Potrero View 2010: June

Crowded Race for District 10

Supervisor

By Rigoberto Hernandez

Editor’s Note: Since the View’s publisher and editor, Steve Moss, is a candidate in the race for District 10 Board of Supervisors, the paper reached an agreement with the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’ s Mission Loc@l initiative to cover the election. The following article wasn’t edited by the View. This is the only article Moss has published in the View that he didn’t first edit, which is far more painful to him than the uncertain impacts it may have on his supervisorial candidacy. We hope that by offering this coverage we’ll spur our readers to get involved in the election. Some facts were spot-checked by Lisa Tehrani.

The supervisor election for District 10 is shaping out to be the most contested one based on the high interest from candidates and donors alike.

Most candidates said this is because the stakes are high in the election to replace termed out Supervisor Sophie Maxwell. District 10 is where the Lennar Corporation is scheduled to develop the Candlestick Point and

see CaNDIDatES page 13

Pier 70 Development Slowly Sets Sail

By Sarah Mcdonald

Earlier this year the Port of San Francisco published its Preferred Master Plan for Pier 70, an historic area along the City’s eastern shore, which stretches from Mariposa to 22nd streets. Once a bustling shipyard, much of the pier is dilapidated and closed to the public. Current tenants consist of ship repairer BAE Systems; Auto Return, a towing company; 1450-AM KEST’s radio transmitter; and scrap metal collec-

tor Sims Metal. Several artists lease space in the pier’s Noonan Building. The 30-year Master Plan includes environmental remediation, historic preservation, and the creation of significant new open space. When fully developed, Pier 70 could include three parks, medical and biotechnology offices, art and performance spaces, restaurants and retail establishments, alongside continuing ship repair.

“I’m excited,” said Susan Eslick, Dogpatch Neighborhood Associa-

Laundromat Users Hope for Better Times

By Michael Condiff

The year hasn’t been kind to Marie Konner. Since January, the 26-year-old City College student has lost two jobs and an apartment. And now, peering into a dryer at the Potrero Launderette on 18th Street, it seems she’s also lost a sock. “That’s just about the way things are going,” Konner said, unable to find the missing black footie. “There haven’t been a whole bunch of positive things happen. But, it seems like it’s that way for a lot of people, so I don’t feel quite so bad. The way the economy’s going, I know a lot of people have it worse than me. But still…this year has really sucked, so far. It’s scary.”

These days, fear of the economic

unknown is about as common as discarded sheets of Bounce in the City’s laundromats. Whether at the Potrero Launderette, Mr. Burbuja’s on 24th Street, or Brainwash on Folsom Street, San Francisco’s great unwashed are concerned that their futures may not emerge from the latest spin cycle as bright as they want. “Everybody’s worried about their jobs, their homes, their families,” said South-of-Market resident Susan Vargas, folding a pile of towels at Brainwash. “So many people are out of work or losing hours; there’s no security. Everybody’s cutting back, saving their money because they’re not sure of their next paycheck.”

Cutbacks in Vargas’ household include fewer meals eaten outside the home and a delay in dental work for her husband, John, who broke a tooth on a pork chop bone three months ago. “I keep telling him to go, but he won’t spend the money,” she said. “He’s worried we’re going to need it for something else.”

At the beginning of the year Konner was laid off from a hostess position at a Pacific Heights eatery. Within a month she was hired and then let go by a Haight-area clothing store. “They never should have hired me,” she said. “They didn’t have the

tion vice president, who leases an art studio at the pier. Eslick has been involved in the Central Waterfront Advisory Group, which provided community input to the port during the planning process. “I just hope I’m alive to see it happen.”

John Borg, who lives and runs his business, Eco Imprints, across the street from the pier, was also involved in the Advisory Group. He envisions Pier 70 as a place to learn about and witness the City’s 130-year-old labor tradition. According to Borg, the area “has a little bit of grit and authenticity and reality” that he hopes will carry over into its future. David Beaupre, the Port of San Francisco’s senior waterfront planner, agrees, saying that preserving the pier’s history is one of the plan’s most important aspects. “There are literally historic buildings that are just crumbling into the bay,” said Borg.

The plan identifies eight buildings as its highest priority for preservation, including the Union Iron Works Machine Shop, a unique cathedral-like building on 20th Street which could become a central node of a redeveloped pier. The Machine Shop is surrounded by six other buildings that make up the “historic core” of the development plan.

A rendering of 20th Street at Pier 70 if the Port of San Francisco’s Preferred Master Plan is realized.

PubLIShEr’S VIEw: Politics

by Steven J. moss

For the past decade I’ve taught a graduate-level public policy course at Mills College or San Francisco State University. One of the issues we examine is who dominates politics in the United States: a limited number of wealthy, influential individuals and corporations – elites – a broader spectrum of grassroots and organized groups – known as pluralism – or individual citizens, through direct democratic action, as championed in part by the 20th Century Progressive movement.

Last semester my Mills College students read Arthur Fisher Bentley’s The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressures, which was first published in 1908. The book revolves around a single theme: all politics and all government are the result of group activity. Bentley wrote The Process of Government at the height of the Progressive Era, when educated, prosperous, high-minded people believed in reform and good government, and viewed interest groups as the enemy of those goals. Populist Progressives wanted the people as a whole to decide things by direct vote – and to that end created California’s initiative process – élitist Progressives preferred to give authority to experts. Bentley believed that regardless of one’s preferences, an accurate understanding of how politics actually works centered on group behavior.

Bentley’s century-old treatise is a good description of San Francisco politics. Group behavior dominates political discourse, and fundamentally determines policy pathways, whether influenced by the Building Owners and Management Association, Democratic County Central Committee, or Tenant’s Union. The people have their say at the ballot, but the political agenda is substantially set by groups. While the San Francisco Board of Supervisors can present ballot measures to voters, they generally don’t when threatened by significant opposition from powerful interests.

Are You an Elitist?

Group behavior has its benefits. It provides communication vehicles, an organized basis for citizens to express their preferences, counteracts the power of elites, and can serve as a platform for negotiating compromises. But if left unmediated by enlightening political leadership, it can also impose high social costs. A number of influential San Francisco groups who assert that they’re speaking on behalf of a given community, hardly have any constituency at all. Yet, because of their constant and often loud presence in policy debates, are treated as if they’re leading an army of citizens. This has the effect of robbing many of us of our voice, and acts to discourage citizens who don’t belong to or agree with a powerful club from engaging in the policy process. Politicians negotiate with narrow and shallow interest groups and call democracy done.

The best groups transparently and effectively represent the demographics they serve. The worst act to misdirect scarce resources away from where they’re needed most. Some groups have devolved to doggedly protecting their own interests – for economic survival, political power, or to push a particular ideology – rather than the interests of the populations they purport to serve. Public services can tilt towards patronage; outcomes are measured by satisfying advocates, as opposed to whether lives are fundamentally improved. It’s a lazy and dangerous way to practice democracy.

The antidote to interest group politics is a deeper engagement in democracy, greater transparency, and a focus on systematic, rather than ad hoc, decision making. In A Community Organizer’s Tale, former Mission District organizer Mike Miller describes how what he calls “people power” can be used to forge new relationships between under-represented citizens and government. People

There’s a perennial debate in American politics over the role of elites in determining election and public policy outcomes. Whether or not you’re an elite is a question of attitudes and lifestyle choices. As a service to readers who may be concerned that they themselves may be elitist, we present the following quiz.

Scoring: Begin with a score of zero.

1. Can you read this sentence?

A. Yes (Add 5 points)

B. No (Subtract 5 points)

2. What’s your education level?

A. Manager taught me how to use the Fry-O-Lator (Subtract 10 points)

B. Jailhouse lawyer (Add zero points)

C. Dark Mage, Level 27 (Add 3 points)

D. Graduated from some highfalutin’, fancy pants college and walk around acting all better’n you. (Add 15 points)

3. What is the cacao content of your favorite chocolate?

If you can answer this question, add 15 points.

4. Have you eaten fresh abalone more than once in the last year?

If yes, add 15 points.

5. Did you harvest the abalone yourself?

If yes, subtract 50 points.

6.What percentage of your t-shirts have sleeves?

A. 0 - 25 percent (Subtract 15 points)

B. About half (Add zero points)

C. Pretty much all of them. (Add 5 points)

7. Do you own a trucker hat?

A. Yes (Subtract 15 points, unless you’re Ashton Kutcher, in which case add 1,000 points)

B. No (Add 5 points)

8. Do you own a second home?

If yes, add 50 points.

9. Is your second home your car?

If yes, subtract 75 points.

Dear Editor,

10. Can you see the ocean from your house?

If yes, add 150 points.

11. Can you smell the ocean from your house?

If yes, add 30 points.

12. Which of the following features does your house have?

A. Basement meth lab (Subtract 50 points)

B. Grow room (Subtract 10 points)

C. Staff (Add 100 points)

13. What‘s your favorite classical music and/or composer?

A. Hooked on Classics (Subtract 15 points)

B. Yanni/Mannheim Steamroller/ Trans-Siberian Orchestra (Subtract 5 points)

C. Beethoven/Mozart/JS Bach (Add 10 points)

D. Schoenberg (Add 50 points)

14. Where do you get your news?

A. Television in the grocery checkout line (Subtract 15 points)

B. Fox News (Subtract 5 points)

C. All Things Considered (Add 15 points)

D. Democracy Now! (Add 25 points)

15. Where do you summer?

A. Same place I winter, jerk (Subtract 15 points)

B. The Compound (Subtract 10 points)

C. The Hamptons, The Vineyard, or Nantucket (Add 50 points)

Rankings:

Negative to zero points: “Enjoy the six-pack, Joe”

Zero to 50 points: “Welcome to Taco Bell, may I take your order?”

51 to 100 points: “Short, Tall, Grande, or Venti?”

Above 100 points: “This way to the guest room at the White House.”

Letters to the Editor

cific Gas & Electric to take down the horrible, ancient wires.

ediTor and pUblisher: steven J. Moss

prodUcTion ManaGer: lisa Tehrani

JUne sTaFF: Matt baume, Michael condiff, debbie Findling, rigoberto hernandez, peter linenthal, catie Magee, david Matsuda, sarah k. Mcdonald, Marci Mills, sara Moss, anthony Myers, sergio nibbi, robbi peele, Flavia purpura-pontoniere, lucia purpura-pontoniere, Mauri schwartz, Mike stillman and Jim Van buskirk editorial

What’s up with the stealth photo and comment “Small House, Big Plans” (May View)? I think it’s wonderful that the owners of 1101 De Haro care enough about Potrero Hill to want to stay with their growing family instead of moving to Marin or the peninsula. As the homeowner across the street I welcome their architectural taste and sincere desire to keep the Hill a place for single family homes.

I’ve viewed the plans. The proposal fits in with the neighborhood and, hopefully, will increase the property values on a street that’s struggling to keep up with the rest of Potrero Hill.

Now if we could only get Pa -

Elizabeth Hirsch De Haro Street

Dear Editor,

As the owners of 1101 De Haro Street, we wanted to weigh-in with some facts regarding the picture and caption that appeared in the May issue (“Small House, Big Plans”). Stating that we’re “proposing to expand the built space lot-to-lot, covering almost 90 percent of property” is simply wrong. We’ve submitted multiple sets of plans to the Planning Department that address and clarify lot coverage. The latest plans provide

Yes on Proposition 15: Elections that money Can’t buy

By Joni Eisen

Are you outraged by the amount of money in politics, and the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations unlimited campaign spending? To run for office in California, candidates must either be wealthy or connected to wealthy donors. That money buys access.

Our budget should reflect our values, but it’s a sad, distorted picture of corporate tax breaks overpowering protections for the most vulnerable. Getting politicians out of the fundraising game would enable them to focus on our priorities, not those of big campaign donors.

Proposition 15, the California Fair Elections Act, changes the way we finance election campaigns, starting with a pilot project to provide limited public financing for secretary of state candidates in 2014 and 2018. The secretary of state, who oversees the integrity of elections, should especially avoid the influence of campaign investors. Witness Florida and Ohio in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

To qualify for public financing under the proposition, candidates must gather signatures and $5 contributions from 7,500 registered voters. Spending limits and reporting requirements would be strictly enforced. Proposition 15 pays for itself, primarily through raising lobbyists’

annual license fee from $12.50 to $350; equal to Illinois, less than Massachusetts or Texas. No taxes will be raised, despite the opposition’s misleading claims to the contrary.

