INSIDE
Publisher's View: San Francisco Pg. 2
OCTOBER 2023
Short Cuts Pg. 2
Wisconsin Street Speed Bumps Pg. 3
Hill Resident Lucho Ramirez Nurtures Latino Film Festival Pg. 3
Two Days in Dogpatch Pg. 5
Ice Cream Returns to the Hill Pg. 5
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Serving the Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Mission Bay and SOMA Neighborhoods Since 1970
Incidences of Rape Decline, While Robberies and Murders Increase BY JESSICA ZIMMER
Between 2022 and 2023, San Francisco saw a three percent dip in overall crime and a marked reduction in certain offenses, including rape, down 17 percent; assault and burglary, both lower by seven percent; with no reports of human trafficking for involuntary servitude. Yet incidences of other crimes increased, including robbery, up 16 percent; and homicide, with a six percent rise. Trends moved in a similar direction in the southeastern neighborhoods, where robberies reported to the Bayview
and Southern stations increased by 19 percent in the last year; 407 incidents in 2023, up from 342 in 2022. Burglary was down 24 percent at these stations; 706 in 2023, 926 in 2022. A burglary is defined as entering a home or another building illegally, whether or not something is stolen. Robbery involves taking property from a person through threats or fear of harm. Bayview Station Captain David Maron said the major crimes that San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) CRIME continues on page 7
Families were invited to make bubbles at last month’s Secondhand Saturday at Crane Cove Park. "Two Days in Dogpatch" story on page 5. PHOTO: Jenna Duncan
Affordable Housing Slated for Pennsylvania Avenue BY REBEKAH MOAN
Mayor London Breed’s Housing for All plan, announced earlier this year, has a goal of building 82,000 new homes over the next eight years, with roughly 60 percent, or 46,000, slated to be “affordable.” A modest contribution to reaching this quite ambitious objective is a planned affordable housing complex to be developed at 249 Pennsylvania Avenue by Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) and Young Community Developers (YCD). “While Potrero Hill and Dogpatch have seen significant residential development under the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan, little of it has been affordable,” said Potrero Boosters President J.R. Eppler. “We look forward to working with the City and developers to deliver affordable housing at 249 Pennsylvania, a site that has been vacant for several years and become a blight to its neighbors.” The property, which sits between 999 Mariposa Street – the former location of Center Hardware – and Pennsylvania Street Gardens has suffered from illegal dumping and encampments for the unhoused, along with fires, theft, drug use, human waste, and used needles. With minimal municipal support, volunteers have struggled to maintain some level of civility in the area. This isn’t the first-time neighbors have heard about plans for housing at the property. In 2016, then-owners William Spencer and his son, Zach, announced that they were going to develop 999 Mariposa Street, along with adjacent parcels 249 Pennsylvania and a surface parking lot, into a mixed-use project. The family created an LLC in 2017, Czs Property Management, and contracted with architecture design firm D-Scheme
Studio to create renderings. In 2022 that relationship was terminated. The property has been neglected ever since. Czs didn’t respond to multiple requests for an interview. The new housing project will consist of roughly 100 units. According to TNDC senior project manager Alberto Benejam, planning is in the early stages, with a community engagement effort to be launched over the next few months to help shape 249 Pennsylvania Avenue’s characteristics. Designers and outreach consultants will be retained to ensure that the project is “anchored in an understanding of the neighborhood,” Benejam said. “We think this site would make an excellent location for family housing, given the robust amenities in Potrero Hill and the adjacent communities.” At least half the units will be twoand three-bedrooms, priced to be affordable to households making between 30 percent to 80 percent of the area median income, approximately $38,900 to $103,750 a year for a three-person household. All units will be rentals. “Affordable housing requires long predevelopment periods, so we don’t anticipate construction beginning for a few years,” Benejam added. “We’ll refine all these details further as the design and financing strategy progress.” The Hill site is one of five slated to be developed as affordable housing. The others are at 1234 Great Highway, developed by TNDC and Self-Help for the Elderly; 650 Divisadero Street, developed by Jonathan Rose Company and YCD; 250 Laguna Honda Boulevard, developed by Mission Housing Development Corporation; and 3300 Mission Street, developed by Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, Tabernacle Community Development Corporation, and
Mitchelville Real Estate Group. The site will benefit from state and local laws aimed at streamlining affordable housing approval and construction, including Senate Bill 35, which requires local entities to simplify endorsement of certain housing projects, as well as Housing for All reforms, such as reducing procedural requirements that impede housing production.
“We have a lot more work to do to remove barriers to getting housing built faster and advancing more affordable housing, but this is a great step and I want to thank the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development for their work to advance projects like these,” Breed said in a press release.
