Potrero View 2010: March

March 2010

Serving the Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Mission Bay and SOMA Neighborhoods Since 1970

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Renovated Potrero Library Re-Opens

By Michael Condiff

Open seating at Starr King Openspace. Photograph by Nicki Dugan.

New Starr King Board Promises Transparency, Accountability

By Mary Purpura Last spr i ng a n i ne-member board was elected to manage Starr King Openspace, the 3.5 acres of community owned, hilltop green patch that stretches from 23rd and Carolina to 24th and De Haro streets.

Many of the newly elected had been galvan ized to become involved because of a proposed development at 1321 De Haro Street. For decades the property was a single family residence. When it changed hands in 2008, the new owner announced plans to demolish the existing structure, replace it with a three-unit building, and retain the right of easement allowing cars to pass through the adjacent Starr King Openspace to the units.

Potrero Hill residents who love the hilltop oasis expected the thenStarr King board to oppose the project. When that opposition didn’t materialize, community members insisted on the election of a new board. The reconstituted board quickly mounted a campaign to minimize the proposed development’s adverse impacts on the Openspace.

Last fall, the San Francisco Planning Commission ruled that 1321 De Haro Street couldn’t build a garage facing the open space – a victory for the new board – instead requiring cars to enter the building on De Haro Street.

“We had no idea what we were getting into when we were elected

Scenic views of the City skyline and a 33 percent increase in space will greet visitors at the fully renovated Potrero Branch. Mayor Gavin Newsom, City Librarian Luis Herrera, State Senator Mark Leno, District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, Department of Public Works Director Ed Reiskin and other City and state officials are expected to be on hand when the doors open at 2 p.m. on March 6. Located on 20th Street, near Connecticut, the library has been closed for a $5.4 million renovation since 2008.

“This branch offers a remarkable skyline view of San Francisco that patrons can enjoy, but also offers much to enjoy inside the building, including a wonderful children’s area and new teen area,” said Herrera. “With new technology, additional computers and an expanded collection of

material, we (could) hardly wait to reopen the doors to this spectacular branch.”

T h e r e no v at io n i nc lu d e d seismic retrofitting, accessibility improvements for the disabled and elderly; and an elevator and additional staircase to access a new program room, which can accom modate librar y classes, events and after-hours activities.

A brightly lit children’s area with an interactive play-to-learn wall and a new designated teen area were created. A centerpiece of the library is a new sculpture, entitled “Here and Past Here,” suspended above the main staircase. The abstract sculpture, by artist Gina Telcocci, references Potrero Hill’s unique natural and cultural history.

The renovation was designed by the Library Design Studio, Bureau of Architecture in the San Francisco Department of Public Works.

Continued on Page 8

Continued on Page 10

Old Skool Café Schools At-Risk Youth

By Ben Terrall After graduating from Westmont College in 1997, Teresa Goines worked for two years as a probation officer in Santa Barbara. The experience changed her views about incarceration, having witnessed “a revolving door” in which youth were pulled into the criminal justice system with few options for finding ways out. Young people, according to Goines, were “set up to fail.”

Goines decided to shift her focus

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Guitarworks 6

to preventative work. After moving to the City in 2002 she took a job with the San Francisco Unified School District as the coordinator of the Gang Risk Intervention Program (GRIP) at Horace Mann Middle School. When GRIP laid her off she took a job as the Head Start family service manager, housed at 20 Cook Street. In that position Goines oversaw family support services for 13 Head Start sites.

Continued on Page 15

Zuppa 14

After a two-year-long renovation, the Potrero Branch Library reopens on March 6th to a public eager to get back this much loved public space. Upgraded to meet seismic and accessibility standards, the structure now boasts a new upper level and an elevator. The extra floor space has allowed the branch to expand its collection, offer more computer terminals, add a new program room and create a larger teen section. The most striking addition is the floor-to-ceiling glass window at the back of the building with its unobstructed views of Downtown San Francisco.

The View interviewed branch manager Lia Hillman and artist Gina Telcocci, creator of the building’s new public art piece, to hear their thoughts about the new library.

To listen in visit the View’s video gallery at www.potreroview.net. Photograph and video by Jeanne Storck.

Teatro ZinZanni 19

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

Publisher’s View Nature

Published by The Sacramento Bee January 19, 2010

By Steven J. Moss City living has always been full of trades-offs. While we can’t skinny dip in the local watering hole – unless it’s a bar tucked away in a back alley – we do have access to superlative art, science, and natural history museums, multiple live theaters, and, though struggling, a public transportation system. Children who don’t have unbridled access to nature can learn about art at the San Francisco Modern Art Museum, dance at the San Francisco Ballet, and experience the San Francisco Symphony. While our kids may not have the same intimacy with nature as their country cousins, they’re arguably better off than their suburban counterparts, who grow up in a middle ground where nature principally consists of manicured lawns, and culture is found at the mall or multiplex.

Still, San Francisco has the ability to improve families’ access t o n at u r e, pa r t ic u la rly i n t he Southeast neighborhoods, where a large proportion of the City’s children are raised. Nascent efforts at Starr King Openspace to develop programs with next door neighbor Starr King Elementary School; SF Urban Riders’ attempts to create kid-friendly mountain bike trails to access oft desolate McLaren Park; and the McKinley Square Community Association and McKinley Square Park Foundation’s work to make larger swaths of that park safer for everyone reflect emerging attempts to recreate our relationship with nature.

We may never again experience the childhood freedoms we had a generation ago in San Francisco.

But we can provide our children with a sense that they live in a place that’s consists of more than buildings, asphalt roads, swing sets, and street trees. If we don’t, we risk replicating half-millennium old attitudes towards nature, in which a walk in the woods is a scary thing to do, and quiet contemplation sitting on a boulder next to a stream is forever replaced by the restless chatter of video games and online media.

By Priscilla Moncada, 2nd Grade Starr King Elementary School

Grow i ng up i n Souther n California – and later in the Bay A rea – my sisters, brother and I would ride our bikes, walk to school, or play in the dry creek beds near our house without a second thought. Long-time Potrero Hill residents experienced that same childhood freedom, exploring the then marshy Mission Bay, or rolling dow n u ndeveloped hillsides on what’s now called the north slope.

Youth was spent biking to friends’ houses, investigating tadpoles in meandering creeks, searching for fossils, arrowheads, or old bottles, and playing hide-and-seek in wide open fields.

Today our children do none of t h e s e t h i n g s , at le a s t n o t unsupervised. Much of the City’s open space has been paved over.

Most parents wouldn’t let anyone younger than a teenager play alone in Candestick Point, McLaren, or even Jackson parks, or bike much further than down the block. Relative to even a generation ago, our children’s sense of freedom and familiarity with nature has been substantially diminished.

Low-income children living in Bayview-Hunters Point or Visitacion Valley may never see a redwood tree, or even dip their toes in the Pacific Ocean. Even upper income families’ interaction with nature is often limited to tightly supervised nature walks and highly scheduled camping trips. In San Francisco, at least, gone are the long days when a pair of ten year olds could spend hours wandering along a quasi-urban stream, occasionally squatting down to poke a stick into a leaf, or stare at an unusual-looking beetle.

This loss coincides with a period in which urban society’s relationship with nature tends to center on divisions over who gets to use what amount of scarce open space for which activities. Dog walkers – increasingly paid professionals – herd up to a half-dozen free range canines into available patches; preservationists try to fence off tracts to be populated by native flora and fauna only; soccer players, ultimate Frisbee gamers, roller skaters, and mountain bikers all vie for their part of what’s left of paradise. Meanwhile, by and large, once children have graduated from whatever plastic playgrounds are available to them they’re kept away from experiencing the urban ecosystem entirely. Nature is found at the zoo, or behind glass walls at the Academy of Sciences.

Editorial: Pacific Gas and Electric Company Grabs for Power Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) spent $3.5 million to collect more than a million signatures to qualify what it calls the Taxpayers Right to Vote Act for California’s June ballot. The self-serving title makes it sound like motherhood and apple pie. It is neither; the opposite, in fact.

If voters approve the measure, it will protect the investor-owned utility from dissatisfied customers angry about bad service and high costs. The initiative makes it virtually impossible for those customers to escape PG&E and create their own public power agency or to be annexed by a neighbor i ng gover n mentowned and operated utility. Under its provisions, a super majority, or two-thirds of the voters, in any jurisdiction would have to approve a proposal to switch from an investorowned utility and move to public power. Stated another way, one-third of the electorate, a minority, would get to decide this vital issue for the majority.

PG&E’s motives in this effort are obvious. Northern California’s largest investor-owned utility has among the highest electricity rates of any power provider in the country, and those rates will likely go a lot higher soon.

Currently PG&E has some 10 rate hike requests worth more than $5 billion pending before the California P u bl ic Ut i l it ie s C o m m i s s io n .

Increasingly, customers straining to pay those high electric bills are turning to public power for relief.

PG&E charges its average customers 15.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) customers pay 11.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, 25 percent less. Roseville’s rates are comparable to SMUD’s.

In recent years PG&E has spent tens of millions of dollars to fend off efforts by ratepayers in San Joaquin, San F rancisco, Mar in and Yolo counties who’ve tried to

form their own public utilities or annex themselves to public power agencies. If its initiative passes, PG&E won’t have to worry about fighting small battles all over the state. The constitutional amendment makes it virtually impossible for any jurisdiction to escape the PG&E monopoly. It also makes it difficult for cities that have public power agencies to extend that coverage to areas they annex in the future without going through onerous and expensive public votes. Given the two-thirds threshold they face under the initiative, they would likely lose.

It gets worse.

Attor neys for the Nor ther n C a l i for n ia Powe r A ge nc y, t he organization that represents public utility districts, say the way the initiative is drafted may prevent public agencies from providing power to a new subdivision, apartment building or business built within their own jurisdictions without first getting a two-thirds vote of approval from the public.

Finally, the PG&E ballot measure is another troubling example of the initiative process going dangerously awry in California, of a powerful spe cia l i nte re st sei z i ng t he initiative process for its own narrow benefit. The measure the utility is bankrolling is not a simple statute.

It is a constitutional amendment.

If it passes, it enshrines unfair protections against competition for PG&E, one of the richest, most powerful corporations in the state, into the California Constitution.

It is unusual for The Bee to come out against a ballot measure before the campaign has really started. The PG&E initiative deserves special attention. It’s that bad.

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EDITOR and PUBLISHER: Steven J. Moss PRODUCTION MANAGER: Lisa Tehrani MARCH STAFF:

Stacey Bartlett, Michael Condiff, Joni Eisen, Debbie Findling, Birgitte Gilliland, Lori Higa, Abigail Johnson, Catie Magee, Sara Moss, Mary Purpura, Greg Roensch, Mauri Schwartz, Mike Stillman, Ben Terall Editorial and policy decisions are made by the staff.

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

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Short Cuts Rebuild What!?

Last month roughly a dozen Potrero Hillians responded to 20th Street resident Buck Schmitz’s call for a meeting to increase community scrutiny of proposed redevelopment of the Potrero Annex and Terrace complexes. Schmitz is concerned that, despite an eighteen month planning process that drew in 500 people, not enough com mu n ity members are aware of the project.

Meeting participants questioned Bridge Housing’s proposals to almost triple the complexes’ density, the paltry amount of open space included in current plans, and a lack of retail amenities. In an editorial in the December View, meeting participant and publisher Steve Moss pointed to the need for considerably more financial resources to develop the necessary amenities for the project, such as significant open and retail space, transportation infrastructure, and investments in local public schools. This one is far from over, and is likely to be a multi-year slog before shovel hits dirt. But the time to get into the scrum is now… Power flickered throughout San Francisco last month at exactly the moment Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) was testing the new Trans Bay Cable. PG&E is investigating whether the test caused the flicker, as well as how many people lost power for longer than a moment. The halfbillion dollar cable could convey 40 percent of the City’s power needs, and will enable the Potrero Power Plant to close.

