th century town. While labor and materials appear dramatically low-cost by American standards, it soon becomes apparent that with few exceptions, Mexican logistics, time schedules, permits, architects and construction workers are highly unpredictable, especially after contracts have been signed. Crises soon emerge when a cadre of visiting relatives and rental schedules come face to

face with mounds of dirt and high piles of rocks languishing for months in the front driveway.

The third type setting down roots in town don’t look for an existing structure at all, since nothing that predates their arrival going back to ancient times seems suitable. Instead, they look to acquire vacant land, which in this overpopulated village is mostly available only on the periphery, near highways, or in more desolate areas with roaming dog packs and a fifteen minute car ride over potholed streets to summon a quart of milk. Many of these gorgeous structures, which include expansive yards with non-indigenous bamboo groves punctuated by, in some cases, a twenty five foot drop of recycling Yosemite-like waterfall, look and feel ‘dropped out of the sky’ from Architectural Digest, completely divorced from Mexico.

Francisco – a butterfly had reversed its process of metamorphosis, temporarily going back into the previous cocoon.

Rhonda and I are finally extricated from the technological trappings of one culture and re-installed into a new one, along with a new house containing many new windows. We’ve learned that if you come looking for a hamburger you might instead be more enthralled with a fish taco containing an intermingling of flavors impossible to describe. If this feels to you, dear reader, like an invitation to come visit, we’d welcome your arrival. But be careful. You might just end up like us!

After three months living in San Miguel I made a four-day business trip to San Francisco last summer. Flying across the border I felt like a member of the International Space Station returning to earth. After a period of weightlessness, in suspended animation in this foreign land, I wondered how walking on terra firma would feel in more familiar American territory; in a word, discombobulating. By returning I donned an older wardrobe, clothes just recently discarded; I came back to the charms of an old girlfriend – San

In the face of it all, we San Francisco ex-patriots manage to maintain our faith in what lies at the end of the rainbow; the ‘view’ we’re discovering while looking through the ‘window’. Absent that we might reach the conclusion reported years ago by a young chap after his first day at elementary school. In a television show on which I appeared in 1956, Kids Say the Darndest Things, Art Linkletter asked the boy about his initial experience. “I’m not going back to that place”, the child exclaimed. “Oh, why is that?” Art replied. “I can’t read, I can’t write and they won’t let me talk,” he replied.

Potrero Hill readies for the rains.

PHOTO: Edward Rudolph

REARVIEW MIRROR from page 21

CELEBRATE YOUR CHILD’S MILESTONES: The View is pleased to publish photographs and captions feting birthdays, graduations, sports achievements and the like. Send yours to editor@potreroview.net

FREELANCE WRITERS: The View is looking for writers, with fee-based compensation provided. Contact: editor@potreroview.net

YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME: Donations of any size are appreciated to support your neighborhood newspaper. Send checks to:

View, 2325 Third Street, Suite 344 San Francisco, California 94106

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