B Y C H A I TA N Y A T O N D E P U
school attendance and test scores, to a burst of gentrification that began in the late-1990s but has yet to create substantial improvements to Annex-Terrace. “Then came around 2005 when the district pitched the idea of starting immersion programs in elementary schools,” said Hatter. In jeopardy of being closed due to a dearth in enrollment, Starr King implemented a Mandarin Immersion (MI) program in 2006, joining SFUSD’s 16 dual-immersion program schools, all with long waiting lists. Once a school that served mainly Hill residents, including those living in Annex-Terrace, Starr King started attracting Asianand European-American families from other parts of San Francisco. Enrollment doubled by 2012. “Sounded like a great idea to me too, focusing on cultures and languages and giving our children an opportunity to learn a different language that could only improve their education…we thought…but as the immersion programs came in, the parents came with them,”
Starr King: One Campus, Two Schools Mosaics on the wall, the sound of kids laughing and playing in the yard, a painted eagle, and a sign that says, “LOV E TO L EA RN L EA RN TOGETHER”. This is what’s visible to a passerby on any given school day walking along Wisconsin Street on Potrero Hill’s southern edge. Starr King is one two San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) elementary schools located in the Hill, along with Daniel Webster. Originally constructed in 1913 on 25th and Utah streets at what’s now Bryant Elementary School, Starr King was rebuilt on 1215 Carolina Street next to the Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complex in 1958. Edward Hatter, Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (NABE) executive director, now in his 60s, grew up in the neighborhood and witnessed how it’s evolved over the years, from a workingclass community filled with families in the 1950s and 1960s, white flight to the suburbs, the lingering effects of the crack epidemic in the 1980s that especially beset Black families, impacting
STARR KING continues on page 9
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THE POTRERO VIEW October 2023
SHORT CUTS
PUBLISHER’S VIEW
San Francisco BY STEVEN J. MOSS
Take this quiz to determine if you’re a real San Franciscan! 1) Which vehicle would you rather be stuck behind? a. A Cruise or Waymo driverless vehicle. b. An Uber driver who commutes from Stockton. c. A Tesla. d. A kid straddling a recycling bin bombing down a steep hill. 2) Your restaurant check indicates several charges at the bottom, including “worker health care contribution,” “livable wage,” and “optional surcharge,” which together amount to more than the cost of the menu items. You should base your tip on, a. The whole bill. b. Just the menu items. c. H o w m a n y t a t t o o s y o u r waitperson sported. d. Whether or not the service was actually good. 3) You’re walking in the Mission, and a man wearing filthy clothes topped with an eccentric hat comes stumbling towards you, waving his arms wildly, shouting, “Everything is awesome!” Do you,
a. Cross the street to avoid him. b. Keep going but avoid looking him in the eyes. c. Pull out your cell phone and pretend to be making a call. d. Give him a high five as he passes, saying, “Great burn on the playa, dude!” 4) You’re at an Apple store, exploring buying a new iPad, when a dozen young adults storm in, grab items, and fast-walk out of the store. Do you, a. Try to stop them. b. Video them with your iPhone. c. Stand there looking dumbfounded and continue placidly shopping after the incident is over. d. Grab some items yourself and run out. 5) You’re shopping at a Walgreens, with all merchandise behind a case that a clerk has to unlock to purchase. Do you, a. Ring the bell to summon a clerk and patiently wait for them to arrive. b. Storm out of the store muttering how messed up the city is. PUBLISHER'S VIEW continues on page 10
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Various state agencies, including the California Department of Housing and Community Development, are gifting the City and County of San Francisco $163.6 million to build new homes and bolster infrastructure, $45 million of which will support three ongoing projects: Potrero HOPE SF, Sunnydale HOPE SF and India Basin. The City expects all three to be completed by 2027, save for Potrero Annex-Terrace Hill, which won’t be finished until 2029... Plans to construct affordable housing at The Power Station, the development’s first residential buildings, will be announced this month at a ceremony to be held at the site.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously voted last month to extend a requirement that any company proposing a warehouse 5,000 square feet or larger obtain a conditional use permit. The measure was first adopted last year when Amazon sought to expand its San Francisco footprint with plans that included a delivery center on Seventh Street. The six-month extension will provide time for municipal planners to finalize a suite of zoning regulations for parcel delivery facilities. Amazon wants to develop a 5.8-acre parcel delivery facility at 900 Seventh Street, the site of a former waste maintenance facility, now empty, that Recology sold to Amazon in 2020.
Mayoral Candidate on the Hill Last month Daniel Lurie pledged to instill a culture of accountability, coordination, and public service as he announced his candidacy for Mayor of San Francisco at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. “We are facing a crisis of leadership, and the direction that we are headed leaves me deeply concerned that the next generation will not love and care for San Francisco as we do,” said Lurie, a father of two who founded the nonprofit Tipping Point, and is living in Potrero Hill while his Pacific Heights residence is being renovated. “This moment demands a new era of leadership from the outside. I have a proven record of building diverse teams, challenging bureaucracy and political obstacles, and delivering results on the issues most important to San Franciscans.”
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Calling all Jackson Park Users! Come help us design the future play spaces, and learn more about the renovation plans, funding and timing. And there will be activities for the kids and snacks from our new neighbors, Magic Donuts! PUBLISHER Steven J. Moss ACCOUNTING MANAGER Catie Magee MARKETING MANAGER Richard Romero PRODUCTION MANAGER Helena Chiu THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS Jenna Duncan, Terence Jones, Mike Lin, Rebekah Moan, Steven J. Moss Lisa Ryers, Chaitanya Tondepu, Jessica Zimmer Editorial and policy decisions are made by the staff. Published monthly. Address all correspondence to: THE POTRERO VIEW, 1459 18th Street, Number 214, San Francisco, CA 94107 • 415.643.9578 E-mail: editor@potreroview.net • production@potreroview.net (for advertising) T H E V IE W I S P RIN T E D O N R EC YC L E D N E W S P RIN T W I T H S OY- B A S E D INK .