Fair elections save taxpayers money. Industry lobbyists stopped Connecticut from expanding its bottle-recycling bill for a decade, but after 81 percent of Connecticut’s legislature was elected “cleanly” in 2008, a new recycling bill generated almost $17 million in additional annual revenue, more than paying for the entire fair elections system. The new North Carolina insurance commissioner discovered that insurance companies had overcharged ratepayers. Elected with public funds and thus uninfluenced by insurance industry money, he ordered a $50 million rebate to ratepayers: 2,500 times the $200,000 annual cost to finance insurance commissioner campaigns.

San Francisco state senators and assembly members, the mayor, ten supervisors and hundreds of other city and state leaders and organizations endorse Proposition 15, which provides a small but crucial step in breaking the connection between campaign contributions and legislative outcomes. Learn more at www.

YesOnProp15.org

Joni Eisen lives on Pennsylvania Street

DPw targets 18th St.

By Don and Joan Nolte

Last month Department of Public Works (DPW) inspectors descended on 18th Street and issued violation notices to many businesses for having objects on the sidewalk, allegedly without permits. The objects included benches, flower pots, small tables with chairs and a water bowl for dogs. It feels to us, and most of our neighbors, that it’s we who’ve been violated. Our two-block commercial center is our main gathering place. We don’t have parks, we have benches. These were – before they were temporarily removed by order – provided by private citizens for the use of all of us. There is a bench outside of the Voice Studio, and one in front of Big Think Studios. There are many small benches encircling trees, which DPW initially demanded be removed. These sidewalk features weren’t restricted to commercial uses; they were amenities for all.

People come to Potrero Hill to eat, have coffee and walk, because it’s a warm, friendly place, where it’s easy to linger, sit with friends and chat for a while. If DPW had their way, unless you’re sitting at restaurant tables you’d have to sit on the sidewalk.

Why did this happen? We can’t get any more explanation from DPW than “there was a complaint.” What complaint? About what? DPW swooped into our neighborhood like Storm Troopers, looking for viola-

No on Proposition 16

By Senator Mark Leno

On June 8, a new type of special interest initiative will appear on the ballot. Proposition 16, funded solely by Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation (PG&E), is the first-ever attempt by a single corporation to purchase constitutional protection for its monopoly. If the proposition passes, PG&E’s high rates will be locked into the California Constitution, and lower priced public power choices will be locked out.

Proposition 16 would require a two-thirds vote before any nonprofit utility company could make changes to its energy services or enter into the energy business. This requirement wouldn’t apply to PG&E or other private utilities that want to expand. Only public, nonprofit electric companies would be subject to a vote. Adding insult to injury, Proposition 16 itself can pass on a simple majority, allowing 50 percent plus one of the voters to impose a minority-rule, 66 percent requirement on everyone else.

At a recent meeting of nervous PG&E investors, Chief Executive Officer Peter Darbee explained that requiring a supermajority vote for community choice will ultimately make it easier and cheaper for PG&E to stop public power efforts. He assured them that their investment in Proposition 16 would pay off in the end, and mean fewer electoral battles.

There’s nothing new about PG&E flexing its financial muscle against public power.

Sidewalks

tions. They didn’t seem to want to help anyone comply with the laws; they only seemed to want to write citations. Is this the way our City works? With all of the serious problems facing San Francisco it seems absurd that the City paid two employees for three days to come to Potrero Hill and harass our hardworking shopkeepers. These store owners are our friends and neighbors. They’re having a hard time making ends meet in this difficult economy, and here comes DPW to make their lives more difficult.

As we drive around the City, we see planters and benches in front of many buildings. They greatly improve the appearance of the streetscape. It seems likely to us that most of them were placed without benefit of a permit. Why should people have to pay for beautifying the front of their property with greenery or flowers? This makes absolutely no sense as long as the walkway is not blocked.

We are tax-paying citizens who love our neighborhood. It’s painful to be treated this way. Is it too much to expect our government agencies to respect our way of life?

As a result of the intense backlash from Potrero Hill residents, DPW rescinded the tickets it had issued to 18th Street merchants. See “Short Cuts” in this issue. - Editor

The company has spent about $25 million beating back challenges from municipal utilities and local governments, and fears more community choice efforts are on the way. What’s new is that PG&E is presenting itself as a more democratic and affordable option than publicly-owned power companies. Neither is true.

PG&E rates are, on average, 20 percent higher than the state’s municipal utilities, and are higher than Southern California Edison’s.

PG&E spends the excess on shareholder profits, executive salaries, lobbying expenses and political donations, and, of course Proposition 16. Municipal utilities, with lower rates, don’t charge customers for windfall profits, corporate excesses and major political initiatives.

As ratepayers who’ve suffered through repeated rate hikes, smart meters and frequent outages know, PG&E is far less accountable to its customers than publicly owned utilities are. Municipal boards are elected and can be removed by voters. No publicly owned utility has ever asked customers for a penny in bailout money, much less $9 billion, as PG&E did after the deregulation debacle.

With Proposition 16 PG&E wouldn’t only hamstring public utilities, it could leave some customers without any electricity at all. The initiative takes aim at existing municipal electric companies by changing the law to require two-thirds majority vote for any expansion of a municipal utility district; new customers moving into an established municipal territory might well have to wait for a two-thirds vote before being able to get electricity to their homes. And while PG&E claims Proposition 16 is motivated by a desire to give voters a voice, they haven’t offered their own customers a vote on their high rates.

Proposition 16 doesn’t emerge from a popular movement of voters dissatisfied with the current process. It comes out of PG&E’s plush corporate offices, and is funded solely by that company out of profits from captive customers. No one else has contributed a dime, because no one else has anything to gain from its passage.

California State Senator Mark Leno represents California’s 3rd Senate District, encompassing all of Marin County, and parts of Sonoma and San Francisco counties.

turns 40

Short Cuts

Crime

Last month 21-year-old Amanda Irion was robbed at gun point on a Saturday at 8:35 p.m. Irion, who works at The Good Life Grocery, was walking on 20th Street between Pennsylvania and Mississippi streets after her shift. An African-American male, roughly 16 years old, accosted her, demanded her purse, pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her. Irion handed over her purse. The mugger then groped Irion before running off. Luckily, Irion had her cell-phone in her pocket and immediately called 911. The police arrived within minutes, and drove Irion around the neighborhood in an unsuccessful attempt to find the suspect. Irion lost $40, a credit card, keys to her stepmom’s - Susan Eslick, who serves as the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association vice-president – house and her mother’s house, with addresses for both residences in the purse printed on her driver’s license and other identification cards. Be alert out there… In May the Hill was hit with another rash of car break-ins, including on Kansas Street, next to Downtown High School, and at 22nd, Southern Heights and Carolina streets, where a grey BMW and a purple Dodge Ram pick-up truck among other vehicles, were violated…With the City’s summer school programs almost entirely cancelled, and a still weak economy, a large number of local youth may be idle in the months ahead. The Department of Children, Youth and Family Services recently eliminated an $80,000 teen program housed at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, and the Potrero Hill Recreation Center on Arkansas Street –whose paid staff has been cut from four to one – is under investigation by Child Protective Services related to an incident in which unmonitored teenagers engaged in and filmed sexual activity in the Center’s basement. Another popular program, the Mayor’s Youth Employment and Education Program (MYEEP), which is operated by Potrero Hill-based Horizons Unlimited of San Francisco, Inc., is being cut by $1.4 million dollars, which represents 500 jobs for San Francisco youth. In response to

these service reductions, the Police Athletic League and the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department are increasing the number of summer camp and sporting league slots. We need to catch our youth before they fall down; anyone with an extra dollar, job, mitt, basketball, or knitting yarn should find ways to keep our children productively occupied.

Children

Long-time Starr King Elementary School principal Chris Rosenberg –who has been dedicated to a building an effective community at the sometimes challenging school – is moving to John Muir Elementary School next academic year. Starr King’s loss is John Muir’s gain… Dogpatch may need to be renamed “Cabbage patch.” Three new preschools will open in the next couple of years in the neighborhood, starting with La Piccola Scuola Italiana this fall. La Piccola is taking over the Concentra building on 20th and Tennessee streets. Down the street, the Friends of Potrero Hill Nursery School is $150,000 away from securing the half-million dollars it needs to renovate two decaying shacks on the I.M. Scott school site into a child care center. And another preschool will be included in a Martin Building Company development on Third and 20th streets. A neighborhood once dominated by shipbuilding and fish canning will soon become a

node for child raising, a happy turn of events...Potrero Hill-based Spark, which connects at-risk middle school youth with apprenticeships in fields of their choice, has seen increased demand from youth for opportunities in the green sector. In response, the nonprofit recently placed one of its students with Dogpatch-based Ardica – which specializes in miniaturized, portable power systems – where the student built a solar powered mini-car. Youth + Skills + Sustainability = A Brighter Future

Civil Sidewalks

A dispute over proposed seating outside the soon to be open Papito on Connecticut Street caused headaches for 18th Street merchants. The Mak-

tub Group – Papito’s owner – intial request for a sidewalk seating permit was turned down by the Department of Public Works (DPW) as a result of a protest from a neighbor, who didn’t want to encourage traffic and noise on the block. The dispute triggered DPW to roust all of the nearby sidewalk features, including benches outside Voice Studios and Big Think Studios, and seating outside Farley’s. Benches and vases up and down the street had to be removed. Farley’s was fined $100 for an expired permit, and allowing chairs to be placed adjacent to the street. The café’s tree boxes, which have been in place for almost two decades, were at risk of being modified or removed entirely. Within 48 hours of the policing action, View publisher Steve Moss, community advocate Joe Boss, and McKinley Square Community Association member Cris Rys, a mong others, began lobbying DPW to retract their actions. Vanessa Marlin, of Bell and Trunk Flowers – who was forced to remove flower pots from in front of her store – called a friend at NBC Bay Area news. By the time NBC aired the story, DPW had backpedaled, stating that all fines would be revoked, and replaced by a campaign to educate merchants on how to best place street furniture (go to http:// potreroview.net/video.php to view the news clip). Eighteenth Street was again made safe for sitting, relaxing, see Short CutS page 23

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Peter Coonen and John Trujillo enjoy the bench in front of Voice Studios on 18th Street. Photograph by Emmanuel Schnetzler.

hours to go around for the people they already had.” With her bank account dwindling, no income and her share of rent on a two-bedroom Inner Richmond apartment suddenly seeming like an excessive expense, Konner decided to tighten her budget. She trimmed $300 a month by moving into a cramped Kansas Street studio with her older sister, Kate. She also took advantage of unemployment – “it’s humbling,” she said – and the Federal Work Study program that allows her to work 15 hours a week, at $9 an hour, as a lab aide at City College of San Francisco (CCSF). However, because economic shortfalls are forcing CCSF to cancel its summer session, even that position has disappeared. “I’ll have to find something else; hopefully something stable,” said Konner, an accounting major. “There seem to be more jobs on Craigslist and other places, lately. So, maybe things are picking up.”

James Kent, a Florida Street resident who was loading three washers at Mr. Burbuja’s, said he thinks harder times are still to come. “It’ll get worse before it gets better,” said Kent, a delivery driver. “We’ve been hearing for two years that everything will hit bottom and then turn around, but it hasn’t turned around yet. Businesses are still closing. Schools are laying-off teachers. Muni’s cutting services. The state can’t pay its workers. That’s not turning around. That’s continuing in the same direction: down.”

Kent said economic insecurity has influenced everything from his leisure time – “I don’t go to the movies or to ballgames like I used to,” – to his laundry habits. He admits that it will often be two weeks between trips to the laundromat. “It costs 10 bucks in quarters every time I come here,” he said. “I don’t even separate the whites and colors, anymore. That would cost more. I just throw it all in and hope.”

high Speed rail Slow to take off

By Anthony Myers

Though a recent state audit questioned the High-Speed Rail Authority’s ability to secure necessary funding, if everything goes as planned by 2026 bullet trains will travel at 220 miles per hour over roughly 800 miles of track stretching from San Francisco to Los Angeles. A few years after that, high speed rail will extend from Sacramento to San Diego. When it’s completed, California’s high speed rail will be the longest such transit system in the nation. Policy makers have demanded that the system provide transportation at a cost that’s competitive with airplanes and automobiles, though preliminary estimates of likely fare levels have recently jumped in price.

California’s line is scheduled to be the first of a handful of high speed rail projects – in Texas, the Midwest, New York and Florida – to become operational. Peninsula Rail – a segment connecting San Francisco Transbay Transit Center and San Jose Diridon Station – should be operational by 2020.

Constructing a state-of-the-art bullet train line through densely populated areas requires lots of money and considerable planning.

