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Potrero View 2017: August

Page 1

INSIDE A Day in Dogpatch Pg. 5

AUGUST 2017

Good Life Grapples with Bottle Bill Fines Pg. 6

Homeless Population Declines Pg. 9

A.J. Pg.10

New Fiction: Back to School The Guitarist Prep Underway in the Doorway Pg. 11 Pg. 14

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Twenty-Two Annex-Terrace Households at Risk of Losing Hill Homes BY MICHAEL IACUESSA

Project X under construction.

Photo: Steven Moss

2017 MASSING & ELEVATION TREATMENT

Block B.

Anxiety Epidemic Envelopes San Francisco Girls B Y B R E T T Y AT E S

For the past three years, Dr. Andrea Zorbas has worked at the San Francisco Stress and Anxiety Center located South-of-Market, providing psychological counseling for adults. According to Zorbas, her clients, who often come with “career-related” worries, “all have an undergraduate degree, and most have a postgraduate degree,” and largely work in the tech industry. Before moving to private practice, however, Zorbas spent a decade treating adolescents from low-income neighborhoods around the Bay Area, including two years at the K IPP Bayview Academy, a charter school for grades five through eight with a 48 percent African-American student population. She simultaneously man-

aged a caseload of Bayview teenagers on probation for Urban Services YMCA. Among her patients, she recalled “high anxiety, high levels of depression and hopelessness,” and, frequently, posttraumatic stress disorder, owing to “the continual community violence that was happening, whether that was families being robbed or gun violence.” She found girls especially vulnerable, searching for “safety and security” that was sometimes impossible to find. Zorbas’s patient population faced “all the standard challenges of lowincome families,” trials that were amplified as San Francisco’s cost of living steadily increased. “Often families in the Bayview have been there for generations; people often know each other. And now the Bayview is starting ANXIETY continues on page 13

After some delays, the foundation is being laid at Project X, the next step in redevelopment of the Potrero Annex and Terrace housing complexes. Simultaneously, designs have been unveiled for the next stage of the massive renovation, giving a new glimpse into how Potrero Hill’s southeastern slope will ultimately be transformed. Over the next 10 years, AnnexTerrace residents will be moved to newly constructed homes one section at a time, as the aging concrete buildings in which they’re current housed are demolished, replaced by modern ones. When the dust settles there’ll be the same number, 606, of public housing units that exist today, as well as 200 affordable and 800 market rate

apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail space. Project X, being built on a vacant lot on the southeast corner of Connecticut and 25th streets, is two months behind schedule due to greater soil elasticity than anticipated. Additional dirt had to be imported to support foundation requirements, according to Dan Adams, project manager for Bridge Housing, the nonprofit that’s in the process of taking over management of the housing. Air quality issues have also caused delays. Naturally occurring asbestos fibers in the serpentine rock on which Annex-Terrace was built triggered monitors at the site at least eight times, causing work stoppages and promptPROJECT X continues on page 12

Potrero Avenue Streetscape Improvements May Hinder Emergency Vehicle Access BY JACOB BOURNE

An ongoing San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency project on Potrero Avenue, between 21st and 25th streets, was designed to improve safety and speedup San Francisco Municipal Railway schedules. However, nearby residents are concerned that the effort has resulted in excessive loss of street parking on the 900 block of Potrero Avenue, and created impediments for emergency vehicles accessing Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, among other complaints. The project is part of the Mission District Streetscape Plan, adopted by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2010. SFMTA’s board approved it in 2014, with input from the San Francisco Public Works and Planning departments, as well as the San Francisco Public Utility Commission. Construction began in 2015, consisting of the addition of planted medians, bus stop improvements, street lighting and paving, widening the sidewalks and bicycle lanes, and installing a dedicated

southbound transit lane along Potrero Avenue. The work is funded by $3.2 million from the 2011 Road Repaving and Safety Bond. It’s anticipated to be completed by the end of next year. “It’s really unsafe on so many fronts,” expressed David Jayne, Potrero Avenue resident. “Emergency vehicles are getting stuck at the medians, and it has created safety issues during loading and unloading from vehicles on the residential side of the 900 block.” Three years ago, when the project was approved, the entrance to General Hospital’s emergency room was on 23rd Street. It was subsequently moved to 22nd Street, in front of which a median has been installed, reducing access for emergency vehicles and patients on route to the ER. According to Jayne, several years ago a Public Works spokesperson stated at a community meeting that a median wouldn’t be put in front of the hospital because emergency vehicles wouldn’t be able to switch lanes. He’s since been unable STREETSCAPE continues on page 16


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