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October 2023 THE POTRERO VIEW
New Speed Bumps on Wisconsin Street BY TERRENCE JONES
Last August signs were erected on Wisconsin Street that indicated parking would be prohibited for four days, with a permit reference to Yerba Buena Engineering. Residents were irritated by disruption of their regular parking patterns, but it appeared to be for a good cause: installation of speed bumps. The first week came and went without any construction. New no-parking signs were issued for the following week. The extended parking disturbance added to the ongoing stress of owning a car in a city with high incidences of car break ins, catalytic converter thefts, damage from accidents, and expensive parking tickets. The City has increasingly deployed bumps to slow otherwise speeding cars. Vehicles regularly blast through the stop sign at Wisconsin and Madera streets. At least one resident had their car smashed into by someone flying down the street, on a road where kids often walk from Starr King Elementary School to the Potrero Recreation Center for afterschool programs and sports. According to a San Francisco Fire Department Station 37 firefighter,
channels in the speed humps allow emergency vehicles to move quickly over them due to the fire engine’s wheelbase. Yerba Buena Engineering is one of four approved vendors that install speed bumps under contract with the San Francisco Department of Public Works. The contractors are given a “task order for a master contract” with a set price over a six-month period. If all goes well, the contract is extended. According to Miguel Galarza, Yerba Buena’s owner, Permit #23 EXC-02613 authorized 136 bumps be fitted for $1,709,792, or $12,572 per bump. Mr. Galaraza said the Potrero Hill humps were requested by Supervisor Shaman Walton’s office. He indicated that construction delays can be caused by several factors. For example, DPW relies on a single asphalt plant which can sometimes go offline. No asphalt, no hump. Weather is also a variable. Rainy days aren’t good for these types of jobs. Summer rain was the most likely reason for the postponement. And, occasionally, someone tears down or alters the no parking signs, or cars can’t be towed if there’s an error in the placards. This may have caused an interruption in
Letters to the Editor Editor, Potrero Hill is crisscrossed with high voltage power cables. In event of a significant earthquake some of these will fall on to old wooden houses. At the top of the hill is a large water tank which is dedicated to domestic service and fire hydrants. The tank is filled using electric pumps. If the power lines on Potrero Hill fail there will be no way to fill the water tank. Fire hydrants will go dry. Pacific Gas and Electric Company must underground these lines. Lewis Carroll Epstein Vermont Street
Green Benefit District | GreenBenefit.org One more weekend afternoon of free music and treats remains in the Green Benefit District’s 2023 Dogpatch Music Series. Join neighbors on Saturday, October 7 from 1:00 to 4:00 at Woods Yard Park on 22nd St & Minnesota. PREFund/Potrero Kids sing-a-long at 1:00, Jazz in the Glass at 2:00. Museum of Craft & Design MakeArt. More info online at GreenBenefit.org/ dogpatch-music-series-2023.
The Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association | potreroboosters.org The Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association informs, empowers and represents the residents of the Potrero on issues impacting our community in order to develop and maintain complete, vibrant neighborhoods. We’re continuing to meet via Zoom on the last Tuesday of each month. Go to www. potreroboosters.org to learn more about how to join us!
The Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association | potrerodogpatch.com The Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association promotes and advocates for independent, locally owned businesses while actively supporting our neighborhood and our wonderful communities.
PREFund | prefund.org PREFund brings neighbors together to support education and build community. We are accepting new members to our Community Advisory Board this Fall! Learn more prefund.org/volunteer Starr King Open Space | StarrKingOpenSpace.org Please join our monthly volunteer days on the second Saturday of the month from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This month it is October 14th. If you can, please donate to help keep Starr King Open Space open, accessible, and well-maintained for our neighbors. StarrKingOpenSpace.org For a $200 annual fee your organization can be listed in Getting Involved. Contact production@potreroview.net
one workday, in which only half a hump was built because there was a vehicle in the way. “The traffic calming recently installed on the 800 and 900 blocks of Wisconsin Street is in direct response to an application submitted by one or more residents in May 2020, as part of the FY20-21 Residential ApplicationBased Traffic Calming Program cycle,” Natalie Gee, Walton’s chief of staff wrote in an email. “We collected data on these blocks that confirmed the presence of speeding, developed a design proposal that was vetted with the SFFD before
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being considered at an Engineering Public Hearing on 9/2/2022, and the final recommended design was approved by the City Traffic Engineer for implementation.” Residents are generally pleased with the results, which have slowed speeders, increasing pet and child safety. The new humps on the 900 block will have a side benefit of making it much harder for kids to ride recycling cans down the street. Terrence Jones has lived on Wisconsin Street for almost 30 years.
Hill Resident Lucho Ramirez Nurtures Latino Film Festival BY LISA RYERS
In 2008 Lucho Ramirez founded Cine+Mas SF, showcasing 15 independent films from the Spanish-speaking world. Today, the festival screens about 70 features a year, including eight short programs. Most of the movies are made in the United States with, on average, 10 Latin countries represented. Flicks from Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, and Chile are the most popular with audiences.. In 2022 Cine+Mas SF attracted 1,200 audience members in person, 2,800 guests virtually. This year Cine+Mas SF received 450 submissions from filmmakers around the world, with 75 selected by a Cine+Mas screening committee based on production value, acting quality, and story strengths. According to Ramirez, recent submissions include “queerish” stories, migration tales, thrillers, and comedies, which reflect a variety of communities, such as the indigenous South American Wichi, Oaxaca clothing designers, and Northern California Chicano “souleros;” hard core soul music collectors. Ramirez’s love for Spanish-speaking films began in Chicago where he grew up speaking the language at home with his Mexican-born parents. His father worked at the Vienna Sausage factory; his mother was a homemaker. As a bilingual teenager, Ramirez marveled at the variety of tones found in the Spanish speaking films he’d watch at the neighborhood Spanish language theater. Movies such as Blood Wedding and Carmen “showed a window into a different kind of Spanish,” he said. “I still go and watch some of those films on You Tube, little snippets. They say so much.” After completing business school in Phoenix, teaching English in Japan, and working in film distribution in Paris, Ramirez arrived in San Francisco in 1997. He couch-surfed for a few months until he heard someone was looking for a roommate in Potrero Hill. He’s rented the same Connecticut Street apartment ever since. Ramirez began his career in film festival programming working sponsorship sales for the San Francisco International Latino Film Festival. When that festival folded, Ramirez started Cine+Mas SF, initially screening at the Clay and the Lumiere, both now defunct, as well as the Mission Cultural Center, La Peña in Berkeley, and Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana in San Jose. “It was fun!” he said of programming his first festival. “I didn’t know how to do things There was a hint of imposter syndrome. I had to learn
Lucho Ramirez, founder of the Cine+Mas SF Latino Film Festival. PHOTO: Courtesy of Lucho Ramirez
how to do things and to use the right language such as “inviting” films from filmmakers.” He also discovered that film festivals aren’t just about prestige but enable independent filmmakers to attract distributors. Among Ramirez’s favorite memories is screening films from the 1990s that sparked Chicano nostalgia among audiences, as well as a showingof Ruben Blades is Not My Name, filmmaker Abner Benaim’s 2018 documentary about the salsa musician icon which served as a “reunion of sorts” for local musicians. While box office phenomenon like Barbie and Oppenheimer seduced audiences out of their homes this year, attendance at independent films haven’t reached pre-pandemic levels. Ramirez finds it challenging to locate spaces to screen his movie selections. Theater rentals can cost almost twice as much as in 2022. Despite sponsorship from companies such as Toyota, Xfinity, and the Roxie Theater, staying afloat is a struggle. The pandemic “reset media consumption” and associated economics, Ramirez said. In the past, the festival could offer complementary hospitality to filmmakers to travel to San Francisco to share their films in person. With the changing financial landscape, if movie makers are present, it’s often on their own dime. “I had insomnia last night,” Ramirez said. “But then I say to myself this happens every year. And we somehow make it happen every year.” The Cine+Mas SF Latino Film Festival run from October 7 to 22 at the Roxie, Mission Cultural Center, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and other venues.