Showplace Park The results of a year-long open space planning process focusing on the Showplace Square area were

unveiled at a San Francisco Planning Commission meeting held in late January. With upwards of 5,000 residents expected to be drawn to new housing projects in the area over the next decade, community members identified eight existing quarter acre or smaller parcels that could be transformed from streets and sidewalks into pocket parks and greenways. Underutilized areas at 7th and Berry streets, in Daggett Triangle, and on Carolina Street, adjacent to Jackson Park, were among the most popular targets for greening. While praising the planning process, a scattering of activists at the meeting – including Neighborhood Parks Council board member Isabel Wade and Mission Bay Citizen Advisory Committee member Corrine Woods – expressed disappointment that a larger open space vision hasn’t yet emerged, and no significant financing sources to acquire parks found. Showplace Squ a r e r e side nt Ca rla L esh ne pointed-out that some potential open space areas – particularly what remains of a Channel/Carolina street parcel, most of which was traded to Recology for additional park land in Little Hollywood – weren’t included in planning discussions.

Even assembling the smaller pieces is unlikely to occur until at least 2011, and that’s assuming the upwards of $20 million dollars needed to do so can be located. Oh, it’s right there, under that skyscraper…

Safety Patrol Last month Chez Maman was robbed at gunpoint by two masked men who took money and valuables from the til, cooks and diners. How brazen can you get?...As the View was going to print a suspect was

Letters to the Editor Dear Editor,

Dear Editor,

Unless my friends and I got our facts wrong, the high turnover building at 18th and Connecticut has been owned by Irving Zaretsky’s greedy gang since long before 1999, probably starting before I moved here in the early 1980’s. One of the silent partners died in 1998, which may have triggered a deed change in 1999, upon which your writer Anthony Myers picked-up (“18th Street commercial Corridor Rocked

by Changes,” February issue).

Irving and company evicted, or, as they say, “…failed to come to an equitable agreement on rent,” both Good Life Grocery in 1985, and Just For You in the mid-1990’s. The Good Life space was kept a vacant eyesore by the owners for about ten years, until Eliza’s rented and renovated the site. Then they moved out last year.

“Innovative Energy Efficiency Model Could Reduce Low-Income Household Costs and Create Green Jobs,” in the February View, strongly resonated with me. For most of my adult life, Iíve been working at or below the poverty line. At one studio apartment, I had a very old model refrigerator that leaked, didn’t close all the way, and had cosmetic damage. Although my electricity was paid by the landlord, as someone concerned about the environment and who disliked having to always leave towels on the floor to soak up fluids, I approached him on numerous occasions requesting a replacement refrigerator, to no avail. I even offered to pay for a new model by paying slightly more each month in rent. Luckily, after several years of trying to convince my landlord, a Good Samaritan donated a new

Ed Lortz 19th Street

Continued on Page 21

Esprit Park, January 30, 2010. Photograph by Gregory Katz. in police custody... In response to requests from McKinley Square neighbors, Bayview Police Captain Greg Surh has launched periodic motorcycle patrols around the park, as well as nearby Vermont Street and The Benches. Until they were notified by residents, the Honda Tactical Unit was unaware that there was more to the park – five acres more – than the upper turf and playground. While increased safety is always welcome, some locals are concerned that deployment of the offroad vehicles will result in unwanted police intrusion and noise...Potrero Hill continues to be plagued by automobile break-ins. Nationally, GPS devices are the most stolen item from vehicles, most often from foreign models. Take those bad boys, along with every speck of plausibly valuable dust, with you, and lock your car...According to Surh, Bayview is home to roughly 1,000 individuals who are on parole, with perhaps less than 500 people committing all of the crimes in Southeast San Francisco.

The captain is keeping a watchful eye on these repeat offenders…Bring Your Own Big Wheel wants to return to the City’s crookest street this Easter Sunday. The event, in which costumed adults barrel down Vermont Street on tricycles, garbage cans, and all varieties of small-wheeled conveyances, attracts hundreds of participants and onlookers. It’s unquestionably fun, but some nearby residents are concerned about the threat to their property caused by the hordes of strangers, and are opposed to the disruption to the area on what is celebrated by many as a family holiday. The Department of Parking and Traffic will consider whether to approve a permit for the event, or shift it to McLaren Park, on March 11.

Tragedy of the Commons Tensions are again rising over the poor conditions of Dogpatch and Continued on Page 9

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

GreenTrustSF Champions Eco-Friendly Vision for Dogpatch

By Lori Higa

developers with projects in the central Pennsylvania. “Twenty-second waterfront area. Members include Street is really the commercial Dogpatch is an eclectic mix of architect, vice chair and secretary hub of Dogpatch and the central historically significant waterfront Stephen Antonaros; local attorney, waterfront,” said Carpinelli. “It’s i ndu s t r i a l s t r uc t u r e s , s t at e ly Pennyslvania Street resident and a five-block stretch that connects Victorians, humble shipyard worker treasurer Mark Walther; member-at- Potrero Hill to Dogpatch and the cottages, and gleaming new live- large and developer Loring Sagan, waterfront, bringing travelers to and work lofts and condominiums. The !"#$%&'()**+,-.&/00&-1/00+2+# a Build, Inc. partner; and Texas from the neighborhood from Third neighborhood has been ground zero JB8N(G3LS(Y(G#'0A#%$,F# Street resident and webmaster Ralph Street and the light rail as well as the for locals versus developer fights for decades. Now, with the massivelyscaled University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Mission Bay research and medical complex at its doorstep, Dogpatch residents are working to address the challenges associated with living in an urban area.

Founded in 2006, GreenTrustSF (GTSF) is leading the fight to improve one of Dogpatch’s main drags, 22nd Street, with hopes of spreading its green gospel throughout the eastern neighborhoods. Like many San Franciscans, Janet Carpinelli, one of GreenTrustSF’s founders and current chair, is a New York transplant who fell in love with the City while visiting, and never A reimagined Muni park on 22nd Street; just one of the several concepts presented left. She had lived in a number of by Fletcher Studio. neighborhoods – from Pacific Heights to Cow Hollow, Clement Street to the Wilson. San Francisco Parks Trust 22nd Street Caltrain station.”

Avenues – before finding “the sun” (SFPT) serves as the group’s fiscal In 2008 GTSF began to gather and settling in Dogpatch, where sponsor. ideas from residents about how to she’s tended her garden for the past A fter leading the charge to improve the corridor after receiving two decades. successfully clean and green Agua grants from UCSF and the Eastern GTSF’s five-member board of Vista Park and Warm Water Cove, Neighborhoods Public Benefits Fund. directors is comprised of neighborhood GTSF is now focused on greening The latter of which is administered residents, small business owners and 22nd Street between Third and by former Dogpatch Neighborhood

Complimentary ad space provided by the View.

Association president Susan Eslick, Potrero Hill Association of Merchants and Businesses president Keith Goldstein and Carpinelli’s husband, real estate consultant Joe Boss. GTSF hired Dogpatch-based landscape architectural firm Fletcher Studio to develop plans for a pilot, which would implement “temporary concepts that if successful and get a thumbs-up from the community can be made permanent,” said David Fletcher, principal of his eponymous firm.

Earlier this year GTSF held a com mu n ity meeting where it u nveiled several g reening alternatives designed by Fletcher Studio. Refreshments were provided by 22nd Street restaurants Cup o’ Blues, Dogpatch Saloon, Just For You and Piccino, in space donated

by Rickshaw Bagworks. “Our goal isn’t just to beautify and green 22nd Street,” Carpinelli explained. “It’s about improving quality of life and safety as well as expanding and enhancing open and green space.”

Fletcher’s concepts for enhancing 22nd Street include dedicating parts of sidewalks to native vegetation and trees, redesigning an existing, disused Muni mini-park, improving w at e r q u a l it y a n d d r a i n a g e , reconfiguring parking and traffic calming. A key design element is the deployment of temporary chicanes or bulbouts – artificial features which Continued on Page 12

THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

5

Three More District 10 Candidates Enter the Race

By Joni Eisen

Abby Bridge, Potrero Branch Librarian Jasmin Springer, Mission Bay Branch Children’s Librarian Potrero Branch Grand Re-opening Celebration Saturday, March 6, 1 to 4 p.m.

The San Francisco Public Library, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and Potrero Library Campaign Committee cordially invite you to celebrate the re-opening of the newly renovated Potrero Branch Library.

Festivities begin at 1 p.m. and will include entertainment and refreshments.

Library services will be available from 2 to 6 p.m.

Potrero children’s programs for March: Family Storytime, featuring stories, songs and rhymes. For children from birth to five years old and their caregiver. Thursdays, March 4, 11, and 18, 10:30 a.m. March 4 storytime at St. Teresa’s Community Hall, Connecticut and 19th streets.

Fratello Marionettes present Carnival of Animals. Three classic storybook tales, The Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Ugly Duckling performed by the brilliant Fratello Marionettes. For children of all ages. Thursday, March 27, 10:30 a.m.

Additional branch information: http://potrerolibrarysfpl.blogspot.com.

Mission Bay Library The Mission Bay Library is located at 960 Fourth Street, at Berry, near AT&T Park. The library is open Tuesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Wednesdays noon to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Sundays 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Muni N and T lines are a block away, at Fourth and King Streets. Street parking is on Channel Street, also a block away. The branch phone number is 355.2838. Additional branch information: http:// missionbaylibrary.blogspot.com.

Po t re ro H i l l D e m o c r a t i c Club’s February meeting included introductions to three new candidates, who spoke in random order.

BART Board Director Lynette Sweet was educated in San Francisco public schools and the University of California, Berkeley. She got her start in politics when Mayor Willie Brown, responding to her concerns about affordable housing, appointed her to the San Francisco Redevelopment Commission. Brown then assigned her to the Taxi Commission, from which her interest in transportation led her to run successfully for BART’s Board of Directors. “My skills are in getting things done,” Sweet said, citing her work on the Trans Bay Cable, which is scheduled to be operational March 1. She thinks economic development and diversity are vital to the district.

Longtime Hunters Point community activist Espanola Jackson said that economic development is fine as long as half the jobs generated go to residents of District 10. She said she wants to hear what people have to say, and to ensure that the candidate elected represents the whole City, as well as the District. Jackson asserted that she is not in this race to win, but rather to keep the other candidates honest. She mentioned some of her own endeavors, such as working with

other community members to keep peaker plants out of the community.

She closed by saying,“Make sure that you get the right person.”

ICBM (Irish Catholic Born in the Mission) Tony Kelly is the founder of Thick House, one of the smallest professional union theaters in the country and President of the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association.

He characterized District 10 as a place “where the action is” for the big issues, yet he asserted it is plagued with the worst schools, parks, pollution and transit. Kelly’s activist focus has been on land use, which he said, “decides who lives here, who works here, and how they do it.” To solve persistent problems, such as poverty and unemployment, and to ensure a sustainable economy and environment, he stressed listening to the residents of District 10 instead of City Hall and corporations.

Recent Potrero Hill Democratic C l u b m e e t i n g s h a v e f e a t u re d introductions by candidates James Calloway, Malia Cohen, Kristine Enea, Marie Franklin, DeWitt Lacy, Geoffrea Morris, Steve Moss, Linda Richardson, Diane Westley Smith and Eric Smith. The Club will host a candidates’ forum as the November 2010 election draws near.

For upcoming meetings, and audio of past events, go to www.PHDemClub. org.

March’s Mission Bay Programs Baby Rhyme Time. Interactive music, rhymes, bounces, books, and more for infants to 24 months and their caregivers. Thursdays, March 11, 18, 25, 10:15 a.m.

Toddler Tales. Music, movement, rhymes, books and more for 18 to 36 months and their caregivers. Fridays, March 5, 12, 19, 26, 4:30 p.m.

Preschool Storytimes. Stories, songs, rhymes and more for children ages three to five. Thursdays, March 4, 11, 18, 25, 4:30 p.m.

Puppet Show: Goldilocks and the Three Teddybears. Goldilocks falls asleep on her bed and dreams that she and her teddy bears go on an adventurefilled picnic. Presented by P&T Puppet Theatre. For ages two to seven.

Wednesday, March 3, 4 p.m.

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By Julissa Murillo, 4th Grade Daniel Webster Elementary School

Potrero Library Campaign The Potrero Neighborhood Library Campaign Committee meets monthly to discuss fundraising strategies. If you’d like to join the committee, contact Mary Abler at Friends of the Library: 626.7512, extension 107; mary.abler@ friendsssfpl.org.