The $8 billion, 48-mile Peninsula Rail will share the Caltrain corridor but run on its own tracks. However, obstructions are appearing. Caltrain has halted long-planned electrification of their line, which would reduce noise and polluting air emissions, due to the threat of a lawsuit from the Planning and Conservation League and the Community Coalition on High-Speed Rail. Both groups are calling the electrification project’s environmental impact report, which was published in 2004, dated, and assert that electrification should be

considered as part of high speed rail development. Because high speed rail will be electric, the entire corridor must be upgraded for it to run.

Owned and operated by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, Caltrain provides rail service over 77-miles between San Francisco and San Jose. The commuter train is in line to receive millions of dollars in

quite some time, and now everything is coming to a head.”

According to Jeff Barker, deputy director of the California High Speed Rail Authority – a state-chartered body overseeing project planning, financing and construction – Caltrain’s fate won’t divert high speed rail from its course. However, high speed rail is facing legal problems of

federal funding for electrification as part of the high speed rail project. But Caltrain has lost $10 million due to state funding cuts over the past three years, and has suffered from a declining ridership because of the poor economy.

Although Caltrain received a $10.3 million windfall in late April through state legislation that uses a gas tax swap formula to provide millions of dollars for California public transit agencies, these funds won’t be enough to reinstate service that’s been cut, or prevent additional fare increases and service reductions.

According to Caltrain spokeswoman Tasha Bartholomew, the board is considering halving its service. “Caltrain never had a dedicated funding source,” Bartholomew said. “We’ve been running on a deficit for

its own along the peninsula and in San Francisco.

“I think we have an opportunity with this major infrastructure project over the next ten years that the City should take advantage of,” said Tony Kelly, who stepped down as Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association president last month to focus on his campaign for District 10 supervisor. “San Francisco doesn’t have a plan to handle high speed rail.” Kelly suggested that the City form a task force to examine high speed rail options. He recounted how it took five years to install a stoplight at 7th and 16th streets even after it was approved. “It’s complicated land because of Muni and Caltrain,” he said.

see raIL page 15

Islais Creek Struggles to be Reborn

By Matt Baume Special to the View from Spot.Us

Two men fished off the end of a Bayview pier at sunset on a Saturday evening. Just a few feet away a large yellow sign, warning “Underground Sewer Crossing,” served as a perch for gulls. The T-Third clattered across a grooved metal bridge over the water. On the opposite bank, a few kids skateboarded around a windswept concrete promenade. The bay end of Islais Creek at sundown is a tranquil spot in an otherwise chaotic neighborhood. But perhaps not for much longer.

After 30 years of environmental campaigning by a succession of community activists, minor miracles, and disastrous setbacks, the fate of Islais Creek’s westernmost end – a sliver of open water called Islais Creek Channel – is largely unknown. A massive construction project could further degrade a watershed harmed by more than a century of nearby industrial activities, or enable it be reclaimed as a natural resource. The channel’s fate rests largely in the hands of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (Muni), the same agency that’s contributed to environmental disasters along the creek for the last 15 years.

One Hundred Years of Degradation

Islais Creek is one of San Francisco’s few remaining natural water bodies. The creek originates in Glen Canyon Park, just south of Twin Peaks. Few San Franciscans have seen the exact spot where the creek emerges from the hillside; the underbrush is too thick for a person to penetrate, though the creek’s gurgle can be heard from nearby trails. A number of plants and animals rely on the creek for sustenance, including great horned owls, red-tailed hawks, and mission and blue butterflies. Just downstream from the creek’s underground headwaters, the vegetation thins out, allowing hikers to stroll along its banks accompanied by flowers and trees. Gazing up from the canyon floor, passersby can forget that they’re in a city.

At the park’s southern end, the creek spills into a crusty metal grate, vanishing from sight, until it emerges roughly four miles away in the Islais

Creek Channel, a block south of Cesar Chavez. A century ago, the entire creek was above ground, with kids playing in the water and boats navigating around Bernal Heights. Today the water flows through decades-old underground pipes. Only an outline of the creek remains; Highway 280 follows the path the water once took.

Before the arrival of settlers, the Muwekma Ohlone made use of the creek. Shellfish were plentiful, the

a seven-acre agricultural plot adjacent to Highway 101, next to Potrero Hill. Prior to that, she created “Sitting Still 1,” a performance piece that turned highway commuters into shoreline spectators. “I came across a garbage area where some water had attracted adjacent to where they were then building the 101 interchange,” she said. “I intuitively knew it was a powerful site…I immediately went home and put on an evening gown.” Sherk sat in an upholstered

looms over

Creek, which has undergone significant environmental contamination since European settlement. Photograph

water was clean enough to drink, and along the banks grew islay berries, which lent the water its name. Islais Creek is the only site in San Francisco to bear a name derived from the language of its prior human inhabitants.

In the late-1800s what’s now called Bayview emerged as Butchertown, an epicenter of slaughterhouses. The creek was used to carry offal into the bay. Soon the water became polluted. Landfill and heavy industries followed. Islais Creek became narrower and filthier. By the 1950s, automobile scrap yards littered the area and the City was releasing untreated sewage into the channel, which had become known colloquially as Shit Creek. Two hundred years ago the creek’s mouth was two miles wide. Now it’s roughly the length of a city block.

A Natural Wonder is Rediscovered

A movement to rehabilitate urban creeks was sparked in the 1970s, when the City of Napa removed the cover from the buried Napa River, inventing a practice that’s now known as day-lighting. About the same time artist and activist Bonnie Ora Sherk became an early advocate for watersheds, organizing The Farm,

chair in the midst of a flooded ditch alongside the highway construction. Her performance drew the attention of passing motorists, who saw, along with an attractive woman unusually attired, what remained of an urban watershed.

Rehabilitation work on Islais

Creek Channel began in the late1980s, prompted by neighborhood activists who were spurred to action by the lack of services for local youth. “The kids we saw every day were going into the drug business,” said Robin Chiang, Friends of Islais Creek president. Chiang saw the creek as an opportunity to provide alternatives to neighborhood kids. “I had visions that the Bayview-Hunter’s Point crew team would challenge Stanford Crew and beat them.”

Progress has been slow; just getting a permit to test the soil took a year and a half. “The impetus for creating all this was that the funding would build the boathouse and learning resource center,” said Chiang. After a pause, he added, “I’ve still got 20 years left to work on it.” Still, Chiang and his collaborator, Julia Viera, made steady progress. A small pocket of land was named for the Ohlone, and volunteers began turning the channel into a native plant and bird sanctuary. School children visit the creek regularly to study water quality. “Sometimes a real seal will swim in there,” said Chiang. “In the channel, it looks enormous. It looks like a whale.”

One of the most prominent upgrades is a paved pedestrian promenade on the north bank, which attracts skateboarders. A boat landing and kayak storage hut were built on the south bank, with stewardship see CrEEk page 25

Copra Crane

Islais

by Philip Anasovich.

power requires a deep commitment to finding and listening to a diverse array of individuals – as well as advocacy groups and spiritual leaders – as a means to understand what they want from government, what they’re willing to pay for, and what trade-offs they’re willing to make. It depends on organizers who are able to engage in unbiased conversations with under-represented populations to draw out their policy preferences. And it requires courageous, patient, political leadership.

Ad hoc policymaking needs to be eliminated in favor of three-dimensional planning that enables citizens to make explicit choices between, for example, which open areas should be set aside for dogs, playing fields, nature, or children. Interminable public engagement strategies that take years to complete, whittling out all but the most die-hard advocates, need to be replaced with goal-oriented discussions, attached to decision-certain outcomes, backed by sustainable

funding sources. Heated battles over scarce resources or policy priorities need to be set aside in favor of civil discourse over what our shared vision for the City is, what paths were going to take to reach that vision, and how we’re going to pay for the journey.

Bentley’s theory of group behavior was largely descriptive, rather than prescriptive. While he shared the Progressives’ goal of using government to curb the power of big business, as an academic his main concern was accurately cataloguing the way things are, as opposed to how they should be. Politics, however, isn’t academic. San Francisco is at a critical juncture, with diminishing sources of high-quality news analysis to enable informed citizens to effectively engage in policy processes, chronic budget deficits, and a new City waiting to emerge in the Southeast neighborhoods. It’s time to recommit to creating a local democracy in which all of our voices are heard, and where policy success is measured by real progress made by families, neighborhood businesses, and the environment.

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american Industrial Center Committed to Increased recycling

By Mike Stillman

The management at American Industrial Center (AIC), an 800,000 square foot building that extends along two blocks of Third Street in Dogpatch, has embarked on an ambitious program to increase recycling and composting at the facility. With 285 tenants, it’s not easy to coordinate changes, but property manager Greg Markoulis has experienced early success changing the way his tenants dispose of their waste.

AIC launched its composting program last fall, distributing green composting bins to all tenants. In its initial months, the program was a success: the building produced 80 cubic yards of compostable materials a month, exceeding monthly trash production of 75 cubic yards.

While Markoulis has been promoting recycling for the past fifteen years – long before it was a common practice for commercial buildings –

he’s seen a huge increase in recycling output. Today the building disposes 270 cubic yards of compacted recycling a month; two years ago AIC was producing 151 yards of uncompacted recycling monthly. Two years ago Markoulis purchased a new compactor – which allows AIC’s waste removal company to collect more recycling in less trips –and has increased the size of his janitorial staff to help handle the increased amount of recycling his tenants are producing.

According to Markoulis, AIC’s waste removal company, Recolocy Sunset Scavenger, collects three loads of recycling for every load of trash.

AIC’s recycled material is taken to a recycling plant at Pier 96, where it’s sorted by commodity for reuse. AIC’s food waste is transformed into compost, which is distributed to more than two hundred farms and vineyards. According to Recology Sunset Scavenger, 620,000 tons

see rECYCLINg page 9

campus:

If you would like to be on our email notification list, or if you have any questions, please contact Barbara Bagot-López, Associate Director of UCSF Community Relations, at bblopez@cgr.ucsf.edu or 415/476-8318.

Thursday, June 17, 2010 6:30 p.m.

UCSF Mission Bay Campus

Genentech Hall Room N-114 600 16th Street

UCSF Mission Bay Phase 2 planning will explore ways to enhance the campus pedestrian environment, evaluate options for additional housing, reassess parking supply and demand, and consider the potential for increasing development beyond the current 2.65 million gross square foot limit.

Three community meetings are planned. The purpose of the first meeting is to gather information from the community about what you would like to include in the study.

The UCSF Mission Bay campus is accessible using the MUNI T-Third light rail line. If you drive, please park at NO COST in the SURFACE LOT (near the UCSF Police Station); this lot can be reached by taking 16th Street to 4th Street. Complimentary parking is not available in the garages. Please bring photo id to show at building security desk.

UCSF fully ascribes to the Americans with Disabilities Act. If at any time you feel you have a need for accommodation, please contact UCSF Community & Governmental Relations at 415/476-3206 with your suggested accommodation.

Composting and recycling receptacles. Photograph by Francisco Mattos.

how to make It in america

By Sergio Nibbi

If you lived in Potrero Hill during the 1930s you might remember a certain pick-up truck plying the roads. Always in need of a wash, its solid fenders covered with bits of plaster, the bed carrying a roll of chicken wire, a few sacks of sand, cement and lime; the ingredients of a plaster’s trade. The truck belonged to Biagio Crespi, who spent three years as a prisoner of war during World War I, finally escaping on his third attempt, making his way to America in 1921.

Another Italian immigrant, Anna Brondello, had arrived in the United States just a year earlier with her husband, Giovanni. They settled into a home on 650 De Haro Street.

In Italy Giovanni had been a mounted police officer; in America he worked at odd jobs while Anna tended to the house, raised rabbits and chickens in the back yard and baked bread in the outdoor, wood fired oven, instinctively knowing when the temperature was just right; the bread had to be perfect. The couple rented a small bungalow in the back for $18 a month to a family raising seven children.

Within a decade of their arrival Giovanni became critically ill, leaving Anna alone to care for their two sons, Mario, six, and Aldo, four. Anna worked whatever jobs were available: cleaning houses, caring for the elderly, sometimes walking to Chinatown to earn a few extra dollars to support her family.

At the same time Crespi was working a series of low-wage jobs,

as a day laborer, pouring concrete, eventually becoming a plasterer. He shared a modest Potrero Hill home on 19th Street, between Carolina and Wisconsin streets – since demolished to make way for what’s now International High School – with other Italian immigrants, the rest of whom ultimately returned to Italy. Brondello met Crespi cleaning the house. They married in 1930. A year later a son, Vic, was born.