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THE POTRERO VIEW October 2023
October 2023 THE POTRERO VIEW
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Two Days in Dogpatch to live jazz. “Since it’s not a large area, it needed to be something we could pop up and take down really quickly.” Roughly three years ago, Johnson led installation of the public red chairs and tables and chairs in Woods Yard Park. More recently, GBD received a grant from Avenue Greenlight, an organization dedicated to providing micro grants to activate public spaces. “The music series is a part of that; to bring the neighborhood together. That
BY JENNA DUNCAN
Dogpatch is a fun place to wander around and explore, with its numerous parks, green spaces, and clearly identified slow streets and walking paths. One place worth visiting, the Museum of Craft & Design, is tucked into a large warehouse building near the Third and 20th streets Muni stop. It’s recent “Fight and Flight: Crafting a Bay Area” show featured a mix of textiles, prints, ceramics, paintings, found art and an audio immersive piece, highlighting the works of Bay Area residents Libby Black (Berkeley), Angela Hennessy (Oakland), and Richard-Johnathan Nelson (Oakland), among others.
Ice Cream Returns to the Hill BY MIKE LIN
A couple dances to the salsa and merengue rhythms of Edgardo Cambón & LaTido at last month’s Dogpatch Live Music in Woods Yard Park. PHOTO: Jenna Duncan
enormous raised peace symbol that’ll fill the gallery’s center floor. Artwork will be projected and displayed atop. “The ‘Designing Peace’ exhibit will be very design-based, as opposed to [the recent ‘Fight or Flight’], which was much more craft-focused,” said Breanna Assumma, visitor services and development associate. Tickets are $10 adults, $8 for students and seniors, with free admission for children, EBT, military, CalFresh and Medi-Cal. The museum is presently closed until October 6. “Fight or Flight” celebrated Bay Area residents’ resilience. PHOTO: Jenna Duncan
In the back of the building a community makerspace, MakeArt Gallery, provides craft supplies, tools, tables and chairs to enable visitors to spend time being creative. For the upcoming “Designing Peace” show, the museum is constructing an
area is the neighborhood’s living room,” Johnson said. “People say San Francisco is dying; that there’s no children, and everyone’s moving away. But the reality is, when you come down here and look around, it doesn’t feel like that!” Donovan Lacy, GBD president. On October 7 Jazz the Glass will perform. This is the first of a two-part series.
At the Woods Yard Park free live music series visitors can dance in the middle of the afternoon. “We were originally thinking of doing an outdoor film series at Woods Yard,” said Jason Kelly Johnson, Green Benefit District (GBD) board member. After talking to a neighbor, the idea was changed
Last month the awning at the former location of Dave’s Food Store on 20th and Connecticut streets sported new signage: Loard’s Ice Cream. The impending arrival of the parlor signaled the end of a dessert desert, of sorts. Potrero Hill’s last ice cream store, The Daily Scoop, on 18th Street, which opened in the mid-1970s, closed in 2002. Mike Samra, 33, and his younger brother, Jessie Samra, 31, bought All States Best Foods, which included the Dave’s Food Store property next door, in 2021. After Dave’s Food Store shuttered during the pandemic, the previous owners, brothers Khalid and Moe, who’d owned and operated All States for more than 25 years, decided to retire. Mike and Jessie began working together when Mike was 25, Jessie, 23. The brothers were born in the East Bay. Their parents immigrated from Punjab, India in the 1980s. Both regularly work 16-hour shifts at one or another of their five enterprises. The Loard’s Ice Cream Parlor in
Potrero Hill will be the first Loard’s ice cream in San Francisco. It’ll operate under license from Brian Tam, whose family bought Loard’s ten years ago, growing it to 11 outlets. The predominately East Bay chain was founded in 1950 by two friends, Russ Salyards and John Lowe, in Oakland. Many of his original stores remain, in Castro Valley, Alameda, Orinda, and Livermore. They continue to rely on Russ’ Salyard’s equipment operating in the original MacArthur Boulevard factory. Just three individuals are responsible for making the ice cream, filling each pint by hand. Mike’s favorite Loard’s ice cream is Rocky Road; Jessie loves the Coffee flavor. They both enjoy salami sandwiches. To help market Loard’s, which’ll also vend sandwiches, the duo plan to offer $1 scoops for a limited time. The store’s opening is dependent on San Francisco Public Health Department approval, which has been stalled multiple times since the brothers acquired the business.