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

San Francisco Guitarworks Plucks a Good Business

By Mike Stillman In the nine years that they’ve been in business, San Francisco Guitarworks has earned a reputation as one of the best repair shops in the City. Operating out of a 750 square foot space on Potrero Avenue, SF Guitarworks’ four person team is equipped to take on any type of repair job. Whether they’re fixing a beginner’s first guitar, preparing a professional musician’s instrument for a lengthy tour, or in one recent case, rebuilding the body of an acoustic guitar that a customer’s wife smashed over his head during an argument, SF Guitarworks strives for perfection.

“We really do stand behind our work, you’re gonna get the best work that you can find here, and we’re willing to bite the bullet to make sure that that’s the case,” said owner and Potrero Hill resident, Geoff Luttrell.

According to Luttrell, consistency i n work ma nsh ip a nd customer service are the two main reasons why SF Guitarworks has been so successful.

Despite the slow economy, demand from customers from throughout the Bay Area remains strong. In addition to conducting top notch repair work, S.F. Guitarworks performs follow-up calls on every job, and back all their repairs with a money back guarantee, services that are not commonly offered in this business. According to Luttrell, “What I’ve heard from other people is, if they go into a shop to pick up their guitar and it’s not how they wanted it to be, they get some reason why their expectations are not correct.” Luttrell said SF Guitarworks’ policy is “If you come in and [your guitar] is not up to what we said we could deliver, we’ll either make it that way or you don’t pay.”

Chris Kendrick, a self-employed property manager and San Francisco resident, has been coming to SF Guitarworks for the past four years, and estimated that he’s brought in at least twenty guitars, many of which were rare, vintage instruments.

“They do great work, they’re really careful…I’ve never had to bring

[a guitar] back in. It’s always done perfectly the first time, that’s pretty rare.”

Since opening in 2001, Luttrell has worked on more than 6,000 guitars. He started SF Guitarworks after being laid off from a technology industry job. Using his severance package, he rented a tiny warehouse space on Third Street, and began repairing guitars on his own. He moved to Potrero Avenue in 2003, and then moved next door into his current, larger, space in 2007. In 2009 he hired two more employees, bringing the total number of staff to four. “Everybody who works here is creative, responsible, and cares about their craft, and that’s nice to work around,” said Luttrell.

Woodacre resident Tom Young has brought in every guitar he owns to be repaired or modified at SF Guitarworks. “They did seventeen in a row, I’d bring one in as I picked up the next, sometimes I would drop off two or three at a time.” Because he’s a left-handed guitar player, Young regularly needs to have new guitars that he buys modified. “Jeff is a master at cutting [guitar] necks…

I’m completely happy with Jeff and everyone he employs. It really surprises me how knowledgeable these guys are, very nice people too, he picks out really good employees,” said Young.

SF Guitar works has helped Bay A rea g u itar players to, as shop manager Benjamin Strange said, “fall in love with their own instrument again. The enjoyment infuses back into the music, [the guitar] becomes more of a mouth piece than a stumbling block.”

Geoff Luttrell perfects his craft. Photographs courtesy of SF Guitarworks.

The Art of Guitar Repair

By Greg Roensch Sometimes you meet a person who is perfectly suited to their job.

Potrero Hill resident Geoff Luttrell, the owner of SF Guitarworks on Potrero Avenue, is one of those people. When it comes to repairing guitars, Geoff has the skill of a master craftsman and the passion to match. I asked G eof f a few questions about SF Guitarworks.

GR: What made you decide to fix guitars for a living?

GL: I’ve always been in bands, and I started working on my own instruments when I was in my teens.

I’ve been a welder, auto mechanic, machinist, bicycle framebuilder, raft g u ide, a nd f i n a l ly comput e r technician. After getting laid off from the computer job, I used my severance package to go to school with the intention of opening my own shop.

GR: You attended The Fretworks School of Luthier y in Calgar y, Canada? What was that like?

GL: It was cold! Seriously, though, The Fretworks is an interesting place because it’s owned and operated by a very quirky guy, who also lives in the shop. But I learned a lot about guitar

repair during my time there. In fact, I built most of the tools I use on a daily basis at The Fretworks.

GR: Ever come across a guitar that you couldn’t fix?

GL: We can fix anything at the shop, but I would say the guitar that I most wanted to fix, but didn’t get to, was a 1963 Gibson SG. The neck had been broken and was attached incorrectly with a large bolt. It would have required intense woodworking to fix the guitar, but the customer balked at the price. I was sad to see that guitar leave the shop.

GR: Are there any guitars out there that you have to get your hands on before going to the great guitar shop in the sky?

GL: It would be amazing to hold Billy Gibbons’ Les Paul, Pearly Gates. Any of Eddie Van Halen’s guitars would be epic too. That said, even working on a battered old Harmony is better than any other job I’ve had.

GR: Of all the guitars you’ve worked on, which job are you most proud of?

GL: I’ve worked on more than 6,000 guitars, but if I had to pick one I’d say Continued on Page 8

THE POTRERO VIEW

Art Blooms at McKinley Square

By Mike Stillman A rundown section of Potrero Hill will soon host an art installation created by Downtown High School (DHS) students. With the help of professional artist Daniela Steinsapir and urban designer Berta Lazaro, eight students will install a mural on Vermont Street’s retaining wall, near McKinley Square Park, and create a living gallery that will include three dimensional elements and lighting.

The project is supported by the San Francisco Department of Public Works and the McKinley Square Community Association (MSCA), who hope it will help clean up an area that’s been marred by vandalism and neglect. For the student-artists it’s a chance to fix up their own backyard: DHS is located on Vermont Street, just a few blocks from the project site.

Starting last fall the students have met weekly to brainstorm potential art elements to install. After much discussion, the group agreed that the project’s themes should include love, family, community, and the idea of a heart “pumping” the City.

“The students are really exited…they have a lot to say,” said Steinsapir.

According to Steinsapir, the project has helped the participating DHS students feel that their ideas have a place in the world. This sense of validation will inspire them to challenge themselves and continue to create.

Steinsapir and her co-teacher Lazaro became involved with DHS through Southern Exposure (Soex).

Based in the Mission, Soex is a nonprofit organization that’s been promoting art and education for thirty-six years. DHS and Soex first started working together in 2008, when Tara Foley, Soex’s Artists in Education Program Manager, set up an after school print making class at DHS. After two successful

semesters, Foley decided to take on a more ambitious project, and hired Steinsapir and Lazaro to lead the McKinley Square public art effort.

According to Foley, DHS students are a perfect match for the project because the school relies on an innovative, project-based curriculum that’s designed to engage students who struggled in more traditional classroom setti ngs. T he school enrolls students from throughout San Francisco, but many of the students involved with the project live close to the installation site.

Seventeen year old DHS student Miguel De La ‘O said he was inspired to participate in the project because he drives by the site every day, and wants to make the area more beautiful. De La ‘O believes that public art projects not only improve the appearance of a neighborhood, but also contribute to the well being of nearby residents.

Josselin Gomez, a seventeen year old DHS student, said she’s excited to take part in a project that will enliven a neglected part Potrero Hill.

“We would all benefit from having more art in display in public spaces because we don’t all have time to go to a museum and enjoy art,” she said.

The project may also serve to improve the relationship between DHS students and Potrero Hill residents. The two groups haven’t interacted much since the school moved to the Hill from its Bartlett Street location four years ago. Some Hill residents suspect that DHS students may be responsible for neighborhood graffiti. Cris Rys, MSCA’s vice-chairman, said he hopes that working on the project will encourage the students to feel like they’re a part of the community The installation will be completed in May and will remain in place for two months.

March 2010

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A View from the Past

This 1930 Department of Public Works (DPW) photograph, looking from Utah Street south to 18th Street and beyond, supports my belief that Utah never ran straight-and-true across Potrero Hill’s western slope, as most nineteenth-century maps would lead one to believe. Look at that wall of rock there! It appears that DPW’s graders and pavers elected not to cut through that impediment, but did carry on above it to 19th Street, where they threw up their hands. From there on, Utah was a stony, hillside-clinging path, traversable only by goats, before becoming a real road again at 23rd Street, south of McKinley Square and San Francisco General Hospital. In the early 1950s, the uphill stretch of Utah, to the left in the photo, the houses fronting it, as well as a chunk of 18th Street between Utah and San Bruno streets, were bulldozed to accommodate the James Lick Freeway. A short private driveway off 19th Street, overlooking the freeway, is the only reminder of the block that once was. The stairway, lower left, mimics the location of today’s pedestrian bridge that connects this bit of Utah Street to its former neighborhood, Potrero Hill.

– Abigail Johnston, The Potrero Hill Archives Project

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

Carless in San Francisco

By Mary Purpura For t ho s e of u s t r y i n g t o make sound ecological choices, it’s ultimately necessary to take a hard look at our dependence on the automobile, and the society we’ve built as a result. The quality of the air we breathe, the health of the bay, and our fabric of life are impacted heavily by driving. Some Southeast San Francisco residents have concluded that they can live more ecologically and economically – and have more fun - by relying on biking and walking rather than driving to get around.

Potrero Hill resident Ann Lyons has bike commuted for more than ten years, from the top of Arkansas and 20th streets to her office at Second and Folsom streets, and back up that killer hill. “I evolved from a scooter to a bike,” said Lyons. “I felt that I could ride a bike anywhere I could take a scooter, and I liked the bike a lot better. I can go faster on a bike because I’m not required to stay in car lanes. Parking is easier. I never have to go to a gas station. And I’m more connected to sidewalk life and other people instead of traffic. I think it’s the best way to get to know the City and the whole area.”

A lex La ntsberg, a Bay v iew resident, was car-free until his son, now two years old, was born. Now the family owns an automobile. On Saturdays, Lantsberg will often hook a trailer to his bike for his son to ride in for a shopping trip to the Alemany Farmer’s Market. “My son loves traveling in the trailer,” said Lantsberg, “but it’s just not practical” for everyday movement with a small child. “Still, bicycling is my preferred mode of transportation within the City limits.” Lantsberg advocates bicycling for fiscal reasons.

“By every economic pricing, you end up saving so much money” when you bike instead of drive. “Cars are expensive. With a bike, you don’t pay

for gas or insurance or parking. All that adds up pretty fast.”

Rhonda Winter, also a Bayview resident, has been car-free for years, since she and her husband sold their Toyota truck to California’s Vehicle Buy-Back Program. Occasionally, Wi nter a nd her hu sba nd rents or borrows a car to take a long trip. But she often relies on public transportation even for long-distance travel, and has taken Amtrak up the West Coast, to Colorado, and several times across the country. “I don’t miss the truck, and I really enjoy traveling by train. You meet very interesting people. People that tend to ride the train have time for a trip like that, and a mentality that distinguishes them from the rush-rush that seems to characterize life these days,” said Winter.

Winter also keeps her travel focus local. “We’ll go camping on Angel Island, or do things that you can take Caltrans to,” she said. “Our society’s driving-everywhere lifestyle is not sustainable, and appeals to a lazy, consumerist, hedonistic aspect of our culture. We need to be in our neighborhoods and do things locally.

Harvey Milk said, ‘If you want to change the world, start in your own neighborhood.’” Winter walks to do local errands, and has ridden her bike around the City for years. “Biking is fun and it feels good. The way you interact with your neighborhood and your neighbors is so much more direct when you’re biking. I often pick up batteries I see littering the streets, then recycle them. It’s small, but it matters. I’m keeping toxins out of our water. When you’re biking or walking, you’re able to have a much more direct impact on your world.”

The recently departed director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment,Jared Blumenfeld, who was selected by the Obama Administration to head the U.S. Continued on Page 11

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Library

Guitarworks

Continued from Front Page

Continued from Page 6

Potrero is the 14th library project to be completed under the Branch Librar y Improvement Program, which is funded by a $105.9 million bond measure passed in November 2000. The program is supporting the renovation of 16 branch libraries, and the construction of eight new library buildings around the City.

Over the past two years, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and the Potrero Library Campaign Committee have worked in partnership with neighborhood residents and community organizations to raise roughly $500,000. These monies paid for furnishings, fixtures and equipment-expenses not covered by the bond. “By restoring and building new libraries, we’re creating jobs throughout San Francisco,” sa id Reisk i n. “Pot re ro’s open, expansive views mimic the expanded opportunities, both for work and for knowledge, that libraries offer our communities.”

