INSIDE p. 3
MARCH 2013
Historical Trolley Cars p.5
p.8
Tony Kitz Gallery p.19
Get a Job p.20
p. 21
Serving the Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, Mission Bay and SOMA Neighborhoods Since 1970
p. 27
FREE
Planning for Pier 70 Development Continues B y K eith B urbank
Emergency Animal Care Can Be Costly B y S asha L ekach
The San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SF SPCA), located at 201 Alabama Street, serves as an adoption center, animal shelter and veterinarian clinic. SF SPCA first opened as a nonprofit almost 80 years ago. Its current facility, at the western edge of Potrero Hill, was completely renovated in 2009. SF SPCA cares for more than 20,000 paid clients, and provides free services for 5,000 homeless animals a year. Emergency care for animals is notoriously pricey. Tenderloin resident, Erin Cameron, a documentary film producer, had a particularly harrowing experience when her fiveyear-old Chihuahua, Wink, suffered a
cracked tooth that had abscessed. The day before Christmas, SF SPCA staff told Cameron that her dog needed emergency care at a cost of $1,700. After Cameron’s research indicated she should treat the infection before ex posing the cracked molar, she declined care, and found a veterinarian in Pacifica who extracted the tooth for about $400. According to Cameron, after she refused their services SF SPCA contacted the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control (ACC) and reported her for animal abuse. She received a call the day after Christmas from ACC authorities, to whom she explained that she’d sought alternative treatment. “I felt they bullied me in there,” she said about the SF SPCA, whom she said too quickly decided that emergency surgery was essential for her pet. “It felt like it was bad medicine all around.” After she declined SF SPCA’s services, Cameron was asked to sign papers that stated that she refused treatment for her pet, a document she declined to endorse since she’d made arrangements for Wink to be cared for elsewhere. Ac c or d i n g t o SF SP C A v ic e president of hospital administration, Kanishka Agarwal, “our goal is to make sure the animal is safe and taken care of…We save animal lives.” Agarwal explained that SF SPCA wants an animal to receive treatment in a life-threatening situation, no matter who renders the service. “If it is urgent life-threatening care that’s
SPCA volunteer gives some love to a cat in the adoption program. photograph by don nolte
SPCA page 4
Under the most recent development proposal for Pier 70, space would be set aside for start-up companies that incorporate small-scale manufacturing, crafts, and the arts, with an emphasis on maintaining the site’s historic character. The proposal calls for a 270,000 square feet “creative core” within a sub-area termed the “Waterfront Site,” which consists of 25 acres located between Illinois Street and the Bay, and 20th and 22nd streets. The core could also include galleries and a cultural/ performance venue. “The creative core will reflect the diversity of the neighborhood, create an economic engine and be a place where residents will want to spend an evening or day,” said Alexa Arena, vice president of Forest City’s San Francisco office, at a standing-room-only presentation held at the Noonan Building, on 20th Street, in late-January.
The creative core is one of four major components planned for the Waterfront Site, which would also include offices, parking and open space. And Forest City wants to construct 1,000 residential units, twenty percent of which would be affordable, spread among market-rate units. Open space will extend from the pier’s eastern edge, where the site meets the Bay, and continue westward into the center of the creative core. A network of pedestrian and bicycle pathways will crisscross the pier. And the Blue Greenway, a 13mile greenway/waterway network that extends from China Basin to the City’s southern edge, will traverse the site. Two and a half million square feet of office space would flank the creative core’s north and south sides. Forest City is hoping to draw technology companies to pay premium rents for offices in the pier, as a way to subsidize rents in the core. Square, a mobile app that enables credit card transactions to be made over a smartphone or tablet, is
Above left Proposed vision of the Pier 70 waterfront by Forest City. RENDERINGS BY FOREST CITY
PIER 70 page 10
Potrero Hill Could Tax Itself through an “Infrastructure Financing District” 90 percent is paid when the project is completed. Forget spending locally. That’s What’s more, fee monies paid by passe. For Potrero Hill, the future may developers are meant to fund improvebe taxing locally. ments for a vast swath of San FranFinding an alternative to tradi- cisco. Too little money has to be spread tional public financing sources may be too thin to make much of a difference the only way Southside San Francisco on Third Street, 18th Street, or a local will get the schools, parks, and other park or school that needs upkeep or a infrastructure improvements com- new building, City officials have told munity members say the area needs, neighborhood activists. and that the coming “T hey [ Recretsunami of residents ation and Park Deof just completed or par tment] told us “There’s a lot of under construction f lat-out that they development without new condominiums don’t have the money a lot of benefits.” a nd apa r t ment s for new parks,” said expect. Ja net C a r pi ne l l i, Janet Carpinelli, Dogpatch St a r t i n g fou r Neighborhood Association president Dogpatch Neighboryears ago, develophood A s sociat ion ment in Potrero Hill president. “There’s and many adjacent neighborhoods a lot of development,” she observed, became subject to impact fees. But fee “without a lot of benefits.” revenues aren’t enough to cover the Some projects, like the Live Oak cost of necessary improvements. And School community garden, have taken developers don’t pay a penny until a Silicon Valley-age approach to raisshovel goes into ground; then they only pay 10 percent of the fees; the other INFRASTRUCTURE page 5 B y C hris R o berts