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THE POTRERO VIEW October 2023
COMMUNITY | OCTOBER 10/13 Friday through 11/4 Saturday Theater: ReOrient Festival of Short Plays Golden Thread Productions, the first American theatre company devoted to the Middle East, reprises its signature ReOrient Festival of Short Plays, with six short plays, diverse in content and style, highlighting the multiplicity of Middle Eastern perspectives and identities. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. $20 to $100. Potrero Stage, 1695 18th Street. For more information: https://goldenthread.org/tickets/ 10/14 Saturday – 10/15 Sunday Literature: Litquake Out Loud at Yerba Buena Gardens Litquake 2023 runs from October 5 to 21, with two full days of in-person events hosted by Yerba Buena Gardens. This year Litquake Out Loud highlights
Bay Area BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers and thought leaders. 12 to 5 p.m. Free. Esplanade, Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission Street between Third and Fourth streets. For more information: https://shorturl.at/flnK1
16 mon Theater: Monday Night Playground Over the course of the upcoming 2023-24 season, 36 early-career Bay Area playwrights competitively selected from applications received this summer will generate more than 150 original short plays, of which 36 will be developed as part of Monday Night PlayGround, a monthly script-inhand staged reading series. The top six scripts will be staged by leading local directors and actors and presented at Freight & Salvage and simulcast,
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beginning on Monday, October 16, continuing on third Mondays through March. The November round will take place at Potrero Stage, in connection with the annual Innovators Showcase. 7 p.m. Suggested donations: $5 to $30. Choose live stream presentation or in-person at Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley. For more information: https://bit.ly/46oQwnz
19 thur Community: Celebrating Julie Christensen Rejoice in seven years of the Dogpatch and Northwest Potrero Hill Green Benefit District, and its retiring executive director, Julie Christensen. 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Free, but registration required. Avalon Community Lounge, 800 Indiana Street. For more information: https://bit.ly/3Zx8emP 10/19 Thursday – 11/19 Sunday Art: San Francisco Open Studios ArtSpan’s San Francisco Open Studios returns for its 49th year, offering the opportunity to engage directly with artists in their studio spaces. Visitors learn about each creator’s work and process and can purchase art directly. Artist-hosted open studio events are accompanied by the expansive SFOS Exhibition of 300+ artworks at the SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street. Artist studios will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For a full lineup of events and celebrations: https://www. artspanart.org/sfos2023
20 fri Film: Ghostbusters Sundown Cinema and San Francisco Parks Alliance offer Ghostbusters. Bring a blanket and cozy clothes to stay warm. Event begins at 5 p.m., film starts after sundown, around 6:30 p.m. Free. Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, McLaren
Park, 40 John F. Shelley Drive. For more information and to RSVP: https://shorturl.at/cnEPX
21 sat Community: Potrero Hill R&B Festival Jam to Rhythm & Blues whilst celebrating the Hill community with food and family fun! The Potrero Hill Festival stretches over four blocks and is a benefit for the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 20th Street from Missouri to Arkansas. For more information: https:// potrerofestival.com/ 10/21 Saturday – 11/12 Sunday Theater: Citizen Word for Word’s 30th season concludes with Citizen by Greg Sarris. In Citizen, Salvador, born in the U.S., raised in Mexico, son of an American Indian mother and Mexican father, returns to California to find his mom, or rather, her grave. Working in the fields and ranches around Santa Rosa, he meets his mother’s family, encountering kindness, opportunism, and glimmers of hope. An American citizen who speaks no English, Salvador discovers his identity and what it means to belong. Directed by Gendell Hing- Hernández. Tickets: $40 to $65 (previews: sliding scale $5 to $25). Z Below, 470 Florida Street. For more information: https://www.zspace. org/citizen
28 sat Halloween: Thrill-O-Ween at Thrive City A spooktacular afternoon of safe Halloween fun, Thrive City will be filled with themed activities for all ages including a special screening of the Pixar film, Elemental. Stay alert because you never know who or what may pop out! Best dressed wins the costume contest! For more information and to RSVP: https://bit.ly/45l2xcZ
October 2023 THE POTRERO VIEW
CRIME from front page
focuses on in the southeastern neighborhoods include shootings, robberies, burglaries, and motor vehicle thefts. “These are down by approximately 13 percent compared to this time last year,” said Maron. According to Maron, many of the offenses are committed by San Franciscans rather than out-of-towners. Some crimes, such as catalytic converter theft, are executed by lawbreaking rings, with one or more of the offenders who scout vehicles living in the City. Maron noted that SFPD’s ability to lower crime rates is hampered by staffing shortages. The department has roughly 600 fewer officers than its hiring goal. Constables have transferred to other agencies and retired, with 490 departing since July 1, 2020. “SFPD needs to get out extra patrols here. A lot of the focus has been on areas that have seen a higher rate of criminal incidents like the Tenderloin, and tourist areas like Union Square. Officers are taken from our area to lower crime rates in hard-hit spots,” said District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton. Maron said there’s been several burglaries along the Third Street corridor over the past year, though overall break-ins in the area served by Bayview Station are down 29 percent since 2022. The captain acknowledged that Bayview Station officers were redeployed to Union Square last year. “This came in response to mass looting and smash and grabs that were taking place down there during that time. Since then, we have continued to have our officers out there in force as much as possible,” said Maron. Maron added that despite Bayview Station being down more than 30 officers since February 2021, he’s managed