For more information on the Potrero Library Campaign, contact Mary Abler at 626.7512 extension 107; mary.abler@friendsssfpl.org.

it was a 60’s Martin that was owned by the father of one of my customers.

It had been repaired poorly about 25 years ago and stored away after that. I removed all the bad repair work, installed a new bridgeplate, patched the top, reinstalled the bridge, and reset and refretted the neck. It was beautiful, and the father and son were very happy to have this beloved Martin back in action.

GR: What’s the best thing about owning your shop?

GL: There are so many things. It’s been great to build an environment where talented, creative people can do what they love as a profession.

Another big thing is delivering the quality experience that people expect from our shop. Our team at SF Guitarworks routinely goes the extra mile in so many ways that our customers never even see. When it comes down to it though, the best thing about owning the shop is the freedom that comes with being an entrepreneur.

To l ear n m ore abo ut G eof f Luttrell and SF Guitarworks: www. sfguitarworks.com.

THE POTRERO VIEW

Short Cuts Continued from Page 3 Potrero Hill parks, as well as the frequency of off-leash dogs romping in leashed-restricted areas. Last month Bayview police officers were called to ticket off-leash dogs on the Arkansas Street playing fields. And Esprit Park neighbors are noticing a distinct degradation in the quality of that beloved space’s grassy area.

Over use, or under-maintenance, of common areas is a problem that dates back to the first goat herd. There are a handful of solutions to the “tragedy of the commons:” adopt voluntary use protocols, enforced by community norms; legislatively restrict use, and enforce (existing) laws; collect fees, often from users, to pay for proper maintenance; or create more open space. Doing nothing leads to the tragedy indicated by the phrase, in the form of denuded areas that are less beneficial to everyone…Department of Recreation and Parks staff Mike Bross and Adela Dominguez – who provide programming at the Potrero Recreation Center – along with 120 other employees were handed pink slips last month. Bross had previously worked at Jackson Park.

Forty Rec and Parks positions will eventually be retained, though it’s unknown which ones.

Crushed

is moving from its Dogpatch digs to the Napa Valley. The soon not to be u rban w iner y’s customer base mostly consists of clients who don’t live in the Bay Area, and is dominated by commercial wine brands, undermining Crushpad’s original vision of serving as a sort of wine community center. Let’s all raise a glass to what was a noble neighborhood experiment. ..Depressants may be out in the City, but stimulants remain firmly in. Ecco Caffe will be moving to Potrero Hill this summer, where it will open a combination café and roaster y. Ecco honcho Andrew Barnett hasn’t released a specific address, but rumors are that the store will be sited somewhere on Mariposa Street. Ecco is considered one of the country’s top artisan roasters. While we may sample Ecco’s wares now and again, the View remains dedicated to Farley’s as the community’s cup of choice…Goat Hill Pizza was declared a “Bargain Bite” by the San Francisco Chronicle last month, which is almost better than appearing in Michelin when it comes to attracting more business. Known for its crisp sourdough crust, Goat Hill has been a neighborhood fixture for 35 years.

Natives may need to share tables with the Valencia Street and Lower Haight crowd for a few weeks…The Hells Angels have apparently signed a lease at the old Carpet Connection on Hudson Street.

Cr ushpad, wh ich a l lows customers to make their own wine,

If Not Now, When?

Last month the Westboro Baptist Church, a fringe hate group from Topeka, Kansas, threatened to picket outside Brandeis Hillel Day School, in addition to several other venues, including the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and Lowell High School. As the school prepared its response, calls and emails of support flowed in from other schools th roughout the City, includ ing Potrero Hill’s own International High School. While the hate group’s protest was stymied at another one of their targets, Stanford University – someone slashed their tires – the show of support from San Francisco students was inspiring. Let’s return the favor, and stand-up for our kids in the face of threatened massive budget cuts to public schools, which include the cancellation of summer school for junior and high school students, as well as those attending City College.

March 2010

and sustainability. Clean-tech companies could lease small spaces at the renovated facility, adding square footage as they grow. Renovation is slated to start within the next two years, with a $7.5 million federal grant providing initial funding for the $35 million project.

Baked The latest jargon in politicalspeak land is “baked,” which appears to mean intrinsic to a given project or proposal. For example, community benefits are “baked” into Lennar Corporation’s development plan for the Hunters Point Shipyard; or key renewable elements will be “baked” into negotiations with the San Francisco Public Utility Commission’s Community Choice Aggregation contract. As long as we’re cooking, how ‘bout baking up some more school funding, greater amounts of open space, and a decent public transportation system…

Ship Shape

Tooth Fairy

T he 260,000 - squ a r e -foot, 62-year-old Building 813 – currently an abandoned warehouse – at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is slated to be overhauled and reopened as a clean-technology incubation campus and United Nations Global Compact headquarters. The Global Compact is a decade-old joint venture between the United Nations and some of the world’s largest companies that focuses on issues of business

Tooth Fairy – a dreadful movie that, like its namesake, should never be seen – prompted pre-adolescents throughout the land to ask whether the alleged nocturnal creature is real.

The View has decided not to deploy an investigative reporter to dig into this potentially explosive parental conspiracy. But the paper can relate a few of the more insightful theories Continued on Page 15

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March 2010

Openspace Continued from Front Page

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to the board,” said Star r K ing board president Caroline Bird.

“We knew the organization needed help,” agreed Starr King board member Richard McDerby, “but we didn’t know it needed CPR.” Bird, McDerby and their board colleagues inherited a complicated tangle of poorly kept or nonexistent records; expired insurance; lapsed nonprofit status due to negligence in filing appropriate forms with the Registry of Charitable Trusts, the Internal Revenue Ser vice (IRS), and the Secretary of State; and as much as $100,000 in missing funds.

The severity of the problems was revealed gradually. “We had a hard time scheduling meetings with a representative from the former board after we were elected,” said McDerby. “T he transition took months. Frankly, to this day, it’s incomplete: We still don’t have records of former board meetings.”

The mailbox key and financial records were especially hard to secure. “We understood pretty quickly that we had no liability insurance on the open space,” said Bird. Members of the new board put up $3,000 of their own money to cover insurance costs, as they didn’t have access to Starr King funds. And without the mailbox key the new board was kept in the dark about many of the complex issues facing them. “The Secretary of State had sent two registered letters to the Starr King mailbox in March and April of

2009 warning that the organization was about to lose its nonprofit status.

We didn’t understand all that until months later.” Re-instating nonprofit status and straightening out tax responsibilities would have normally triggered fees and penalties. “Through [Board president] Caroline’s hard work, a lot of those penalties were waived,” explained McDerby.

According to Webb Green, a current board member who also served on the board ten years ago, “The old board stopped functioning as a board in 2002. It rarely held meetings, and never held elections.”

Jane Fay, who served as Starr King board president for five years, resigned in early 2001 when the board became “dysfunctional. I couldn’t get the board to agree to move forward on issues that seemed important for the community. I didn’t feel we were being effective,” she said. “But between the time I left and the election of the new board, a lot of good has been done too,” including taking conscientious care of the open space, removing non-native plants, introducing native species, and putting a stop to the dumping that was once rampant in the space.

Both Fay and Green recounted that various board members resigned until one person was left with control of the mailbox key, bank account, and paperwork. “Given the legacy we’ve inherited,” said Bird, “we’re really committed to being open to the community and operating with complete transparency.” To that end, the new board has designed Continued on Next Page

Community Land. A place of discovery and beauty.

Located on the south side of Potrero Hill, Starr King Openspace is the undeveloped land with walking paths, rock outcrops, wildflowers, and unobstructed views, bordered

by De Haro, 23rd, and Carolina streets. This land was deeded to the neighborhood in 1984. It is not maintained by the city. It is managed by a volunteer-run nonprofit organization and maintained by the people of Potrero Hill. Through the hard work of the community, it has been reclaimed as a serpentine grassland. Starr King Openspace is sustained entirely by volunteers and needs your support. You might be surprised by the number of ways you can support this important neighborhood treasure.

How can you get involved?

Participate in a volunteer workday. Openspace work days happen the third Saturday of every month, from 9am-12pm. Meet on Carolina St. across from Starr King Elementary. Your efforts as a volunteer keep the Openspace vibrant, clean, and safe. Everyone is welcome.

Contribute your skills, passion, and wisdom. Become a SKOS Citizen Steward by participating in the care of the land itself or by helping the nonprofit organization. The Openspace is looking for volunteers who can offer help in many capacities: Fundraising Grant writing Website Development Graphic Design Tax Preparation

Photography Concrete Removal Hydrology Expertise Community Relations Land Stewardship

Offer financial support. Like most nonprofits, the Openspace is kept afloat with financial support from the community. Donations can be made through our website, are tax-deductible, and much appreciated!

Contact us

www.starrkingopenspace.org groups.yahoo.com/group/starrkingpark starrkingboard@gmail.com PO Box 880293, San Francisco, CA 94188-0293 (415) 633-6756

Complimentary ad space provided by the View.

THE POTRERO VIEW a series of procedures to ensure accountability. The board president holds the organization’s checkbook, but two other board members have sole authority to sign checks. The organization has two secretaries, each of whom has a mailbox key.

When one of them gets the mail, that person sends an email message to all board members, reporting what was collected. Anything having to do with the group’s finances is immediately passed along to the treasurer. “This way,” explained Bird, “another set of eyes reviews financerelated mail before it moves on to the treasurer.” Anyone on the board can receive a donation check made out to Starr King Openspace. But cash contributions must be received by at least two board members. Donations are then passed on to the group’s treasurer, who makes a financial report to the board at every monthly meeting.

“We’ve t a ke n a t wo -t ie r e d approach to ma nag i ng th is organization responsibly,” said Bird. “We’ve established internal mechanisms to keep the organization running effectively and honestly, but we also consider community oversight and involvement essential.”

The g roup has held two public meetings since the 2009 election, and has made presentations at the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association and Democratic Club.

Board members staffed information tables at last year’s Potrero Hill History Night and the Potrero Hill Festival. “Our monthly meetings and monthly workdays are open to the public,” said Bird. “We want the community to become involved in Starr King committees, fundraising, and stewardship. We’re not so much looking for volunteers, as for community partners in the care of Sta r r K i ng Openspace; th is special piece of land that we all own together. “ We’r e v e r y aw a r e of t h e unique challenges faced by the

Starr King board,” said Tony Kelly, Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association president. “They are fiercely dedicated, and we support them wholeheartedly.” The Boosters have contr ibuted $1,500 to the organization, and another $1,500 has been offered as a matching grant if the Starr King Board can raise $3,000 from the community.

“Once the community learned about the threat that the proposed 1321 De Haro Street development posed to the Openspace, they were very responsive,” said McDerby.

“We’ve been very pleased with the outpouring of practical support— financial and otherwise—from the community.”

Starr King board members have launched an inquiry into the matter of the missing funds. Because of the sensitive nature of these proceedings, the board has requested that the View hold-off providing complete coverage of the issues, a request the paper has elected to respect.

“As a community newspaper we need to balance our readers’ right to know with the potential harm that could be done to our neighbors and vulnerable organizations by prematurely disclosing legally-tinged news,” said Steven Moss, the View’s editor and publisher. “The board has committed to providing the paper and the community with the whole story as soon as it’s able.” According to McDerby, the organization is exploring all available possibilities to recover Starr King’s lost funds.

“The current board had nothing to do with past shenanigans,” said Mo s s. “ T he boa r d ne e d s—a nd deserves—community support right now.” In a monetary demonstration of that support, the View will match every dollar raised by the Openspace in March, up to $500.

March 2010

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Carless Continued from Page 8 Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest reg ion, bike commutes every day from the top of Twin Peaks to his downtown office.

“It’s the most fun, exhilarating, adventurous way to start a day. I fly down the hill,” said Blumenfeld.

Of the trek back uphill at the end of the day Blumenfeld said, “You don’t need to be afraid to go slow.

Sometimes joggers pass me. But it’s very cathartic to do that uphill climb at the end of the day. You really leave behind all the stress and exhaustion from your workday.”