Mario and Aldo graduated from high school just as America was increasing its involvement in World War II. They spent most of the war years serving their country; Mario in the Army and Aldo in the Army Air Force. They returned safely home and joined their step-father as journeyman plasters. Working days, nights and weekends, they could see that the developers for whom they toiled were profiting from building and selling homes and apartments. Eventually they obtained their own contractor’s licenses and started building in San Francisco.

Mario and Aldo ventured off on their own with a pair of flats across from Kezar Stadium. As the City started building freeways new opportunities emerged. For five or six hundred dollars the brothers could buy a home and move it to one of the lots that their mother had purchased. She’d head off with Aldo in hand and knock on people’s doors, asking “You want to sell that lot?” For less that a thousand dollars they’d purchase a spot to place the house, which would be wheeled down the street while Pacific Gas and Electric Company moved wires and provided safe passage. In-between plastering jobs the

family purchased and moved more than 25 houses. After serving in Korea, Vic joined his bothers and father in the business.

The family was known for their work ethic and honest business dealings. After a hard day’s work the brothers would return telephone calls lining up jobs for the next day. Anna led customer service efforts, remaining active in the enterprise until she passed. Aldo’s son, John Brondello, tried his hand at plastering, working with his father and uncles. But after nine years of back-breaking work he decided that real estate brokerage was more to his liking. John now oversees the family’s real estate assets out of the company’s Walnut Creek office.

Vic was seriously hurt in 1986 and stopped plastering; climbing on rickety scaffolds and walking on a single plank 40 feet in the air got to be too much. As Vic is fond of say-

ing, “I don’t have to do this anymore; I have money in the bank!” The iconic truck, which at that point took the form of a Department of Public Works orange Dodge purchased at a City surplus sale, was retired. Vic started a monthly social club, “The Ghetto,” at a former garage on Indiana Street, where he invites friends to help cook for an overflow crowd approaching 100. Vic frequently cooks meals for seniors at St. Elizabeth’s Church, where the ladies always go home with their purses stuffed with leftovers.

The family has lived the American dream, stitched together by endless days of back-breaking work, pride in family morals and always remembering to help those in need. The 60 rabbits and 50 chickens that Anna Crespi kept in her back yard have certainly multiplied. And no one in the family has forgotten where they came from.

June 8th PRIMARY ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS Endorsements require 60% of votes cast.

California Lieutenant Governor: No position

California Attorney General: KAMALA HARRIS

California Insurance Commissioner: HECTOR DE LA TORRE

California Superintendent of Public Instruction: TOM TORLAKSON Superior Court Judge, Seat 6: No position Superior Court Judge, Seat 15: MICHAEL NAVA

San Francisco

The Crespi family photographed by The San Francisco Examiner.

Giovanni Brondello

of waste have been composted and reused as fertilizer since the City started collecting compost in 1996. Markoulis said the success of his building’s recycling and composting programs is largely the result of his tenants sorting their own waste instead of relying on the building’s janitorial staff. “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for our tenants,” said Markoulis, who noted that for AIC and other commercial buildings, having janitorial staff sort waste is too labor intensive.

AIC tenants appear happy to take part in the building’s waste disposal program. “I think it is good for the company to recycle and compost…We are definitely in favor of anything that helps prevent waste and protects natural wildlife habitats,” said Christian Oberman, who is head of the shipping and receiving department at T.A.D. Gear, an outdoor equipment company. Oberman admitted that it’s been more time consuming to sort all their waste. To prepare for the new waste disposal policy, his company held a staff meeting, established guidelines for their employees, and hung posters in their store.

David Hanson, vice president of Western Textile and Manufacturing, located on AIC’s ground floor, said that the positive environmental benefits easily offsets the effort that goes into sorting waste. Hanson noted that soon sorting waste will become second nature, and will cease to take

any extra effort.

“The trash must go in a can no matter what, this is just learning which receptacle to use,” said Hanson.

Although AIC has been recycling for more than a decade, four years ago a significant rate increase for waste removal services prompted a renewed focus on the effort. When Markoulis first started recycling the service was free. Now, Recology Sunset Scavenger has an incentive program where producing recycling reduces the total cost of a garbage bill. According to Markoulis, after the initial rate increase his garbage bill jumped from $6,000 to more than $20,000. Today expenditures are back down to historical costs. Robert Reed, public relations manager for Recology Sunset Scavenger, said the rate increases were imposed to pay for increases in business expenses, such as fuel, labor, and truck ownership and maintenance.

City leaders hope to divert 75 percent of San Francisco’s waste away from landfills by the end of this year, with an expected 100 percent diversion rate by 2020, meaning no waste would be landfilled. The City has made steady progress towards meeting this goal, with the diversion rate rising from 35 percent in 1996 to 72 percent in 2009. Reed attributes the success of the City’s recycling program to more than just the increased costs of garbage removal. A combination of efforts is responsible, he said, including support from the mayor, discounts for recycling, and community outreach.

Potrero Residents Help Save Abandoned Pups

By Robbi Peele

Recently, a group of Potrero Hill residents came together to save two dogs and six five-week old puppies I found last fall on the side of a busy road near Elk Grove. The adults were full of fleas, and infested with two different kinds of worms. One of them was so scared she drooled constantly. With three border collies of my own I was overwhelmed. I called every animal sanctuary west of the Mississippi; the only two that called me back were full. Even San Francisco Animal Care and Control wouldn’t take the dogs because they were found in another county.

On a Sunday evening I went to McKinley Square with my border collies and told some of the regulars what was going on. Without flinching, two of my neighbors volunteered to help. One of them, Kelly Keith, who lives on Rhode Island Street and has three dogs of his own, took mama dog and her puppies. He created a heated place for them to sleep inside, and a safe area in the yard for them during the day. He bought special food to nourish the malnourished, lactating mom. Elise Campeau and I went to Kelly’s twice daily to help him clean up after the puppies.

Potrero resident Kelly Keith playing with the puppies he helped care for. Photograph by Robbi Peele.

narian I found a sanctuary, Azaya Ranch, in Petaluma, which agreed

Susan is both your Potrero Hill neighbor and Realtor®. With her keen business sense and warm approach to client service, she is at once upscale and down to Earth. Kind of like Potrero Hill.

And with nearly 30 years of San Francisco real estate expertise in the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods, and of course her own home base of Potrero Hill, it’s no wonder she’s the first person so many San Franciscans turn to for guidance when they decide to buy or sell property. She’s been at the top of this game for years; when only the best of both worlds will do, call Susan Olk.

That’s

Dear San Francisco Neighbors,

We’re cutting our budget at the Fire Department, improving efficiency and even digging into our own pockets and taking less pay to help close our city’s half-billion dollar budget gap.

We’re doing all this so we can preserve our neighborhood firehouses — your first line of defense in the event of fires, medical emergencies or any major disaster.

Please join the Save Our Neighborhood Firehouses coalition by signing up at www.SaveOurFirehouses.com or joining us on Facebook.

We’re cutting the fat — but we shouldn’t cut neighborhood firehouses that are your first line of defense against fires, medical emergencies and major disasters. Thank

Under the plan, Slipways Park would be built along the pier’s southeastern shore, from roughly 21st to 22nd streets, near the site of four former slipways, or boat ramps. The

the visually prominent cranes that tower above the area now. Borg was excited about the cranes inclusion in the plan, comparing them to “mini Eiffel towers. They’re beautiful,” he said.

The sites proximity to the University of California, San Francisco

Works Machine Shop, that are threatened by advanced

The Port’s FY10/11 annual capital budget includes rst phase of stabilization for this structure.

Non-Contributing Resources comprise a fourth category of resources that are not essential to the eligibility of the district because they post-date the period of significance most, or all, of their integrity. Non-Contributing include most of the site’s waterside features such as slips, piers, and vessels. Although they are not recognized as Resources, they are important to the context and

ing some of UCSF’s off-site offices at the pier could be a way to address Dogpatch residents’ concerns about medical offices encroaching into the neighborhood.

The port hopes to secure a developer by the end of the year. “It’s gotta be a developer that recognizes that [Pier 70 has] got a unique history, a legacy,” said Borg. “It’s going to happen,” echoed Eslick. “We just want it to happen in a thoughtful way.”

therefore are considered Non-Contributing resources within the Pier 70 Historic District. The Plan anticipates that Non-Contributing Resources would be affected in order to provide for the operational needs of the shipyard and to support the overriding goals of the Plan.

Infill Development

New infill development within Pier 70 is key to the preservation of the historic district because it provides a source of funding and purpose for the rehabilitation of the site’s historic resources. But new development must respect the unique character and setting of

A substantial portion of the funding for Pier 70’s improvements would come from property tax revenues generated by new development. The port is investigating other public financing sources, including an Infrastructure Finance District, in which financing is secured by future property tax revenues expected to be generated at the pier, a MelloRoos District, in which a special tax would be assessed on pier properties,

lead-contaminated dust, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, thinners, toners, and dangerous cleaning supplies. Beaupre said that an inventory of what’s in the buildings, and how to remove the materials, should be completed next year.

In 2008 the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) received $2.8 million from the Department of Defense to investigate and clean-up hazardous waste thought to exist in the pier’s soil and groundwater. The port was awarded most of the funds, and has contracted with Treadwell and Rollo, Inc., an environmental consulting firm, to develop a risk management plan.

park could include piers and jetties for pedestrian access. Irish Hill, located near Illinois Street between 21st and 22nd streets, would wrap around historic buildings slated for renovation. Crane Cove Park would run along the northeastern shore up to Illinois Street, and may include

(UCSF), Mission Bay campus and an emerging biotechnology cluster could make it attractive to potential science-oriented developers, who will be eligible for tax credits for developing in a National Historic District and an economically disadvantaged area. According to Beaupre, locat-

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Before any development can begin, however, the port must remediate what Borg calls “a legacy of environmental damage,” including associated with shipbuilding by the U.S. Navy. Last month the Port Commission approved a request for bids to investigate hazardous materials contained in the pier’s buildings: such as asbestos, lead-based paint,

The firm’s final report will be released this month, but according to preliminary findings investigators have found arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, vanadium, zinc, and naturally-occurring asbestos in the soil throughout the site at concentrations exceeding environmental screening levels, as well as asbestos, chromium and nickel in the serpentine bedrock beneath the rock bluffs at the historic shoreline. They also found polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the soil near the Potrero Power Plant and volatile organic compounds in the groundwater. An oily residue is in the soil where ship repair is being conducted, but doesn’t appear to be volatile, or likely to vaporize and be inhaled by humans. It also didn’t appear to be soluble in ground water, meaning it’s unlikely to spread through the acquifer. Nothing has been found that suggests potential risks to current site occupants or visitors.

The Treadwell and Rollo report will be presented at a public meeting of the Central Waterfront Advisory Group on June 16, 5 p.m., location to be announced at www.sfport.com, under “Public/Community Meetings.” The full text of the Preferred Master Plan can be found at www. sfport.com/pier70.

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From desolate to dazzling. The Bethlehem Steel building on Illinois Street today (above) and how it could look (below). Photograph by Peter Linenthal. Rendering courtesy of the Port of San Francisco.

going to war

By David Matsuda

and then seeing that hatred transform to understanding at the negotiating table, helped calm my fears, but simultaneously raised the stakes. In Iraq, trust is often the stepchild of betrayal. Despite continued violence, the majority of Iraqis have demonstrated grace under fire, a willingness to forgive, and hospitality. They daily restored my faith in humanity.

Personal Trainers Good for All Ages and Budgets

By Marci Mills

Roughly three and a half years ago, after mulling over a complex set of issues – if Iraq goes wrong we all lose; our armed forces can no longer kill their way out of everything; understanding Iraqi cultures will enable us to establish mutually beneficial alliances – I, a Democrat, liberal and a pacifist, decided to go to war. Not to take lives, but to save them. Not to manipulate others, but to collaborate with them. Not to foster hegemony, but to help Iraqis get the Iraq they want for themselves.

Prior to the creation of the Human Terrain System, average Americans, much less the U.S. military, knew little about anthropology. For example, when I ask my kids “What do you say when friends ask what your Daddy does?” they reply, “I say you are an anthropologist, and, after uncomfortable silences and confused looks, we change the subject.” However, with the U.S. Army’s new emphasis on understanding culture my counsel has been sought by battlefield commanders, as well as ivory tower strategists. And in Iraq, where doctorates of philosophy trump medical degrees, I’m accorded the respect reserved for learned elders.