to field foot beats on Third Street, in part by increasing overtime. “Currently, I have been running a fixed post at the corner of Third Street and Quesada Avenue due to some recent shootings from gang retaliations. Krails were put out there this summer to help dissuade people from parking and hanging out there all day and night,” said Maron. Walton said his office often hears from constituents about people experiencing homelessness. “We receive more complaints about the quality of life. Specifically, residents want to know what can be done to help people in encampments get and stay in housing,” said Walton. J.R. Eppler, president of the Potrero Boosters, a neighborhood association that advocates on behalf of Potrero Hill and Showplace Square, said residents don’t believe that the crime rate is dropping appreciably. “This makes them feel unsafe. We want to see adequate responses. An announcement by SFPD to explain what is being done to address car break-ins on the Hill would go a long way,” said Eppler. Eppler added that Potrero Hill and Showplace Square are safe, but the City is doing a poor job communicating with residents and addressing chronic problems, including bicycle, catalytic converter, and package thefts as well as car break-ins. Katherine Doumani, Dogpatch Neighborhood Association (DNA) president, said that encampments of people experiencing homelessness prompt the most concern when there’s a combination of adverse incidences, such as strewn trash, open drug use, antisocial
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CRIME continues on page 10
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THE POTRERO VIEW October 2023
THANK YOU! The Dogpatch & NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District (GBD) Board of Directors past and present - would like to recognize our Executive Director Julie Christensen for her outstanding leadership and hard work. Because of her commitment, we’ve been able to improve our benefit district’s public green spaces for the entire community to enjoy. As the only Green Benefit District in San Francisco, it is Julie’s dedication that enabled our vision to nurture our public spaces for the community through urban greening by the power of local funding, governance, advocacy, and volunteerism. Through our mission of caring for green public spaces for all to enjoy, we built resilient, clean, and vibrant urban community green spaces that everyone can enjoy. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Julie Christensen during her seven-year tenure as the GBD’s first Executive Director. Although she is going to leave us, her dedication, hard work, and countless hours will allow the community to enjoy for many years the beautiful and successful projects that nurture our community through urban greening. Thank you Julie for your outstanding accomplishments! Our neighborhoods will thrive for many years to come because of your commitment.
October 2023 THE POTRERO VIEW
STARR KING from front page
Hatter told the View. “We now have upper middle-class parents and Asian parents who are used to paying for their children’s Saturday school to get extra education and culture to their children, while the low-income children are making room for the immersion program.” For the first five years after the MI program was launched the school maintained two parent-teacher associations, one for general education – now called experiential learning, EXL – one for the immersion program. Since the EXL PTA wasn’t especially active, the immersion PTA dominated. “I was questioning why the lowincome general education kids weren’t entering or getting promoted into the immersion program,” said Hatter. “We actually had three kids enter over the course of five years, and they didn’t stay, and we wondered why. I had an issue because it was a school, one school, but it was operating as two, where the kids didn’t even eat lunch together.” “There has also been no outreach from SFUSD or the school to encourage local kids living in Potrero Hill’s public housing that they can be a part of the school’s Mandarin Immersion program,” said one parent whose children previously attended Starr King. “There is misinformation happening. I learned from several parents in public housing that administrators advised them that their kids in kindergarten did not qualify for the Chinese program because they couldn’t speak Chinese. As administrators and teachers know, at all immersion schools in SFUSD, there is no requirement for a child to have any background at all in the target language during the early grades.” Many parents of Starr King stu-
dents who spoke to the View, but who didn’t want to be named, agreed that the school faced challenges, though some felt progress was being made to integrate the programs. “During recess you don’t know there are two programs but if you walk into school during school time you see there is a sort of segregation,” one parent told the View. “A challenge that the PTA has worked on is how do we be more inclusive, so everyone feels included and wants to get involved and how do we make sure it’s not the same parents interacting with the same parents all the time. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of the school being one of the most diverse schools in the City but not feeling like it is exactly like that because the same parents are interacting with each other.” San Francisco is the 25th most demographically varied city in the country, with a diversity score of 69, a metric calculated using survey and census data to determine the probability that any two people chosen at random would differ in race or ethnicity. Yet a large portion of its public elementary schools are “segregated,” with most students on many campuses being from a single race or socioeconomic background. A San Francisco Chronicle article determined that racial and income separation in SFUSD’s schools was related to housing patterns and the student assignment system. The district employs a placement policy that requires students, even those entering elementary school, to submit a ranked list of schools they prefer to attend. Admittance is based on availability. “Tiebreakers” give preferences to those with siblings that have attended the school, applicants to a dual language immersion, such as Spanish or Mandarin; and proximity to the school.