Lantsberg has advice for bikers getti ng sta r ted r id i ng i n h i l ly neighborhoods: “Make sure your tires are adequately inflated. Ride along a bus line in the lowest gear you’ve got. When you need to stop, stop. Catch a ride the rest of the way up the hill on MUNI.” According to Blumenfeld, every day will be easier.

“If you do an uphill ride every day for three weeks, the first week will be miserable,” he said. “The second will be less miserable, and the third week you’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment. San Francisco is seven miles square. It’s super easy getting around by bike once you start doing it. The obstacles are much more mythological than real.” Winter suggested starting small. “Identify one trip a week that you could do without a car, and then do it.”

A nu mber of prog ra ms a nd organizations are on offer in the City to help people get on their

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bikes. Lyons recommends the SF Bike Coalition’s free urban street skills class, www.sfbike.org/?edu, which includes classroom time as well as street riding with certified instructors, and the bike buddy program, www.sfbike.org/bikebuddy, in which experienced riders help newbies plan bike-friendly routes.

Winter is a fan of the Bike Coalition’s Gas-Free Fridays, www.sfbike.org/ independence, which are held in July and October, and encourage people to bike for one trip, one day each week. On each Gas-Free Friday, the coalition hosts an energizer station to “fuel up” bicyclists with coffee and snacks, and a local bike shop provides free bike maintenance.

Worker-owned Box Dog Bikes on 14t h St re et nea r Guer rero, www.boxdogbikes.com, offers bike maintenance classes and a community workbench where bicyclists can do their own repairs. The Bike Kitchen on Florida Street, www.bikekitchen. org, is an all-volunteer, cooperative bike shop where members pay a small fee or donate volunteer hours to build their own bike from spare parts. It also offers bike repair and maintenance classes, with volunteer mechanics available to help with bike repair issues. Last year the federal government established the bicycle commuter benefit, which entitles bicycle commuters to a $20 monthly reimbursement from their employers.

12

THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

GreentrustSF Continued from Page 4 slow cars – and planters, which would allow the neighborhood to try out ideas. “We want to do it chunk by chunk, take it a half block at a time, try things out and see what works,” said Carpinelli.

“G r e e n T r u s t S F h a s g r e at leadership, a talented designer and a very ambitious, great plan,” remarked Maria D’Angelico, SFPT’s program manager for fiscal sponsorship. “It’s an opportunity to build partnerships with City agencies and coordinate the creation of a local project. It’s exciting to attend GTSF’s community meetings,” recalled D’Angelico.

“People have different needs, and depending on their perspective, whether it’s bike lanes, parking or open space, there are definitely special interest groups. The process works well as long as everyone is heard. GreenTrustSF does a good job of trying to accommodate different perspectives and needs.”

Fletcher agreed. “They have a well-balanced board, with two a r c h it e c t s, a l aw ye r, who a r e very creative, give good feedback, and are dedicated to appropriate transformation in Dogpatch,” he commented. “They’re sensitive to existing character, vegetation, land use and activity, and enhancing, rather than obliterating or replacing them.”

Bulbouts increase pedestrian

safety because they decrease the distance across streets and corners.

Carpinelli noted that “Twentysecond street has long had a problem with speeding cars. People already congregate outside Piccino, so a temporary bulbout for that corner is proposed.”

Bulbouts aren’t cheap, costing $100,000 to $200,000 each, with a dozen bulbouts in the proposed plan. “We want to leverage funds from Muni, DPW, Caltrain, Caltrans — all are stakeholders and property owners here —as well as grants and fundraising, especially now that we have a plan in hand,” said Carpinelli. “It could be a bureaucratic nightmare. But we are determined to do it, with or without funding from them. We will get it done…with donations, volunteers, neighborhood involvement.”

The potential loss of parking represents another challenge to achieving GreenTrustSF’s vision.

The UCSF-Mission Bay campus will soon include a large women and children’s hospital, requiring an estimated 21,000 additional parking spaces. GreenTrustSF has conducted studies to determine how greening might affect the number of nearby parking spaces. “We’ve done a couple versions of the plan, some with more, some with less parking,” noted Carpinelli. “The studies we did found that we could actually increase parking in the neighborhood by converting parallel parking to 90 degrees on some streets,” Fletcher said.

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Street greening concepts by Fletcher Studios.

The nonprofit has been working with the San Francisco Public Utility Commission on improving storm water run-off management. “We want to get a grant to open up the sidewalk and re-route storm water.

Water often backs up and clogs the drains on 22nd Street during stor ms,” Ca r pi nel l i recou nted.

“That’s because 22nd street is a low point and during rainy season, all winter long, businesses here have sand bags in front of their buildings.

Water runs downhill from 20th to 22nd Street. We’d like to see water captured before it gets down here to lessen storm drain overflow.”

Another concept is to turn a storm drain into an open pond or stream with greenery. Temporary planters would help gather rainwater. “We’ve already seen very imaginative re-use of rejected DPW concrete pipe stock for planters, such as the temporary pavement-to-park created at the Axis Café,” mentioned Carpinelli.

GreenTrustSF has studied permeable sidewa l k s t h at i mprove stor m drainage, allowing rainwater to filter into the ground rather than onto the street. The concept of

flexible, permeable parking spaces/ times along 22nd Street is also being studied.

GreenTrustSF’s is examining the feasibility of adding a staircase at the western end of 22nd that connects to Missouri Street and a re-developed Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complex. The nonprofit plans to work with Bridge Housing – the developer for the Annex-Terrace project – on the stairway, which would be constructed near Sierra and Texas streets. “People already use the area as a shortcut and it’s dangerous,” Carpinelli said, pointing to a Sunset District stairway at 16th Avenue that features a mosaic mural as a model.

“It would be exciting, fun and a great thing for the neighborhood.”

Over the long-term, Carpinelli hopes that the g reen i ng effor t expands to Tennessee, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa, and Pennsylvania streets, from Mariposa south to 23rd Street. “It’s important to develop 22nd Street the right way,” Carpinelli asserted. “With more people here, there’s a need for more amenities, street furniture, lighting. It really is about improving quality of life.”

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

13

14

THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

Zuppa: Worth the Parking Hassle

By Birgitte Gilliland

Zuppa’s pork and pecorino sausage arrives sizzling hot in its own cast iron skillet.

Photograph by Birgitte Gilliland.

Venturing South-of-Market (SOMA) for a meal is challenging for some of us. There’s parking to be negotiated. The specialty cocktail menus often arrive in a bound leather file. The meal tab can be intimidating, and decidedly un-family friendly. And then there’s the whole wardrobe issue.

One feels compelled to make more of an aesthetic effort because so many others dining in the neighborhood do so.

Z u p p a h a s i t s fl aw s , b u t it remains one of SOMA’s better dining establishments for a casual, reasonably priced, satisfying meal.

Once you’ve won the municipal parking spot lottery, step inside this gray, high-ceilinged, industrial space and note the wood-burning oven’s comforting fire glowing in the corner.

Your psychic powers tell you that the pizza is going to be good.

Zuppa sources its produce from local organic growers, like Capay Farms and Maraquita Farms, and features their seasonal bounty on pizzas, in pastas and on their antipasti platter. The made-to-order pizzas are thin, crisp yet slightly chewy; the perfect vehicle for either the margherita edition ($11 at lunch; $7 during happy hour; $14 after 7 p.m.), or for more inspired toppings like

romanesco cauliflower, green garlic and spicy coppa ($11 at lunch; $15 at dinner). The house-made pastas are also quite good. Zuppa’s kitchen cuts the widest papardelle imaginable, and serves it with fingerling potatoes and a basil pesto sauce ($10 at lunch).

When I finished the dish, there was no separated pool of greasy pesto sauce guiltily staring back at me, a too frequent occurrence at lesser restaurants. On a recent night, the rigatoni was perfectly cooked and accompanied by a plentiful, chunky pork ragu ($10 during happy hour; $16 after 7 p.m.).

I’m a sucker for pastas that aren’t perfect in shape or uniform in appearance. Unless you’re paying Thomas Keller’s prices, I believe that pasta billed as “homemade” should look like something your make believe Italian grandmother created earlier that day. Zuppa’s rigatoni seduced at once, because it was perfectly imperfect: each tube was a different length and just slightly varying in width.

If it’s meat you crave, order the bone-in pork chop ($13 at lunch; $20 at dinner). The two versions I tried were both tender and tasty. The lunch version was roasted, set atop creamy polenta and served with red

pepper squares, caramelized onions and greens. The dinner version was expertly grilled and accompanied by a lemon thyme risotto and mustard fruits.

Dining at Zuppa, however, can be a perplexingly inconsistent endeavor.

Why can’t the same wood-burning oven that’s used for creating such lovely pizzas produce an edible bread basket? If the kitchen can roast beets to bring out all of their sweet and subtle earthy flavors, why can’t it replicate that success with the red pimiento peppers or the fennel? How can the same talent that produces such winning pastas serve “house made” mozzarella that tastes like bland rubber? The mozzarella is available on its own or as part of the above mentioned antipasto platter ($11), which sounds like a promising, all-inclusive starter choice. It’s not.

You would fare better ordering the beets separately at $3.30 a serving.

Depending on the day and time you dine at Zuppa, the service can be perfunctory and the overhead HVAC system may persistently intrude upon your conversation. Zuppa’s desserts are not particularly imaginative: their inclusion on the menu feels obligatory.

That said, I enjoyed my most recent experience at Zuppa. My husband and I brought our two kids for dinner at 6 p.m. to take advantage of happy hour prices. We feasted on piping hot flat bread with rosemary and garlic; pork and pecorino sausage served sizzling in a petite iron skillet; margherita pizza and two rigatoni pastas. The service was efficient and kid-friendly. The total damage was $60, including gratuity and two happy hour beers.

Zuppa offers an affordable Italian meal in a relaxed, attitude-free setting. May the parking gods smile upon you.

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THE POTRERO VIEW

Old Skool Continued from Front Page Based on these experiences, Goines developed Cora Jean’s Old Skool Café - named after her mother – to serve youth and young adults aged 16 to 24, initially operating from her Mississippi Street home.

The Café trains at-risk youth in cooking, bartending, waiting tables and per for m ing. According to Goines, an at-risk youth has “one or more of the following factors as challenges in their lives: living at or below the poverty level, living in a neighborhood /environment with crime and violence, a school dropout or regularly truant and low performing academically, a foster care youth, previously arrested or incarcerated, or having one or more parents on drugs or incarcerated.”

Today, the Café is run out of Goines’ Bayview apartment at Le Conte Circle.

Old Skool Cafe (OCS) has hosted events in various Bay Area venues, including a jazz brunch which ran weekly for four months at Powell’s Soul Food on Third Street. But according to Goines the extra work involved in moving from place to place is exhausting. She and her team of volunteers hope to make a permanent base by transforming the 1912-era police station and jail located on 20th and Third streets into what the Old Skool crew envision as “the hottest restaurant the City has ever seen.”

“I totally support OSC’s vision to transform a former police facility into a center of hope and opportunity for young persons. The site itself will become a beacon that brightens both the community and the futures for youth,” said William Siffermann, San Francisco’s Juvenile Probation D e pa r t me nt ’s c h ie f pr obat ion officer. “The bold vision and positive programming offered by the Old Skool Cafe provides San Francisco youth with unique pathways to productive lifestyles and opens them up to multiple career tracks. I am in full support of The Old Skool Cafe and urge the support of others interested in the futures of San Francisco youth.”

OSC volunteer Angie Martinez explained that while the project

stresses the music and look of 1920s-era jazz clubs, the young performers flex their musical chops on material ranging from classic jazz to hip-hop. Martinez is a single mom who, in her younger years, spent time in juvenile justice facilities. She said those experiences make her acutely aware of the need for programs like OSC. “There are not enough programs like this,” Martinez said.

“Teresa loves these kids. There are not enough people like her in the world. She’s a beautiful person.”

Martinez helps Goines with a variety of projects, including the garden at Key Street, which provides food for OSC’s dinners. “I’m usually out there on Saturday mornings, training the youth in gardening,” she said.

The OSC-affiliated community garden at 945 Key Avenue was developed in collaboration with the Quesada Gardens initiative.