War, I’ve come to understand, brings out the best and the worst in people. After witnessing friend and foe kill and be killed by improvised explosive devices, complex attacks, and snipers during my first deployment in Sadr City and the Sunni Triangle, I came to the conclusion that “I’m already dead”. Looking into the eyes of fellow human beings shooting at me,

My second deployment was as the primary cultural advisor to Corps Commander Lieutenant General Charles Jacoby, the second highest ranking officer in Iraq. Serving with the Corps meant that I had to stop thinking tactically – “Let’s go see the local sheik down the street” – and start to see the world through operational and strategic lenses: “We have to make tribal policy to deal with 10,000 sheiks across Iraq.”

I was the Corps’ eyes and ears, constantly on the road listening to civilians, military allies and politicians. When asked about parliamentary elections, the Iraqi people picked Ayad Allawi over Nouri al Maliki long before ballots were cast. With a shrug of their shoulders and an air of resignation, the dominate attitude is: it’s the power to ignore democracy’s checks and balances when they’re a hindrance, and the ability to use them to your advantage when they help you defeat others that decides elections, not who gets the most votes. The political pendulum will, according to Iraqis, swing between strongman rule and representative process for the foreseeable future.

Now I’m home. My wife, Kristi, and I renewed our vows after 25 years of marriage. Our oldest, Katie, has developed a surprising competitive streak while running track. Our youngest, Kimi, is full of love, pre-teen guile and mischief. I find myself fending off criticism from my kids that “on purpose you dress the way you do just to embarrass us.” As I unwrap the precious gift that’s each day it becomes clear that coming home can be just as challenging as going to war.

I used to think that hiring a personal trainer was for the young, trendy, and moneyed. But after performing the same exercise routine for a year – following a cardiac rehabilitation program – my routine had grown stale and boring. I wasn’t sure how to assess what my body was capable of at the age of 70, following some significant health issues. Fortunately, University of California, San Francisco-Mission Bay’s Bakar Fitness & Recreation Center offered members a free session with a professional personal trainer. It couldn’t hurt to try one free session, could it?

I requested a mature trainer skilled in working with older bodies – never “old;” just “older” – and was matched with Ken Meyerhoffer. Meyerhoffer has been providing physical fitness training for more than 30 years, with clients ranging from pre-natal to more than 90 years. In that initial session I was keenly aware of how carefully Meyerhoffer listened to me. I not only wanted a change in routine, I wanted to increase my strength and flexibility, and to learn fitness techniques that could easily be performed at home, regardless of age.

After my free session I decided that a series of trainings would be an excellent investment in my physical well-being. It was. The sessions not only provided a number of new, interesting routines and techniques specifically tailored to my goals, but

convinced me that I could do more to enhance my fitness than I’d realized. I’m on my way to healthier, more active future years.

If you’re experiencing the typical effects of aging—decreased flexibility, balance issues, undesired weight gain – or if you just want an excellent, experienced trainer to assess your physical condition, Meyerhoffer’s your man. According to Meyerhoffer, he wants “… to enable his clients to be physically effective, efficient, and competent in their daily physical lives.” Meyerhoffer assesses what his clients will actually do when they’re on their own. Designing an exercise program that won’t be followed is worthless. Even if the client is unable or unwilling to do more than a small amount of physical activity every day, it’s important for each of us to realize that movement is the key to improved physical well-being. As little as ten minutes of active exercise a week creates positive hormonal changes in the body.

Meyerhoffer’s passion for physical wellness was prompted by his realization that he was out of breath after charging up two flights of stairs at the age of 24. He immediately quit smoking. After watching his parents deteriorate from lack of physical exertion as they aged, he chose to take a different path.

To contact Ken Meyerhoffer: knhoffer@pacbell.net. For information about the Bakar Center: 514.4545; www.bakar.memberships@ucsf.edu. Membership isn’t required to access personal training services.

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       

  

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 

           

Hunters Point shipyard over the next 15 to 20 years. It is also where some high-profile attacks highlighted the district’s history of violence and poverty.

With 17 candidates as of May 22, the District 10 election has no clear frontrunner. But it does have two leading candidates in pubic campaign financing.

Malia Cohen, a social media consultant, and Steven Moss, a publisher, have each received $46,000 in public financing. This kind of financing is a mix of private and public funds designed to limit special interest influence and to give candidates more time to reach out to voters.

District 10 candidates have collectively received $102,664 in public finance — surpassing that of all other districts combined.

To be eligible for public financing, candidates have to raise $5,000 from at least 75 different donors. As of May 22, only Cohen, Moss and DeWitt Lacy have qualified.

Under the public finance system, candidates can receive matching funds based on how much they receive, but also have a $143,000 spending limit.

Lynette Sweet, a member of the BART Board of Directors and a candidate endorsed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, said she has not decided if she will file for public financing.

Declining to accept public financing would be a risky move by Sweet, whom some opponents are labeling as

a “downtown candidate.” All supervisor candidates who declined public funds lost in the 2008 race - with the exception of incumbents Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd.

Declining to accept public funds can also turn off voters in a district where discontent with their elected representatives is not uncommon. Several community groups led two failed attempts to recall Maxwell. The latest one gathered 3,026 valid signatures out of the 7,529 required.

Maxwell, who has not yet endorsed anyone, said that the next supervisor should be someone “who can bring consensus and work with the community and knows how to get things done.”

District 10 candidate Bill Barnes, a legislative aide for District 2 Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier and a candidate for District 5 in 2004, told residents in a community meeting that he knows the “nuts and bolts of getting legislation passed.”

Many candidates said their work in the community would bring them the broad appeal required to win in a very diverse neighborhood. In 2000 census statistics showed Asians constitute 30 percent; blacks, 29 percent; whites, 26 percent and Latinos, 19 percent.

Ed Donaldson, of the Bayview, said his longtime work at the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation would help him stand out.

Moss, a Potrero Hill resident, said his work to help out low-income communities as the founder and Executive Director of SF Commu-

nity Power will help him nab second choice for Bayview residents.

Lacy, from Potrero Hill, said his work as a civil rights attorney will help him.

Diane Wesley Smith, of Bayview, whose campaign signs can be seen everywhere in Potrero Hill, said her work as a real estate agent will help her get elected.

Others like Chris Jackson of the Community College Board of Trustees and Sweet have the advantage of name recognition because they are elected officials.

But Marlene Tran, a retired English as a Second Language teacher from Visitation Valley, said name recognition and fundraising are not everything.

Tran, who has been working with Visitation Valley residents for decades on issues like transit and housing, said candidates shouldn’t count her out. In 1998 she ran for a seat at the Democratic County Central Committee as a virtual unknown against other betterfunded candidates and won.

Tran’s work in the immigrant community has become more relevant after a series of high-profile attacks against Asians at the T-Line platforms.

The issue has caused a division among Asians and blacks - the latter who have been leaving the district as part of the so-called “black exodus.”

On a recent meeting organized by Chief of Police George Gascon, District 10 candidate Geoffrea Morris held a piece of paper that read “Violence affects us all.”

To curb crime, candidates have suggested everything from Tran’s idea to transform the Cow Palace into a “Youth Palace” to Donaldson’s promise to find better ways to spend the $110 million that the top 15 nonprofits in the district receive.

As for jobs, which may come in the way of the Lennar development, all candidates interviewed said it would be a priority to both get jobs and hold Lennar accountable.

Jackson, who works as a policy analyst for the Labor Council, said he is in favor of expanding Newsom’s Jobs Now program.

For now, as Maxwell said, it’s too early in the race to see who is a “serious” candidate.

“Let them work, let them find out more about the community,” Maxwell said. “Most of these folks don’t have an idea about the community.”

The complete list of candidates: Bill Barnes, Isaac Bowers, James Calloway, Malia Cohen, Ed Donaldson, Kristine Enea, Marie Franklin, Chris Jackson, Tony Kelly, DeWittLacy, Geoffrea Morris, Steve Moss, Nina Pickerell, Eric Smith, Lynette Sweet, Marlene Tran, Diane WesleySmith.

ADVERTISE IN THE VIEW

raIL from page 5

The train crossing at 7th and 16th streets will need to be altered to minimize adverse impacts to pedestrian and automobile traffic, and to make sure the trains have the smoothest and quickest route.

New tracks in the Caltrain corridor can be installed in one of three ways: elevated a story up, at street level, or underground. The Mission Bay Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), whose members are appointed by the mayor, has expressed a preference for a modified option. “We strongly support having both [highspeed rail] and Caltrain below grade before they reach these intersections,” the group wrote in a 2009 letter to the California High Speed Rail Authority. A below grade approach, they contend – which would consist of an open trench – is preferable for traffic flow, and would be congruent with the undergrounding of the line at Mariposa Street as it reaches the Transbay Terminal. “Taking the rail lines below the surface south of Mariposa Street would also provide an opportunity to open up the existing surface rail alignment north of Mariposa Street for more productive uses,” asserted the CAC.

Based on input from the various affected communities, the California High Speed Rail Authority released its preliminary alternatives analysis in April for the San Francisco-San Jose and Merced-Fresno lines. For the San Francisco to San Jose portion, the

study validates the idea of having a “four-track, grade separated, shared Caltrain and high-speed train system,” but left open the possibility of a “recommended alternative on the Peninsula.” No design option was eliminated in the alternative analysis; not even the expensive or controversial ones.

According to a report issued by state auditor Elaine Howe, the HighSpeed Rail Authority suffers from lax oversight, poor management, and insufficient planning. “The program risks significant delays without more well-developed plans for obtaining funds,” Howe wrote in a letter to the governor and legislature.

The California High Speed Rail program has secured roughly $11.6 billion in funding. The Obama Administration provided the state with $2.25 billion in federal stimulus monies for building its high speed rail system.

In 2008, Proposition 1A passed, authorizing the sale of bonds to help pay for the high speed train system which was originally estimated to cost $33.6 billion, later increased to $43 billion because of inflation. High speed rail’s price tag will likely go up because of the desire many communities have for the rail to be underground.

Alex Mullaney contributed to this report. Preliminary alternative analysis can be found at http://www. cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/images/ chsr/20100408092523_SF-SJ%20

Preliminary%20Alternatives%20 Analysis%20Report.pdf.

Potrero History Goes Digital

Potrero Hill Archives Project’s Abby Johnston (left) and Peter Linenthal (right) carried archives materials collected over the last 23 years to City Archivist Susan Goldstein at the Main Library. With support from the Eastern Neighborhood Public Benefits Trust Fund, these materials will be transformed into digital formats. Some will be accessible online; others through branch libraries.The materials include about 200 audio and videotaped oral histories of long-time Hill residents and thousands of historic Hill photos.

POTRERO BRANCH 1616 20th STREET 355.2822

Tuesday 10 am - 8 pm, Wednesday 12 noon - 8 pm

San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) adult Summer reading Program

Sign up at any SFPL branch, track the books you read over the summer, submit short reviews and win prizes! June 4 through July 31.

SFPL k ids Summer reading Program

Children ages birth to 13 can sign up at any SFPL branch and record the amount of time they spend reading or being read to. Read 15 minutes or more weekly to enter the Weekly Branch Raffle. Read eight hours to complete the program, and win a choice of prizes, including books, sketch pads, scrub toys, or tickets to see the San Francisco Giants or various Bay Area museums. June 5 through July 31.

Potrero

PotrEro’S ChILDrEN’S ProgramS

Baby Rhyme and Play Time. Tuesdays, June 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29, 1:15 p.m. For infants up to eighteen months old and their caregivers.

Family Storytime, featuring stories, songs and rhymes. For children from birth to five years old and their caregivers. Thursdays, June 3, 10, 17 and 24, 10:30 to 11 a.m. and 11:15 to 11:45 a.m.

Fun Flicks is offered every second Wednesday of the month and includes short films based on children’s books and stories. June 9, 6:30 to 7:15 p.m.

Trolley Dancers: Dance Theater Music Workshop. Using folk tales from around the world, the Trolley Dancers perform a story while encouraging audience participation through song, movement and characters. June 11, 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. For children of all ages.

Kirk Waller presents Quack, Gabble, Squawk and Other Animal Tales in his musical, down-home storytelling style. June 19, 4 to 4:45 p.m. For children of all ages.

Sustainable Urban Agriculture with Jonathan Silverman. Learn how to grow local, healthy sustainable food in the city. June 26, 4 to 4:45 p.m. For children of all ages.

Whale Bus: Marine Mammal Center. Learn about different types of cetaceans – whales, dolphins and porpoises – by examining specimens, including baleen and bones from different species. June 30, 6:30 to 7 p.m. For children of all ages.

All programs are held in the second floor meeting room.