THE POTRERO HILL ARCHIVES PROJECT and
Parents tend to prefer schools that fit their demographic and socioeconomic profile. Hard-pressed low-income families, and those for which English is a second language, may not even know they have school choice. The dual immersion programs started, in part, as an attempt to help diversify San Francisco schools, especially those located in low-income areas where most students were from the African American or Latinx community. While this strategy succeeded in forestalling campus closures, dualimmersion schools largely became microcosms of wider city-wide segregation, in which students were separated by program. Similar to other public schools, Starr King has a considerable gap in achievement between students with different racial backgrounds. According to 2022 San Francisco Board of Education standardized test scores from elementary to high school students, Europeanand Asian-American populations are at 70 to 80 percent in terms of reading and math performance, compared to 30 to 50 percent for African American and Latinx students. “As far as the achievement gap goes, we are at pre-pandemic levels. Although we have seen a rise in some scores for students that we’ve really been working on as focal groups, will there ever be an end to the achievement gap? Not sure,” said Darlene Martin, Starr King’s principal. In a 2019 San Francisco Bay View article Anne Hennessey wrote about a conflict over how best to dedicate PTA funds. The PTA, primarily composed of MI parents, raises more than $300,000 a year. In the instance she covered, $80,000 was allocated to hiring a MI teacher instead of dedicating funding
to GE programs. Three years later, one parent on the PTA said things have improved. “Most of that (PTA funding) goes directly to the school in order to fund the hiring of two teachers, one for the Mandarin program and one for the English/EXL program. That way, we ensure that every classroom has a teacher, and the upper grades don’t need to combine classrooms, because the SFUSD allows classrooms up to 33 students, and so the district doesn’t actually provide enough funds for three full teachers for each grade.” The number of low-income kids attending Starr King from Annex-Terrace has been declining, as evidenced by loss of the school’s Title I status. In 2015, President Barack Obama signed the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act, an attempt to hold states and schools accountable for student achievement. Title I of ESSA provides federal monies to districts with high numbers of low-income students to support programs that address achievement gaps. Under the 2023-2024 budget endorsed by the San Francisco Board of Education, SFUSD was projected to receive $15 million in Concentration Grant Title I funds due to an Unduplicated Pupil Percentage (UPP) of 59 percent, calculated by the number of students eligible for free and reducedcost meals, English learners, and foster youth. SFUSD distributes these monies to schools that have a UPP of at least 55 percent, to pay for initiatives that assist academically low-achieving students gain access to technology, provide behavioral support staff and counselors, STARR KING continues on page 11
St. Teresa’s Church 1490 19th St (at Connecticut St)
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THE POTRERO VIEW October 2023
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c. Wander the aisles identifying the products you want and order them on Amazon from your phone. d. You wouldn’t be in a Walgreens. 6) You received a $125 parking ticket for a meter that expired five minutes before you arrived. Do you, a. Crumple the ticket and throw it on the ground. b. Crumple the ticket and throw it in the recycling bin. c. Take it off your windshield and place it on the windshield of the car behind you. d. Hold it in your hand, staring at it, while muttering about how much you hate San Francisco. 7) You’re participating in the school lottery for your soon-to-be kindergartener who is assigned to a school in Daly City. Do you, a. Contact the school district to protest. b. Quickly determine whether any slots are open at a nearby private school. c. Move to Daly City. d. Go to the public school of your choice in San Francisco with your kid on the first day of class and insist that you’re already enrolled. 8) As you’re walking, you come across a passed-out, or maybe dead, guy with a needle sticking out of his bicep. Do you, a. Keep walking. b. Call 911. c. Call 311. d. Pull out that Narcan you carry in your backpack and administer it. 9) You email a complaint to you r district supervisor about constant encampments on your block, occupied by mostly naked, often screaming, individuals, located in front of a preschool. Your supervisor forwards your email to the mayor and police chief, cc’ing you. What happens next?
a. Emergency response personnel specially trained in fragile populations arrive expeditiously, offer the campers decent shelter and mental health services, and assist them with transporting their stuff. b. The supervisor initiates a structured conversation with the mayor and key municipal departments to determine how to address this issue more effectively. c. Irritated by the supervisor, the mayor calls a press conference to remind voters that they have experienced homelessness, know about poverty, and will respond to the situation in the best way possible given this life-experience. d. None of the above. 10) You’re thinking of going to the many free concerts offered at Stern Grove and Golden Gate Park in the summer and fall. Do you, a. Buy an extra-large blanket with eyeholes to spike down with foot-long metal rods in the best possible location in front of the stage, to be left there on the morning of the show and largely unused throughout the day. b. Contribute to the charities sponsoring the free concerts. c. Tell everyone that you used to love going to free concerts, until they got too crowded with people deploying oversized blankets to save excessive amounts of space that they don’t use. d. Launch the “AirBnB of concert blankets” which enables people to share their free concert space, for a fee, which quickly fails in competition with “concert.me,” an AI-based app that uses droneenabled Starlink data to identify real-time strategies to secure the best spots at free concerts and other public spaces. 11) The term “doom loop” refers to, a. A sugar-free cereal. b. A lazy catchphrase adopted by
local media and politicians as shorthand for the collapse of downtown due to overinvestment caused by loose monetary policy and pandemic-induced shifts in commercial real estate occupancy. c. A privileged understanding of San Francisco history, in which a similar economic disruption caused by the abandonment of the Central Waterfront and Hunters Point shipyards, with devastating consequences to Black and working-class populations that lingered for decades, was largely ignored by the local media and politicians. d. The concern that without downtown’s tax base, City Hall may have to learn how to effectively budget with only somewhat more resources than other municipalities around the world. Answers: 1d, it’s the only one that’ll move in predictable a pattern; 2d; 3d if early September; 4c; 5d; 6b; 7d; 8d, but after the man is revived, he’ll yell at you for ruining his high; 9d, nothing will happen; 10c; 11b, c, and d. Completion of this test provides AP credits in every state except Florida, Texas, and Alabama.
CRIME from page 7
behavior like people screaming at passersby, and sidewalk blockages. “There was a huge fire at an encampment on 23rd Street between Iowa Street and Pennsylvania Street that could have been much more severe. Yet there’s a large unhoused community on Tennessee Street that is clean with almost no incidents,” said Doumani. According to Doumani, Dogpatch residents are concerned about a perceived increase in dangerous driving, like cars speeding and blowing through stop signs. Maron said when it comes to sideshows – flamboyant incidents of “doing doughnuts” or turning in circles in a street – SFPD has a Stunt Driving Response Unit. The agency relies on social media posts, video footage from officers’ body-worn cameras, building security and residential cameras to identify the vehicles involved. “If a car flees from our officers on a traffic stop, the officers can generate a police report. The report will contain the description of the car and any occupants that were seen at that time. If a weapon was observed, the suspect car and person involved will be shared with our department members as a crime alert bulletin,” said Maron. Next steps typically involve issuance of a seizure warrant and towing the vehicles. Sarah Davis, who lives on a houseboat on Mission Creek, said crime rates are a pressing concern in Mission Bay.
