December 2010
Serving the Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Mission Bay and SOMA Neighborhoods Since 1970
FREE
Homeless Population Large in Southeast San Francisco By Ben Terall
District 10’s newly-elected Supervisor, Malia Cohen, will speak at the Potrero Hill Democratic Club meeting on December 7th, 7 p.m. at the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House.
Publisher’s View
District 10 Elects New Supervisor By Steven J. Moss Last month District 10 voters elected a new Supervisor: Malia Cohen. In a hotly contested race, in which Lynette Sweet won the most first place votes, Cohen elbowed past her initial third place position to emerge the winner through the ranked choice voting process. In the final tally just one-fifth of the voters identified Cohen as one of their three choices, enough for her to edge out Tony Kelly, who received the second most first place votes. The election results tell a chaotic tale of a district in search of an identity. The two Asian-American candidates, Marlene Tran and Teresa Duque, gathered more than 3,400 votes between them, reflecting a new, powerful, ethnic voting bloc. Kelly beat me in Potrero, but didn’t crack the top five vote-getters in the district’s other three dominant communities: Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, and Portola. Cohen won without strong support from the Hill – she was sixth in terms of first place votes from our community – suggesting a political tilt towards the district’s southern neighborhoods. More than 2,500 District 10 voters either didn’t select a supervisorial candidate, or spoiled their ballot by marking multiple politicians as their first choice. If these individuals had properly voted or participated in the supervisors’ race they’d have changed the outcome. I came in fifth, receiving 178 fewer first place votes than Sweet. No longer a candidate, I can now
INSIDE
fully return to my role as the View’s publisher and editor. And tell you the tale of my year’s experience runsee ELECTION page 6
Last year 444 individuals in Bayview-Hunters Point, Visatacion Valley and Potrero Hill were without a permanent home, according to the San Francisco Human Services Agency. While this count indicates that the number of homeless in the area is significantly lower than ten years ago, there are more people without homes today than in 2007, when there were an estimated 349 homeless. While Potrero Hill’s median household income is almost $90,000, 13 percent of the neighborhood’s residents live below the federal poverty line. Paul Boden, who co-founded the Coalition on Homelessness, and currently is the Western Regional Advocacy Project’s (WRAP) executive director, believes the number of homeless is higher than
City estimates. In 2005 WRAP was “formed as a regional collaborative of social justice organizations from six West Coast cities,” according to its website. Boden noted that a decade ago homeless numbers included people who were couchsurfing, in “doubled-up” conditions, and other transitory situations. In the 2007 count, the much stricter U.S. Department of Urban Development and Housing (HUD) definition of homelessness was used. Boden also believes that many homeless individuals remain uncounted. In 2009 “…a point in time head count was done on a late January night by volunteers walking around with flashlights...they then added in people in HUD funded shelters,” he said. According to WRAP, “This see homeless page 8
Potrero Resident Preserves His Giants Baseball Connection By Sasha Lekach When Howard Brown went to the San Francisco Giants ticker-tape parade on November 3, two days after the Giants won the 2010 World Series, a casual observer may have assumed that he was one of the many ordinary fans crowding Civic Center. But Brown, a native Virginian-turnedSan Franciscan, has a unique connection to the team. “Everyone was saying I was just a fan now,” Brown said. “And I was like, ‘No, I’ve been a fan since the 1950s.’” A Pennsylvania Street resident since 1982, Brown’s relationship with the Giants began when he met baseball player Willie Mays, and he has photographs and other memorabilia to prove it. Mays was recruited from the Negro Baseball League to join the thenNew York Giants in 1951, becoming one of baseball’s first major league players. He stayed with the Giants when they moved to San Francisco in 1958, and played for the team until 1972. In 1952 Mays was drafted to serve in the Korean War. Although he never made it to Korea, he spent his years of service playing baseball at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It’s during this period, between 1952 and 1954,
Potrero Pirates p. 4
that Brown met Mays. Brown, a young boy at the time, was living in Hampton, Virginia, less than 30 miles from the military base. As a 10 year old, Brown was a batboy for the local Negro League team, the Hampton Patriots. W hile working at home games, Brown met the future San Francisco Giant and Hall of Famer Mays. “I’ve been a Giants Howard Brown’s Giants memorabilia, including fan ever since I met him, photographs of Willie Mays when he served in the armed never thinking I’d come to forces during the Korean War. California,” Brown said, who later travelled to the “My dad brought him home to have Bay Area on a vacation and decided meals with my family.” Later when he had to stay. Mays became famous Christian realAccording to Dr. Mary T. Chris- ized she’d eaten many dinners with tian, a former Virginia State legis- a baseball great. lator and dean of the School of LibBrown is also an athlete, playeral Arts and Education at Hampton ing college baseball and football – University, Mays’ presence added his fellow teammate and friend was some excitement to Hampton dur- Oakland Raiders coach Art Shell ing the 1950s. Christian’s father, – at Maryland University, Eastern John Robinson, owned the Hampton Shore. In San Francisco he played Patriots, along with a local football on a Potrero Hill slow-pitch softball team. Christian was a young girl at team. In 1983, his team won the City the time, and not particularly in- championship, bringing with it a terested in sports, “[All] I knew he was a member of baseball,” she said. see bat boy page 9
Calendar p. 15
Pera p. 11 p. 5
p. 12
Crime & Safety p. 20 p. 16