PotrEro’S aDuLt ProgramS

San Francisco Baykeeper presents a talk and slideshow: San Francisco Bay & Delta and San Francisco Baykeeper Activities. Since 1989, San Francisco Baykeeper has been the pollution watchdog for San Francisco Bay, using science and advocacy to strengthen clean water laws and hold polluters accountable. June 16, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Painting with Watercolors with Marlene Aron. In conjunction with this year’s water-themed Adult Summer Reading Program, local artist Marlene Aron will present a slide show of paintings by artists who worked with water-based paints, including Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Gauguin, and Claude Monet. She’ll also demonstrate how to create a watercolor painting, and will have examples of her watercolor paintings. June 23, 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Additional branch information can be found athttp://potrerolibrarysfpl. blogspot.com.

PotrEro LIbrarY CamPaIgN

The Potrero Branch Library Campaign Committee meets monthly to discuss fundraising strategies. To join the committee, contact Mary Abler at Friends of the Library: 626.7512, extension 107; mary.abler@ friendssfpl.org.

MiSSion Bay

The Mission Bay Library is located at 960 Fourth Street, at Berry, near AT&T Park. Open Tuesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Wednesdays

page 18

Abby Bridge, Potrero Branch Librarian Jasmin Springer, Mission Bay Branch Children’s Librarian

Through June 6

theater: The Breath of Life

Spare Stage presents David Hare’s play about a wife and a mistress that encounter one another on the Isle of Wight, only to discover that they’ve have been dumped by the same man. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 5 p.m. Tickets: $25 general admission; $18 for students and seniors; www.brownpapertickets.com. NOHspace, 2840 Mariposa Street. Information: www.sparestage.com.

June 6

music: Veery Mcverry

Potrero Hill local and cabaret singer Maureen McVerry presents the latest version of her long-running show, with a salute to female lyricists, love and the pursuit of gratefulness. 7 p.m. Tickets: $17; www. brownpapertickets.com. Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street. Informatiom: 347. 5625.

June 7

Family: balancing motherhood and Career workshop

Are you a stay-at-home mom considering a return to work? Head to Recess Urban Recreation for a workshop that will explore the transition and how to achieve a balance between home life and your career. 7:30 to 9 p.m. $18 members; $28 nonmembers. Call 701.PLAY to register. 470 Carolina Street. Information: www.recessurbanrecreation.com.

June 10

music: big bones blues

Big Bones is no stranger to the international blues scene. Check him out at Farley’s for an evening of harmonica playing, vocals and original compositions. Blues will also share stories of his travels and the blues personalities he’s come in contact with over the years. 8 p.m. Free. 1315 18th Street.

June 11 through 20

Community: giants County Fair Games, food, music and prizes for all at the Giants Country Fair. Free admission; single ride ticket $5, unlimited ride wristband $15 for kids and $20 for adults. Parking Lot A at AT&T Park, Third Streets at Terry Francois Boulevard. Information: www.attpark.com.

June 12

Sports: at&t giant race

AT&T Park is hosting the inaugural Giant Race, giving runners an opportunity to participate in a half marathon or five kilometer road race. Both races will finish on the ball field. Proceeds benefit Project Open Hand. Races begin at 8 a.m. $90 half marathon; $40 5K. Races start at Third Street and Terry Francois Boulevard. Information: www.attpark.com.

June 14

theater: The Three Sisters

The last of Brava’s Kitchen Series,

The Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov is about three sisters who yearn to return to the Moscow of their youth. 7:30 p.m. $15 includes food and drink. Brava Theatre Center, 2781 24th Street. Information: www.brava.org.

June 15

Family: Discover your Child’s Personality - and Choose a Preschool that Fits!

Recess Urban Recreation will host a workshop to help families figure out the preschool selection process. Blair Wellington, child and family therapist at Kidspace, will discuss the many types of preschools available and what preschool might fit your child. 7:30 to 9 p.m. $18 members; $28 non-members. Call 701.PLAY to register. 470 Carolina Street. Information: www.recessurbanrecreation.com.

June 18

Dance: Caminos Flamencos

Created and directed by Emmy Award winning flamenco artist, Yaelisa, with music by Jason McGuire El Rubio, Café Flamenco returns to the Verdi Club for an evening of dance, music and tapas. 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. $18 advanced purchase; $22 at the door. Tickets available at www. brownpapertickets.com. Verdi Club, 2424 Mariposa Street. Information: www.caminosflamencos.com.

June 19

music: the Sippy Cups

Friends of Dolores Park Playground, in partnership with Neighborhood Parks Council and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, host a fundraising event for the renovation of the Dolores Park playground featuring the popular children’s rock band, the Sippy Cups. 4 to 5:30 p.m. Dolores Park Playground.

Information: www.friendsofdolorespark.org.

June 20 and 21

Father’s Day and Summer Solstice: Free coffee!

Farley’s wants to treat your pop to a free coffee drink of his choice on Father’s Day. Non-daddies are welcome to a free cup of coffee or tea on the 21st if you honor the summer solstice. 1315 18th Street.

June 24

music: Daniel berkman

Daniel Berkman returns to Farley’s for another evening of enchanting music played on the electric Kora and Gravikord. 8 p.m. Free. 1315 18th Street. Information: www.infinitescope.com/kora.

Beginning June 25

theatre: Fayette-Nam

The Asian American Theatre Company presents a new play by Aurorae Khoo. Taking place in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a young African American soldier goes AWOL before being deployed to Iraq and hides out with an Asian American mother and daughter with whom he is in a love triangle. Running through July 11. Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m. Tickets: $15 to $25, sliding scale. Thick House, 1695 18th Street. Information: www.asianamericantheater.org/fayettenam.

June 30

music: Danger babes

Local musicians Carla and Zoe of the Danger Babes return to Farley’s for an encore performance after their wonderful reception two months ago. 8 p.m. Free. 1315 18th Street. Information: www.myspace.com/thedangerbabes.

home grown music group Creates Potrero hill Sound

By Michael Condiff

A 20-year music industry veteran, Leroy Jackson III, appreciates a unique sound when he hears it. Which is why he’s enjoying every minute on stage with the Potrero Hill-based band, BRO. “We don’t sound like anybody else,” said 43-year-old Jackson, one of BRO’s two co-founders. “A lot of people say we’re all over the format, but there is no format for our sound. We consciously take the approach that we don’t want to be labeled. What we want is to create the Potrero Hill sound.”

Musically the band delves into funk, soul, jazz, rock and blues in just about every one of its original numbers. But lyrically it recreates a time-gone-by: the Potrero Hill from Jackson’s childhood growing up in the 1970s with three sisters and a brother in his grandmother’s home across the street from Daniel Webster Elementary School.

Jackson’s grandmother, Hazel Roman, was an influential figure on the Hill, working for change alongside Enola Maxwell, who for many years led the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. “There was this big schoolyard across from us and it was always full of kids; you don’t see that anymore,” said Jackson. “So I write about that; the way things have changed. I write about

being bussed into Chinatown for school, even though we lived right next to one. I write about growing up just blocks from the projects and what life was like there. I had a lot of friends that took the wrong route in life and aren’t here anymore, and I had other friends that had a lot of success in life, so I write about those things, too. I write about where I’m from: Potrero Hill.”

Jackson co-founded BRO two years ago with lead guitarist Chris Morton. Its current six-member lineup has been together for the past year. Jackson handles lead vocals, with Jeff Nekko on bass, Doug Mandell on keyboards and trumpet, Ed Meares on drums and Rachel Heelan chiming in on backing vocals.

“As people have come into the band, they’ve brought their own influences and we’ve consciously meshed that into what we already had,” Jackson said. “What’s made it such a great experience for all of us is that we give each other the opportunity to express, so each song is a unique representation of all our influences.”

According to Jackson, in 1990 his music career “began as a gag, something fun to do.” Three months later, as part of the group New Dealers, Jackson was opening for headlining artists like Run-DMC and Cypress Hill. “We still play some of the old

see bro page 24

LIbrarY NEwS from page 16

noon to 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays 1 to 6 p.m.; Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. Public transport includes the N, T, 10, 30, 45, and 47. There’s unmetered one-hour street parking on Channel Street, a block away. Additional information: 355.2838; http://missionbaylibrary.blogspot.com.

mISSIoN baY ’S ChILDrEN’S ProgramS

Baby Rhyme Time and Play Time. Interactive music, rhymes, bounces, and books for infants to 24 months and their caregivers. Thursdays, June 3, 10, 17, 24, 10:15 a.m.

Toddler Tales and Play Time. Music, movement, rhymes, and books for 18 to 36 months and their caregivers. June 4, 11, 18, 25, 4:30 p.m.

Preschool Storytime. Stories, songs, and rhymes for children ages three to five. Thursdays, June 3, 10, 17, 24, 4:30 p.m.

Knuckle Knockers Music Duo. An interactive program, with fiddle, banjo, guitar, and voice. These old-timey Appalachian tunes will leave the audience clapping, dancing, and toe-tapping. For children of all ages. June 9, 4 p.m.

Charity Khan’s Music & Movement JAM. Charity sings and plays guitar and flute in this high-energy program that’ll have kids groovin’ to the music. For children of all ages. June 19, 4 p.m.

Children’s Crafts with Sophie. Craft projects for children of all ages and their caregivers. June 23, 4 to 6 p.m.

Music & Movement with Mimi Greisman. An interactive music and movement sing-along program with guitar-playing and puppetry. For children of all ages. June 30, 4 p.m.

mISSIoN

baY ’S aDuLt ProgramS

From the Badlands to Alcatraz tells the story of five Ogala Lakota tribe members who travel from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation along the southern edge of the South Dakota Badlands to take part in a weeklong wellness program that culminates in a swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco. Produced and directed by Nancy Iverson, the film was recently shown at the Ocean Film Festival. A discussion follows the screening. June 16, 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Are you ready to sell your home

If you’re thinking about selling your home please call me at 710-9000. I’d be happy to provide you a free report on the value of your home in today’s market.

is a strong demand for homes on Potrero hill.

As we enter the traditional spring market, there are many buyers seeking homes on Potrero Hill. The combination of low interest rates and scarce inventory has led homes to sell quickly at excellent prices.

travel Writing runs in the Family

hot greeks at the hypnodrome

by Peter Linenthal

An it-could-only-have-started-inSan-Francisco tradition continues in a tiny theater at the foot of Potrero Hill. Hot Greeks, the second revival of a 1970s Cockette musical extravaganza, plays through June 27 at the Hypnodrome Theater. Pearls Over Shanghai, the theater’s first revival, which was reviewed in the View’s February issue, is a smash hit, with a multi-month run.

Hot Greeks is loosely based on Aristophane’s Lysistrata. Instead of Greek women refusing to make love until their husbands stop making war, Hot Greeks gives us sorority sisters scheming to recapture the attentions of their jock boyfriends, all to a 1940s beat. After intermission, musical numbers from other Cockette shows are performed.

The glitter drenched, gender-bending Cockette style is as startling and en-

tertaining today as it was 40 years ago. Wildly elaborate costumes compete with nudity for the audience’s attention. Padding transforms bearded men into busty sibyls, and pretty women into football-tossing hunks. A trio of men dressed as columns is a dancing double entendre. A lobster sings “A crab on Uranus means you’re loved.” The enthusiastic cast gives every number their all; clearly, they’re having a blast. And so does the audience. Particularly terrific are original Cockette Scrumbley Koldewyn on piano and as Gertrude Stein, Miss Sheldra as Mrs. Ova, and Russel Blackwood as Mata Dildoes.

The Hypnodrome Theater, 575 10th Street at Division, has only 40 seats; reservations are recommended. Hot Greeks plays Thursday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7p.m. For tickets call 800.838.3006 or go to http://brownpapertickets.com/event/104118.

T.J. Buswell, Michael Phillis and Bobby Singer in Thrillpeddlers’ Hot Greeks, The Cockettes musical comedy. Photograph by davidallenstudio.com

Clothing Swap Reduces Waste while Saving Money

By Flavia and Lucia PurpuraPontoniere

“ Be good. Be green. Be glam!” This is the fitting motto of Potrero Hill resident Suzanne Agasi’s Clothing Swaps, in which people swap clothes, shoes and accessories that they no longer use. Clothing Swaps enable participants to recycle items they no longer need and refresh their wardrobe at little cost. “We wear 20 percent of our clothes 80 percent of the time,” said Agasi.

A recent swap, Swappo de Mayo, took place last month at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. Swaps are typically attended by women between 20 and 50 years of age. However, Agasi is considering organizing swaps catering to teens. “Clothes swaps are designed to be fun,” explained Agasi. “The first hour is for girls to socialize and get to know each other.” Cocktails, snacks, and professional massages are provided. “I really support what Suzanne is doing,” said Roen DeLeon, a massage therapist. “It’s fun for

henrietta Lacks and the Science and Ethics of heLa Cells

everyone involved, and it supports local charities.”