According to Bayview resident and activist Jeffrey Betcher, who has long worked with Quesada Gardens, University of San Francisco students helped terrace the multiple-leveled garden on Key Avenue. Goines’ apartment looks down on the site, wh ich w i l l soon be produci ng artichokes, collard greens and herbs – including thyme and oregano – among other produce. Betcher said he and his colleagues don’t get involved in a project unless people in the neighborhood are closely tied to the work. Goines “gets that instinctively,” Betcher said, praising her commitment to her young charges.

According to San Mateo County resident Tammy Vaitai, a 19 year old OSC participant, “The organization has provided for me a family outside of my own, a chance for a successful future as well as a stage to continue exposing my gift as a spoken word artist/vocalist. Every minute I spend with Teresa and Old Skool Cafe is a blessing and an inspirational experience.”

OSC’s annual gala will be held on April 21st at Cafe Cocomo. Eddie Blyden, executive chef at Hotel Durant in Berkeley, who has been mentoring OSC youngsters in the culinary arts, will oversee meals prepared by the youth. Six different acts, including a young people’s swing band, will perform.

Artwork by Nancy Rodger www.blueberrydogs.com

March 2010

15

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Short Cuts Continued from Page 9 about what happens to teeth after the Tooth Fairy retrieves them from under thousands of sleep-dampened pillows each night. There’s a longstanding rumor that the pebble-like sound that’s emitted from spray paint cans when they’re shaken is caused by children’s teeth. One seven-yearold boy speculated that the teeth are planted into new mommies’ tummies to grow into babies. And of course there’s the possibility that all that sand on the beach is the worn-down remnants of the billions of teeth collected over the centuries. This hypothesis dovetails nicely with the Sandman, who comes nightly to sprinkle old tooth dust to induce restful sleep and toothsome growth by children. And that’s the tooth and nothing but the tooth.

Political Milk Supervisorial candidates filed their first significant financial reports last month. Malia Cohen, a consultant at Power For ward Consulting, had raked in roughly $18,500, with View publisher and San Francisco Community Power executive director Steve Moss next highest at about $16,000. Cohen has qualified for public financing, which means she’s been able to demonstrate that she’s collected funds from at least 75 San Francisco residents. Eric Smith, who serves as the executive director of Green Depot, and Attorney Kristine Enea had each raised less than $10,000.

Tony Kelly, who works for the San Francisco Symphony, and Lynette Sweet, of HMS Associates, entered the race after the initial financial filing. With backing from Willie Brown, it’s expected that Sweet will quickly displace Cohen as the lead fundraiser…A District 10 candidate – almost certainly Sweet – is surveying district residents, asking

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such questions as how satisfied we are with our neighborhood, what we think about Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, and floating the idea of recruiting a professional women’s basketball team to play in a stadium to be built at Hunters Point. The pollster also want to know our attitudes towards Brown, since, as Sweet’s primary backer, she needs to know how well he plays with district voters.

District 10 Coverage

With Vie w publ isher/ed itor Steve Moss a candidate for District 10 supervisor this November, the paper needs to find an ethical way to provide needed coverage of the race. To that end, San Francisco Community Power, also lead by Moss, is soliciting donations to its Neighborhood Newswire initiative, www.neighborhoodnewswire.com, to hire an independent editor and writer to cover the election. Under this approach the View will publish election-related pieces written by independent editor/reporter without any prior screening. If you’d like to provide a tax deductible donation to this effort, please send your check to San Francisco Community Power, 2325 Third Street, Suite 344, San Francisco, California 94107. The View is hoping to launch this effort with the June issue.

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

& ENTERTAINMENT March 2010

Through March 26 Art: Deric Carner’s None of the Above Deric Carner’s work is featured in Ping Pong Gallery’s latest thought provoking exhibit. Using ink and acrylic, Carner’s poster-style paintings explore formal and conceptual narratives found in books, newspapers, urban signage and the Internet. The gallery is open Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 to 9 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment. 1240 22nd Street.

Information: www.pingponggallery.com.

March 4 through 6 Dance: Hope Mohr Dance’s Third Home Season Three of Hope Mohr Dance’s female dancers perform in the premiere of Far from Perfect by Mohr, a new solo piece, Mass Balance, and the legendary Yvonne Rainer’s pioneering work Trio A. Inspired by the painter Agnes Martin, Far from Perfect explores forgiveness and the creative process as two journeys that can illuminate each other.

Performance includes poet Brenda Hillman and designer David Szlasa. 8 p.m. Tickets: $18. Z Space, 450 Florida Street. Information: www.zspace.org.

March 5 Fundraiser: City Youth Now’s Diamond Anniversary Celebration City Youth Now celebrates 60 years of helping San Francisco’s youth in crisis. ABC’s Spencer Christian will serves as the fundraiser’s master of ceremonies, with former Mayor Willie Brown the celebrity auctioneer. 6 to 11 p.m. Tickets: $200. Bimbo’s 365 Club, 1025 Columbus Avenue. Tickets and information: www.cityyouthnow.org/ annual-dinner or call Brittany Heinrich, 753.7576.

March 6 Community: Potrero Branch Library Grad Re-opening Check-out the newly renovated Potrero Branch Library with a re-opening celebration featuring entertainment and refreshments, including the Jing Mo Lion Dancers, the Knuckle Knockers and Fortune Cookie, the clown and balloon sculptor. 1 to 4 p.m. Free. 1616 20th Street. Information: www.friendssfpl.org.

Family: Summer Resource Fair Not sure what to do with your kids this summer? Check out the fifth annual free showcase of activities for children, youth and families. The one-day event features 200 camps, classes, arts, sports and family services in San Francisco and beyond. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free. Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 Eighth Street. Information: www. sfkids.org or call 311.

March 7 Outdoors: Starr King Openspace (SKOS) Spring Wildflower Walk #1 The annual blooming of the wildflowers in Starr King Openspace has begun, with more than one hundred different kinds of plants growing in the area. Join SKOS volunteers for the first of their 2010 wildflower walks. 12 p.m. Free.

Meet on Carolina Street at Coral Road, across from Starr King Elementary School. More wildflower walks will

be scheduled in April and May; check future View issues or the website for updates: www.starrkingopenspace.org.

Information: starrkingboard@gmail.com or 6336-SKO (756).

March 8 Lecture: Quintessential Village-on-aHill Sponsored by the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, Peter Linenthal and Abigail Johnston, coauthors of San Francisco’s Potrero Hill and Then & Now - Potrero Hill, will present a slideshow exploring the neighborhood’s social and physical changes over the last 200 years.

Long-time residents George Bushneff and Renee Strong will also share their memories and family histories.

Reception begins at 7 p.m.; program at 7:30 p.m. Free to San Francisco Museum and Historical Society members; $5 general admission. St. Theresa’s Church Parish Hall, entrance at 19th and Connecticut streets.

Information: www.sfhistory.org.

March 11 Art: CCA Artists Show Both Farley’s locations in San Francisco and Oakland will showcase a selection of works from California College of Arts’ master of fine arts students. Curated by Kristin Korolowicz and Emily Gonzalez.

7 p.m. Free. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

March 12 through 28 Dance: ODC/Dance’s Dancing Downtown OCD/Dance returns from its Asian tour to present their 39th contemporary dance season. Featuring Brenda Way’s premiere of Waving Not Drowning (A Guide to Elegance), with music by acclaimed vocalist Pamela Z, KT Nelson’s premiere of Labor of Love,

danced to Mozart’s D minor Piano Concerto, and five repertory favorites, including In the Memory of the Forest, Something about a Nightingale, 24 Exposures, Grassland and River. Show times vary. Tickets: $45. Novellus Theatre, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard Street. Information: www.odcdance.org.

March 14 Kids: Be a Superhero and Make Your Own Mask Learn about the great Jewish artists behind many of our favorite capedcrusaders, and make your own mask.

12 to 2 p.m. Free. Bureau of Jewish Education’s Jewish Community Library, 1835 Ellis Street. Information: www. bjesf.org.

March 17 Lecture: Greening the Block and Empowering Communities of Color In honor of African-American History Month, City College of San Francisco hosts this lecture by Julian MocineMcQueen, Green for All program manager. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free. City College of San Francisco, Southeast Campus, Alex Pitcher Community Room, 1800 Oakdale Avenue.

Information: 239.3580.

Music: St. Patrick’s Day and 21st Anniversary Celebration at Farley’s Help Farley’s celebrate its 21st birthday and listen to live bagpipes in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day. 9 a.m. More live music and dancing in the evening with the ever-popular Soul Delights. 8 p.m.

Free. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

March 21 Music: President’s Breakfast Farley’s presents live music by President’s Breakfast, a collective of

some of the Bay Area’s most talented Jazz and Funk musicians. 2 p.m. Free.

Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

March 24 Book Signing: Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do) Author Gever Tulley has teamed up with Christopher’s Books for a book signing and chat at Farley’s. Gever has presented at the world-renowned TED conference about his innovative Tinkering School, and recently participated in the World Innovation Summit on Education in Qatar. Raised by beatniks in Northern California and formerly a Potrero Hill resident, Gever has co-written a book with Julie Spiegler that has caused a sensation in the United Kingdom and (almost) been banned in Australia. “What people should realize,” said Gever, “is that the book is actually about safety.

These topics are all exciting, engaging, educational things to do with your kids.

It’s ridiculous that we’re forbidding somersaults at recess and giving kids plastic scissors - these are the very activities that lay the foundations of genius.” 6 p.m. Free. Farley’s, 1315 18th Street.

March 27 Art: ArtSpan’s Benefit Art Show & Auction Bid on more than 140 original artworks by established and emerging artist in live and silent auctions. The event includes an open bar featuring Pernod Absinthe and hors d’oeuvres catered

by Thomas John Events. 6:30 to 9 p.m. General Admission $25; VIP Tickets $75. SOMArts Bay Gallery, 934 Brannan Street. Information: www. artspan.org.

Ongoing Seniors: 60 Plus at San Francisco State University (SFSU) SFSU is looking for anyone 60 or over to join its lifelong learning organization.

Members meet at the university’s campus twice a month to hear speakers on a variety of topics, including music, the arts, political issues and science.

Group activities, discount theatre tickets and social gatherings are also on offer.

Annual membership $75; first-time members $40 until the end of July.

Information: Eileen Ward, Sixty Plus office, 412.4684.

Children: Potrero Hill Recreation Center’s Spring Toddler Program Mike Bross and Adela Dominguez will instruct a toddler program on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center.

Registration begins on Saturday, March 6. Monday classes, Course #15313, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., March 15 through May 17. Tuesday classes, Course #15312, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., March 16 through May 18. Wednesday classes, Course #15314, from 9:30 to 11 a.m., March 17 to May 19. $20 for the series.

Potrero Hill Recreation Center, Arkansas at Madera. Register online at www. sfreconline.org or call 831.6800.

THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

How much is your home worth?

555 Kansas street

765 Vermont street

215 missouri street

Represented Seller Sold in July, 2009 for $1,110,000— more than $60,000 over the listing price.

Represented Buyer Sold in August, 2009

Represented Buyer Sold in October, 2009

sales Prices for All Potrero Hill Homes sold in 2009: 1536-1538 18th Street ....... $870,000

1015 Carolina Street .......... $700,000

272 Missouri Street.......... $2,700,000

2222 18th Street ................ $649,000

534 Connecticut Street ........ $675,000

535 Missouri Street.......... $1,000,000

1301 19th Street ................ $970,000

804 De Haro Street ......... $1,159,000

578 Rhode Island Street ... $1,199,000

1300 20th Street ................ $809,000

863 De Haro Street ............ $930,000

713 Rhode Island Street ... $1,260,000

1342 20th Street ................ $739,000

894 De Haro Street ......... $1,100,000

1025 Rhode Island Street .... $890,000

1409 20th Street ................ $799,000

1133 De Haro Street .......... $460,000

1034 Rhode Island Street .... $859,000

1431 20th Street ................ $945,000

555 Kansas Street ........... $1,110,000

1 Southern Heights Avenue .. $920,000

2001 20th Street ............. $1,210,000

707 Kansas Street .............. $925,000

732 Vermont Street ............. $950,000

525 Arkansas Street ........ $1,435,000

778 Kansas Street ........... $1,495,000

765 Vermont Street ............. $810,000

612 Arkansas Street ........ $1,050,000

870 Kansas Street ........... $1,198,000

658 Wisconsin Street ....... $1,249,000

719 Carolina Street ......... $2,100,000

885 Kansas Street ........... $1,025,000

695 Wisconsin Street ....... $1,140,000

958 Carolina Street ......... $1,400,000

1301 Kansas Street ............ $625,000

933 Wisconsin Street .......... $985,000

990 Carolina Street ............ $907,000

215 Missouri Street............. $894,050

1145 Wisconsin Street ........ $500,000

In 2009 the average sales price for a home on Potrero Hill was $1,042,078.