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“There have been many car breakins and attempted home break-ins. A number of these incidents have involved individuals with severe mental health issues. One of the people who tried to break into my houseboat took off all her clothes and started screaming,” said Davis. Joseph Leake, president of the Potrero Court Homeowners Association, a condominium complex at 2225 Third Street, said between 2020 and 2023 the PC HOA spent $150,000 on upgrades like sidewalk lights, security cameras and latch guards on entry doors. According to Leake, non-residents have followed occupants into the garage and tried to use manual keys to steal cars. They’ve also tried to gain access to the complex to steal vehicles’ catalytic converters and inhabitants’ packages. “They’ve shattered the front entry doors to get in and steal packages. We even saw a criminal set a car on fire on 24th Street,” said Leake. Ray O’Connor, captain of the Kansas Street SAFE Association, an 80-member Neighborhood Watch Group, is concerned about catalytic converter theft, encampments, illegal dumping, and the need for traffic calming. His immediate neighbor has had their catalytic converter stolen twice in the past two years. “Residents are cautiously optimistic that the City is trying to get a handle on crime, homelessness, and drug addiction. Yet I wonder if the published statistics on crime can be trusted. Could it be that some crimes go unreported due to innovative methods such as Neighborhood Courts or the Collaborative Reform Initiative from the Mayor’s office?” asked O’Connor. According to O’Connor although Kansas Street SAFE Association has collaborated with SFPD it hasn’t put a serious dent in the number of thefts in the area. He added that the SAFE Group worked with San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to install speed humps and traffic islands to slow drivers. The group has also collaborated with the California Department of Transportation on graffiti abatement, fence repair, and encampment removals along the Highway 101 corridor. Jean Bogiages, member of the Mariposa-Utah Neighborhood Association, which works to reduce crime and beautify the area, said association members are most concerned about graffiti, encampments, and individuals with severe mental problems, who break branches off trees and bushes, throw rocks, and scream. “We’ve seen items like garden trellises stolen from in front of people’s homes and then found in encampments. Neighbors don’t want encampments. The City’s solution is to call 311, but CRIME continues on next page
October 2023 THE POTRERO VIEW
CRIME from previous page
that system is very impersonal,” said Bogiages. Last month, the City rolled out its “OK to Call” campaign, which directs people to use 311 for tents and trash blocking the sidewalk and 911 if they see a person experiencing a mental health crisis or drug overdose. Bogiages regularly sees broken glass on streets and sidewalks – evidence of car break-ins – and has heard of garage doors getting broken and thieves stealing items. “We’re also concerned about speeding and sideshow activity, particularly at the intersection of Utah and Mariposa streets and Utah and 18th streets. Residents feel they’ve complained so many times but are not heard. The police don’t seem to do enough,” said Bogiages. Donovan Lacy, DNA vice president, Potrero Boosters secretary, and an elected member of the Dogpatch & NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District, agreed that municipal agencies are often unresponsive to residents’ complaints. “However, we are trying to build awareness of Community Policing Advisory Board meetings which convene once a month…have proven to be effective at directing enforcement and prevention when community members advocate for policing the most dangerous blocks,” said Lacy. Doumani said DNA is working with multiple City agencies to address unsafe driving practices, including SFPD on enforcement and SFMTA and the Department of Public Works on prevention. Potentially helpful measures include installing stop signs and chicanes, a series of two or three curb bulbs on alternating sides of the street, which
calm traffic by requiring drivers to slow down to maneuver through the bulbs. Peter Belden, a San Francisco Bike Coalition member who co-chairs the Potrero Boosters and DNA’s joint Livable Streets Committee, a group focused on fostering safe streets, said another concern is drivers making left turns on a red light. “On the multi-lane streets that go from Potrero Hill into SoMa, such as Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Streets, I’ve seen drivers in the center lanes turning left on a red light. This is a problem that got worse during the pandemic,” said Belden. “When you’re walking outside, especially at night, stay off your phone and turn off music in headphones. Be aware of your surroundings. If you see a crime in progress, do not attempt to stop it. Leave the area and call 911,” said Maron.
Some Annex-Terrace families transferred their kids to other campuses, feeling that their needs weren’t being met. Others moved due to poor living conditions or because they found better housing opportunities. “We were sold this pipe dream of revitalization 12 years ago with the HOPE SF initiative and here 12 years later we got one building in a wreck, another building being erected, and then possibilities of a new building with not many units being built in the Annex for low income. But more of it really is a land grab for market rate and mixedincome housing,” Hatter remarked. Given the declining low-income student population, and ongoing disparities within the school, the View asked Martin about her plan for improving integration and reducing the achievement gap. “Integration is interesting because
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as we do it, we find more interesting ways to do it. Given my knowledge of other schools with language immersion programs, it is difficult to have a fully integrated school if programs don’t demographically mirror each other, there is an issue and kids don’t mix. So, we started with integrating field trips, then PE, then specials, and some with academic work. One of the things in addition to that is that we revamped the English program…so in that program, we fill in gaps in background knowledge – field trips or videos or conversations – not just teacher talking and giving handouts. There are still disparities in the school about achievement levels between different demographic groups, so we continue to work on that, but they have done a lot to support students on tutoring after school and integrating.”
STARR KING from page 9
or engage a homeless liaison. For many years, Starr King was a designated Title I school largely due to the high percentage of low-income students that attended from nearby Annex-Terrace. Two-thirds of the school’s student population is now enrolled in the MI program, which has few low-income learners. “We haven’t been Title I in a long time,” said Martin. “That goes back to the percentage of students who have free and reduced lunch, the percentage fell from 50 percent to 35 percent. We haven’t had that funding for at least five years, but that goes back to the district demographics.” Part of the school’s transition is the result of a changing neighborhood.
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THE POTRERO VIEW October 2023
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