At the Potrero Hill swap, Agasi, a petite, energetic, friendly woman who makes everyone feel welcome, was dressed in a red tank-top and skirt with a red fringe, both of which she got from friends at different clothing swaps. While the roughly 30 participants were socializing, volunteers laid out the clothes, with shoes on one table, sweaters on another, pants on still another. Dozens of colorful dresses hung from a rack. Freestanding mirrors along the wall allowed swappers to try things on and see how they looked. Agasi asked that everyone try on the clothes they were thinking about taking before they left, so that they didn’t end up with garments that wouldn’t be worn.

Most of Agasi’s swaps are held at bars or nightclubs, where they can attract more than a hundred people.

“It’s usually a lot crazier, with girls screaming and clothes flying,” said

By Jim

Van Buskirk

On a rainy afternoon in lateApril San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) held its Primary Care Ground Rounds in the Carr Auditorium. The 150-seat hall was overflowing with clinicians, researchers, and others who’d come for a brown bag lunch featuring Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The free event, sponsored by various SFGH departments and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), included a roster of prestigious participants. Dr. Teresa Villela welcomed the audience before introducing Dr. Frank E. Staggers, past president of the California Medical Association, who in turn presented Skloot. The articulate author spoke and read from her book, which focuses on an important, and largely unknown, chapter in the history and ethics of research using human biological materials.

of cervical cancer in 1951 at the age of 31. Her diseased cells, taken without her knowledge, became an important tool in medicine as the first “immortal” human cells grown in culture. HeLa cells were used to develop the polio vaccine; helped uncover the secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of the atom bomb; contributed to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet, until now, Henrietta Lacks remained virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave, her family unable to afford health insurance. The story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the troubling history of experi-mentation on AfricanAmeri -cans, the birth of bioethics, and legal battles over who controls biological materials.

Skloot’s presentation was followed by comments from community programs manager Priscilla J. Banks, who emceed a series of provocative questions posed by Barbara A. Brenner, Breast Cancer Action’s executive director; Dr. Alicia Fernandez; John Heldens, UCSF Human Research Protection Program director; and Karen Pierce, Bayview Hunters Point Health and Environsee SwaP page 24 see LaCkS page 24

Henrietta Lacks was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who died

Local Artist’s Work Shows in the S.F. International LGBT Film Festival

By Jim Van Buskirk

Rudy Lemcke, a freelance web developer and video producer who serves as the Queer Cultural Center’s (QCC) website director, is an affable 58-year-old gay man, and Alabama Street resident. He’s also an artist. Lemcke’s paintings and sculpture have been widely exhibited, including at the Whitney Museum of Art, the Grey Gallery in New York, and the University Art Museum at Berkeley. His video work has been shown at the Dallas Video Festival, the Mix Festival, and Hallwalls, among other places.

QCC is best known for the National Queer Arts Festival, the month-long series of events that it has organized every June since 1998. The 13th annual festival of music, dance, visual art, spoken word, po-

etry, comedy, theater, and film runs through July, and features more than 400 artists in 70 events, and in excess of 100 performances in 27 venues throughout San Francisco.

Recently QCC produced “Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts (QCCA),” a collaboration with Tina Takemoto and Tirza True Latimer of the California College of the Arts, which brought together artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars for a series of conversations on a broad range of LGBTQI – Lesbian Gay Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex – topics in the humanities and the arts. As part of QCCA, last fall Lemcke participated in “META/ DATA: Art, Technology and (Queer) Identity,” which included a panel discussion with local artists E.G. Crichton and Nomi Talisman.

Lemcke’s short film, Gay Pool

Party 1968, has been chosen as part of Frameline 34: The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, and will be screened at the Roxie Theatre on June 26, “after the Dyke March.” Less than four minutes long, Gay Pool Party 1968 evokes a time “when gay men were starting to name ourselves,” expressing the utopian hope of the political power of Eros. Although described by Lemcke as a “fun little music video,” set against a soundtrack of the “Theme from The Valley of the Dolls,” it’s also a poignant meditation on a significant period in history.

The film uses footage found at the LGBT Historical Society of a party held by members of San Francisco’s

Imperial Court – one of the oldest and largest predominantly gay organizations in the world – which raises money for charity through large annual drag balls. Interspersed with color footage of gay men at play are intentionally blurry black-and-white segments suggesting the impending worldwide chaos triggered by the Vietnam War and Civil Rights movement. The film is part of a larger project entitled The Search for Life in Distant Galaxies, which Lemcke’s website describes as “a series of hybrid narratives that have been developed for presentation on the Internet, including fifteen YouTube videos, four Flickr image galleries, fifteen audio podcasts, customized Google Maps and downloadable PDF image/text files threaded together in a diaristic tale of dislocation and reintegration.” These images can be seen at http://metarudy.blogspot. com/.

Serpentine and the City

SINGLE

H A C

In 1965 serpentine rock was adopted as the offical Californa State Rock. Starr King Openspace has plenty of serpentine for your viewing pleasrue.

LENSES

Photograph by Matt Jalbert.

Law Office of Heather A Cutler Bankruptcy Law

get a Job!

By Mauri Schwartz

The View asked Hill resident and career expert Mauri Schwartz, President / CEO of Career Insiders, www. CareerInsiders.com, to answer questions from job seekers. Submit your questions to editor@potreroview.net.

Q: I’ve sent out many requests to people I meet asking them to connect with me on LinkedIn, but haven’t received replies from some of them. Why are they on LinkedIn if they don’t want to make connections?

A: I’ve discussed LinkedIn in this column before. However, your question brings up an issue I feel needs to be re-emphasized, since I receive many canned message requests. Networking involves giving as well as taking. You should concentrate on what you have to offer. What’s in it for them to be connected with you? Are you sure that these people re-

LEttErS from page 2

for 729 square feet of open ground in a 2,300 square foot lot, approximate

ly 32 percent of the acreage. Further, an existing expansive rear deck and three proposed new balconies provide additional open space. Including all decks and balconies in our proposed design adds another 626 square feet of “usable open space” per the Planning Code, bringing the total usable open space in the plans to roughly 59 percent of the lot.

Our project proposes an addition to the front of the house, adding a garage at street level and three stories above it along the hill’s steep grade to integrate with the existing structure. We’ve been extremely frustrated with the Planning Department, having submitted these plans in late 2009 - at a nearly unconscionable cost charged by the department - to still be faced with questions regarding our plans and no clear path to resolu-

member who you are? How long ago did you meet them? Do you have a previous professional relationship with them? Do you have any interests in common? Please don’t forget common courtesies when you ask them to connect. Technology makes networking much easier, but doesn’t replace the necessity to use good interpersonal skills. When you are sending out requests to connect on LinkedIn, be sure to personalize your messages to ensure that the recipients know that you view each of them as an individual. Keep your communications warm but professional. LinkedIn’s canned message – “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” – is very impersonal. I’m not likely to respond favorably to it. If you’re requesting a connection with someone you recently met, remind them of how you met and pay them a compliment. For example, “Hi so-and-so, it was a pleasure meeting you yesterday at Thinkers Café. Did you have fun watching the KFOG fireworks from your boat on the bay last night? I enjoyed our conversation about… I thought it’d be nice to connect on LinkedIn and share our networks. What do you think? Thank you, Mauri”

tion. Your misrepresentation to our neighbors of the intent and extent of our addition isn’t helpful, particularly when it could have been avoided by a simple dialog with us.

Our plans have the full support of our immediate neighbors. We’re a growing family hoping to stay in Potrero Hill. It is unclear what your motivation is in running the picture and caption as you did, but we would think that projects intended to invest in the neighborhood and improve Potrero would be welcome by your publication.

Steve and Brianna Barlock

The photograph and caption, which reflected the posted information provided as part of Planning Department requirements, was intended to provide View readers with unbiased news about the proposed renovation. The paper welcomes input from its readers, as well as comments from parties who appear in our articles. – Editor

and enjoying the sunshine. Whew!

Small Business

Last month Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous opened from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Dogpatch, offering eight organic ice cream flavors, plus a vegan flavor and a sorbet, available on a banana split or a sundae. The shop also features fudgesicles, and root beer or black cherry floats, house-made brittle, and toffee, among other sweets... Piccino is moving down the block into an 150-year-old yellow building, which it’ll share with DIG, a wine shop, and MAC (Modern Appealing Clothing). The new Piccino has room for 70 diners indoors, and 35 outdoor seats…Everest Waterproofing & Restoration, whose president, Keith Goldstein, leads the Potrero Hill Association of Merchants and Businesses, was honored last month at the Small Business Network San Francisco’s 26th annual Gala Awards Dinner. Goldstein has 32 years experience as a licensed contractor, served as president of the Sealant Waterproofing & Restoration Institute (SWRI), was on the Northern California International Concrete Repair Institute’s board of directors, chaired the SWRI Above Grade Waterproofing Committee, and is a real mensch…Divine Essence is offering prenatal yoga on a donation basis. A typical class incorporates traditional seated and standing Asanas, as well as reinforcing the mom-baby connection. For information: www. sandyfeetyogi.com...Various inter -

ests, including a North Beach wine bar, and the uber-popular Ike’s Deli, have reportedly been sniffing around the empty Jay’s Deli , which occupies a critical commercial corner on 20th Street. And rumor has it that litigation related to the building’s rennovation has been settled, paving the way for it to be reoccupied. Hopefully a neighborhood-friendly enterprise will open in the space soon…Although the article centers on next door neighborhood Bernal Heights, last month The New York Times pointed to the opening of The Good Life Grocery in the early-1990s as one of the origins of the revival of Cortland Avenue. How sweet our midsize market is!

Gym

American Gymnastics Club, which is planning a 12,500 square foot gym at 390 Bayshore Boulevard, needs to spring over a high hurdle before it opens. Since there’s no dedicated parking, the facility requires a parking variance, which will be considered at the San Francisco Planning Commission this month…Over the past three years the Kansas Street SAFE Neighborhood Association has been working with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to clean up the fence line running from 25th to 23rd streets. Trees have been trimmed and fences mended. Last month the association received an Adopt-A-Highway permit – to create a community garden – for a small piece of property at the northwest corner of 25th and Kansas streets. Caltrans enclosed that area,

removed a pine tree and stumps, and delivered three 15-gallon trees for noise abatement. If you’re interesting in adopting a small plot to garden contact Kansas Street resident Ray O’Connor, oconnor@sacredsf.

org...According to De Haro Street resident Mike Bell, the reels of hanging cable located at Mariposa and Vermont streets, as well as De Haro and 22nd streets and elsewhere in the neighborhood, belong to AT&T, which plans to install them as part of their cable system sometime in the future. Seems like the community should be collecting rent from the giant corporation in exchange for their messing up our skyline…

The California Energy Commission adopted new rules last month that will force power plants that use oncethrough-cooling – including Mirant Corporation’s Potrero plant – to either dramatically reduce their waterintake flow rates or substantially lower critter mortality caused when organisms are sucked into plants, or trapped against intake screens, and suffocate or starve to death. The Potrero Power Plant must comply by next summer, which would seem to place on outer limit on when that facility will have to be shuttered, if problems with the Trans Bay Cable aren’t resolved before then.

Health

Long-time Goat Hill Pizza slinger Andrea Wheatley has been assailed by health problems and is in the hospital. Cards and letters would be greatly appreciated, particularly from families who’ve benefited from Wheatley’s expert handling of all-

you-can-eat Monday nights. Please drop them off at Goat Hill…

Correction

In last month’s “Short Cuts” the View incorrectly identified the new Italian-style delicatessen on 17th and Utah streets as “Molinari & Sons .” The store’s correct name is “Calabria Brothers.”

PuPPIES from page 9

to care for the mama dog and her pups until homes could be found for them. Elise and I commuted to collect the dogs and take them to a San Francisco vet for their shots, worming, and, when it was time, for the mother dog to get spayed. We brought them to an adoption open house at Keith’s home; another neighbor kept them overnight until we could get them back to the sanctuary. In the end, Campeau took two of the puppies; friends of mine took another, and the sanctuary found homes for the remaining three. Another Potrero Hill resident, Jay Schumann, gave the mama dog a home, where she now lives like a princess.