If you’d like a free report on the value of your home, call Tim Johnson at 710-9000.

TIm JoHnson

Paragon Real Estate Group DRE# 01476421

415.710.9000 tim@timjohnsonSF.com www.timjohnsonSF.com

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

UCSF Mission Bay Community Meeting

Local Filmmaker Features Potrero’s People and Places

By Lori Higa

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 6:30 p.m.

UCSF Mission Bay Campus

Integrated Center for Design and Construction (ICDC) “construction trailer” 16th Street near 4th street

AGENDA will include: Signage for the new hospital, Neurosciences Building status, updates on the new hospital and campus construction projects.

UCSF Mission Bay is accessible using the MUNI T-Third light rail line.

If you drive, please park in the ICDC parking lot (across 16th Street from Genentech Hall).

UCSF fully ascribes to the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you have a need for accommodation, please call (415) 476-3206 with your suggested accommodation.

To be kept informed about UCSF Mission Bay or other UCSF projects, please email us at community@cgr.ucsf.edu or call 476-3206.

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Proud sponsor of these and other Potrero Hill Events: Potrero Hill Festival / Friends of Potrero Library Bands for Books / the NABE’s Blues, Beer & BBQ

A Local Neighborhood-Serving Business since 1963

Queer women’s bicycle group, The Fuses, from Hold the Sun. Photographs courtesy of Laura Zaylea and David Yun. Hold the Sun, which screens at th is month’s Sa n F ra ncisco International Asian-American Film Festival, was co-directed by two Potrero Hill residents. And while filmmaker Laura Zaylea, who lives on 24th and De Haro streets, filmed her debut feature “all over San Francisco,” many prominent scenes were shot in on the Hill, Mission Bay and Dogpatch. Co-director David Yun lived in Dogpatch while attending graduate school at San Francisco Art Institute, where the two met while studying for their master of fine art degrees, which they earned in 2008. And Zaylea’s partner and Hold the Sun’s sound designer Jennifer Rarick works at California College of the Arts in Showplace Square.

The movie revolves around a band of queer female bicyclists called The Fuses. Most of their scenes were filmed in Potrero Hill, mainly under the highway bridge by the Pennsylvania Street Caltrain station.

“I love this area because the contrast between the local scenery and the Bay Bridge makes it look incredibly tall, so the visual feeling is very powerful. We also filmed wide shots of The Fuses riding under a beautiful silver-gray sky on Mariposa, Illinois and Iowa Street by Caltrain, and then Terry A. Francois Blvd. by the water. I wanted to have The Fuses ride up the big hills around 18th and Kansas street, but we decided that wouldn’t have been fair to our actors!” laughed Zaylea.

The low-budget film, shot in high definition video, tells the story of three queer women whose disconnected lives intersect through common experiences of loneliness, alienation, and unfulfilled longings.

There’s a taxidermist who is seen working with animal corpses and pieces of fur; a travel writer who never leaves her apartment while reading stories to herself; and a misanthropic, isolated artist who su f fer s f rom a creative block, able only to do paint-by-number canvasses which she attempts to sell as her own on ebay.

While gorgeously shot, the film has little to no dialogue, and may have one too many long, drawn-out, meditative moments, a la Ingmar Bergman, making it difficult to sit through. However, Hold the Sun’s exceptional cinematography, mome nt s of m a g ic a l r e a l i s m , production design and sophisticated score – by local husband and wife musician team Jeannette Faith and Wes Steed – demonstrate the filmmakers’ promise.

Hold the Sun will screen on March 14, 1:30 p.m. and March 15, 7 p.m. at Viz Cinema in North Beach.

For more information about the festival and the film: http://filmguide. festival.asianamericanmedia.org/ tixSYS/2010/xslguide/eventnote. php?EventNumber=1040.

THE POTRERO VIEW

ZinZanni Sets Hearts on Fire

Local Artist: Denise Minter

By Lori Higa Originally hailing from Seattle and celebrating its 10th year in San Francisco, the sublime Teatro ZinZanni (TZ) presents a new version of its mythical, sensual show Hearts on Fire. The performance features disco diva and Grammy Award winner Thelma Houston, reprising her legendary role as the mistress w ith the mostest in the fabled spiegeltent at Pier 29. Houston is just one of an ensemble cast of worldclass virtuosos in an only-in-San Francisco circus-cabaret-dinner theater spectacle.

T Z c on s i s t s of a s e r ie s of w icke d ly e nt e r t a i n i n g, bawdy sketches fulsome with song, witty repartee, and audience participation.

In addition to Houston, the show features the infamous Mexican Elvis, El Vez (Rober t Lopez), a sensual aerial ballet by a partnered couple, a breathtaking Ukrainian contortionist-hula hoopist, Marx Brotherian trio of Parisian-born comic-acrobats, opera soprano, zaftig Beach Blanket Babylonesque singercomedienne and, in the orchestra pit, a tight covey of players whose surefingered musicianship shows off an encyclopedic command of styles spanning at least a half century.

Houston emcees the marvelous mayhem while singing her greatest

March 2010

Thelma Houston stars as Mme. ZinZanni. Photograph by Marty Sohl. h it s w it h a voic e t h at ’s o n ly gotten more magnificent with age, shimmying about in costumes that blind you with glitter, sequins, and feathery things. Everything about TZ, from the interior visual and sound design and sets to the banquette seating, including the five-course gourmet meal with freerange and vegetarian choices and impressive wine pairings, is overthe-top. While not cheap, it’s worth the splurge. It’s an once-in-a-lifetime experience not to be missed.

The show runs through May 16, with performances Wednesdays to Saturdays at 6 p.m.; Sunday at 5 p.m., with a Brevé performance Saturdays at 11:30 am. Tickets: $117 to $145; Brevé: $63 - $78. For more information: 438.2668; www. zinzanni.org.

Art work by Denise Minter, along with her collaborator, Wa Hin Doz, were featured at Farley’s last month. Minter and Doz’s art focuses on wallhangings made with recycled fabric, wood, pine cones, golden thread, and beads. Inspired by Mother Nature and the pine trees in McLaren Park, Minter has been creating these pieces since 2000. Photographs courtesy of Denise Minter.

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

Get a Job!

By Mauri Schwartz

The View asked Hill resident and career exper t Maur i Schwar tz, President / CEO of Career Insiders, w w w.C aree rIn s i d e r s.c o m , t o answer questions from job seekers.

Submit your questions to editor@ potreroview.net.

Q: What are the most important things to consider when writing a resume?

A: First of all, consider your audience. Who will be reading your resume, and what will they be looking for? I recommend that you customize your resume for every job application. You want to make it easy for the reader to see immediately that you’re a match. Here are some additional tips: 1. A resume’s objective is to obtain an interview.

2. Form is equally as important as substance. Use a readable font style and size, and one-inch margins at the top, bottom, left and right.

3. Resumes should be no more than two pages. One-page resumes

are primarily for candidates who are relatively new to the job market.

Don’t try to cram a lot of experience onto one page.

4. Hook the reader with the top quarter page.

5. Always begin statements with first person singular action verbs.

Don’t use “responsible for.”

6. A lways por tray you r professional background positively while being honest and accurate.

7. Include pertinent volunteer and inter nship exper ience, but distinguish it from professional (paid) work.

8. Put name and current contact information on both pages. Don’t use your current employer’s contact infor mation; use a professional sounding email address, for example: firstname_lastname@ yahoo.com Make sure that the phone number you give will always be answered professionally.

9. Be picky! Make it perfect – no typos, no grammatical errors, no misspellings. Ask a friend to proofread it. You only have one chance to make a first impression.

10. Target the recipient of your resume by identifying individual decision makers.

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1920 to 2010

Eve Milton

By Michael Condiff Longtime Potrero Hill community activist Eve Milton died on October 7, 2010. She was 89. Months after succumbing to cancer, Milton is still finding ways to contribute. Her body was donated to the University of California, San Francisco, primarily for Alzheimer’s research. “For the last 10 years of her life, she knew Alzheimer’s was affecting her memory,” said Taliaferro “Tolliver” Milton, one of Milton’s two sons.

“Mom being Mom, always interested in what she could do for others, she thought it would be beneficial to leave her body, particularly her brain, to science. She thought she might be able to pass something on this way.”

Milton’s dedication to community was profound. She moved to Potrero Hill in 1959, and lived in the same Carolina Street home for more than 45 years. Milton was a prominent figure in early neighborhood campaigns, joining Enola Maxwell and others in helping to establish the Potrero Hill Health Center on Wisconsin Street and the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House on De Haro Street. She organized the Potrero Hill Jobs and Health Fair, one of the Hill’s largest annual events, and was instrumental in creating after-school mentoring, tutoring, breakfast for children and childcare programs. Milton was also an early mainstay at the View. In a 2007 interview, Milton told the View that along with other “activists who were Mexican, Chinese, you name it…we provided comfort to those who needed it. Poverty is expensive and time-consuming.”

Born Eva C. Zhitlovsky on May 14,

1920, Milton was raised in a household full of intellectual achievement. Her father, Chaim Zhitlovsky, was a famed Russian-born Yiddish scholar.

Her mother, Nora Van Leeuwen, was an Indonesian-Dutch physician. As a young woman, Milton was a labor organizer, taught literacy to coal miners’ children in poverty-stricken Appalachia and fought racism.

“Eve’s family background really influenced her approach to life,” said friend Judy Baston. “She was very open-minded, very much the earthmother type. Her interest was not just about equality, but quality of life for every human being. Her soul was very, very big.”

M ilton was a talented craftswoman, particularly with the loom. She was often asked to place her delicately weaved creations on display in museums, and held a long friendship with renowned JapaneseAmerican artist Ruth Asawa.

M i lton is su r v ived by son s C h r i s t ophe r a nd Ta l i a fe r r o; g ra ndch i ld re n Yosh i, Da m ie n, Evangelina, Raymond, Tony and Aki; great-grandchildren Leilani, Malia, Nora and Sina; niece Sue; and countless friends. Christopher and Tolliver Milton are planning a memorial party for their mother at a date and time yet to be determined.

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California State Automobile Association (CSAA), a AAA Member Club, provides auto, home and personal umbrella insurance through the Cal State Auto Group. Life insurance underwritten and annuities offered by AAA Life Insurance Company, Livonia, MI. Agent License Number 0766816.

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THE POTRERO VIEW

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Continued from Page 3

I fou nd “I n novative Energ y Efficiency Model Could Reduce Low-Income Household Costs and Create Green Jobs” (February View) really interesting. When my 15 year old daughter was a baby, and since becoming disabled a few years ago and returning to school, I’ve lived in some pretty crummy apartments with old appliances. I don’t know a lot about energy issues, but this is the first proposal I’ve read about that really seems like it could help the people in my own world (so to speak).

model directly to me. I was sorely tempted to take the new refrigerator with me when I moved out, and was upset that the energy savings the new model passed on to the landlord were not reflected in a reduced rental price for me.

Now, my partner and I have a house in an older suburb, but are faced with a similar dilemma.

Although not on the poverty line, we make just enough to not qualify for the financing we need to update our home. The windows are paper thin, and we lose a lot of heat in the winter. I have to imagine that many families, if given incentives or educated on the potential cost and environmental savings, would gladly take advantage of the opportunity to lower their utility bills through better efficiency.

March 2010

21

Kids on the Block

By Stacey Bartlett

March 22nd is Jordan Lawrence’s sixth birthday.

Happy birthday Jordan, with lots of love from Mom and Dad.