The community pulled together to save dogs who’d been abandoned and would have otherwise been killed by cars or disease. Last month we held a six month reunion for the Elk Grove dogs and puppies at McKinley Square, with folks from the sanctuary and the people who cared for the animals. It’s a joy to see how these dogs, once homeless, are now thriving.

bro from page 18

stuff from the New Dealers, just as a little more modern, more up to date,” he said.

BRO has drawn a loyal local following to recent shows at established San Francisco clubs like the Utah Saloon, the Connecticut Yankee and Ireland’s 32. According to Jackson the band will continue playing locally throughout the summer, but is also planning a broader tour. “We’re trying to spread the word about the Potrero Hill sound,” he said. “Influential, powerful, diverse; that’s Potrero Hill and that’s BRO music.”

SwaP from page 20

Kai Wilson, a seasoned swapper. “I like this, though. It has a really chill vibe.”

The clothing swaps started at Agasi’s house with a couple of friends in 1994. “I liked having people over and being social,” said Agasi. “More and more people started coming to the swaps at my house.” She decided to make it an event, and at this point has organized more than 200 swaps. Agasi donates leftover clothing to local charities, such as Casa de las Madres, a domestic violence shelter for women and children, and Su-

san G. Komen for the Cure, which raises funds to fight against breast cancer.

The clothes at Agasi’s swaps are always clean and in good condition; some have designer labels. Clothes that have rips, tears, or are unusable are removed. A $20 to $30 entry fee is charged; Agasi calls it a “fashion stimulus.” Once in, participants can select as many different clothes, shoes, and accessories as they like.

Information about the Clothing Swaps, including where and when the next one is happening, can be found at www.clothingswap.com. There’s also a how-to guide for anyone who wants to organize their own swap on the website.

LaCkS from page 20

mental Assessment Program manager, with a final wrap up by Dr. Bernard Lo. The issues raised, expertly addressed by Skloot, included the importance of instructing medical professionals on how to communicate about core values, such as informed consent, with patients who may fear science and don’t “speak” its “language,” especially in situations where disparities such as racism, poverty, cultural and class inequalities exist. For more information about the book and how to contribute to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, benefiting the Lacks family, visit: rebeccaskloot.com.

BALANCE

MY JOB: balancing the books for public schools

MY CONCERN: how about a balanced approach for a balanced city budget?

I’ve worked for the schools since 1979 and I’ve lived in San Francisco all my life. I love being able to make a difference in the education of our children, but I’m concerned about our future because these huge budget deficits keep taking a toll.

City employees are helping out by taking pay cuts, contributing over $115 million in this year alone. And I’m not one of those city employees who makes a lot—in fact, I earn less than $50,000 a year.

But these budget cuts don’t just hurt workers—they hurt our schools, MUNI, health care—all of us. That’s why I’m supporting a balanced approach to balancing the budget. That means not just cuts, but increasing revenue by closing corporate loopholes and asking banks, insurance companies, city visitors and downtown corporations to pay a fair share.

Please join the broad range of community and neighborhood groups and city labor unions that have come together to Stand Up for San Francisco, by funding positive solutions to keep our neighborhoods and city vibrant. Join us at www.standupSF.org. Join us in saying enough is enough. Together we can make a difference.

Yuvonne Miller, Senior Clerk, San Francisco Unified School District

www.standupSF.org

Yuvonne Miller. Senior Clerk, San Francisco Unified School District Member, SEIU Local 1021.

CrEEk from page 6 assigned to Kayaks Unlimited. In exchange for access, Kayaks Unlimited provides free kayaking lessons to any San Franciscan who asks. “No matter what we do, it can only get better,” Viera told the San Francisco Independent in 1992.

Muni Sets Back Progress

In the fall of 1994 a Muni employee accidentally pumped 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel into a sewer near the creek. Officials thought that they’d contained the spill, but they hadn’t counted on a chance winter storm, which played havoc with San Francisco’s unique sewage system.

Unlike any other California city, San Francisco combines all of its waste water into a single pipe. Runoff from storms, houses, businesses, and culverted creeks all flow together into water treatment plants before being released into the bay. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. During heavy rain, millions of gallons of water can enter the system within a few hours. Unable to handle the volume, the City can be forced to discharge untreated water into the bay. Which is what happened in 1994 to Islais Creek. Two thousand gallons of the leaked diesel fuel made it into the channel. Fish died and birds

Rick Collins

vanished as the City scrambled to clean the spill. In response, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered that a storm drain be built to prevent future overflows. That drain, constructed in 1997, now sits on the channel’s north bank, disguised beneath the skateboarderfriendly promenade.

The next setback came in the fall of 2001. Drilling through the wet, marshy soil as part of construction of the T-Third line, Muni inadvertently dislodged a San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) pipe, spilling millions of gallons of sewage. In an attempt to repair the dam-

knees through the area, capturing as many frogs as they could and relocating them to a natural wetland at the foot of Potrero Hill. The offspring of these frogs can still be heard singing below the Potrero Annex-Terrace housing complex.

That same year Muni again spilled diesel into the creek under nearly the same circumstances as the 1994 spill. Muni had disabled an alarm that would have alerted staff to the leaking fuel, and as a result failed to quickly react to the spill. The source of the rupture: an improperly maintained hose that leaked 39,000 gallons. EPA fined

water quality will be continually monitored, with penalties imposed on polluters of up to $25,000 plus cleanup costs.

On the channel’s south shore, efforts are underway to establish a food preparation hub. A number of businesses spread throughout the Bay Area prepare and distribute prepackaged meals, with employees and suppliers often having to travel great distances. Organizers hope that a catering center on Islais Creek, just two blocks from the San Francisco Produce Mart, would improve efficiency for the companies and provide opportunities for workers.

age, 30 percent of the Ohlone park was destroyed; when the first round of repairs failed, another 20 percent was dug-out. “We want to return it to the state it was in before the accident,” said Muni spokeswoman Maggie Lynch in a 2003 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. Today, the affected area is an empty dirt lot.

In 2005 construction of the Illinois Street bridge across the channel destroyed habitat for Pacific chorus frogs. Prior to construction, volunteers crawled on their hands and

Muni $250,000.

The string of disasters took a toll on volunteers, who, calling themselves the Islais Creek Guerilla Gardeners, had significantly remediated the channel. But Muni’s repeated fouling of their mostly unauthorized work – as well as crime spurts in the neighborhood – dissuaded the stewards from continuing their work. Viera described how, one night at her Bayview home she heard an AK-47 and reached defensively for her own gun before asking herself if this was the life she wanted. The answer was “no;” at the age of 78, she moved to Cornado – where she volunteers on cleanup projects at Imperial Beach – and became a realtor.

Another Chance

Muni’s Kirkland Motor Coach Division, located across the street from Pier 39, turned sixty this year. The facility – which is poorly designed and ill-equipped to handle modern vehicles – is slated to be moved to a parcel of land on the shore of Islais Creek. As part of depot development, and working with the Friends of Islais Creek and the Bay Conservation and Development Corporation, Muni has pledged to extend the existing promenade further west, under the 280 overpass and out to Cesar Chavez as a bike trail. A wildflower meadow will sit adjacent to the trail, and a 500-foot-long sculpture of a liberty ship by artist Nobi Nagasawa will commemorate the channel’s labor history. “It’s been postponed and postponed, and now it’s going to be re-bid this month,” said Chiang. “Let’s hope it works.”

Muni seems to be aware of its past failings along the channel. The proposed facility has been sustainably designed. Windows will be emphasized for climate control and lighting; recycled concrete and asphalt will be employed where possible; office furniture will be reused from other City facilities. Construction vehicles must use bio-fuel; contaminated soil will be removed from the site; phone numbers will be posted so that illegally idling trucks can be reported. An in-depth dustcontrol program will monitor air quality, wash vehicles before leaving the site, and cover excavations with tarps. Water from construction will be diverted away from storm drains;

“The fellow [Michael Janis] who runs the San Francisco produce district is really keen to have it,” said Chiang. “And [Supervisor] Sophie [Maxwell] is an advocate, and the Planning Department likes it, and the port likes it. But it would require a redevelopment district to make it happen…The catering industry right now is happy where they are ... you’re not going to get them back in San Francisco, because of the labor costs and benefits. ... If it’s a redevelopment district, then the district itself could offset the rents, so it would help make it competitive.”

More of Islais Creek could someday return to the surface. SFPUC is studying an extensive day lighting plan that could gradually uncover the creek from Glen Canyon Park to the bay. The Commission is considering creating an exposed waterway through Alemany Farm and Farmer’s Market, and along the median on Alemany Boulevard. There’s a possibility that a parking lot at the channel’s west end could be returned to a wetland. “This is another opportunity; I want to make sure that they’re paying attention to the watershed,” said Sherk. “I want to support the PUC in changing methodology and work together... We have the resources. Let’s do it right.”

Around San Francisco the restoration of ecological trails is gaining momentum. Artist Amber Hasselbring is working on a Mission Greenbelt plan that would create a path of sidewalks winding through the Mission. So far, she’s established plantings to anchor the project at 19th and Linda, as well as at 22nd and Shotwell, featuring native plants like blue elderberries that attract birds. And the City has launched an ambitious Blue Greenway project to improve the entire southeastern waterfront.

Thirty years after he began his campaign on behalf of underprivileged neighborhood kids, Chiang believes that there’s room for optimism. While he’s focused on channel restoration, other neighborhood initiatives have appeared. At a recent Sunday Streets event along Third Street, passing directly above the channel, Chiang noted that kids and families were out in droves. “It was like a miracle! Not only that they can ride their bicycles on Third Street, but it’s probably the first time they felt really safe...Why shouldn’t they feel safe walking and riding on their streets every day?”

In the fall of 1994 a Muni employee accidentally pumped 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel into a sewer near the creek.

BAYVIEW POLICE STATION CAPTAIN’S COMMUNITY M EETING is held on the first Tuesday of each month in the Bayview Police Station Community Room at 201 William Street. Enter through the Newhall Street door. Next meeting: June 1st, 6 p.m.

DOGPATCH N EIGHBORHOOD A SSOCIATION usually meets the second Tuesday of each odd-numbered month. The next meeting is July 13th, at the University of California, San Francisco 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. For more information or to join/pay online: mydogpatch.org.

MCK INLEY SQUARE COMMUNITY GROUP is a communication and discussion group regarding events and activities, clean up days, improvement and beautification, and other concerns, such as crime in the neighborhood. Next board meeting: August 11th from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Downtown High School, 693 Vermont Street. 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 email president@potreroboosters.org. Next meeting: June 29th.

POTRERO H ILL A SSOCIATION OF M ERCHANTS & BUSINESSES 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: June 8th, 10 a.m.

POTRERO H ILL DEMOCRATIC CLUB meets the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. 953 De Haro Street. For more information: 648.6740, www. PHDemClub.org. Next meeting: June 1st, 7 p.m.

POTRERO H ILL 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 organic, edible, or ornamental gardening appropriate for Potrero Hill’s microclimate. Call 648.1926 for details.

The next Starr King Openspace Board of Directors Meeting is on June 8th, location and time TBD. Visit the website for more information Board meetings are open to the public. While time will be set aside for public comment, the Board may reserve some agenda items for closed session discussion. The Starr King Openspace Volunteer Work Day is held on the 3rd Saturday of each month, excluding holidays. Meet your neighbors, get some fresh air, and come care for this unique oasis of nature in the heart of the big city. The next Volunteer Work Day is on June 19th, 9 a.m. to noon. Meet on the Openspace along Carolina Street, across from Starr King Elementary School. For more information: www.starrkingopenspace.org; contact the Board of Directors via email: starrkingboard@gmail.com; voice mail 415-6336-SKO (756).

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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

art and music

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.

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

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.

SPANISH LESSONS Beginner, intermediate, advanced levels. Grammar and conversation tailored to your own needs. Cultural events. Native teacher. Agora Language Resources. 415.248.1881. Agoralrs@yahoo.com.

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.

LANDSCAPE DESIGN Growsgreen

Landscape Design offers a custom design for your garden. Award winning designs, featured HGTV designer. Porfolio: www. growsgreen.com, beth@growsgreen.com 415-336-9829.

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.

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.

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: 415-8243538.

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 vis-

HOW TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD:

it www.jaemmanuelconstruction.com.

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.

rentals

SPACIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL Furnished 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. ACTIVSPACE, FOR ART, HOBBY & BUSINESS. Rent from $395 a month utilities included. Private, Secure, Affordable, 24/7 access. Call Tama for further details 415355-1515.

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.

WANTED: CRIME REPORTER

The View wants to increase its crime coverage. $150 monthly stipend for a local writer to compile statistics and write one article a month.

Contact: steven@moss.net

Project RIDE