Joan Danenberg San Jose, California

Melissa K. McDonough San Lorenzo

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“Who Am I” self-portrait

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The View is happy to publish local kids’ birthdays, accomplishments, and milestones. If you’d

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like to submit an image and caption, please email them to graphics@potreroview.net by the 18th of the prior month. High resolution photos, please!

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

Bayview Police Station Captain’s Community Meeting is held on the first Tuesday of each month in the Bayview Police Station Community Room at 201 William Street. Access can be gained by entering through the Newhall Street door. Next meeting: March 2nd, 6 p.m.

Dogpatch Neighborhood Association usually meets the second Tuesday of each odd-numbered month. The next meeting is March 9th, at the UCSF Building at 654 Minnesota Street from 7 to 9 p.m.

Voting membership is open to anyone living in or owning property or a business in Dogpatch. DNA supports members’ neighborhood interests in Dogpatch, Central Waterfront and the surrounding areas.

For more information or to join/pay online: mydogpatch.org.

McKinley Square Community Group is a communication and discussion group for community awareness regarding events and activities, clean up days, improvement and beautification, and other concerns, such as crime in the neighborhood. Next board meeting: March 10 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. location TBD. Board meetings open to the public. Visit www.mckinleysquare.com for more information.

Potrero Boosters meets the last Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. (social time begins at 6:30 p.m.) in the wheelchair-accessible Game Room of the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro Street.

For more information: www.potreroboosters.org or contact Tony Kelly at 341.8040; president@potreroboosters.org. Next Meeting: March 30th.

Potrero Hill Association of Merchants & Businesses (PHAMB) meets the second Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. at Goat Hill Pizza, corner of Connecticut and 18th streets. Visit www.potrerohill.biz or call 341.8949. Next meeting: March 9th, 10 a.m.

($60 Value)

Potrero Hill Democratic Club meets the First Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. 953 De Haro St. For more information: 648.6740, www. PHDemClub.org. Next meeting: March 2nd, 7 p.m.

your local association of neighborhood merchants and businesses building a vital, thriving business community in potrero hill and dogpatch.

Thank You to Just for You Cafe for a wonderful member mixer New Orleans style!

Photography: Emily Payne

Just for You Cafe - now open for dinner 5 nights a week Happy Hour Specials: Mon - Fri, 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM

Shop Potrero Hill Potrero Hill • Buy Local • Dogpatch 2010 Dues are Due!

Join us for our monthly general membership meeting: 2nd Tuesday; 10:00 AM at Goat Hill Pizza Next meeting: March 9, 2010 www.PotreroHill.biz 1459 18th Street, #105, SF, CA 94107 • phone: 415.341.8949

Potrero Hill Garden Club usually meets the last Sunday of the month at 11 a.m. for a potluck lunch in a local home or garden. Discussions are held on subjects related to organic, edible, or ornamental gardening appropriate for Potrero Hill’s microclimate. Call 648.1926 for details.

Starr King Openspace Volunteer Work Day is held the third Saturday of every month. Meet your neighbors, get some fresh air, and care for this unique oasis of nature in the heart of the big City. Meet on the Openspace on Carolina Street, across from Starr King Elementary School. For more information: http://www.starrkingopenspace.org/ or contact the SKOS Board by at skosboard@gmail.com. Next Work Day: March 20th, 9 a.m. to noon. The SKOS Board meets on March 18th at the Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro Street at 6:30 p.m.

Topics include: Updates from each subcommittee, plus discussion of changes to bylaws and fundraising status. All monthly board meetings are open to the public. Time will be set aside for public comment. The board may set aside some agenda items for closedsession discussion.

THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

23

CLASSIFIED ADS Art and Music PIANO LESSONS with patience and humor. All ages, all styles. Former member of the Pickle Family Circus and SF Mime Troupe. Randy Craig 415.334.2451.

ATTENTION ARTISTS Goat Hill Pizza is looking for local artists to show their work at the restaurant. Please call Alicia Wong at 415.641.1440 if you are interested.

Business Services PERSONAL INJURY LAW, BUSINESS LAW & ENVIRONMENTAL LAW & REMEDIATION Your Lawyer Fights for You Herman I. Kalfen, JD, REA, NAEP Injuries/ Business Law/Environmental WWW.KALFENLAWCORP.COM 415.215.4474.

GRAPHIC DESIGN FOR PRINT AND WEB Get your business/product noticed: logo, web site, ad, brochure, Flash animation, stationery, invitations, sell sheet, more. On the Hill. www.jcarpinelli.com.

Community Activities SENIORS (60+) DON’T EAT ALONE Join us for daily lunch and add to your social life. Mon-Fri, hot nutritious meals--your first time with us you get a free lunch!

Bingo, cards, birthday celebrations, special events, and other activities. For more information, call Dolores Maghari at 415.826.8080. PH Neighborhood House, 953 De Haro St.

Education TUTORING Get help with tests & homework. See www.myStudyBuddy.org. Jane Radcliffe, M.A., CA Credential #150007.

415.586.4577.

HOME BUYING SEMINAR Learn how to buy a home in today’s market & get the best loan rate. 1st & 3rd Wed. each

mo., 7-8:15pm on Potrero Hill. RSVP: Michelle 415.637.1898, Zephyr RE DRE #01224725.

Garden Services COMPLETE GARDEN CARE I will help your garden evolve into a natural paradise.

Maintenance, renovation, organic soil building. Calif. Native plants a specialty.

Call Jeannine Zenti, 415.642.0246.

PACHAMAMA LANDSCAPING Organic Maintenance, Design and Installation.

Specializing in Native Plants, Edible Gardens, Wildlife/ Bay- Friendly, Composting, Drip Irrigation, more. Free Estimates 550-1598.

Health, Healing & Beauty ACUPUNCTURE+HERBS=POWERFUL MEDICINE FOR FLU SEASON Expanding Qi Health Center: 415.407.9851 Potrero Acupuncture, Massage, Herbs, Nutritional Analysis of Your Blood Work & Monthly Nutrition Classes.

HEALING HANDS Diane O’Keefe, DC is BACK on the hill. Expert Chiropractic care for all conditions/injuries. Get your vitality BACK today! 22 years experience. Potrero Hill Healing Arts 650.307.4419.

PERSONAL FITNESS TRAINER Have a plan for your goals ? I can help you to improve cardio, strength, flexibility, quality of life! Train near Potrero Hill. Susan Sullivan, 786-9939. susan@binkysbarn.com.

Home Services HANDYMAN MIKE Electrical, Carpentry, Custom woodwork, Decks, Doors, Dry rot Fences, Garbage disposal, Locks, Siding, Molding, Painting, Plumbing, Toilet, Sheetrock, Stairs, Tile. 415.756.9896.

ADVERTISE IN THE POTRERO VIEW The best way to reach Dogpatch, Mission Bay, Potrero Hill and South of Market residents. We have advertising opportunities that meet all budgets and needs.

Print Ads • Online Ads Classifieds • Merchants Directory “Advertising in the View has been great for our business.

We’re really happy.”

-Gilberth Cab, owner of The New Spot restaurant in Dogpatch

HOW TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD: UPDATE, POST, & PAY ONLINE Visit www.potreroview.net & follow the instructions for placing your ad.

COST $25 for up to 200 characters including spaces. Recieve an additional 20% discount provided for ads paid for six months in advance!

J.A. EMMANUEL CONSTRUCTION License #861994 is organized to provide service with optimum efficiency and flexibility. Quality work with experience in residential construction can help make your dreams a reality. New construction, house addition, remodeling and conversion. House, apartments, condos, kitchen, bathroom & more. Reasonable rates. All insurance necessary for the projects. Call 415.902.2469 for FREE ESTIMATE or visit www.jaemmanuelconstruction.com.

ORGANIZE YOUR HOME/HOME OFFICE and feel calmed, inspired, happy. Rates sensitive to economic times. Phone Your Home Organizer, Linda James at 415.285.3266.

* Payments and/or text changes must be received by the 18th of each month for ad to appear in the following month's issue.

guest garden apartment. Private. 1/2 blk. to restaurants. Non-smoking. 2 adults only. 2 night minimum. 415-861-3208.

VACATION RETREAT FOR POTRERO HILLIANS. Calistoga/St Helena area 3 bdrms 2 baths sleeps 6 (max). Lrg decks w/ views of stream woods & meadow. Frplace w/wood, 30 acres trails, all-year stream. Dogs OK. 3 night wkend=$500 Week=$900. Discount for repeat guests. Photos: spot02.googlepages.com. 415.647.3052.

CHARMING GARDEN APARTMENT One BR, 2-night minimum. Fireplace, patio, deck, French doors. 415.641.4488.

TOM’S PLUMBING Tom has been satisfying Potrero Hill customers for over 30 years. All plumbing needs handled promptly and efficiently at a very low cost. Keep it local and call Tom Keats: 415-824-3538.

OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT Furnished office for rent in Dogpatch, including access to Mac computer, printer/copier, high-speed internet, fax, and hard-wired telephone. $500 a month. Contact Steve Moss, 643.9578; steven@moss.net

HONEY LIST DOER Handyman with experience in almost all areas. Kitchen makeover to leaky faucet. Plumbing, Electrical, General Carpentry, Fine Woodworking, Furniture Making. Call Wayne 415-987-0474.

ACTIVSPACE, FOR ART, HOBBY & BUSINESS. Rent from $395 a month utilities included. Private, Secure, Affordable, 24/7 access. Call Tama for further details 415-355-1515.

COLOR CONSULTING- INTERIOR DESIGN-180 DEGREE DESIGN Trouble picking out those perfect colors for the exterior or interior of your home? Want to finally re-design your kitchen or bathroom opening a new business space? Kathyjean Boise is a featured designer on HGTV. For the professional help you need to make the perfect rooms for life-Call 180 Degree Design-Kathyjean Boise-415-285-3014.

Housekeeping CLEANING PROFESSIONAL Cleaning Professional. 24 years Experience. Apartments, homes, or offices. Roger Miller 415.664.0513 or cell 415.794.4411 (9 am - 5 pm).

DO YOU NEED HOUSECLEANING? We will do it. Just Call Marco & Sara 415310-8838.

Pet Services TRU-LUV CATSITTING ON HILL SF/SPCA volunteer (10 years) and Cat Lover. Complete care for your cat(s) for your complete peace of mind while you are away, including medication if needed. References (see Yelp). Low Rates. Trudi 415.285.5526.

Visit www.potreroview.net or email advertising@potreroview.net

MAIL OR CALL IN YOUR AD View Wants Ads 2325 Third Street, Suite 344 San Francisco, CA 94107 415.626.8723 / office@potreroview.net

SPECIAL OCCASION COMING UP? Host your celebration at Slovenian Hall! Great rates and convenient location on Potrero Hill, just off Hwy 101. Ideal for birthdays, graduation or wedding receptions. Capacity up to 250. Space also available for seminars, meetings or classes. Short or long term rentals available. Call 864-9629 or email slovenianhall@gmail.com

Technology Services COMPUTER PROBLEMS DRIVING YOU BUGGY? Problems fixed! 25 years of industry experience Personal IT consulting to small businesses or busy professionalssetup/troubleshoot wireless networks. We can install and/or help you shop for new a new computer/network/printer or shows how to use yours. If you’re not technical, don’t worry -we are. Rob (415)244-3305 www.sfcomputech.com rob@sfcomputech.com

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THE POTRERO VIEW

March 2010

Organic Sour Cream 16 oz. -reg 3.29

$2.79

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Organic Milk 64 oz. -reg 4.15

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Organic Butter

sweet or salted 16 oz. -reg 5.99

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San Pellegrino

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cage-free dozen -reg 3.79

Dark Italian Roast Coffee Beans

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2/$3 Sale Prices effective March 1 - 21, 2010

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10/$10 Green Forest

Recycled Paper Towels

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Welcome Home: Potrero Hill Library!

Opening March 6th We’ll see you there.

Open Every Day! 8 AM to 8 PM - 1524 Twentieth Street - Potrero Hill - San Francisco - 415-282-9204

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Planet

Ultra Liquid Laundry Detergent 50 oz. -reg 7.99 +tx

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Ice Cream 16 oz. -reg 4.49

2/$6 ©2010